You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
If someone with a chronic disability became instantly healed during a worship service in my church, I would be thrilled and amazed. Not so much the leader of the synagogue in which Jesus healed the woman crippled for eighteen years: When Jesus laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”
It’s interesting that he addresses the crowd rather than Jesus directly. Is he genuinely concerned about a spiritual matter, or trying to get back the attention that has pivoted to his famous guest preacher? Or is he so frightened by this show of power that he can only retreat into the rules and regulations on which he has built his religion? Whatever his motives, he seems spectacularly unable to see the Life unfolding right in front of him.
This is a classic case of being correct and still wildly wrong. This leader is right that the Sabbath, ordained by God as a day set apart for worship, rest and recreation, is to be honored. He is completely wrong in defining healing as dishonoring “work.” As Jesus points out, we continue to care for and feed our families and animals on the Sabbath – because the Sabbath was made to celebrate life. Anything that increases life and expands our experience of God-Life is a suitable Sabbath activity. The passage from Isaiah appointed for Sunday defines“trampling the sabbath” as “pursuing your own interests.” Giving life, health, freedom, joy, peace, love to others honors God, and therefore honors God’s holy day.
The Sabbath is one of God’s greatest gifts to us, and we ignore it at our own peril – and often our ill health. When each day of the week looks the same as any other, we don’t recharge or relax in a meaningful way. The toxins of stress build up and poison our interactions with the world and those closest to us. Our ability to be creative and to see solutions to problems grows stunted. We need the Sabbath, and the world needs it – and I dare say God needs us refreshed and ready for participating in God’s mission.
Every day is a good day for healing. Every day is a good day to set the captives free. Every day is a good day to release the power of God to bring Life into the world. Where do you need to see that Life released today?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-20-25 - The Posture of Praise
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Have you ever tried to praise God when you’re hunched over or miserable? Of all the types of prayer, praise is one of the most embodied. When we are filled with the Spirit of God, excited about what God is doing or has done in, through, or for us, we naturally straighten our spines, even extend our arms, open our hands. Our bodies participate with our minds and our spirits in the act of praise.
Praise is the first thing the crippled woman in our story did, as the effect of Jesus’ declaring healing on her took hold: immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Maybe she was exulting at being able to stand up straight for the first time in eighteen years. She was also participating in the prayer, inviting the Spirit to bless her into wholeness. Praise is one of the best conductors for healing power there is. When we’re praising God, it’s hard to focus on how sick, scared or miserable we are. Those things may still be there, but they’re not where we’re putting our energy.
Maybe praise releases endorphins – spiritual, if not chemical. Really exuberant praise, as at rock and roll shows or sports events, probably releases the chemical kind. When we release ourselves in praise, it also spreads good feelings to the people around us. There’s no downside to praising the One who made us, who heals us, who loves us.
Praise is a choice, an act of will. We choose to praise God for everything we know and believe about God, no matter what else is going on in our lives. It’s an act of will that opens us up to the power that makes us whole. Most of us need to practice praise; it doesn't come naturally. It can be hard to do with words, because we run out of them quickly. And it can feel funny to just repeat phrases like “God, I praise you. I honor you. I exalt you….” We don’t talk to people in our lives that way – we don’t have to be so stiff with God either. We can let our spirit take the lead.
Try praising God without words. Maybe sing a hymn or song you love, or bring up an image of beauty or love in your mind and thank God for that. And if something anxious or negative intrudes, gently say, “Not now. It’s praise time…”
We might invite our bodies to take the lead, opening ourselves into a posture of praise: sit or stand up straight; fill your lungs with deep, long, cleansing breaths; ask your arms how they would like to praise their maker. We might dance, or walk. If movement is difficult, we move what we can, and make that a prayer for restored mobility.
What if our posture was the first thing we address when we’re feeling stressed or sad or anxious? Remember that woman, bent over for so long, suddenly able to stand straight. She can be our model for the posture of praise.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Have you ever tried to praise God when you’re hunched over or miserable? Of all the types of prayer, praise is one of the most embodied. When we are filled with the Spirit of God, excited about what God is doing or has done in, through, or for us, we naturally straighten our spines, even extend our arms, open our hands. Our bodies participate with our minds and our spirits in the act of praise.
