Come, taste and see!

Sermon planned for Gretna Hot Spot service on Sunday, July 17th, 2011

Texts: Isaiah 55:1-11

It’s great to be together here, as a community and church family. I always look forward to this service for the Hot Spot festival – the breeze is nice and the fellowship and temperature are always warm.

A few months back, the worship committee decided that we would use this summer’s DVBS theme as the theme for this Hot Spot service. The theme is entitled “Taste and See (that) God is good”. Basically, the idea behind the theme is that the children at DVBS explore the many ways that God used food to be present to his people in the stories of scripture. And so there’s the story of the manna in the desert, when God saved his people from starvation by sending down manna and birds for their nourishment. There’s the story of the prophet Elijah who told the widow at Zarephath to use up the last bit of oil and flour in order to make bread for him – and God provided a miracle so that the jug of oil never dried up. There are numerous stories that exhibit how God provides for his people, and part of that provision is food for the hungry. The high-point of this theme is the story of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, where he explains to them that He is the Living Bread and that He himself will sustain us. The broader theme is that we come to God and put our trust in Him – He provides the good food, the thirst-quenching water.

This is the metaphor that the prophet Isaiah was working with when he gave his prophecy to the Israelites living in exile. Chapter fifty-five comes at the end of the second part of the collection of three books in Isaiah. This second-part of Isaiah’s prophecy is directed at the Israelites living in the Babylonian exile, and it emphasized the promise of God’s deliverance. God was going to get his people out of Babylon and bring them back home. In this respect, chapter fifty-five is a kind of climax in this story. It finishes with a promise that the people will go out with joy and be led forth in peace – God’s favor will accompany His people for good. That’s how our passage fits into the whole book of Isaiah. Perhaps this background info isn’t that interesting to you, but it helps set the stage for what the prophet is trying to do in the passage we read earlier.

The prophet used the imagery of the marketplace in his work. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters!” This was a common advertisement in the local marketplace in the Middle-East at that time. If you were a traveler, in those days, you’d come into a new town or city and go straight to the market to replenish your supplies. If you lived in that city, the market would be a common-place where people gathered to talk, hear news from afar, and to purchase goods. The local philosophers, politicians and prophets would spend their time in discussion and debate, and the women would be busy buying and selling goods. The market place was the place to be – a bit like ‘The Forks’ in Winnipeg. One of the goods that was bought and sold was water and food. In dryer regions, clean drinking water was a scarce commodity, as it is even today in many parts of the world. There would be people at the marketplace shouting out: “Come, and drink! Come, get your water here!” This is the imagery that the prophet was using to relay his message. He was telling Israel “Come and gather ‘round – come and get your water and food… come even if you don’t have money, buy water and food, milk and wine, but without any cost!”

Israel lived in this foreign land that had become quite comfortable for them. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah had instructed the Israelites to make their home in Babylon; to establish themselves, to make peace and seek the peace of the cities they had been exiled to. In other words, this exile is not just a short detour for God’s people – they were supposed to learn what it meant to live among the nations for the long-haul; while still remaining a set-apart people of God’s blessing. This is what we as Christians mean when we say that we’re called to live ‘in the world, but not of the world’. By using this imagery of the marketplace, the prophet knew that it would bring to mind this tension that they were called to live-in.

The marketplace was a place of exchange – an exchange of ideas, religious worldviews, political perspectives, economic practices. The prophet placed the voice of Yahweh smack dab in the middle of this pluralistic context, and that voice was calling God’s people to come to His table, to buy water and food under His tent. It was the prophet’s clear way of saying: return to Yahweh, and forsake the false goods/gods of your Babylonian neighbors. In terms of Jeremiah’s call, God’s people had forgotten that they were in exile. They saw Babylon as home. They adopted the religious philosophies of their contemporaries. They practiced economy like the Babylonians. They practiced the sexual habits of that culture. The prophet could only speak up and call his people to repent. Come and get the good food from God’s table – it’s even free.

For many, the exile into Babylon had meant that the God of the Israelites had been overcome by the gods of Babylon. In other words, the defeat of political Israel meant that the gods of the pagans were obviously more powerful. When they were taken into exile, many of God’s people switched allegiances. It’s easy for us, from the outside, to look down on these people in scorn, thinking: “how could they abandon God who helped them through the Exodus?” But the prophet doesn’t make much of a moral difference between those who abandon worship of God and those who begin to practice the ways of Babylon. If the Israelites left behind the ways of God, they might as well leave God behind. When they put their trust into Babylon’s system – it’s economy, it’s moral imagination, its understanding of justice – it was as if they were walking straight past God’s table and eating at the table of the pagan gods. For those who turned their backs on God, the prophets had a clear message: It wasn’t God’s powerlessness that caused the exile and the destruction of political Israel. God allowed this to occur because the people had abandoned the covenant that God had made with Abraham.

The Babylonian victory was the result of God allowing them to take His people captive. This is what we hear from the prophets. And so, the answer to Israelite powerlessness in exile is not to turn to other gods, but rather to return to Yahweh in obedience and worship. The prophet’s invitation: “Come and get some free food and drink” is coupled with several commands. Come and drink – and seek God, forsake your sinful ways, and turn to the Lord. But before people can hear this call to repent, they have to understand that the ‘goods of Babylon’ are in fact not good at all.

