Anger Won't Save the Vineyard
Sermon by Pastor Ed Evans
Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7
5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
5:2 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; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
5:3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5:5 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.
5:6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
The book of Isaiah is rich with wisdom and information not only for those of its own time, but for this day and this age in which we live and move. In these passages, God is comparing the house of Israel to a vineyard. In the same way, these words can be applied to America. Is this national vineyard producing the fruit it was intended, full, succulent grapes from which will come a life-giving wine? Or is its purpose being lost in poor management, destroyed through bitterness, in-fighting and anger?
This past week I commented on Facebook about the growing sense of anger and frustration we see being fed by a sense of helplessness and hopelessness as our elected and appointed officials seem to go off the deep end in ways counter to the welfare of We the People. They are caring more for themselves than for the vineyard we know as our nation. There seems to be an anger growing more intense, and so widespread that it could eventually grow into violence that will kill the very rich purpose of the vineyard.
My initial comment about anger and helplessness came about when I learned that our own State Department is paying for Imam Feisal Abdul Rouf, who intends to build a Muslim mosque a couple of blocks away from the 9/11 Ground Zero in New York City, to travel to the Middle East to drum up more funding for this mosque most of America thinks is a travesty so close to the killing fields created by Muslim terrorists. There is so much anger evident about this across America that I felt led to urge people to turn it into fervent prayer to the Living God whose wisdom and strong hand can make a difference.
An angry shopkeeper in New York City was quoted as saying, "I feel like there is a ruling class in America who think they know better than I do, and they don't give a *blank* what I think."
Another person commented, "It sure is easy to become engrossed in the hatred that is breeding in this Country. Even amongst Christians. I began to act in a way that was unfamiliar to me and I had to really seek God on it. I do feel anger is appropriate to some degree but it must never interfere with our work for the Kingdom. I said just yesterday we need to storm Heaven with prayers for this country and for those deceived by Islam."
Truthfully, we are awash in anger in America today. Fear is most often the genesis of anger; fear of what know but can't control, fear of what we don't know or don't understand.
The news media is replete each week with new examples of fear and anger. Just this past week the Associated Press released a story about increasing fear of more violent patients in hospital emergency rooms, with recommendations for "24-hour security guards, coded ID badges, bulletproof glass and panic buttons." Many hospitals are now installing metal detectors, with one hospital in Ohio "confiscating 33 handguns, 1,324 knives, and 97 Mace sprays in the first six months of the program."
Fear and anger cause some people to go armed, even if it's only with Mace spray and an attitude.
The news media, of course, is not an innocent party in all this anger. For the sake of controversy that draws readership, which hikes ad rates and pays everyone's salary, their entire approach to the world is, "Let's you and him fight." Then they have a story. Their very greed and self-interest works against a healthy vineyard.
Sometimes we pole-vault into anger out pure and continuing discouragement. We seem to see no way out of our dilemma and this lack of power makes us angry. Pastor Charles Stanley recently wrote about the External Causes of Discouragement, based on Colossians 3:21.
" Discouragement can hit us from many angles," Stanley wrote, "depleting our energy and productivity. Wise believers will learn to detect its sources in order to avoid this paralyzing effect." He listed six common external causes:
1. Unresolved disappointments. This applies to letdowns caused by our own failed expectations or someone else's.
2. Constant criticism. When we are criticized frequently, it is natural to think, "What's wrong with me?" Yet, unless God reveals a truth in the comments, we must learn to let them go.
3. The feeling that no one's listening. The natural response to this is rejection.
4. The sense that we aren't appreciated after doing our best. We can get so tied to our work that someone's failure to acknowledge our efforts feels like a personal rebuff.
5. Bad working conditions. Many believers enjoy what they do but pick up on coworkers' cruelty, bitterness, or refusal to recognize their efforts. This can make it extremely difficult to get motivated about going to work each day.
6. Lacking opportunities to shine. A job that doesn't make the best use of one's gifts and abilities can wear a person down. So can tight-fisted management that limits freedom to make innovations.
Stanley points out that oftentimes, it's the people we see every day who seem to have the most power for causing emotional impacts in our lives. So if any of the above scenarios sound disturbingly familiar, we need to pray for the strength to face these external discouragers with renewed confidence, so we respond from a point of peace, and not anger.