Praise is the first thing the crippled woman in our story did, as the effect of Jesus’ declaring healing on her took hold: immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Maybe she was exulting at being able to stand up straight for the first time in eighteen years. She was also participating in the prayer, inviting the Spirit to bless her into wholeness. Praise is one of the best conductors for healing power there is. When we’re praising God, it’s hard to focus on how sick, scared or miserable we are. Those things may still be there, but they’re not where we’re putting our energy.
Maybe praise releases endorphins – spiritual, if not chemical. Really exuberant praise, as at rock and roll shows or sports events, probably releases the chemical kind. When we release ourselves in praise, it also spreads good feelings to the people around us. There’s no downside to praising the One who made us, who heals us, who loves us.
Praise is a choice, an act of will. We choose to praise God for everything we know and believe about God, no matter what else is going on in our lives. It’s an act of will that opens us up to the power that makes us whole. Most of us need to practice praise; it doesn't come naturally. It can be hard to do with words, because we run out of them quickly. And it can feel funny to just repeat phrases like “God, I praise you. I honor you. I exalt you….” We don’t talk to people in our lives that way – we don’t have to be so stiff with God either. We can let our spirit take the lead.
Try praising God without words. Maybe sing a hymn or song you love, or bring up an image of beauty or love in your mind and thank God for that. And if something anxious or negative intrudes, gently say, “Not now. It’s praise time…”
We might invite our bodies to take the lead, opening ourselves into a posture of praise: sit or stand up straight; fill your lungs with deep, long, cleansing breaths; ask your arms how they would like to praise their maker. We might dance, or walk. If movement is difficult, we move what we can, and make that a prayer for restored mobility.
What if our posture was the first thing we address when we’re feeling stressed or sad or anxious? Remember that woman, bent over for so long, suddenly able to stand straight. She can be our model for the posture of praise.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-19-25 - You Are Set Free
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Yesterday I invited us to think about an area in life in which we feel stuck; a condition or limitation we just live with because we don’t think anything can be done – which is like saying that thing is more powerful than God. Most likely the woman in our story, bent over with a damaged spine for eighteen years, thought that was her future. The gospel writer says she was afflicted by an evil spirit. She may have been told it was the result of sin. In some Christian circles she might be told her suffering was a way of coming closer to God, an honor, a test, a blessing even.
Jesus told her, “Here’s something we can heal.” When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
It is his first instinct – “Let's take care of that.” He doesn’t deliberate and wonder if it’s “God’s will." He knows illness and disability are not God’s intention for us. We don't always see healing as immediately as in this story; often it’s more gradual. But we can trust that it is God’s will that we be whole, even when we do not see that wholeness fully manifest in this life, for bodies and minds do sustain damage. We see it more when often as we trust that wholeness is the will of our God whom we call One and Perfect. How could such a One desire less than wholeness for us?
Freedom is also God’s desire for us, and for this world. Jesus said he had come to proclaim release to the captives. Any time we’re unsure of God’s will in a given situation, we can ask where we sense the most freedom and pray toward that. This does not mean we don’t honor commitments to relationships or jobs, which can at times feel like they impinge on our personal freedom. It means we look for where God is inviting us to be free within those commitments. If our workday is confining, we plan in times for a restorative walk or rest. If church feels like a burden, we make sure there are some activities in which we are just nurtured, not working. If our movement is constricted by disability, we pray for healing and restoration.
What came up when you thought about something you’re stuck with, that God could release you from? Bring that to Jesus in prayer. Invite the power and love that made the universe to be released in you, in your body, your mind, your spirit. And expect that the living water of God is flowing and bringing new life to you wherever you need it most.
“For freedom, God has made us free,” Paul reminded the Galatians (5:1). We honor God when we accept that gift every time God offers it.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Yesterday I invited us to think about an area in life in which we feel stuck; a condition or limitation we just live with because we don’t think anything can be done – which is like saying that thing is more powerful than God. Most likely the woman in our story, bent over with a damaged spine for eighteen years, thought that was her future. The gospel writer says she was afflicted by an evil spirit. She may have been told it was the result of sin. In some Christian circles she might be told her suffering was a way of coming closer to God, an honor, a test, a blessing even.
