“Soul Food”
A sermon by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville UCC, March 7, 2010
Lent 3, Year C, Psalm 63 & Isaiah 55

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.”
(Isaiah 55:2-3)

A couple weeks ago, as we entered the season of Lent, we turned our attention to that first Lenten story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and I reflected with you about the importance of hunger in that that text.  The gospel writer, Luke, tells us that after fasting for 40 days, Jesus was “famished” when the Tempter came to make mischief.  On the strength of that story, I suggested that an important part of the Lenten journey is respecting the power of hunger in our inner lives.  It is our hunger, often unrecognized and unmet, that can make us vulnerable to the power of the Adversary.  Here we are three weeks into Lent and the themes of hunger and thirst are once again at the core of the biblical message. 

It is striking how frequently food takes a prominent place in the Bible.  As people who live in a culture where, for the most part, food is in abundance, it may take some doing to remind ourselves that “back in biblical times, gathering and preparing food took time and occupied a significant part of Israel’s life.  The danger of famine (due to natural calamities or crop failure) gave special importance to food.  Water was drawn from a well or spring, not a faucet or commercial bottle.  Bread was baked from scratch, and beans and lentils simmered for hours.”[1]

“Food was also a means of conveying spiritual significance.  Half of the parables Jesus told concerned seeds and farmers, barns and banquets, wheat and figs.  Meals were linked with the forming of covenants (Exod. 24:11), and food sacrifices with sacred worship.”[2]  The image of the feast or banquet is frequently yoked with God’s salvation and in the messianic kingdom, vineyards and gardens would flourish and there would be an abundance of food.[3]  Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, saying: "Give us this day our daily bread.”  And of the many meals he shares with his disciples and the other people who followed him, there is one in the Upper Room that is the holiest meal of all for Christians.

It is no wonder that hunger, thirst and longing are repetitive themes in the Bible.  The body’s need for food and water are basic human requirements.  But being the creatures that we are, once those basic needs are met, we often find ourselves longing for things that are not so easily satisfied.  And that is precisely what the prophet Isaiah is concerned about in this text.

Those of you who have been taking Peg Dominy’s class on the Prophets offered here on Tuesday nights may recognize that this portion of the Book of Isaiah addresses a people who are living in exile.  Chapters 40 - 55 are written around 540 BCE to folk who have been uprooted from their homes and transported far away to Babylon as the spoils of war.  They now live as political refugees far from their homeland, far from the religious and cultural traditions that give shape and meaning to their lives.  They are hungry to fit in.  They are hungry to feel at home.  Some of them are even beginning to forget what it was like to ever live in the Holy Land and some have never known -- having been born in this new country. 

It would be easy for them to turn away from the faith of their mothers and fathers.  It would be easy for them to adapt to the ways of the culture surrounding them.  We call this “cultural assimilation” and it is common to all people who have been uprooted from their homeland and brought to an unfamiliar place.  Isaiah is speaking to those people, and to all people who know what it is like to be in exile – or to experience exile.  He is speaking to people who know what hunger and thirst are because they are living far from the things that are familiar and nourishing for their spirit.  Isaiah speaks to them and as he does he asks the question: as hungry as they are for good food, why do they keep turning to things which will never fill them up?

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
 and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

That’s the essential question of this text.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
 and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

It amazes me that this question asked of Israel over 2,600 years ago, is still so appropriate for us today.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

There is a reason why the prophet’s words still speak to us over 26 centuries later – even if we have never known the hardship of being a political refugee.  Isaiah speaks to us because we know what it feels like to long for something that we know we need, but cannot seem to find on our own.

Why do we spend our money for that which is not bread and our labor for that which does not satisfy?  Because we are hungry for meaning and depth; hungry to understand why bad things happen to good people; hungry for intimacy and the kinds of relationships that leave us feeling understood and cherished and safe.

We are hungry and we are thirsty, but being the kinds of creatures that we are, we are greatly tempted to look for love in all the wrong places. 

Being the kinds of creatures that we are, we are inclined to believe the lie that everything we need can be found at the local Mall, or a life-time supply of it at the local Costco. 

Being the kinds of creatures that we are, we are inclined to fill our lives with one more distraction, or one more conquest, or one more thing to keep us from feeling how we really feel.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Because so often we do not know what is good for us, and we are inclined to keep chasing after the next bright shiny object that catches our attention. 

The question that was relevant almost 3000 years ago is relevant still.  But, thanks be to God, with the question posed by the prophet come some answers; some instructions; some options for what is truly wholesome and lasting and worthy.  The question that echoes down 26 centuries is in this 55^th Chapter of Isaiah, but so are the answers:

^2bListen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  (Which is to say, study God’s word and feast upon God’s wisdom.)

³Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
(Which is to say, draw near to God in prayer and listen to God with your heart.)

I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
(Which is to say, pay attention to the promises that God has made to God’s people, and make some of your own promises to God as well.)

⁶Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;
(Which is to say, don’t let another day go by neglecting your spiritual life.)

⁷let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
(Which is to say – allow for the possibility of forgiveness.)

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  ⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
(Which is to say – allow for the possibility of humility.  Allow for the possibility that neither you nor I understand everything; that God may have a plan which includes the forgiveness of people we can scarcely tolerate.)

¹⁰For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
(Which is to say, that God’s Word will accomplish great things.  Of this we can be sure.  Upon this, we can stand.)

¹²For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ¹³Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
(Which is to say that, despite evidence to the contrary, God does in fact work for good, for those who love him.  God works to heal and restore the broken places.  God works to turn tragedy into transcendent love.  God works to teach us that nothing can ever separate us from His love.)

So the question of the ages is there: 

Why spend your money on that which does not satisfy?

But so is the answer:

Listen to me.
            Come to me.
            Incline your ear to me.
            Let us make an everlasting covenant.
            Trust me.
            Believe in me.
            Hope in me, now and forevermore.

It is a curious thing that, in this season when so many are ‘giving something up’ as a part of their Lenten practice, we are offered this image of abundance as a sign of God’s love for us.  This is the fullness of life that God desires for all God’s people.  This is the banquet to which we are truly called.

Come all who are thirsty.  Come to the waters. 
And you, who have no money, come buy and eat. 
Eat what is good – come fill your platter,
The Lord freely gives.  God freely gives.

Amen.