Preparing
with Joy for the Paschal Feast
I
The Charge to Moses
and Joshua
II
The Story of
Creation
III
The Future Glory of
Zion
IV
The Conversion of
Nineveh
V
The Flood
VI
A New Heart and a
New Spirit
Part VII of XV
Sunday 4 March 2018
Third Sunday in Lent
Salvation Offered
Freely to All
Isaiah 55:1-11
Ho, everyone who
thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price. 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. I will make with you an
everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a
leader and commander for the peoples. See,
you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you
shall run to you, because of the Lord
your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek the Lord
while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let 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.
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. For 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, so
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.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
In today's Epistle, Paul speaks of the
difference between the Law and the Gospel.
He speaks of a freedom that is found in the Gospel; a freedom that is
life-giving. I want to explore today the
words of the prophet Isaiah in light of the freedom found in the Gospel proclaimed
by Paul and the Church.
One of the readings that we shall hear
when we celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter at the end of this month is a
portion of the 55th chapter of Isaiah titled “Salvation Offered
Freely to All.” This reading begins with
some of the most beautiful and comforting words found within all the
Scriptures.
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!”
Even today, these words are
shocking. In our own day and generation,
we know that it simply isn't possible to buy without money. And if we are honest, our greatest issue in
these words is that our culture simply isn't inclined to look favorably on
those who partake of what they have neither purchased nor earned. But for a moment, forget all our cultural
assumptions and modern thoughts that arise from this passage and think of this message
as it would have been received by those living under the Law prior to the
Gospel.
The Old Covenant is all about the
purchase of salvation and attaining the favor of God. Under the Old Covenant, nothing was
free. The religious life of those living
under that Covenant was centered on the rituals that took place at the Altar. These rituals were all about sacrifice. The Law specified a variety of sacrifices and
what exactly was to be offered to fulfill the obligations of each of the sacrifices. It's worth noting that the specifications of
the sacrifices even envisioned the very real possibility that some among the
people of God would not be able to afford the expense of purchasing the
necessary items for the sacrifice. Thus
the Law often gives an alternate and lesser cost for the poor who would not be
able to pay in full.
As a side note, by the way, it is here
that we see most clearly in the Gospel that the Incarnation occurs in the midst
of poverty. When the Blessed Mother
comes to be purified by sacrifice on the 40th day of the life of her
firstborn son, Jesus, the sacrifice offered by her and Joseph is the lesser
sacrifice in place of the one that would be too burdensome on them.
It should be pointed out, however, that
even at a discount price, it was expected that those who brought sacrifices in
accordance with the Law would be making a sacrifice. Free offerings simply were not acceptable. We know this in part because on two occasions
during the reign of King David when a sacrifice was required from the King for
the people, David rejects outright the free offer of the gifts needed for
sacrifice that someone tried to give him at no cost to the King. David proclaims that he will not offer
sacrifice to God that costs him nothing.
In the heart of the King, he is certain that he must feel the weight and
burden of making sacrifice.
It is in this context, among folks like
David who held strong beliefs that sacrifice ought to involve a cost and a
burden, among persons like Mary and Joseph who had the option of a lesser price
that nevertheless would have been a burden, that Isaiah, speaking in the name
of God, proclaims grace, a free gift with no charge.
“Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Imagine for a moment how shocking those
words must have been! Everything is
turned upside down. The familiar is no
more. These words and these emotions are
precursors to something greater to come.
This prophetic Word of God anticipates that moment in the story of the
people of God when in the Incarnation of the Word of God and the Proclamation
of the Gospel of Christ a feast is set before us at which the gifts offered are
truly free, and we are welcomed and invited by a gracious God to fully partake
without cost or burden. Jesus sets
before us a new and better way, a life that is truly living. He gives us a place at the Feast that is the
Kingdom of God that we can never earn, for it must always be free gift not only
for us, but for all people, even those whom we think have no right to this
grace when we fail to be amazed by grace and think like David that a burden
should always be felt.
Does that mean there is no burden? No!
There is a burden. But the Gospel
lifts the burden from us rather than simply imposing a lesser burden in place
of the full weight. And when the burden
is lifted from us completely, it is taken fully by Jesus who carries us and our
burdens in perfect love and offers himself for us and our salvation, for our
very life.
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which dues not satisfy?”
“Come to me; listen, so that you may live.”
There are countless voices around us
seeking to gain our attention. How
easily we can be distracted by those whose words and promises ultimately are
empty promises that offer us nothing and take from us what we already have. At times, these others look and sound so good. And if we manage not to get distracted by
them, it likely will not take long before we feel like the disciples who are
left alone after the masses in John 6 went away from Jesus to pursue things
that are not life-giving nor satisfying.
In the wake of that departure, Jesus asks the Twelve if they also wish
to leave. The moment that follows is one
of those rare moments before the Resurrection when Peter gets it right:
“Lord, to whom shall we go; you have the words of eternal life.”
Before us, dear friends, Jesus once more
sets a rich feast; the Gospel and the Eucharist – Bread for the Journey to the
Kingdom of God and the eternal Easter.
He is our food and drink, and the very price of grace paid in full by
him, that allows us to partake freely and live.
In these Lenten days, may we feast boldly upon Christ, knowing that in
him we have life. And then, even more
boldly still, may we be in the world about us as beggars who delight to tell
all other beggars where to find bread and eternal life. And as beggars who know it is only grace,
always grace, let us delight in all who come as they are to Jesus, that they
too might find life in him who is life-giving and satisfying for all our needs
and all our burdens.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The Rev’d Timothy
Alleman
Rector
The Church of the
Holy Cross
VIII
Israel’s
Deliverance at the Red Sea
IX
The Valley
of Dry Bones
X
The
Gathering of God’s People
XI
In Praise
of Wisdom
XII
The Gifts
of Wisdom
XIII
The Three
Youths in the Fiery Furnace
XIV
The First
Passover
XV
Abraham’s
Sacrifice of Isaac
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