Jesus told her, “Here’s something we can heal.” When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
It is his first instinct – “Let's take care of that.” He doesn’t deliberate and wonder if it’s “God’s will." He knows illness and disability are not God’s intention for us. We don't always see healing as immediately as in this story; often it’s more gradual. But we can trust that it is God’s will that we be whole, even when we do not see that wholeness fully manifest in this life, for bodies and minds do sustain damage. We see it more when often as we trust that wholeness is the will of our God whom we call One and Perfect. How could such a One desire less than wholeness for us?
Freedom is also God’s desire for us, and for this world. Jesus said he had come to proclaim release to the captives. Any time we’re unsure of God’s will in a given situation, we can ask where we sense the most freedom and pray toward that. This does not mean we don’t honor commitments to relationships or jobs, which can at times feel like they impinge on our personal freedom. It means we look for where God is inviting us to be free within those commitments. If our workday is confining, we plan in times for a restorative walk or rest. If church feels like a burden, we make sure there are some activities in which we are just nurtured, not working. If our movement is constricted by disability, we pray for healing and restoration.
What came up when you thought about something you’re stuck with, that God could release you from? Bring that to Jesus in prayer. Invite the power and love that made the universe to be released in you, in your body, your mind, your spirit. And expect that the living water of God is flowing and bringing new life to you wherever you need it most.
“For freedom, God has made us free,” Paul reminded the Galatians (5:1). We honor God when we accept that gift every time God offers it.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-18-25 - Perseverance
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
How long have you lived with an ailment or a limitation? A destructive habit? A job that doesn’t fit your gifts? This week we meet a woman who was bent over, crippled for 18 years. And then she met Jesus: Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
Eighteen years. That’s a long time not to be able to look anyone in the eye, to have to strain to see the sky. That’s a long time to be the object of pity and whispers, maybe even scorn. A long time to live in pain, for scoliosis, if that’s what she had, is painful, and when your spine is so radically out of alignment, it puts pressure on other muscles in the body.
But she persevered. As this week’s gospel passage tells the story, she doesn’t even ask for healing. She just shows up for worship on the sabbath, when Jesus happens to be teaching. It may not even have occurred to her that she could be free of her disabling and incurable condition.
Perseverance is a virtue – which sometimes can get in the way of our faith. As Christ followers we are invited to believe that there is nothing in this world we need to be stuck with. Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s transforming power – except a human heart firmly turned away from him. God’s power can set us free from illness, infirmity, even injustice as we exercise our faith and invite God to release that healing stream in us. We may not always live long enough to see the full healing, especially of societal ills, but imagine how much healing we do see as we believe and pray.
As we begin this week, bring into the foreground of your awareness something you feel you are truly stuck with, from which you’d like to be freed. Just hold it in your mind’s eye, and imagine what you would look or feel or act like released from that condition. That visioning in itself is an act of prayer.
Let’s see what the Holy Spirit does with that as we continue in conversation with God about it. I believe something will break open – maybe our hearts, for a start.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
How long have you lived with an ailment or a limitation? A destructive habit? A job that doesn’t fit your gifts? This week we meet a woman who was bent over, crippled for 18 years. And then she met Jesus: Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
Eighteen years. That’s a long time not to be able to look anyone in the eye, to have to strain to see the sky. That’s a long time to be the object of pity and whispers, maybe even scorn. A long time to live in pain, for scoliosis, if that’s what she had, is painful, and when your spine is so radically out of alignment, it puts pressure on other muscles in the body.
But she persevered. As this week’s gospel passage tells the story, she doesn’t even ask for healing. She just shows up for worship on the sabbath, when Jesus happens to be teaching. It may not even have occurred to her that she could be free of her disabling and incurable condition.
Perseverance is a virtue – which sometimes can get in the way of our faith. As Christ followers we are invited to believe that there is nothing in this world we need to be stuck with. Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s transforming power – except a human heart firmly turned away from him. God’s power can set us free from illness, infirmity, even injustice as we exercise our faith and invite God to release that healing stream in us. We may not always live long enough to see the full healing, especially of societal ills, but imagine how much healing we do see as we believe and pray.
As we begin this week, bring into the foreground of your awareness something you feel you are truly stuck with, from which you’d like to be freed. Just hold it in your mind’s eye, and imagine what you would look or feel or act like released from that condition. That visioning in itself is an act of prayer.