In verse two the prophet asks, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” Why do you eat from Babylon’s table when it’s food fails to nourish? In exile, God’s people bought-into the lie that the politics, the economy, the sexual morality, and the general worldview of Babylon – that these things were good and wise. But the prophet exposed the lie: this isn’t true bread, this picture doesn’t satisfy does it? The way you practice economy, does it satisfy? The way you’ve bought into the sexual mores of Babylonian society – does it really fulfill your deepest desires? The prophet hits the nail on the head – Babylon doesn’t deliver on its promises – it can’t.

But that’s exactly where Yahweh comes through! “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, your soul will delight in the richest fair!” The prophet reminds the exiles of the goodness of God’s covenant, the beauty of his law, the justice of God’s economic policy. The prophet gives voice to the faithfulness of God who, unlike the gods of Babylon, promises His steadfast kindness and mercy. “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” The loyalty that God showed to the house of David is now also the loyalty that God promises to all of His people. Instead of the fickle love of the Babylonian gods, who required the blood of infants to appease their thirst, Yahweh’s love is a gift that doesn’t stop. The question is: will Israel choose Yahweh’s goods? Will they return to God? Will they come to his table and quench their thirst in His love? God’s free grace, and his invitation, is open to all who hunger and thirst. Are we thirsty?

The most thirsty that I’ve ever been was in July 1999. I had joined the North Kildonan youth group on their trip to the youth assembly in St. Louis. In addition to many great worship gatherings and fascinating discussions and sessions, we were assigned to several different teams that went out and did service projects. The group that I was assigned to was asked to help clean up all the debris, trash and other kinds of junk in this ‘rough’ neighborhood. Almost every building had a gang symbol graffitied to it, and there were plenty of used needles and condoms that we saw and left behind – we weren’t equipped to dispose of those kinds of dangerous materials. From my memory, this neighborhood made Winnipeg’s North-End seem like Sesame Street.

The thing that I remember most about this service event was that it was very hot that day. In fact, later that day the local news reported that two people in St. Louis had died of heat stroke. After about an hour of picking up trash in the neighborhood we were told to take a water break. When we saw the van pull-up, and we knew that they had water bottles in the back, we ran towards it. About forty youth and adults ran down this back-alley in this ‘rough’ neighborhood – and I wonder what some of the people of St. Louis were thinking. Is there a fight? A riot? Nope – we were running full-tilt to get something to quench our thirst. A strange thing happened. Several people from the neighborhood came out of their houses and walked up to us and the van, asking us who we were and what we were up to. We told them about our youth assembly, the service event, and that we were followers of Jesus. They liked that, and they asked if they could also join us for our water break.

I wonder if this is what the prophet Isaiah envisioned for God’s people. What if they ran full-tilt to God’s table and quenched their thirst with His goodness, with his economy, with his holiness, with his justice? What would the neighbors think then? Would they come out of their houses and ask – what are these Jews up to? What are these people doing, forgiving each other’s financial debts? Living lives of sexual purity and holiness? What are these people doing, loving their enemies? Can we join the party? Can we join the water break?

God gave the prophet a vision of a time when people would swarm around God’s table, seeking the things that truly satisfy. He received a vision of all kinds of people streaming to Israel, to hear of it’s God, and to Taste and See that God is good. What time and what place do we live in now, here in Canada, in southern Manitoba? Have we made our home here, or are we, like Israel, living in exile? Are we awaiting another home? At whose table are we filling our cups? Are we drinking deeply from the well of God’s restoring mercy? Or are we purchasing the wares of Babylon?

The question the prophet Isaiah leaves with us this morning is: do the wares of Babylon really satisfy you? Is it’s water the real thing? Does it’s food hit the spot? Or is there something missing? Is the economy that we’ve bought into, here in Canada, one that brings deep joy to your heart? Is the fast-paced, me-first, greed-based system we have doing the trick? Or are you hungry for real food – the justice of God’s jubilee economy of sharing – where one boy’s lunch of fish and bread is made into a feast for thousands? Where sharing is the norm? Is the goal of self-fulfillment, which is so highly praised in our culture, really all that its cracked up to be? Is self-actualization as deeply fulfilling as the commercials promise? Or are you hungry for more? For the true Body of Christ? Are you thirsty for a community that bears each other’s burdens with gentleness and love? Examine your life? Examine your economic practices? Examine your hearts and your body’s desires? Is Babylon doing it for you? Is it quenching your thirst?

What if, as God’s people, we were running full-tilt toward God’s banquet table? What if we entered God’s feast with an unstoppable joy? What if organizing weekend holidays posed a real dilemma for us, because worship was our deepest desire, and praising God in community our most profound passion? What if forgiveness and mercy were the first thing on our hearts when we were offended? What if the food of God’s table stained our shirts, and the crumbs of God’s goodness got stuck in our beards, so that everybody could see where we got our fill? Would our neighbours come out of their houses and ask: what’s up with you guys? Why are you here? Can we join the water break? Can we join the party? This morning, the prophet calls out to anyone who will listen: Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! May we run with joy to the table of our Lord, and may you all Taste and See that God is good. Amen!