This post/sermon is dedicated to all the loving grandmas I have the privilege of loving. I might be the pastor, but they are my mentors in ways it is very hard to explain. I watch them offer grandma love and it reminds me that for every person who leaves the church because of political influencial beliefs, they lose the love of generosity, kindness, compassion, and wisdom. Maybe the church of 2023 needs to be less interested in growing young, and more interested in loving with young hearts, much like our favorite grandma. They are not perfect, and they definately have their quirks, but they are authentic and will always have your back. They will hold you accountable and us youngseters might even need some of that accountability. (Ecc 7:4-5). So, thank you loving wisdom grandmas everywhere. We need you.

Focus Text:  Isaiah 5:1-7; 11:1-5


All around I see people running, chasing, gallivanting, toward...The beach, self fulfillment, dreams, good pleasure.

Insert whatever it is your heart desires and you can claim your space in that sentence,  "I run, chase, galavant toward..."

Be completely generous with yourself naming what it is you might be running toward.  Be fully honest.  Maybe you run toward work, or drugs, even self loathing.  Maybe you galavant to the next relationship or swing easily into the next quick gimmick that promises you vitality or an easy fix to the uncomfortable.  Homeshopping network is as addictive as anything. Making a quick buck sure sounds good. 

Yes, we are all running, maybe at different paces, but all of us are advancing toward an idea we have gathered in our mind.  If we could just reach that place we would be cured of this thing WE BELIEVE is ailing us.  There has to be relief from this pain right? Is it the right prescription medicine?  A healing routine? A new medical experiment?  A fancy title which adds prestige to our name? 

This running in many ways has done a lot of good for humanity, and we should give credit where credit is due.  Science and technological advancements have changed our ability to live well.  Social science and psychology have helped us learn how to live together better.  How many beautiful people would I have missed meeting  if medicine had not been around to protect them or even me?  I would have missed all of you, the growth of my children, two decades of marriage, becoming a pastor...
I would have missed the ability to travel the world and encounter diversity if not for planes, trains, and automobiles. 

Yes, I/We should be thankful that someone ran toward those dreams, but I think WE should also be wise.  Humans have been on this planet for countless generations and we are still running, but the race unfolding before us somehow, at least to me, feels different. I think there is a shift on the field that is redirecting where people are running or turning to.

To note where people are running to,  helps us be aware of what they are running from.  And I believe, when we answer that question,  we, the people of God, can get serious about our work as the light of Christ.  

So, What are people turning to as a source of comfort and help?  Where are they putting their hope? What field of play are they more comfortable on?  Where do they think their blessings come from? 

I often wished I could jump into time and ask leaders of the past, "How did you handle..."  When the pandemic began, I wanted to know how pastors handled the 1920's Spanish Flu event.  What did they learn that would help us now. 

Today I wished I could leap back to 600 BC .  They have something to tell us about living in the now,  for according to scripture,  even back then people were busing running too something. So what was it?  

Oh thats right,  we want a king,  God?  And God gives a king.  We want a temple, so a temple is made possible.  We want more influence as an empire like our neighbors.  We want prestige.   All of these things the people got, diving right into the political and governmental fields or systems of their ancient neighbors, with ideals of being great. But  rushing and obtaining the thing you  thought you had to have,  ability to raise taxes, fight war, build a future,  ever noticed how it often just leaves you wanting?

Hard to hear I know,  but this is the truth of the  Old Testament.   God has created this beautiful field, nurtured it, watered it, loved it.  He supplied the field with everything it needed to produce the most wonderful wine.  Yet wild grapes grew, going their own way,  living on their own terms.  seeking to be  nourished by other fields, “Look, that landscape is better than ours”   What arrogance in their self glory they displayed.  What lack of trust in God they showed. They ran to a system of men and politics to save them.  All God wanted was a relationship of love that displayed honor to God and neighbor.  

On many levels it is what I/We are witnessing in our current society. Too often my ears have heard and my mouth does not lie, when I share the following quotes about the future of the church.   "The church will not grow if it is progressive. This area is to conservative for that! We must stay with our conservative values or we will die"   I have also heard "The church is dying because it is too conservative and not liberal enough."  AND I watch as pastors of many denominations align themselves with politics to "gain members" for the "kingdom of God."

