「わたしたちの立ち返りを待つ神」 十一月第一主日礼拝 宣教 2024年11月3日
イザヤ書 Isaiah 5章1〜6節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning, November is here and we are only two months into the year 2024. As autumn deepens day by day, I am thankful to be able to join you in praise and worship with you this morning. Last week at the Sunday service on the 27th, Missionary Nick Scott gave a powerful message, and the children’s message was given by Missionary Melissa, and I was able to share God’s love at Yurigaoka Christ Church’s special fall service with peace of mind. Thank you all for your prayers and your dispensations.
As was announced in last week’s service, we will begin a six-part series this morning through December 15 on the theme “The God Who Waits for Us”. We have come to view the Advent season as a time of waiting for God’s gift of Jesus Christ, the birth of our Savior. That is not wrong, but Jesus was born 2,000 years ago in the city of Bethlehem, and through his life he has shown us God’s love, proclaimed salvation, and clearly shown us the way to the Kingdom that God is waiting for us.
After this service, the Lord’s Supper is remembered. Jesus died an atoning death on the cross to free us from sin and save us from anxiety and fear of death. God the Father resurrected Jesus with the power of love and accomplished the perfection of salvation. Those who have not yet encountered Jesus should actively wait for an encounter with Him. For those who have not yet met Jesus, they should actively wait for an encounter with Him, for salvation is given to them through Him. However, those of us who have already encountered Jesus Christ, believe in Him as our Savior, confess Him as Lord, and follow Him should wait for His return during this Advent season. That Jesus will come again to this earth is an unquestionable truth already promised by Jesus 2000 years ago, and God will fulfill His promise of salvation.
But why has the second coming of Jesus from the promise made 2,000 years ago not yet come to pass? There is a clear reason on God’s side. That reason can be summed up in one word: God is waiting for us. What does God expect from us, and what is it that He is waiting for us with love and patience? To find out, I have prepared six messages. I believe that this is an important theme in our life of faith.
Advent is not a time to frantically prepare for Christmas gifts, but a time to remember that God expects us and waits patiently for us to bear the fruit that He desires. When we know clearly what God wants from us and what He expects from us, we can begin to prepare our hearts in earnest to live according to God’s will and bear the fruit He desires. I hope that those who are unable to attend worship services each week will read the manuscript from the church website.
This morning, I would like to share with you from the first part of Isaiah 5 in the Old Testament that God is patiently waiting for us to realize our mistakes, repent, and turn back to Him. That is the theme of this morning’s message.
Let’s read verses 1 and 2 first. “1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.”
It is the prophet Isaiah who sings the love song of the vineyard, saying, “Let me sing.” The “my beloved” Isaiah refers to is God. God has vineyards on fertile hills. This “vineyard” is Israel. God plows the land well for this vineyard, removes all the stones that hinder it so that its roots can spread over the earth, and plants the saplings of the vine. Since it says “good grapes,” I imagine that many grape saplings were planted that would bear sweet and delicious fruit.
In anticipation and expectation of a great harvest, a watchtower was erected in the middle of the field, and sufficient precautions were taken to ensure that the delicious grapes would not be stolen by greedy people. Everything is ready. God waited for the right time, expecting Israel to produce good grapes.
I hope everyone enjoyed delicious grapes this year. Our family was sent delicious grapes again this fall, and we all enjoyed them. The grapes, such as Kyoho grapes and Muscat grapes, were truly delicious. The grapes are grown with great care by the vineyard workers, and we eat them. Would farmers who love grapes ship grapes that are not delicious? If they do, they will disappoint their customers’ expectations, and the customers will leave and stop buying their grapes the next year. Grape growers ship only what they are confident of.
But what about Israel? All the fruit was sour grapes. There was not a single tree that bore sweet fruit. They could not enjoy the sweetness of the fruit by putting it straight into their mouths. You could not dry them to make raisins, cakes, or cookies. They were so sour that you could not crush the berries and drink them as juice, or ferment them and make wine. The Iwanami translation of the Bible translates it as “rotten grapes. The rotten ones can only be thrown away and used as fertilizer. It is such a sad thing because they were grown with love.
Now, starting in verse 3, the subject changes from Isaiah to God; read verses 3 and 4.” 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?”
God has been cared for and nurtured with love and care. I believe that they were truly looking forward to bearing delicious fruit and enjoying it. However, as it turned out, Israel bore grapes that were so sour that God immediately spit them out of their mouths. I think the disappointment must have been so great because God has poured out so much love.
How would we resolve that disappointment? What do verses 5 and 6 say? “5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
We could understand the part of verse 5 that says, “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard”. I am short-tempered, and I may turn to anger and cut down all the vines and burn them. But God is different in one way or another. The verse says, “I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.” God will leave the vineyard and Israel in ruins.
But why does God leave things as they are? Why does He leave those who disappoint Him, those who continue to disappoint Him, Israel, and many of us, alone? It is because God is waiting with love and patience for us, for Israel, for those who continue to remain in sin apart from God’s love, to realize their mistakes and sins, repent, and turn back to Him. God is waiting for us to realize His love and turn to Him.
Sadly, however, most people continue to walk unaware of that love and expectation and continue to suffer in their sins. They try to crawl out of their sin and darkness, but without success, they continue to suffer, continue to agonize, continue to think that God has abandoned them, and they continue to drift further away from God. But such behavior is not what God wants us to do. God’s will is not to judge us. God’s will is not to judge us, but to help us realize our weaknesses and mistakes, and to cry out to God for help when we realize our inability to correct our mistakes. We are to cry out to God and ask for salvation, “Father, I’m sorry. Please save me.” It is to cling to God’s love.
The other day, I watched a Korean drama. In the drama, a father who has been searching for his beloved daughter for more than 15 years after she was kidnapped says to the darkness in his pain, “Hey, Hyun-ji, don’t you want to see your father? Your father misses you. I miss you so much, I miss you so much! “He cried out and sobbed. I am ashamed to admit that my tear gland collapsed. I strongly felt that God loved me.
God makes us, loves us, and gives us grace. He continues to give. Even when we ignore Him and live as we please, and the fruit of our union is all sour grapes to Him, He leaves us as we are. Why? It is for us to realize God’s love, turn to Him, live in His love, be remade, and live bearing much fruit that pleases Him.
The fruit is to love God, love our neighbors, love one another, and in doing so, make the peace of the Lord on earth. It is Jesus Christ who teaches us how to do this, and it is His words, and He teaches us how to do this through His life. If we believe in and follow Jesus, we will be transformed from branches bearing sour grapes to branches bearing sweet grapes. Jesus always invites us to connect with Him.
Are we always busy with ourselves? Are we spending all that God has given us just to make ourselves and our families happy? When will we realize that we are far from God’s will? Today is the day!. Can God’s vineyard be trampled any further? No! What we need is nothing more than to repent, turn to God, and bear good fruit. God is patiently and lovingly waiting for us to do so. With this in mind, let us walk with the Lord in the new week that begins today.