Sermon for Lent 3C
March 7, 2009
Texts:  Isaiah 55:1-12; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Ho, everyone who thirsts
Come to the waters.
You who have no money,
Come buy and eat.

Hospitality for those who have no reason to expect it!

Have you ever had the experience of receiving hospitality
When you did not expect it?
A time when you were served,
When there was no reason for you to be the one on the receiving end?

For me the most extreme hospitality I have ever received
Was from a Palestinian Muslim family
In the middle of a refugee camp,
Outside of Bethlehem. 

On the trip that I took to the Holy Land,
We had the opportunity to visit the Dheisheh Refugee Camp.

This is a camp to which Palestinians were moved in 1948,
When Israelis took over their towns.

The families that were re-located there in 1948 are still there.
Initially they lived in tents.
In the mid 1950s, 6x9 foot concrete rooms were constructed
To house 10 person families.
In the 1970’s families were allowed to add to these rooms
Or to build upward.

Today there are 12,000 people living in a square kilometer.
Or 0.4 square mile.

By comparison, Enfield has about 4600 people
Living in 43 square miles.

In this refugee camp population of 3x that of Enfield
Lives in an area 1/100 of the size of Enfield.

Needless to say, the living conditions are crowded beyond belief.
The narrow alleyways are packed with dwellings
Jammed one against another.
Every place you look there are children swarming.

While we were there,
We visited the home of the Salem family.
Four generations live in their tiny space,
Made up of a couple of concrete rooms,
With a total area of about 150 square feet.

Because our group had about 25 people,
They hosted us on the roof of their home,
With plastic lawn chairs they had borrowed from neighbors.

This hovel of a home had a carefully swept roof,
Complete with clotheslines
And water storage containers,
In which they stored the two week aliquots of water
They were allowed by the Israeli government.

These people, who had literally nothing,
Graciously served us hot tea,
In whatever containers they could put together-
Formal teacups, jelly jars and glass cups.

Hot tea, given to us in the midst of a desert,
Satisfying both a physical and emotional thirst.

People, who as a group have been excoriated in the American press,
As violent and terroristic,
Were hospitable and gracious to us,
Americans in a strange land.

Out of their poverty,
They served up abundance.

I don’t think I have ever experienced such warm hospitality,
Or felt so embarrassed by our own riches,
And my own country’s characterization of these people.

This morning’s Isaiah lesson,
Speaks of a similar degree of hospitality,
But in this case, hosted by God.

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters,
Come, buy wine and milk
Without price and without money.

This hospitality offered by God,
Is for people who live desperate lives
As exiles and refugees in the strange land of Babylon in the 6th century.
They have been dragged from their homes,
They are living as strangers in a strange land.
They are sure that the God of their Fathers has abandoned them.

Their lives have assumed the kind of emptiness,
That comes when there seems to be
No foundation and no future. 

The emptiness is summarized in the prophet’s question:
“Why do you spend money for that which is not bread
And your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

In other words what are you seeking
To fill the empty spaces in your lives?

Through the prophet Isaiah,
God offers them physical comfort
In the form of drinks to satisfy their thirst
Not just water,
But comparative luxury items of wine and milk.

But God does not stop there,
God also offers a spiritual comfort
In the hope in the reminder of the everlasting covenant
That God has made with their ancestors,
And by extension with them.

God also offers the sustenance of God’s Word,
Which like the rain and snow,
Gives seed to the sower
And bread to the eater.

God’s Word nourishes
In the same way that bread nourishes.

God’s nourishing word
Will allow the exiles
To return home in peace
While the mountains and hills ring with song
And the trees clap their hands.

Joy will abound,
As the exiles shed their exile status.

This word of gracious hospitality
Comes as a comforting offer
To exiles, who are hungry, thirsty and longing for their homeland.

But what does God’s Word spoken through the prophet Isaiah
Say to us,
Who live lives of privilege and abundance
In perhaps the richest nation,
The world has even known? 

How do we respond to God’s call
To come to the waters,
All you who thirst?

Most of us have never lived in a land
Where water was scarce or needed to be hauled by hand.
And except for the dehydration that comes from sporting events,
We rarely experience the kind of thirst that debilitates.

And although hunger is common occurrence in our wealthy country,
Few of us sitting here have ever known enduring hunger.

Although bread, fresh from the oven
Has an appeal all its own to almost anyone,
We, who are well fed,
Probably can’t really appreciate what bread means
To someone who is truly starving.

But even we, who are physically satisfied
Can appreciate the appeal of a meal
Of fresh bread and either wine or milk,
Depending on your tastes.

A chewy King Arthur loaf,
Or a loaf of what my family calls “Ed Bread”,
Mated with a good glass of red wine or cold milk
Can really hit the spot when our temporary hunger pangs strike.

But perhaps the line from this passage from Isaiah
That really strikes home with us
Is the question,
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
And your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Many of us labor diligently,
To purchase things,
Which have only limited appeal
And which are later relegated to the Listen Center
Or the Yard Sale.

Many of us also have the experience of purchasing things
Which we thought would make us happy
But end up just requiring more work and more cash.

I’ll bet that at some time in your life
You have spent good hard earned money
On some adult toy that you thought would enrich your leisure time,
Only to find out that the amount of maintenance
That this toy requires uses all the available time
You have for leisure.

So, instead of relaxing on the weekend,
You find yourself changing the oil in the snowmobile
Re-finishing the exterior of the boat,
Or winterizing the water system in the RV.

Often you gradually become disenchanted
With what you have labored hard to purchase.

Sometimes we find that we work hard,
Perhaps even taking on overtime
Or an extra job to purchase things
Which we think will fill the empty spot in our lives.

Then we find out the real truth,
Rarely can things fill an empty life.

And so God asks
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?
Why do you spend your money
For that which does not provide nourishment for your life.

And why do you labor for that which cannot satisfy you?
Or in other words,
Why do you work so hard to buy things
That someone else has made you think you want. 

As an alternative,
God commands you to incline your ear,
And come to God.
Listen so you can live.

Instead of trying to fill the empty spots in your life
With things that you have purchased,
Fill the gaping holes in your life,
With God’s Word
That nourishes like rain watering a parched earth.

God’s Word goes out and does not return empty,
God’s Word goes out and does what God sees needs to be accomplished.

In this Lenten season,
We remember that God’s Word,
In Jesus Christ made human,
Went out and did what God commanded.

God saw an earth filled with emptiness and broken relationships.

God sent God’s Word
In the form of Jesus the Son,
Who confronted the stereotypes, the false rules
And the evil that leads to emptiness and brokenness.

Jesus the Son
Suffered and died,
Appearing to have been conquered by evil.

But God, accomplishing what God wanted done,
Raised the crucified Son
So that evil, emptiness and brokenness
Would not have the last Word.

God raised the Son,
So that you could have hope.

God raised the Son
So that your spiritual thirst and hunger could be filled.

God’s Word in Christ was raised from the dead
So that you could have:
Hope that cannot be purchased,
Hope that is given to you without cost.
And hope that nourishes and fills the empty spots in your life.

Amen