“A Very Strange Love Song”

Texts: Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 and Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

a sermon by Kevin Fleming

August 14, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - EVANSVILLE, INDIANA

During my college years, I spent far too much time at the college radio station. I began with the Sunday afternoon classical program – from 1:00 – 6:00 – with the full knowledge that I was probably talking to myself and playing music for myself. I did have a few groupies at the local nursing home. Eventually, I earned better shifts. My roommate and I were given the morning drive slot. Jim did the music. I did the news – but that included the agricultural report. When Hubert Humphrey died, I was up all night putting together a fifteen minute special report. But then, one Wednesday night, Jim and I did the “Wednesday Night Request Show.” It was exactly what it sounds like. Listeners would call in with “dedications,” requesting a song and adding someone’s name to it. Now, remember, these were my college days – in the 1970s. We were on a college campus – a place traditionally and sacredly fueled by hormones. So, we spent five hours saying things like: “This is going out to Mickey over in Shaw Hall from Steve in Eichenauer, the music of Mr. Bill Withers, because Mickey always makes it a ‘Lovely Day.’” Then we would get a call from Mickey. “This one is for Steve in Eichenauer from Mickey in Shaw Hall, and you’re going to like this Steve, because it’s from Stevie Wonder, and ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life.’” Steve was a lucky fellow. Through the ether, Steve had signaled that he liked Mickey and Mickey responded by saying that she liked Steve. Five hours of this kind of communication and songs like “Baby I’m A Want You,” “Diary,” and the ultimate shut down, “You’ve Got a Friend.” Trust me, they weren’t looking for friends. They were looking for love, and sometimes in all the wrong places.

© 2016 Kevin Scott Fleming So, when I came to the lessons for the week, I was a little startled. Our main lesson purports to be a love song. “Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard…” But what follows is a strange lyric of condemnation and disapproval. If this is a love song, it is a very strange love song.

The song begins with a metaphor – a parabolic image. It is the image of a vineyard and of a vintner who is hard at work, caring for the choicest vines that could be found to the point of near obsession. Protective walls are built. A watchtower is placed in the center of the vineyard so that security was provided. The earth is cultivated and strengthened. The vines are pruned and managed. This vineyard made those in the Napa Valley look like hobby gardens. When the harvest time had come, the vintner carefully cut the grapes from the vines and took them to the winepress. He selected a grape and placed it in his mouth. It was sour and worthless. The entire harvest was only fit to feed animals, not to be made into wine. The vintner throws up his hands in disgust. 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? 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; No one is going to blame this poor would-be wine baron for giving up. He had done everything exactly right. He had shown every possible form of care. And it was all for naught. If it is a love song, it is a song of unrequited love. The love was flowing only one way. The vintner was pouring out his life for the vines and the vines failed to respond to that love. “Here on the Wednesday night request show, a sad song of love, going out from God to God’s people, the music of Bread: ‘I found her diary underneath a tree. And started reading about me. The words began to stick and tears to flow. Her meaning now was clear to see. The love she’d waited for was someone else not me Wouldn’t you know it, she wouldn’t show it.’” The prophet makes it clear: 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! God sings to God’s people a song of love. But God’s people do not sing back. It is a love song, but a song of unrequited love – a song of love rejected.

God is still singing that song. God’s love song echoes through the cosmos. God’s song of love echoes through the ages. But how are we responding? God sings a song of justice. How are we responding? God sings a song of righteousness. How are we responding? This is not just a song for the ancient people of God. This is a song that comes to you and me – God’s people in this time and place. God sings out to us, “Where is justice? Where is righteousness?” God’s song sounds strangely like the music of the Black Eyed Peas: Madness is what you demonstrate And that’s exactly how anger works and operates Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight Take control of your mind and meditate Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all

People killin’, people dyin’ Children hurt and you hear them cryin’ Can you practice what you preach? Or would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love (Love) The sad truth is that Christianity has been reduced to clichés and mud-covered bumpersticker theology. For too many, a Christianity that can’t be tweeted is a Christianity that isn’t really Christianity. The Christianity that runs rampant in our culture is so watered-down and diluted from the life Jesus called us to live that I have doubts Jesus would recognize it if he were to walk among us today. I take no joy in saying that. Just look at our nation. We live in a country where hate is celebrated and cheered. We live in a nation where it is perfectly acceptable to discriminate against people because of their color, because of who they love, and now because of the religion they follow. We live in a nation that celebrates violence, that teaches it to our children, and then wonders what happened when someone takes a gun and shoots innocent people. We live in a nation where the gap between the rich and the poor has never been wider. We live in a nation where one in five children live in poverty and that rate is far higher among children of color. And we claim that we are a Christian nation. With those results, maybe we should let another tradition take the reins for a while. Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love (Love)

And still, God continues to sing. God continues to sing to us the song of justice and righteousness. God continues to love us, in spite of our obvious and sometimes in spite of our murky rejection of God’s song. God keeps singing, hoping that we will change our tune, and respond with the justice and righteousness that God seeks in us. God keeps sending out love songs to us all and waits to hear our response. God continues to sing. This is the very nature of God. God keeps singing no matter how much we refuse to listen or hear. God keeps singing no matter how it appears that we cannot hear. We call it mercy. We call it grace. God continues to sing and God’s people still have a million opportunities to return the song. God’s people – you and I – have all kinds of ways to answer God’s song with a song of our own. The song of justice and righteousness has many tunes, many verses, many interpretations. Surely we can find one or two that we can sing with gusto and passion! God continues to sing a very strange love song. It is a song of love offered and love rejected. But there is still time to write a few new verses to the song. There is still time to sing a new song – a better song than we have sung in days gone by. Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love (Love)

Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above ‘Cause we are ready to respond Here is the love (Love)

For now and evermore. Amen.