3rd Sunday in Lent
March 24, 2019
Isaiah 55:1-9
There is a movie that first came out in 1937 and has been
remade not just once, but three times. It’s the story of a young
aspiring performer whose career begins during the movie and an experienced
performer whose career comes to a close by the end of the movie. Any guesses
which movie I’m talking about? “A Star Is Born.” Who’s seen the 1937 original
with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March? How about the 1954 version with Judy
Garland and James Mason? Then it was remade in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and
Kris Kristofferson; anyone see that one? Finally, this enduring story came out
again last year with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. I have not seen the first
three versions, but I saw the newest one and loved it; has anyone else seen it?
The one Oscar it won was for best original song, a song that Lady Gaga and
Bradley Cooper co-wrote called “Shallow.”
It begins with Bradley Cooper
singing, “Tell me somethin', girl/ Are you happy in this modern world?/ Or do
you need more?/ Is there somethin' else you're searchin' for?/ I'm falling/ In
all the good times I find myself/ Longin' for change/ And in the bad times I
fear myself.” Then it switches to Lady Gaga singing, “Tell me something, boy/
Aren't you tired tryin' to fill that void?/ Or do you need more?/ Ain't it hard
keeping it so hardcore?” and she repeats the verse about longing for change,
even in the good times. Are you happy in this modern world with all our
conveniences and technology, or do you need more? Are you searching for
something else? Do you find yourself longing for change, even during the good
times? Is there a void you’re trying to fill? Do you need more? Do you want
more?
This morning’s reading from Isaiah answers those
questions. “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. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not
satisfy?” Isaiah not only answers the questions, he asks questions back! Why
are you wasting your money and your energy on things that do not fill you up? In
“A Star Is Born,” the older performer is also an alcoholic, an addict, seeking
to fill the void with drugs and alcohol and finding that they do not satisfy. They
leave him still thirsty and still searching for more. Whereas Isaiah invitingly
says, “Come, eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
So, first question, what is this good food?[1]
Besides the answer to when you ask mom what’s for dinner, Isaiah starts by
saying come to the waters, come, buy wine and milk and bread. Yet it turns out
food is a metaphor and Isaiah shifts from physical food to spiritual food.
“Listen to me… Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.”
The good food is what God has to say. This echoes the Scripture Jesus quotes
Satan when Satan tempts him by telling him to turn stones into bread. Jesus
responds, one “does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from
the mouth of the Lord.”[2]
We live, we are fed, by God’s Word: the Word incarnate, Jesus, and all the
other words God has spoken and is still speaking. God didn’t stop speaking in
the 5th century when the Bible canon was established and those were
the letters chosen to go into the New Testament. God has been speaking
throughout all of millennia, and is still speaking today. Thank God, because
that’s how we live, by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.
The second good food that God offers is an everlasting
covenant. This is an offer God repeatedly makes throughout the ages. Last Lent
we went through the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, the people of Israel,
and, finally, with all of God’s people. Using the metaphor of food, this
covenant in Isaiah 55 is one “of unending support and care for the people of
God [and] is free food for Israel, which cannot run out, because God is
obligated to keep cooking.” God has promised to always feed us when we turn to
him, when we seek him, when we call on him, when we return to him from wherever
we have wandered off to. God is constantly inviting us to come and eat and to
eat our fill. Not so that we gorge ourselves or get fat, but so that we fill
the longing in our souls for something more. You may not be trying to fill that
hole with alcohol or drugs, you may be into shopping or working crazy hours or
extreme sports trying to find something that fills the longing for more. Only
Jesus can, and he offers a feast to which he’s continually inviting you to come.
Lay down your striving. Lay down your perfectionisms and your inadequacies and
your excuses. Simply come and be fed til you want no more.
There are a lot of things that keep us from coming. The
overall word here for the hindrance to eating good food is exile. Isaiah’s
writing to a people who have been in exile for a long time and are about to
return home. That means there are some who remember life before the exile, the
“good old days,” which we tend to remember through rose-colored glasses. There
are also some who were born in exile, they’ve always been in exile and don’t
know any different. Then there’s a third group, those who chose exile, who cut
themselves off, for whatever reason, and are in self-imposed exile. Here’s the
thing. Whether or not you’re hungry, you need the food God offers. And even if
you don’t think you’re hungry, you need what God offers. The whole world needs this good food and God
invites everyone.
Now, the Church has gotten a bad rap, especially lately,
which is keeping people from coming. I even spoke to someone at the oyster
supper about this. She’s a lapsed Catholic, would love to get her children
involved in a church, yet with all the abuses and all the scandals and all the
cover-ups, she’s not sure she trusts the Church. A lot of money goes into the
advertising industry trying to convince us we need things we don’t really need.
And these ads work! Advertising talks us into buying a new car or taking a
dream vacation or whitening our teeth! If we are so easily convinced by ads,
why are we not so convinced by God? Now, I don’t watch that many commercials.