When I hear those things, my heart aches, and my stomach knots, because I am watching the people of God make politics the vision of what the church should be. 

When I hear those things,  my fist tightens and tears flow, because the people of God are willing to trade the beautiful vineyard that has nourished all of us to secure the building and the pocket book.

When I hear those things,  I must drop to my knees in great grief, because I am witnessing people rush to the field of government for stability and meaning,  using political values as the standard measure for living.   But rushing to a system of men, playing on their field,  what does that take you away from? 

In my mind it takes you away from authentic nurishment  love.  Love of God and love of a community.  This is the greatest command, the greatest law that informs our field.  It is the vineyard we were cultivated on and for.  It is the essence of the church, as we were hewed to yield and produce what is beautiful. and only this beautiful expression of love is sustainable across time, and durable during times of injury.  

Anger doesn't hold you tight, except to bind you.  Hating doesn't comfort you, it shakels you. Holding grudges does not teach anyone a lesson, it only reinforces division.  Rushing off to find answers in a man-made system walks you away from the greatest gift, from the greatest law,  from the field designed for you, and you become subject  to losing the most valuable thing available -- love.  Not lust, not passion, not erotic notions, things that we chase after.  But authentic sacrificial caring love - Agape. 

This is our greatest gift as the church, our ability to play on a field of love nurtured by love: Our ability to Agape.  Like  grandmas and grandpas that hold you when you scrape your knee or wipe your tears when you are suffering. Or elders who will forgive you when you make a royal ass of yourself, because they have wisdom youngsters have yet to learn.  This is the vineyard of agape.  

Have you ever noticed how much agape love grandmas and grandpas give.  They would sacrifice anything just to hear a youthful laugh and share in a giggle of joy.  To hold your hand when you are sick and feed you so you stay healthy.

It is this love, the agape love of God,  that people lose when they choose to vision the church on political aims with political boundaries.  And  losing love of this magnitude is painful to the authentic beauty of the church, the body of Christ. 

This is the pain we suffer dear church,  the wild grapes of politics, have for generations, for millennium, been a sour wine upon our palate,  keeping us from hugging those who need hugs  cause they look different or love different, or give the wrong impression.  The wild grapes of politics have kept us from feeding those who are too skinny because they should just go get a job or the government can care for them.    The wild grapes of politics tells us to be  afraid of those who suffer, they might have a disease that could harm you or you are not equipped to deal with them. The wild grapes of politics have told us if we don't act like this or that we will not receive support.  Those wild grapes have emotionally black mailed the church with threats and voted with their feet.  Wild grapes bully on the field to get their own way, offering no righteousness or justice. They choose their own self idolatry and not the path of reconciliation and it hurts I know.  We can look at our pews and see the effects of wild grapes and it makes our  heart ache for the loss of our friends.  Where their smiles were, there is now a void, and it is hard to be a remnant of good when the field feels too large to tend and we feel so small. 

So let me share some very good news with you.  Where we see difficulty and destruction,  God sees a field freshly tilled, ready for the new shoots of life to come forward.  “A shoot shall come out from the stump.”  Being a remnant  may feel like being  broken, because we see what is missing, or what is no longer.  But God see possibilities. God see opportunities.  That stump produced what became  life giving support for the savior of the world as he took his last breath, holding him when he could no longer lift himself up.  When he was a baby, those branches were the cradle that held him, because he was too fragile to hold himself.  The shoot that will come up from the stump,  grows strong and mighty to do saving work in our lives.   His name is Jesus and he is the authentic beautiful example of love, that grows in us  to live by.  This is what we run too,  the agape love of God.  and it informs us to grow on the field and produce what is beautiful. 

And I believe with all my heart,  I will go to my grave believing,  that as long as we are faithful to loving the way of agape, the way of Christ, no matter how the field my look to us, no matter what the sour grapes of politics say, no matter the numbers in the pew,  God will do what God does best,  create something amazing for us to participate in, and we will stand as co-creators with God.  

Creating pathways that bless relationships.   

As the song from the musical Rent reminds us, there are 525600 minutes or seasons  in a year.  We could measure those minutes and seasons by our fear and worry. We could measure those minutes by what we lost.  Or,Instead, we can measure the seasons by love. By  Agape. God’s love for us and our love for God and others.  Seasons of Love.  Now there is a measure to define by.