"God's Domestic Policy"

   Dear friends in Christ,          

The word of God that engages us this morning is from Isaiah 5:3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.”

In case you haven’t been watching TV lately, and in case you haven’t picked up a newspaper in over a year, and in case you haven’t driven down the road recently, and in case you haven’t answered your phone for a few months, and in case you’re blind, deaf and dumb, I thought I’d let you in on a little secret. There’s an election coming up.

            There is the Obama-Biden ticket, and the McCain-Palin ticket. And you! And you! And you! And you! Get to cast your vote. You get to make your voice heard.

            Now for some of you. The choice is simple. “You’ve been a Republican all your life. You like the values and the mores that the republicans stand for, and the thought of casting a democratic vote is laughable.

            Now for some of you. The choice is simple. “You’ve been a Democrat all your life. You like the values and mores that the democrats have to offer. It’s been a long eight years since the last democrat was in the executive office, and the thought of casting a republican vote is laughable.

            Now for some of you, the choice isn’t simple. Life’s circumstances have changed. You fit into a different tax bracket now. You have a child or relative over in Iraq and Afghanistan, so the candidate’s foreign policy might influence your decision. Maybe you’re concerned about the national debt nearing 10 trillion dollars, and you just don’t think a multi-billion dollar government bailout for financial institutions is the right move right now, so you’d like to see that changed. But at the same time, you’re not keen on the embryonic stem-cell research, the marriage of homosexuals or abortion. And so you’re left standing on the fence, reading the papers, watching the news, listening to the debates and just looking for the right candidate to say the right words and make the right promises to help you make a decision.

            In the end, it doesn’t matter who you are. Democrat, Republican or fence-rider. Come November 4^th, YOU get to make a decision. You get to be the judge between candidates. You get to select red or blue and you get to exercise your right to vote. Voting, a privilege that our founding fathers bled and died for, and a privilege that women continued to fight for until 1919.

            Voting says, “I’m in charge.” Voting says, “My opinion matters.” Voting says, “I am capable of making good judgment calls.”

            People like to vote. If you don’t believe me, you’re silly. Turn on the television sometime. We have television shows such as American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars, America’s Got Talent, and the list goes on. Part of what makes these shows so popular is that you, the individual, get to vote.

            Today, in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 5, the LORD asks us to cast our vote. But not before giving us the information we need to make an informed decision. He says,

            I planted my vineyard on a very fertile hill. I dug it and cleared my vineyard of stones. I planted the choicest vines in my vineyard. I built a watchtower in the midst of my vineyard. I cut out a wine vat in my vineyard. I waited for my vineyard to produce grapes. And what as the end result? Ugly, nasty, bitter-tasting, terrible wild grapes.

            And so the Lord tells us to, “Judge between me and my vineyard.” God wants us to vote between him and his vineyard.

            Who’s at fault for the bad grapes? The choice is easy. The vineyard is at fault for the bad grapes. And so we head to the voting booths and we cast our votes.

            And as soon as we’ve cast our votes, God drops a bomb on us. He tells us that WE are his vineyard. Isaiah 5:7, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.”

            The house of Israel is shorthand for “God’s chosen people.” And in 1 Peter 2:9 we read that “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

            We’ve just voted against ourselves.

            It’s not so hard to believe though. Look around. God has done countless wonderful things for us, and we twist and corrupt all of it.

            God has given us the gift of parents, and what do we do? We jockey for position so that we will receive the largest portion of their inheritance when they die.

            God has given us the gift of children, and what do we do? We don’t tell them about the importance of their faith in Jesus. We don’t take them to Sunday School or confirmation. Instead, we leave their eternal souls in the hands of the media, marketers, friends and secularized teachers who are all too happy to relieve us of the burden and to indoctrinate them with garbage, such as “There is no God.” Or “All religions are created equal.” Or “Religion is nothing more than an opiate for the masses.”

            God has given us the gift of sexuality, and what do we do? Men lust after women, women pine after men. We openly embrace a lifestyle that condones sex before marriage.

            God has given us the gift of intellect, and what do we do? We use that intellect to scheme our neighbors out of their possessions. We use that intellect to cheat a client out of more money. We use that intellect to take advantage of the elderly. We use that intellect to find more efficient ways to kill an unborn child with no risk to the mother.

            God has given us the gift of speech, and what do we do? We tell lies about our neighbors, we betray them, we slander them, and we hurt their reputations.

            Even if you’re blind you can see the wild grapes that we have let sprout in our lives? God’s cry of exasperation comes of no shock to us. “What more was there for me to do?”

            God doesn’t tally our votes. His mind is made up. His domestic policy is in place, and I hate to say it, but the future doesn’t look too good. God is going to remove the hedge. He’s going to break down its walls. He’s not going to prune the vines. He is not going to till the ground. He’s going to let briers and thorns grow there, and furthermore, he’s even going to prevent rain from falling upon the vineyard.

            I don’t like God’s domestic policy. I want to recast my vote.

            But it’s too late.

            God’s platform is justice. And he has given us a glimpse of his righteous indignation and trust me friends, it’s not something you want to be a part of. God is just. Make no mistake about it. And justice is bad news for the guilty.

            So what does God’s retribution look like? Does his retribution look like Hurricane Ike or Hurricane Gustav devastating the Gulf Coast? Does it look like an F5 tornado that wipes out laboring towns in the quiet Midwest? Does God’s retribution look like the crumbling of towering skyscrapers in a terrorist attack in New York City? Does God’s retribution look like bleeding school children at dead teachers in school shootings at Columbine, Red Lake or Virginia Tech? Does God’s retribution look like empty silos and parked trucks as the result of a drought in Nebraska and a flood in Iowa? Does God’s retribution look like millions of lost dollars from a stock market crash and failing economy?

            I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the anticipation! What exactly does God’s domestic policy look like?

             It looks like this. Like a man nailed to a cross. That is what God’s retribution looks like.

God promised to remove the hedge from his vineyard, and sure enough, Christ’s disciples that surrounded him for the past three years abandoned him before he ascended the place of the skull. God promised to break down the walls from his vineyard, and sure enough, Christ was stripped of his clothes and left unprotected from the blows of the guard’s fists. God promised to let briers and thorns grow in his vineyard, and sure enough, Christ’s head was adorned with a crown of thorns. And finally God promised that he would prevent rain from falling on his vineyard, and sure enough, what cry do we hear from the cracked lips of Christ, but I thirst?

            Blessings upon blessings, this was NOT the domestic policy we voted for. This punishment was supposed to be reserved for sinners who produce bad grapes. This punishment was meant for us.

It was in the book of Isaiah that we read about God’s righteous judgment on his vineyard. Had we turned but a few more pages we would have also read in 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

            God has put on Christ the sins of us all. God chose not to hate us, but to hate his very own son. And moments before Jesus’ last breath he called out “It is finished.”

            And then he rose. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The evidence, the tangible proof, that yes, indeed, the punishment for sins is complete. And so with all boldness and confidence, I assure you, my brothers and sisters in Christ that God’s righteous retribution is finished.

            Hurricane Ike is not God’s punishment on America for its sins, though some churches would have you believe that. An IED, or Improvised Explosive Device, that kills a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is not God’s punishment on America for its complacency towards homosexual lifestyles as radical Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church would have you believe. School shootings are not God’s punishment on America for the teaching of evolution in our schools. And floods in Iowa and Illinois are not God’s punishment for liking the Chicago Cubs.

            God’s punishment for sins was taken care of once and for all on the cross.

            That’s the domestic policy that God has chosen. It’s a policy of grace and mercy.

Praise be to God Amen.

            And may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus forever.

Amen.