Most of the TV I watch are shows I’ve recorded and so I fast-forward through
the commercials. When a commercial comes on the radio, I change the channel to
another radio station. I limit my exposure to ads because I don’t want to hear
them. I think many people in our community and our world limit their exposure
to God. They are distrustful of this good food, which is really sad. Yet naming
that reality helps, because it means we know we’ve got to step up our game.
Some of you know I’m a big Duke fan; I was raised that
way, both my parents are alumni. We watch a lot of basketball this time of year
in my house. But for years, Duke Football was always a bit of a joke, until
December 2007, when Duke hired Coach Cutcliffe, who has turned the team around.
One of the things he did was send a recorded message to all Duke Alumni. I
happened to answer the phone at my mom’s house when he called and when his
recording was over, I was so excited and on board, Duke Football was going to
be great, and then I paused. And I remembered: I don’t like football. It’s a
sport I’ve never gotten into. But Coach Cutcliffe had called and invited me to
come be part of the new things happening at Duke Football and his enthusiasm
was contagious.
According to ChurchGrowth.org, how most people start
attending a church is because a friend invited them.[3]
86% say it’s because a friend invited them. Only 6% say it’s because of an
organized visitation, another 6% because they were invited by the pastor, and
the last 2% because of advertising. That says that the best advertisement is you. Not me, not a brochure or website. You. Now, reasons people connect with a
church and stay at a church have to do with the pastor and preaching and the
friendliness of the congregation.[4]
But what gets them in the door is an invitation from a friend. The days of the
attractional model are over. You know, “Field of Dreams,” “If you build it,
they will come.” That’s no longer the world we live in, and you can take a
moment to mourn that if you’d like. Times have changed, and we have to change,
too. How many of you have ever invited a friend to church? How many of you have
ever gone with a friend to their church? Now, in the past year, have you
invited a friend to church?
Jesus invites us, and we, in turn, invite others as well.
In John 4 Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at a well. They have quite the
conversation, including where Jesus tells her, “Everyone who drinks this [well]
water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will
never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” Just like in Isaiah, Jesus promises good
food that will fill you up and not leave you hungry or thirsting for more.
There are many interesting parts to this conversation, but what I want to focus
on today is how it ends. The woman “leaves her jar at the well and goes back
into town and says to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I
ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’”[5]
Because of her invitation, the townspeople came out to come see Jesus. “Many of
the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony,
‘He told me everything I ever did.’”[6]
Then, as these others got to know Jesus for themselves, “They said to the
woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard
for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’”[7]
Jesus met one woman, and she went out and invited her whole town to come see
Jesus.
If
you’re more of an introvert and like smaller groups, then consider Andrew’s
story in John 1 instead. Andrew is hanging out with John the Baptist when they
see Jesus passing by. John blurts out, “Look! The Lamb of God!” and Andrew
started following Jesus. As you might ask someone who starts following you,
Jesus looks back and asks, “What do you want?” Andrew responds with a question,
“Teacher, where are you staying?” Jesus answers with an invitation, “Come and
see.” Andrew goes and sees. After he sees for himself, “the first thing Andrew
does is to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’
(that is, the Christ). And he brings him to Jesus. Jesus looks at him and said,
‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Peter.’” We do not know a single
other thing that Andrew does other than to invite his brother. We know lots
about that brother, though: Peter, who walks on water; Peter, who becomes the
leader of the early church after Jesus’ ascension; Peter, who denies Jesus
the night of the crucifixion and is later reinstated by Jesus. It all started
with an invitation.
Come and see. Come and eat. Come join the work. Come hear
about the One who loves you unconditionally. Come hear about the One who
abundantly pardons. Come sit at the feet of the One who offers living water
that will fill you up so you don’t have to go looking for love in all the wrong
places anymore. Come, let me show you where God’s dining room is. And guess
what, there’s a feast spread out on it. It’s not too good to be true. It’s not
too good for you or for me. None of us deserve it. We are all messes. Yet everyone is invited.
This week, make it a point to invite someone. Whether
it’s to Sunday worship or to the Easter egg hunt or whatever you discern is the
right thing to ask that person to. Pray for that person; pray for that event.
They might tell you no. Invite someone, anyway. Rebuilding is invitational.
It’s not about whether the offer is accepted or rejected; we don’t have control
over that. The point is that you make the offer. And no inviting someone who’s
already involved in a faith community. That’s called sheep-stealing and I don’t
play that game. Reach out to someone who has stopped going to church, or who
never went in the first place. Reach out to those who feel in exile, whether
sent there or self-imposed, and invite them to come. There is always enough at
Jesus’ table. Our God is a God of abundance and he never runs out of food.
[1] Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary,
Year C, Lent/Easter, p. 41
[2]
Deuteronomy 8:3; Luke 4:4
[3] I
couldn’t find it on their website and I know I’ve seen it elsewhere. All I
found was one on Facebook under “How do people start attending church?”
[5]
John 4:28-29
[6]
John 4:39
[7]
John 4:42