Let’s see what the Holy Spirit does with that as we continue in conversation with God about it. I believe something will break open – maybe our hearts, for a start.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-15-25 - The Cloud
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
I once saw a cartoon which showed a little boy at a funeral asking his mother, “Mommy, is Pop-Pop in the cloud now?” As we end this week, let’s touch on one more reading for Sunday, the great passage from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. It explicates the writer’s definition of faith: “… the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The passage lists a host of God’s people who persevered in faith despite persecutions and trials, never seeing the fruit for which they worked. The writer suggests these departed heroes and heroines of dogged faithfulness constitute a cloud of encouragers to inspire us to righteousness and Christ-centered living:
...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Faith can sometimes feel like heavy work in the face of the world’s ills and evidence of human destructiveness – but remember, faith is not a solitary undertaking. Faith is to be practiced in community, and our community stretches beyond what we can see, even beyond the breathing. Anglicans, with other Christian traditions, affirm the communion of saints, those alive today and those who have gone before us. How might it strengthen your faith to cultivate a greater awareness of that cloud of witnesses surrounding you, upholding you in prayer?
I want to be clear – the cloud of witnesses is not about ghosts. Whatever ghosts may be, they seem to be spirits not yet at rest. The spirits to which the writer to the Hebrews refers are saints in light, existing in the presence of God, emanating love, not direct communications. When we get messages from the heavenly places, it is from the Holy Spirit. If we think a person is communicating with us from beyond, that is a different matter, and one I do not consider spiritually healthy for Christ-followers to engage with. The Spirit of Christ is the only spirit we need.
When we undertake God’s mission in the face of uncertainty, and when we face setbacks in ministry, we can call to mind that cloud of witnesses and set our successes and failures in the light they shed. We can even, in prayer, invite strength from that holy number, and draw on their store of faith when ours feels insufficient. God invites us to believe the impossible; the communion of saints helps us do that.
Sometimes, when facing a church with way too many empty seats, I remember there are others worshiping with us, filling the air and every available place, our space thick with their faithfulness and love. That is a “cloud-based resource” at the highest level, and it’s absolutely free, forever and ever.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I once saw a cartoon which showed a little boy at a funeral asking his mother, “Mommy, is Pop-Pop in the cloud now?” As we end this week, let’s touch on one more reading for Sunday, the great passage from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. It explicates the writer’s definition of faith: “… the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The passage lists a host of God’s people who persevered in faith despite persecutions and trials, never seeing the fruit for which they worked. The writer suggests these departed heroes and heroines of dogged faithfulness constitute a cloud of encouragers to inspire us to righteousness and Christ-centered living:
...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Faith can sometimes feel like heavy work in the face of the world’s ills and evidence of human destructiveness – but remember, faith is not a solitary undertaking. Faith is to be practiced in community, and our community stretches beyond what we can see, even beyond the breathing. Anglicans, with other Christian traditions, affirm the communion of saints, those alive today and those who have gone before us. How might it strengthen your faith to cultivate a greater awareness of that cloud of witnesses surrounding you, upholding you in prayer?
I want to be clear – the cloud of witnesses is not about ghosts. Whatever ghosts may be, they seem to be spirits not yet at rest. The spirits to which the writer to the Hebrews refers are saints in light, existing in the presence of God, emanating love, not direct communications. When we get messages from the heavenly places, it is from the Holy Spirit. If we think a person is communicating with us from beyond, that is a different matter, and one I do not consider spiritually healthy for Christ-followers to engage with. The Spirit of Christ is the only spirit we need.
When we undertake God’s mission in the face of uncertainty, and when we face setbacks in ministry, we can call to mind that cloud of witnesses and set our successes and failures in the light they shed. We can even, in prayer, invite strength from that holy number, and draw on their store of faith when ours feels insufficient. God invites us to believe the impossible; the communion of saints helps us do that.
Sometimes, when facing a church with way too many empty seats, I remember there are others worshiping with us, filling the air and every available place, our space thick with their faithfulness and love. That is a “cloud-based resource” at the highest level, and it’s absolutely free, forever and ever.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-14-25 - Wild Grapes
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's reading from the Hebrew Bible is here.
