Fr. Varghese Varghese

Woes to the Church!

In Houston on August 6, 2004

Prophet Isaiah calls out several woes to the people of Israel using the parable of the vineyard (Isaiah 5). Five of those are directly applicable to the Christian church, especially to the Indian Orthodox Church in America, today.

The parable says that a farmer planted a vineyard, and expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones. The farmer is God, and the vineyard is the house of Israel. In place of justice and righteousness, there is bloodshed and cry of distress.

Why did this happen? One may place the blame on the field, the farmer, or the seed. However, nothing was wrong with any of these.

The prophet lists several reasons:

1. Amassing wealth as the goal of life

"Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field" 5:8. In America today, the goal of most of the Indian Orthodox Christians seems to be nothing but amassing more and more wealth.

The result: "Many houses shall become desolate, even great and fine ones without occupants." (5:9). Our people build big houses back in India, but there is nobody to live there. Even the huge houses they build in America become vacant once their children move out.

2. Pleasure as the goal of life

"Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, and those who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them" 5:11. When people have wealth, they start seeking pleasures. This is true about many Orthodox Christians in America.

3. Loss of moral values

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" 5:20. When wealth and pleasure become our goal, we lose our eye sight. We can't distinguish between light and darkness, and between good and evil.

4. Self-righteousness

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight!" 5:21. That was the problem with the Pharisees at Jesus' time. Today we have taken over their place. We believe we are wise, and we are unwilling to listen to the real wisdom.

5. Practice injustice

"Woe to …those who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!" 5:23. With our wealth we support wickedness, and deny their basic rights to people.

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