March 23rd, 2019

Ghosting.  I don’t know if the trend is new or if we just have a trendy new way of talking about a long-standing relationship issue.  A person is described as “getting ghosted” when a person she or he believed to be their friend stops reciprocating the relationship with no indication of why or for how long.  Texts go unanswered.  Calls ignored.  Mutual social gatherings avoided.  More often than not, “ghosting” is an emotionally immature response to an anxiety-inducing conversation about something gone awry in the relationship. 
 

Isaiah 5:1-7 begins with a beautiful description of our loving God creating the ideal space for the vine, a metaphor for the people of God.  He has prepared the soil by tilling it and digging up stones.  And yet, for all God’s investment in the relationship, God’s people don’t show up.  The vine yields only bad fruit, nothing at all that can nourish the world as God intended to vine would do.  Where God hoped to see justice, there is only bloodshed.  Where God sought righteousness, there are only cries of distress.  
 
The “ghosting” behavior of Israel, not reciprocating God’s attentive care and nurture for their good and the good of the world, has consequences.  Heartbroken, God gives them what they seem to desire: to go their own way, on their own terms.
 
Reflection Questions: 

1. God continually shows up to our relationship with him.  Do we reciprocate that attentive commitment?
2. God’s desire is for us to bear fruit to nourish the world.  We flourish in order to nourish.  Who in your sphere of influence is in need of true nourishment?  How can your faithful, Spirit-empowered fruit bearing meet that need?

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Grace and Peace.

​Pastor Stephanie

Pastor Stephanie