Isaiah 55:1-9
When filling out a survey or information form, do you ever wonderwhich answer is the most appropriate? Yes? No? Or, maybe does not apply?For example, when visiting a doctor’s office. Responses to some questions arestraight up or down. But sometimes you’re not sure, and you haveto think about it for a little bit. And then, God forbid,some of us may even from time to time tend to fudge on an answer.
Interestingly, the process is sometimes like that when a minister decides which passage to preach on on any given Sunday. That’s especially true in traditions like ours that use a lectionary, that is, a scheduled set of readings throughout the church year. While most pastors try to regularly preach on the gospel, some feel free to choose one of the others. I belong to the second group. It gives me more flexibility.
So last week, when examining each of the readings, I was trying to figure out which one was most appropriate—whether to check the “yes” box or the “no” box. The first reading, the Gospel,[i]was an easy decision. It was originally written to an early group of Christians waiting for the imminent although delayed return of the Lord. In other words, the Second Coming. So Jesus gives a very urgent warning: “unless [they] repent,” unless they bear spiritual fruit, they will be like a tree that is soon cut down. I thought to myself: “Well, I know it’s the Season of Lent and a time to reassess our lives and mend our ways, but nevertheless this reading sounds like too much law and too little gospel. Preaching on it would be a really hard sell.”[ii]So I went to the answer boxes in my head and with a big mark checked the one that says “No.”
Then looking at another reading—from Paul’s first letter to the Christians in Corinth[iii]—I didn’t feel any more encouraged. He’s writing to what one commentator has called “a faith community [of] spiritual smart alecks!” So, recounting the disobedience of the Israelites in the wilderness, Paul really gives it to them:
- “[Some of the Israelites] indulge[d] in sexual immorality…and 23,000 fell in a single day.”
- Others complained too much, and so “were destroyed by serpents.”
“These things [he continues] happened to them to serve as an example [to you]…”
Wow, that sounds uplifting, doesn’t it [sarcastically]? Thinking about preaching on thispassage—for about half a second—I turned again to the answer boxes in my mind, once more marking with a big mark the one that says “No.”[iv]
Reading the third and final passage—from Isaiah 55—sounded an awful lot better:
- “Come to the waters [all you who thirst].”
- “…you that have no money, come, buy and eat!”
- “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
I thought to myself: “Hey! Now that’s more like it! That one will play!”
That is, until I consulted a couple of the commentaries on it. Biblical scholars say that this invitation was directed to Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon some fifty years earlier. The Persian king, who had conquered the Babylonians, gave them permission to go home, which they joyfully did. But on arriving at Jerusalem, they saw that it still lay in ruins and that nearby lived some very inhospitable people. The returnees were poor, without resources. So through the words of the prophet, God gives them a pep talk, promising them that they will indeed receive what they need in order to survive.[v]
I said to myself: “Well, this reading is mainly for people who are physicallyhungry, whose stomachs are truly empty—like many of those who come to our monthly community meal.” That meant then that this passage probably doesn’t apply to most of us.
So, once more—for the 3rdtime—I was about to make a big mark in the “no” box. For those of us who preach on a weekly basis, it was a moment of despair, that is, until pausing long enough to read yet 1 more commentary:
…it’s a bit hard to know what exactly God offers here. Is God literally inviting Israel to partake of wine, milk and bread? Or do those material goods point to a deeper, more spiritually reality? …it’s sometimes hard, not just here but throughout the Scriptures, to know just where God’s offer of material goods ends and where God’s offer of things like salvation begins. Clearly [in this reading], the spiritual food that is God’s Word is a vital [part] of [his] invitation. What God offers…us is a kind of “soul food” [so to speak], that nourishes us as fully as any real piece of bread.[vi]
Think of Jesus’ response when tempted by the devil to make food out of stones: “you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”[vii]
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In Isaiah, the image of buying food and drink is that of a marketplace. People milling about, going from one booth to another—inspecting fruits and vegetables, comparing prices of different kinds of bread. In our own time, we might think of a place like Central Market—here, downtown—where people can buy items either to take home to prepare for dinner or purchase ready-made sandwiches or dishes to eat right on the premises. But we don’t get them for nothing—except maybe small samples, enticing us, then, to buy the whole thing. As the saying goes: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Yet at times I would beg to differ. For instance, last year at a different market—a supermarket —I was standing in line at the checkout counter. Only one person, buying a number of items, was in front of me. In a basket, I had just a handful of things. I hate having to use a cart, competing with others to move along in the aisles and at all the turns. Carrying a basket and weaving in and out of the “traffic,” so to speak, is my preferred style of buying groceries. In other words, going to the supermarket isn’t my idea of having a good time. I want to get in and out as quickly as possible.
Anyway, when the lady ahead of me had paid for her items, and it was my turn, I discovered she also had paid for the things in my basket. She wasn’t gone yet; so thanking her, I asked whether that was the sort of thing she did often. She just smiled and said, “Sometimes I do.” That’s when I thought, but didn’t say, that I wished it was one of those times when I did use a cart and had it full of groceries!
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While it’s important to remember we should listen to and obey the life-giving words God speaks to us, it’s even more important to remember how much God freely offers to us spiritual food and spiritual drink—and how surprising, how remarkable that is. I believe that’s what’s at the heart of the last two verses in the passage:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.[viii]
We know that in life, there’s a price for almost everything that we need or want—either in terms of money, time, or energy. Virtually nothing is for free. Yet that’s not the way it is when it comes to God’s love. That love is free, but it doesn’t come cheaply. It comes, in fact, at a very high cost. Why God does such a thing for us is truly a mystery. His thoughts are indeed not our thoughts, and his ways are indeed not ours. And for that we give great thanks!
[i]Luke 13:1-9.
[ii]See the following commentaries: Ronald J. Allen in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3991; Matt Skinner in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2789; and Arland J. Hultgren in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1578.
[iii]1 Corinthians 10:1-13.
[iv]See the following commentaries: Susan Hedahl in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=528, from which the quotation is taken; also Carla Works in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1594; Bryan J. Whitfield in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4003; and Shively Smith in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2790.
[v]Christopher B. Hays in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4011; and Patricia Tull in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1564.
[vi]Stan Mast in https://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/lent-3c?type=old-testament-lectionary.
[vii]Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4.
[viii]For the understanding of these verses as pure grace, see Howard Wallace, http://hwallace,unitedchurch.org.au/WebOTcomments/LentC/Lent3.html: “Central to the image is the height of the heavens above the earth—both in physical and metaphorical terms. At first glance an impossible chasm lies between God’s ways and thoughts and ours. On the other hand, the prophet wants to say that this chasm has been bridged, by God. It is the otherness of God’s thoughts and ways—of offering rich food without price—which achieves this. This is utterly astounding.” Also see W. Dennis Tucker, Jr., https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2785; and Ralph Klein in https://fontes.lstc .edu/-rklein/Documents/advent.htm.