Isaiah 55:1-9
When was the last time you were invited to something nice? I’m not talking about an implicit invitation, like the kind that we offer to everyone who wants to come to church, for example. And I’m not talking about an invitation to something which you need to attend, but would really rather not have to, such as a hospital appointment or a maybe a trip to the dentist. I’m talking about an actual, real life, physical invitation to something which you wouldn’t otherwise go to but, on this occasion someone has taken the time to think of you and ask whether you want to come along?
When was the last time eh? Granted, I suspect a few years of pandemic and rising costs of living may well have put paid to our socialising plans. Our wild nights out have been replaced by box sets in front of the TV. Our milestone birthday parties have been replaced by virtual gatherings and socially distanced drinking. But just think….when it was that you were last invited to something amazing?
I have to confess, that I’m struggling to recall the last time I was invited to something that didn’t involve work or some kind of child care. My son get invited to lots of events as is often the way. The child’s social life out does the parents’. But it really has been a while…
Our reading from Isaiah 55 today is full of invitations. Invitations to begin afresh, to start over, to look to the future rather than live in the past. You see God, the one who is doing the inviting, is talking to the Jewish people at a time of transition. We’re not quite sure what exactly was going on in the lives of the Hebrew people at the time of writing, but we know it was around about the time of great change. Isaiah begins his book by writing to the Hebrews who are in exile, living in a foreign land under foreign rule, having had to flee for their own safety. Sounds worryingly familiar doesn’t it?
But we know that by the time of the end of the book the Hebrews are back in their own land, living under their own rights and beginning their lives anew.
And so we see today an invitation. An invitation to those who have been suffering and oppressed to come and live in a safe and pleasant land alongside a God who will care for them and their needs.
“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 labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
God says that because of the promises he has made with their ancestors David, and further back Abraham, that He will offer them a fresh start and a new life, a life where they will no longer need to worry about food and drink, where they will no longer need to spend money on things that are not life giving. And that if they listen to Him, He will make an everlasting covenant with them to always provide for them. A covenant that continues to this very day.
I suspect that, however infrequent our invitations have been over the past few years, the offer of a fresh start is something even more scarce. A chance to wipe the slate clean, to begin once again without the baggage of all that has gone before.
What an opportunity that must have been. What an invitation to a people who have struggled and suffered for so long.
It would be easy at this point for me as the preacher to draw some wiggly lines between our bible passage from a long time ago and our current worldwide situations.
Perhaps this is a bit like our situation with Covid, emerging from the depths of isolation into a time of community reunion.
Or maybe, it’s a bit like the suffering of the people of Ukraine; scared, under siege, grappling with so much unjustness and torment, only for the land to fall silent and the chance of something very different.
I’m not going to dwell on these too much, but will allow to you consider these in your own time. However similar the situations may or may not be, we must always be careful when picking up a bible passage and plonking it down in the 21st century. We may find that the pieces of the puzzle don’t quite fit as well as we would like.
However, there is something well worth considering here. Something we ought to give a bit more thought before we accept the invitation and put on our dancing shoes.
After that invitation of bread and milk, of land and security, there is a call to repentance for the people of God. You see, when God offers a new start He generally doesn’t do things in half measures. God says to the Hebrew people:
‘Here is your chance to start again, a nice clean slate. But what that really means is that EVERYONE gets a chance to start again. Not just the people that you like. Not just the people who were on your side from day one. Not just the people who said the right things and did the right things. Not just the people who followed the Covid guidelines and never ignored a dry cough or a high temperature, not just the people who put a Ukrainian flag outside their council offices or who tweeted #prayforUkraine.
EVERYONE GETS INVITED.
All the people. The nice ones, the nasty ones, the who who were indifferent, or too busy or who just couldn’t get on board with any more heartbreak because they were dealing with enough in their own lives.
EVERYONE. (PAUSE)
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
This invitation is a real fresh start for everyone. And that is both joyful and yet troubling news. Because, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we like to be the arbitrators of justice and fairness, don't we? We like to have a mental tally chart of all the people who we think are good enough or kind enough for God’s love, and those who we’re really not sure should be given the invitation at all.
We’re all like this here, today in Bexley and Joydens Wood, and so were the Hebrew people back then too. And guess what, God knows it! For it is into that context that He writes the last sentence:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
When God offers a fresh start He offers it to everyone. The good and the bad, the holy and unholy, the righteous and unrighteous. The rule followers and the rule breakers, the oppressed and the invaders. Everyone gets an invite to repent and to come along, and perhaps that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable. It does me, if I’m being honest. But as we know from today: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.”
The practical workings out of who gets into the party and the full travel arrangements are not for today’s sermon, but for now, let us sit with our gratitude and perhaps discomfort and the thought that we have been invited to the best party in town, and so has everyone else.
Amen.
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