There are yards and yards of wild raspberries growing by Christ Church Wayside (actually, they’re wine berries, an invasive but delicious cousin to the raspberry). It’s always a delight to come upon fruits or vegetables growing wild. Often they seem all the sweeter for being unexpected. So why would God have a problem with wild grapes? As Isaiah’s parable continues,
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
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?
The prophet Isaiah is speaking for God – that’s what prophets do, deliver a message they believe God has entrusted them to carry. He was writing in a time of impending crisis for Israel, as attempts to play off competing empires against each other were failing and yet another foreign occupation loomed. Jerusalem was threatened; Israel’s way of life and faith was in peril. Many of the prophetic writings attempt to explain how these dire times had come to pass. The prophets usually located the cause in Israel’s unfaithfulness to the One God; the charges most commonly cited were failure to honor the Law; failure to exercise economic justice and care for the poor and vulnerable; and diluting the holiness of the tradition by mingling with people of other religions.
This is what is meant by “wild grapes,” not simply free-spirited non-conformists, but people and communities who have turned from God’s way. Isaiah asserts that the community has now turned so fully away it stands in opposition to God – “Judge between me and my vineyard.” The God he poetically reveals is having a moment of frustration – “What more was there to do that I have not done?” and lament - “Why did it yield wild grapes?”
This is certainly a very human depiction of God, yet it invites us to imagine a process by which the incarnation of the Son came to be. Was it the plan from the “beginning of the ages,” as some scriptures say, or was it a response by a loving vine-grower unwilling to walk away when his crop came up wild? “What more was there to do?” We can imagine the next thought, “I will send my son…”
Jesus later told a parable, a midrash, or new version, of this passage, about a vineyard rented to tenants who abuse their relationship with the owner, beat his representatives and finally kill his son. The grapes were still wild in his earthly sojourn. But he knew that was not the way the story ended, that the death of the son was not the last word, that Life would triumph over death, over sin, over despair.
In that Life, which we receive in baptism and renew in holy communion and prayer, we have the capacity to lose our mouth-puckering wildness, to become sweet and juicy, wine to gladden the hearts of those we meet. We can grow on the sides of paths where people will come upon us, maybe even think we’re wild. But we are God’s grapes, bearers of Life.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
There are yards and yards of wild raspberries growing by Christ Church Wayside (actually, they’re wine berries, an invasive but delicious cousin to the raspberry). It’s always a delight to come upon fruits or vegetables growing wild. Often they seem all the sweeter for being unexpected. So why would God have a problem with wild grapes? As Isaiah’s parable continues,
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
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?
The prophet Isaiah is speaking for God – that’s what prophets do, deliver a message they believe God has entrusted them to carry. He was writing in a time of impending crisis for Israel, as attempts to play off competing empires against each other were failing and yet another foreign occupation loomed. Jerusalem was threatened; Israel’s way of life and faith was in peril. Many of the prophetic writings attempt to explain how these dire times had come to pass. The prophets usually located the cause in Israel’s unfaithfulness to the One God; the charges most commonly cited were failure to honor the Law; failure to exercise economic justice and care for the poor and vulnerable; and diluting the holiness of the tradition by mingling with people of other religions.
This is what is meant by “wild grapes,” not simply free-spirited non-conformists, but people and communities who have turned from God’s way. Isaiah asserts that the community has now turned so fully away it stands in opposition to God – “Judge between me and my vineyard.” The God he poetically reveals is having a moment of frustration – “What more was there to do that I have not done?” and lament - “Why did it yield wild grapes?”
This is certainly a very human depiction of God, yet it invites us to imagine a process by which the incarnation of the Son came to be. Was it the plan from the “beginning of the ages,” as some scriptures say, or was it a response by a loving vine-grower unwilling to walk away when his crop came up wild? “What more was there to do?” We can imagine the next thought, “I will send my son…”
Jesus later told a parable, a midrash, or new version, of this passage, about a vineyard rented to tenants who abuse their relationship with the owner, beat his representatives and finally kill his son. The grapes were still wild in his earthly sojourn. But he knew that was not the way the story ended, that the death of the son was not the last word, that Life would triumph over death, over sin, over despair.
