Wildcats Growling, Riders Approaching, Wind Howling

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 4, 2026
Proper 22, A
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:7-14
Matthew 21:33-46

All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief.

“There’s too much confusion; I can’t get no relief

Businessmen they drink my wine, and plowmen dig my earth

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”

 

“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke.

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke,

But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate.

So, let us not talk falsely now. The hour is getting late.”

  

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view,

While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too.

Outside in the distance, a wildcat did growl.

Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.

So, with our readings from Isaiah and Matthew both being about a vineyard and a watchtower, my mind, of course went to Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which, while certainly taking imagery from our Isaiah reading, probably has absolutely nothing to with these readings. Still, I’m listening to the song through the lens of these readings.

There is this feeling in the song, of impending doom, and the two people in the song are reacting to it. First, you’ve got the joker, wanting to get out, fearful for what’s coming, while also denying that he had anything to do with it. He’s lamenting that businessmen are drinking his wine, as if he wasn’t the one who had given it to them. 

Then, you’ve got the thief who is lying to the joker. “No worries,” he’s telling him. “Life isn’t a joke. Our fate is not to be destroyed. All will be well.”

Then we see the truth that the joker fears and the thief denies: the business of the calm before the storm. The princes know their end is coming. Preparations are being made by the women and servants, the wildcat, the riders, and the wind are the creeping chaos soon to enter in and overtake them all. 

Travis Roe / Grand Canton Watchtower, 2012 / cbsnews.com/pictures/captured-in-a-flash/2/ 

Impending doom while some deny it, others fear it, and none are able to admit the part they played in bringing that doom to them. Now that sounds like our Isaiah reading.

God had planted a vineyard, and rather than the grapes he was expecting, the vineyard grew wild grapes. The vineyard, of course, was the nation of Israel, and the grapes were the people of Israel. They were meant to live as one people, disciplined, following the ways of life God had given them. They were more than a collection of individuals, they were a people, living together as many and yet as one, and as one people, they had a particular way of life with some things they just weren’t going to do.

At my son’s marching band competition yesterday, it occurred to me that being together as one is how things were for us in my high school band. We were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, but once we put that band uniform on, we were one. We got to goof off and mess around like normal high schoolers, until we put that uniform on. Once it was on, we were one. At marching band competitions, we didn’t only march together on the field. We marched together in the parking lot from the busses to the practice area. Then, we marched together from the practice area to the field for the show. 

Lots of other bands would walk around, la-da-dat-da-dah, in any old way, just a bunch of individuals wearing the same band uniform. We marched as one, all at attention, all in formation, all in step together. We didn’t act like all those other bands. We weren’t just a bunch of individuals. We were a band together as one. 

That unity of spirit and purpose is how Israel was meant to be, and yet time, after time, after time, they stopped going after God’s ways and they started acting like the nations around them. They were meant to be a light to those very nations, which means there were some things they just weren’t going to do, and yet time and again they chose to follow the ways and the gods of those other nations, doing those very things they weren’t meant to do.

Cheating one another, oppressing workers, living in selfishness and fear, murder, rape. Those are not the ways of the people of Israel. They were formed by God to love one another and care for one another as though they were one people, not just a bunch of individuals walking around, la-da-dat-da-dah, in any old selfish way they wanted, and so in Isaiah, God was declaring impending doom. Wildcats growling, riders approaching, wind howling.

“Restore us!” The people cried. We heard that in the psalm. We’re sorry, we repent, we turn back, but it was already too late. There was no real desire to live in love with one another, just to avoid punishment.

See, when repentance is only to avoid punishment, only to avoid the chaos to come, but there’s no real desire to follow in the ways of love, that’s not real repentance. 

God calls us to repent of the ways we are selfishness and seek our own pleasure regardless of the harm to others. Selfish pleasure-seeking, regardless of the harm to others is how you get a gang rape at Cornell University. All the facts aren’t known yet. From what we’ve heard so far, what began as consensual sex between two people became consensual sex between three people as another guy joined in. Then, as more guys entered the room, the sex became non-consensual with the young woman who said no many times and was so drunk and drugged out that she couldn’t really consent anyway. Pleasure seeking without regard to the harm to others. Joining in with a gang of other guys having sex with a barely conscious woman.

Now, finally, the truth is coming out, and the guys who thought they were just having some fun and got away with it are now walking along the watchtower with wildcats growling, riders approaching, and the wind howling.

There are some things, that, being a disciple of Jesus, you just don’t get to do. The rape part is hopefully obvious, but even before non-consensual, actual rape, there’s joining in as a group of guys having sex together with one woman. The big group sex party is something that as followers of Jesus, we just don’t get to do, if for no other reason than even if it begins consensually, it is far too easy for it to become non-consensual and for it not to stop once it does because people’s sex drives are often far too powerful for them to control well. 

So, as a people, formed by God to be a light to those around us, there are things that we just don’t do. There are the obvious ones like cheating one another, oppressing people, living in selfishness and fear, murder, rape, but there’s also all the less obvious things that can lead to cheating, oppression, selfishness, murder, and rape. 

If you’ve got a terrible temper and you know you can’t control it, then you don’t get to put yourself into situations where there’s likely to be a fight and you just might end up hurting or killing someone. If you know you can’t stop yourself from harming others when you drink or use drugs, then you don’t get to drink or use drugs. 

We make these decisions not to avoid God’s punishment or wrath. We make these decisions so that we won’t harm others. We make these decisions not to do some things so that we might live lives of love and care for others. When we don’t, we see the consequences. Women are raped, people are murdered, workers are oppressed, violence is called justice, and we see these things happening every day.

Now I’m not a prophet like Isaiah, pronouncing God’s doom the nation or any group of people within the nation. What I am doing is calling us to seriously the dangers of our selfish ways without regard to the harm to others. I am calling us to take seriously that we are called to be one people, unified like my marching band, and once we put that uniform on, once we put Christ on, there are some things we’re just not going to do because of how those things can harm others. 

I’m also calling us to remember that when we have been going against God’s ways and we have been following ways of selfishness and harm to others, God lets us repent when we truly want to. God may not remove every consequence of our previous actions. We may still hear the wildcats growl, we may still see the riders approaching, we may still hear the wind begin to howl, but when we truly repent and want to heal the damage we’ve caused, God allows us to turn around and be a light, to seek a life of love and care for others.