Sermon - Christian Identity: Trusting the Gift

 Isaiah 55:1-9
Christian Identity: Trusting the Gift
James Sledge                                                                            March 20, 2022

Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine,
Claude Monet, c. 1862/1863, National Gallery of Art

When I was twelve years old, my family moved out to “the country.” It was old family land that had once been a farm. It had not been farmed in decades, but when we moved out there we were able to put up a fence so we could have horses. And we didn’t just have horses. We also had a pair of donkeys named Angelo and Annabelle.

How it was that we acquired those donkeys probably qualifies as one of those “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” moments. Somehow my father had found out about an elderly woman who had seven or eight of them. I think she was moving into a retirement home, and so she was trying to find good homes for her pets. We took two.

We tried to ride them a few times, with very limited success. They either just sat there, or they threw you off. And so they were little more than novelties or conversation pieces. They weren’t really good for anything. However, they could bray so loudly that you could hear them for miles. And they were quite good at escaping.

Our horses would occasionally get out, but they would normally just eat the grass on the other side of the fence. The donkeys, on the other hand, would go on excursions. I bet I’m one of the few kids who got pulled out of school to go home to help catch donkeys who were trotting down the road and startling drivers.

At some point the novelty wore off and we decided we should get rid of the donkeys. Now it was our turn to find them a good home. We told everybody and anybody that we were giving away donkeys. I think we even put an ad in the paper, but no takers. At some point, after trying to give them away for years, my parents decided to run a classified ad offering them for sale. They asked something like twenty-five dollars apiece for them, but you could get a deal and buy both for forty. 

We had been trying to give them away for years, but they sold on the first day the ad ran. And we got calls for a week from others interested in buying them. When they found out the donkeys had already been sold, some wanted to know if they’d been picked up yet, offering to pay us more than the advertised price. Who would have ever thought it? A bidding war for our worthless donkeys.

Many of us have an innate suspicion that if something is free, it’s not worth anything. If we don’t have to earn it or pay for it, something is wrong. “There’s no free lunch,” goes the old saying. And yet, in our scripture for this morning the prophet shouts, You that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

These words are originally addressed to exiles in Babylon. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and carried its people into exile some fifty years earlier. These exiles had struggled to understand how God’s people could be defeated in such a manner. Were Babylon’s gods more powerful? Had Yahweh abandoned them? Was this their punishment for not living as God had called them to live? But now, after a half century of exile, the prophet begins to speak of rescue and restoration. God has not abandoned them. God is more powerful than Babylon. Draw near to Yahweh who is about to work salvation for Israel.

The image the prophet uses is that of the marketplace. If you’ve ever been to a third world country, you’ve likely seen something similar to what Isaiah has in mind. Vendors hawk their wares, vying for people’s attention. They call out, “Yo, look what I have. Wouldn’t you like some of these?” The market bustles as the vendors shout and buyers haggle over price.

But one vendor says, “Ho, look here.” 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?

Now many of us have limited experience with markets of the sort Isaiah has in mind, but we know all about marketing and vendors hawking their wares. They assail us on our televisions, in the movie theater, in papers and magazines, and on our computer screens and smart phones. “Ho, look here! Look at this! Can’t you see how cool or popular or happy this will make you? You know you have to have it.”

And we get caught up in the songs of the market. Yes, we do want that. Oh, yes, that will make us happy and popular; it will keep us from looking old; it will satisfy our longings and fill our insecurities.

But in the midst of all the songs of the market, one rings out a bit off key. “Ho, look here! I have what you really need, what will feed your deepest hungers and give you life at its fullest. And it is all free. Come, you with no money or with a lot. Come, whoever you are.”  

–   But if it’s free, surely it’s not worth anything. 

We Presbyterians, indeed most Protestants, speak of being put right with God by grace, a free gift from God. God offers us full and abundant life in Jesus, and it’s all free. But even though we speak of grace, even though many people’s favorite hymn is Amazing Grace, we don’t trust free gifts. If it’s really free, if people a lot worse than us can just get it, that doesn’t sound right. And so we turn it into something we deserve. We say that we get God’s grace if we believe the right things. We turn faith into the thing we do to get God’s love. Or we simply forget about grace altogether and say God loves us if we keep the rules and are good enough.

I have my own version of this. I’m pretty good at studying the Bible and figuring out what it might mean, but having a relationship with God is something else. A deep, intimate relationship with God means realizing and trusting how much God loves me, a love that is freely given without strings attached, a love that desires only the best for me, that longs for me to sense that love and come to it. But I keep making faith about figuring out the intricacies of the Bible or plumbing the depths of the most difficult theological concepts, my own version of being good enough.

But Jesus says, Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

And in the midst of all the clamoring voices of our age that claim to have the answer or the product or the possession that will make us happy, fulfilled, and content, a voice cries out.  “Ho, look here.” Everyone who thirsts come to the water. You that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 

Come to the table, whoever you are. Find here God’s grace poured out for all, God’s love that embraces you, that longs for you, simply because God loves you.