Far too often anger is that out-of-control emotion that leads a person to take action they otherwise would not have. In New York City this past Monday, a flight attendant reportedly had taken enough cursing and battering abuse from an angry passenger while the plane was still on the ground, so he grabbed a beer from the galley, deployed the slide-for-life and left the plane in style, and in anger. Although he was arrested, arraigned on several charges, and put in jail under $2,500 bond, by the next date a Facebook page set up in his name had 20,000 supporters, with membership growing by the thousands each hour. One member had established a legal defense fund for the flight attendant. The angry passenger was not arrested. But at least 20,000-plus people felt a kinship with the flight attendant's anger.
Where does this anger come from? Are we not better off than the disease-plagued ages of yore? Is the very vineyard not much improved from olden times? Are not miracle medicines, instant communication, faster cars and boats and planes, world-wide entertainment, central air and heating, are they not enough to please our hunger for "the good life?" Enough so we feel we are being treated fairly?
And yet we see anger searing nearly every episode of life; both winning and losing sports fans destroying post-game stadiums and neighborhoods; petty arguments escalating instantly into gunplay and death, road rage on the highways that kills, maims and destroys whole families. Both losing and winning political opponents spew their agenda-driven rage while campaigning and even after the election. Anger in the supermarket lines, anger in bank meetings, anger in the boardrooms, in the kitchen, in the living room, and in the bedrooms. Even anger in the church as one faction takes another to court to exact their pound of flesh.
Where does such anger come from? It certainly doesn't come from worship, from praising God, from being filled with the Spirit of Almighty God.
II Timothy 1:7 reminds us that "God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and sound judgment." In most cases, when you have the power, you have the solid footing for sound judgment. There is no reason to be making snap judgments and bad decisions that come from not giving the facts and the context due consideration. God wants us to make decisions that honor Him. He wants our every word and action to be such that it honors His holiness.
It's when we act out of fear, out of feelings of powerlessness, embarrassment, humiliation, or out of anger and frustration that we step away from His guiding spirit, that we do things "our way," and we do not honor God, we do not act within His will. After 27 years as a U.S. Marine and 18 years as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there really isn't much I'm afraid of, except being one second outside the will of Almighty God. We are forever one second, one heartbeat away from eternity. The kind of anger we've been talking about will take us outside that second.
Pastor Dale Williams, Jr., has said there is another anger we should all be concerned about. He indicates the Bible says, "For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance (Psalm 90:7-8)." Adds Williams, "The world isn't 'troubled' by God's wrath. They are offended by the thought that He is angry at them."
Nevertheless, the Bible says that they are 'consumed' by His anger. It abides on them and envelopes them as a raging fire. This is because He has set their iniquities in front of Him, like a judge who places all the evidence of a heinous crime on the bench before him before he passes sentence. But more than that, their secret sins are in the light of His countenance. They are not at His feet. They are in front of His face. He sees every wicked thought and deed. No wonder Paul said, 'Wherefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. (2nd Corinthians 5:11)'"
Anger among men and women often has its roots in pride, in a lack of humility before God and before men. "I didn't get what I deserved." "I was not treated fairly." "I deserve better than this." Our self-pride pushes us to levels of what we tell ourselves is righteous anger."
Facebook friend Jeremy Kurth shared with me and others this verse from Obadiah 1:3, "The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'"
Added Jeremy, "We live our lives a lot of the time with the attitude that we are better than other people, but the fact of the matter is the more we puff ourselves up the more we push others away. How can we effectively minister to people when we are always thinking of ourselves?"
In our moments of pride, self-righteousness, moments when our anger lashes out, that's the question we will have to each answer for ourselves. Let us ask and answer that question prayerfully for ourselves. God has no need to ask. He already knows.
We would do well to remember John Donne's admonition that no man is an island, that our emotional responses, whether out of love or anger, have an impact on the world around us, on the entire vineyard.
For in light of recent events it seems apparent we stand today where Israel stood in the time of Isaiah, and the Lord God has some specific pronouncements in Isaiah 5:5-7 about this vineyard, of His, in which we live and raise our families: "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. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!"
Like Israel of old, the same remedy that would have saved Israel is the only one left to the Christians of America: "If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." -- 2nd Chronicles 7:14.
Amen.
Daily Scripture Readings for August 16-22, 2010
Monday -- John 14:1-14
Tuesday -- Matthew 11:1-5
Wednesday -- Hebrews 10:19-25
Thursday -- Matthew 8:18-27
Friday -- Luke 5:27-39
Saturday -- John 12:20-36
Sunday -- Jeremiah 28:1-9; Psalm 84; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:22-30
