Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke 13:1-9
March 7, 2010

Thirsting....

When was the last time you were really thirsty? For me, it was in late January or early February; I’d been busy all day and hadn’t taken the time to eat or drink anything. I was so thirsty, I could have gathered up some dirty snow in my hands to nibble! I thought about the people in Haiti, under the hot sun with no clean water to drink, waiting for international aid, dying of thirst, literally ....

When was the last time you were really thirsty? When you were working in your yard last summer? When you were hiking in the mountains? When you donated blood and couldn’t seem to get enough to drink for long afterwards?

Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you trapped by circumstances? Are your finances dried up? Are you lost and lonely and afraid?

Isaiah addresses a conquered people – in exile, struggling. “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;...” all those who are hungry but without money, come and buy and eat. Isaiah holds out a new life and a different reality with a series of imperatives: “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,...” See! And seek! And forsake! And return!

At the same time, Isaiah chastises the people for wasting their resources and striving for things that have no benefit: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

Isaiah spreads out God’s banquet and issues an open invitation: “Come, everyone who thirsts....” Isaiah presents a God who loves us in the flesh: a God who knows we have bodies that need water and bread and touching, a God who uses our physical eyes and ears to draw us to Godself, a God who uses our brains and hearts to build a lasting covenant with us.

Too much of Christian thought neglects the body and concentrates on our spiritual selves, as if they are disconnected from our flesh and blood. Picture us all in a swimming pool together, bathing caps of different colors bobbing around in the water, heads without bodies, faith without substance.

Isaiah connects us – body, mind and soul. God wants all of us – no matter how young or old, no matter how fat or skinny, no matter how sexy or uptight. In the Genesis creation story, God looks at all of creation, including us, and pronounces it very good. God loves us in the flesh.

Ho, everyone who thirsts – that would be you and me and everyone else – ... come to the waters;...”
Note that the way we experience God is in our body-ness. We take in the nourishment that God gives as we take in water through our mouths. I love the concrete earthiness of Isaiah.

But there is a challenge here, too: How do we use our bodies and minds? Do we use them to build a relationship with God? Isaiah urges, “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.”

Oops! We have sought after drink that does not quench our thirst, bread that does not satisfy our hunger, material goods that do not bring us fulfillment. We thirst after reputation and money and status in the marketplace. We despoil the earth’s body and use more than our share of the world’s resources. We are disconnected from each other. Isaiah says, “We spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labor for that which does not satisfy.”

But God does not give up: God speaks to us through the Word become flesh to dwell among us – Jesus of Nazareth – in the body of a human one who ate and drank and slept, who listened and taught and wept, who laughed and loved and walked the earth. God speaks “body” language; this is why God sent Jesus to us, someone who would offer living water and bread that satisfies, someone who would show us how life should be lived and cared for.

The people come to Jesus to ask, How?

Jesus says, Repent! Turn your lives around. Take responsibility.

Yet, no one of us can do everything that needs to be done in this community; no statement of faith can say everything that needs to be said; no pastoral visit brings all the wholeness hoped for; no program accomplishes the entire church’s mission; no search committee finds a perfect candidate.

We dig up the soil and shovel the manure and water the ground. We prepare the foundation; we do the best we can – and leave the rest to God.

We come thirsty to God’s garden where we find living water and abundance, and we hope for a future over which we have little control – yet we have a responsibility to share in its unfolding. In this holy mission alone, we quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger.

May it be so!
Amen.