Repent and Believe/ A Sermon

Repent and Believe
Isaiah 55:1-9/Psalm 63: 1-8/ Luke 13:1-9
Third Sunday of Lent/ Year C/ March 7. 2010

How thirsty are you? Have you ever been so thirsty you wanted a drink of water immediately? I remember several years ago being on a work trip with the youth group I was working with. We were rehabbing the roofs of buildings at a Church camp in Western Pennsylvania. It was mid July and the temperature was in the 90’s. I was constantly stopping to drink water because I was so thirsty. I even took to soaking a towel under a hose of and draping it over my head, holding the end in my mouth to keep my mouth from feeling so dry. It was hot. You know you are dehydrated because you see all the water leaving your body through the sweat pouring off of you, soaking your shirt, dripping off your noses, arms and legs. Even though you may not know you’re thirsty, but you are. You are thirsty all the time.

They tell me that living in the southwest where the humidity is low you can be thirsty and not know it. Your perspiration evaporates so quickly it doesn’t have time to cool your body down, and you become dehydrated very quickly. They tell you to drink lots of water as often as you can, even if you don’t feel thirsty. How can it be that we cannot recognize our own thirst?

Isaiah recognized the symptoms of people who were thirsting for meaning in their lives; calling out “HO!” , a word used like “Ahoy” or “Hey” to get peoples attention, inviting people who are thirsting to come to the waters. To come and drink, to buy and eat without money, real food that will satisfy. He is addressing a people who have been conquered and exiled, who are struggling to survive in a hostile world, a world filled with danger and fear. He is addressing a people who are craving something that has been lost; freedom, identity, security, economic stability.

In our world there are people who crave satisfaction. Perched alertly on our pews each week, we seek a word from the Lord. We seek God’s face. We seek assurance that we are loved and cared for even in a world that is no longer familiar to us. We come looking for answers to questions that have no concrete answers. We come looking for something that will satisfy the deep hunger that gnaws at our whole being. Afterwards we will rush out the our Sunday brunches, to Chili Time, or back home to crash before the TV and watch the next ballgame or car race or reality show looking for that which will satisfy our hunger, regrouping, re-creating, and re-composing ourselves after the helter-skelter hustle of the past week. All week we have struggled and worked, compromised and sought approval, earning our sustenance and paychecks from a world of competition. All week we have done what was necessary to
buy what we need and to produce what is demanded of us. We try to please those over us so we can get what we need, what we believe will give us satisfaction. Yet on Sunday, week after week, we find ourselves drained, spent and still thirsting for more.

One writer has said the old religion is passing away, and a new religion is taking its place, a religion of the market. This new religion is a juggernaut, a never ending mass media, Madison Avenue driven machine that insists that we demand more and more, so we are driven to produce more and more, with no thought to the notion “Enough!”

There are times when we are tensely aware of our needs and desires, including the things we thirst for, and other times when we do not feel the need and desire for anything in particular. Isaiah’s words are like a great sign in a dry and arid wasteland, “Hey, stop, Drink water. You are thirsty, whether you realize it or not. We need to listen to Isaiah and the Psalmist and to respond but not on the basis of what we may feel about ourselves at any particular moment. Isaiah is telling us something about ourselves at every moment of our lives. We need to turn back to God, as Jesus says, to repent. Isaiah’s offer is unlike anything we have ever known. In his vision every person who is thirsty gets water. Everyone who is hungry is invited to eat: to buy bread, milk and wine without money! It’s like a grocery store where everything is free. In this world, the man who stands on the corner of Ridge and The Lateral, or Mitchell at I-75, with a sign saying “Will work for food” is seen pushing a grocery cart filled to brimming with good things to eat.

Isaiah calls us away from the things of this world, those things that will not satisfy our hungry hearts. He says we are paying for things we do not need- spending money on what is not bread for the soul, and laboring for what does not satisfy our deepest longings. We need a new diet not of the things this world offers, but a diet filled with the rich food of God’s love, grace, forgiveness and mercy. We are called to forsake the old ways and follow the new ways that God is setting before us, the ways of love.  Love of God and the love of neighbor. Isaiah and the Psalmist remind us that a relationship with God’s steadfast love for us is our greatest need and the richest nourishment for our lives.

The problem we face today is this offer is drowned out by the other offers that this world proclaims. We live in the midst of constant promotion. Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with offers and enticements to fill every imaginable want and desire. Even if we do not need anything, it is easy to be convinced we really want something; a new car, a new computer, the latest cell-phone with so many apps a person could never use them all, a glamorous career, a bigger house, a younger appearance. The problem is that these offers are false. They are material things that perish. They promise to satisfy, but turn out to be wasted calories without nutrition.

Isaiah is addressing a people who have wasted their resources and their striving on things that are no benefit to them. They are seeking in all the wrong places, working for the wrong things, wanting the momentary gratification. Isaiah, the Psalmist and Jesus call us to return and listen once again to the God who gives life, to come and eat at his table, to be nourished by an undying and unconditional love. Come the Table is ready. Come Eat, Drink and satisfy your hungry hearts with the Bread of life and the Cup of Salvation.

Amen.