Listen now to this sermon in which Pastor Brooks continues his series on prophets by focusing on Isaiah.
Scripture Reading—Isaiah 55:1
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.
The famous Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan tells the story of a group of homeless in New York City who were invited to stay at a Catholic retreat center as a respite from the streets. When they arrived, the group was asked what they wanted to reflect upon during their retreat. They responded, “The Bible.” When asked what part of the Bible, they said, “Isaiah.” “Why?” asked their hosts. “He speaks about justice!” they responded. Berrigan himself developed a liking for Isaiah and later became part of a group of anti-nuclear arms activists who took their name from a verse in Isaiah. They called themselves the Plowshare Movement after Isaiah’s declaration that the nations of the earth shall “beat their swords into plowshares.”
Berrigan and the homeless group from New York stood in a long line of those who have looked to Isaiah as a primary source of inspiration and insight. For the beginning of that long line, we can simply look to the New Testament. Isaiah is referenced more times in the New Testament than any other book from the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, there are a total of 590 references to Isaiah in the New Testament. Since the early church, Christians have continued to be enthralled with Isaiah. No other book in the Hebrew Scriptures appears more times in our Christian lectionaries. The chapter for today’s reading appears the most.
Notably, it has been said that to understand “what God was doing in Christ” one has to know the book of Isaiah, but herein lies the controversy: Christians have long used Isaiah in a way that belittles Judaism. From this long held vantage point, Jewish scriptures are simply the precursor to the real deal that we get in the New Testament. They are not significant in their own right. Thus, we often tend to read Isaiah mainly as an ancient source that prophesied the birth of Jesus, but no serious scholar would say that Isaiah intended such a prophesy. Upon closer examination, Isaiah prophesied for his own time and place, not for centuries later, and definitely not for Christians.
We often read Isaiah during Advent because he is regarded as proclaiming the coming of a Messiah. A cursory read of the gospels would lead one to the conclusion that Isaiah was specifically proclaiming the coming of Jesus because that would appear to be how the gospels use Isaiah. Some have described this use of Isaiah as proof-texting. The authors of the gospels simply cited Isaiah to buttress their own preformed conclusions about Jesus even if that is not what Isaiah intended. Others, however, have argued that the gospel writers were instead acting the way that Jewish teachers and scholars normally acted back then. They were searching the scriptures for meanings relevant to their time. If you think about it, that’s what churches such as ours do in our own time. We don’t look to the scriptures for predictions of things that will happen in our own lives. We instead look to scriptures for meaning, for symbols, stories, and words in the past that resonate and give insight into our lives today.
Our scripture reading for this morning comes from what scholars call Second Isaiah because it comes from a portion of the scriptures that transparently reflect a different time and place than the initial chapters of Isaiah. In our particular scripture, Second Isaiah draws upon the imagery of a cultural practice of that time. Back then kings celebrated the beginning of their reign by having a great banquet for their people. Second Isaiah is saying that God is beginning a new reign. The people of Israel have experienced hardship in the extreme. They have experienced destruction and exile, but now a new day has arrived. It will be a time in which their thirsts and hungers will finally be met. If you think about it, as Christians we have continued to reenact that banquet with communion. That banquet in Isaiah has some resonance and meaning for us, because communion also reminds us of the reign of God’s kingdom. We are to get a glimpse of that kingdom whenever the children of God gather in harmony as a family at this table.
I have been thinking about the heritage of that act a lot this week. One of the most powerful stories about the history of our church I happened to hear for the first time this past week. Back when our congregation inhabited a church physically located in downtown Vancouver, our church served free lunches to people who came in off the street. They served them out of the basement of the church. As you might imagine, the women of the church were the pillar of the church, and they were the ones who made this happen. You know who else made it happen? The youth of the church. In fact, high schoolers would come to the church during their school lunch hour and help serve. One of those high schoolers was sometimes late going back to the school, but she didn’t care. That high schooler was Ruth Hammer. I am especially grateful to Ruth for sharing that story with me.
When Ruth told it, Connie Oppel also happened to be present, and one of the things Connie indicated was how that period of the church’s life was one of the peak periods in our history. A central force behind our thriving as a congregation at that point was the church’s sense of mission. Notably, that sense of mission came as a result of the church’s tangible connection with the poor. While we are in a different world and a different location now, we do have a community garden and, with Martha’s Pantry, we do have a food program that operates out of our church. There is still a lot to Ruth’s story that can inspire us today. Think of that heritage. Think of how it might resonate with you today. Think of what that heritage could mean for us as we read our scripture once more: “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.” May these words spark within us a sense of purpose, a sense of mission. May we continue to be a place that welcomes all people to the table that Christ has prepared. Amen.