In that Life, which we receive in baptism and renew in holy communion and prayer, we have the capacity to lose our mouth-puckering wildness, to become sweet and juicy, wine to gladden the hearts of those we meet. We can grow on the sides of paths where people will come upon us, maybe even think we’re wild. But we are God’s grapes, bearers of Life.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-13-25 - The Vineyard
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday'; reading from the Hebrew Bible is here.
There are few images more evocative of life and fruitfulness, mystery and joy than vineyards. All over the bible we can find vineyards, literal and figurative. For the rest of this week, let’s go to the vineyard depicted in Isaiah – a place of cultivation and care, which yielded a surprising crop:
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
In the gospel passage set for this week, we find Jesus in “scorched earth” mode, literally. He speaks of the fire he has come to bring upon the earth, wishing it were already kindled. We can find precedent for his righteous rage in this prophetic poetry of Isaiah’s, which tells in a few short lines the whole history of God and God’s people. It speaks of this world as a vineyard carefully cultivated by God in a fertile place, cleared and planted, with provisions for protection and wine-processing.
This is how we might see the creation – a beautiful world prepared for us, a place of fertility, with everything provided so that we can thrive and produce good fruit. It even has a watch-tower – an image of God’s vigilant protection from evil for God’s beloved. And this creator is also named as beloved. It’s all set up to enable humankind to produce vats of wonderful, life-giving, joy-inducing wine.
But – there’s always a 'but' in a good story – the choice vines (chosen people?) did not yield cultivated grapes. What grew were not smooth, sweet wine grapes, but wild grapes. Wild grapes might have some virtues, but they’re not reliably sweet. What a great metaphor for what early theologians called original sin – a proclivity toward self-gratification that results in thoughts and actions that do not honor God, neighbor or even our truest selves. God expects us to be sweet grapes, and often we can be wild, destructive.
This is the wrong Jesus came to right, the condition he came to heal, the conversion he came to empower. Because of Jesus, we are not stuck in “wild grape” mode; we can become fruit-bearing, life-bringing grapes. And as we actively participate in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness in Christ, we attach ourselves to vines that carry that mission into every place and person in pain and need.
Our story of salvation is the story of God’s restoration of that vineyard. God invites us to be a part of bringing that work to completion, until the Creator’s full intention is reflected in our world. That is work worth raising a glass to.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
There are few images more evocative of life and fruitfulness, mystery and joy than vineyards. All over the bible we can find vineyards, literal and figurative. For the rest of this week, let’s go to the vineyard depicted in Isaiah – a place of cultivation and care, which yielded a surprising crop:
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
In the gospel passage set for this week, we find Jesus in “scorched earth” mode, literally. He speaks of the fire he has come to bring upon the earth, wishing it were already kindled. We can find precedent for his righteous rage in this prophetic poetry of Isaiah’s, which tells in a few short lines the whole history of God and God’s people. It speaks of this world as a vineyard carefully cultivated by God in a fertile place, cleared and planted, with provisions for protection and wine-processing.
This is how we might see the creation – a beautiful world prepared for us, a place of fertility, with everything provided so that we can thrive and produce good fruit. It even has a watch-tower – an image of God’s vigilant protection from evil for God’s beloved. And this creator is also named as beloved. It’s all set up to enable humankind to produce vats of wonderful, life-giving, joy-inducing wine.
But – there’s always a 'but' in a good story – the choice vines (chosen people?) did not yield cultivated grapes. What grew were not smooth, sweet wine grapes, but wild grapes. Wild grapes might have some virtues, but they’re not reliably sweet. What a great metaphor for what early theologians called original sin – a proclivity toward self-gratification that results in thoughts and actions that do not honor God, neighbor or even our truest selves. God expects us to be sweet grapes, and often we can be wild, destructive.
This is the wrong Jesus came to right, the condition he came to heal, the conversion he came to empower. Because of Jesus, we are not stuck in “wild grape” mode; we can become fruit-bearing, life-bringing grapes. And as we actively participate in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness in Christ, we attach ourselves to vines that carry that mission into every place and person in pain and need.
Our story of salvation is the story of God’s restoration of that vineyard. God invites us to be a part of bringing that work to completion, until the Creator’s full intention is reflected in our world. That is work worth raising a glass to.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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