Four Shorts for a Saturday

A Prayer from the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Oh LORD,
We are also your planting,
Pleasant to your sight.
You have looked for justice,
Whose lips have kissed mercy
And peace.
You have sought truth among us.
You have longed for us to do what is right,
To love you supremely,
To love our neighbors as ourselves,
As ourselves,'
Our neighbors,
Our neighbors,
Your children,
Jesus among us,
The least of these.
Instead,
You have found bloodshed.
Oh God, forgive,
Revive,
Restore,
Requite,
Renew,
Review our lives,
Rewrite our scripts,
Reveal yourself,
Regenerate our hearts before you.
Behold the outcry.
Have mercy upon us,
Oh LORD.

Luke 6:43-45

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

One person can make a difference. With regards to this plague, it was two.

You were made to soar!

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