3 March 2013
Isaiah 55:1-9
Today, we
hear the voice of God calling us to come. “Listen up! Everyone who is thirsty
come to the waters! You that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price!” Come on come on.
This is not
the kind of invitation we hear in the marketplace. It’s not “buy one, get one
free.” It’s not “easy credit financing, zero down and zero percent financing
for 60 days. This is a genuine gift, no strings attached, come.
God has
what we need. Not only what we need to survive, but more than that, to thrive,
to grow, to delight. God gives us what is needed, but then kicks it up a notch:
Thirsty, come get water, no, come get wine, no, come get milk. Bam! Kicking it
up a notch.
We witness
extravagant hospitality when Jesus is at the table. We have for example the
story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana. When his mother tells him that the wine
has run out, Jesus provides wine from water (even though he is cross with his
mother at first, saying, Woman, my time has not come yet). And, the wine that
Jesus provides is not just adequate screw-top red or box white. No, only the
best, and that, in abundance. Another guest commented to the host, Man, most
people serve the best wine first, and bring out the cheap stuff when the guests
have become drunk. But you have saved the best for last!
Extravagant
abundance and extravagant welcome. When Jesus is at the table everyone is
welcome. In his day, Jesus was criticized for the company he kept. He would eat
with anybody. Tax collectors, sinners, women, Pharisees and leaders of the
congregations, if Jesus was invited, he was there. He dined without
distinction. At one time he said to his host, next time you give a banquet, do
not invite your friends and relations. You know they will reciprocate, you will
get an invitation and go and eat at their house and your hospitality will
become a simple matter of exchange. Where’s the good in that? No. When you give
a banquet invite the poor, invite the destitute and the desperate. Go out into
the highways and hedges and bring them all in. That is real hospitality, giving
a feast for those who cannot repay you, feeding those who would otherwise not
eat.
And the
last thing Jesus did before he was arrested for sedition, for inciting
rebellion against the emperor, the last thing he did was host a dinner with the
people who followed him, and he took bread and called it his body, and he broke
it, and shared it with all. And he took the cup of blessing and called it his
blood, and he gave it to everyone. He made this simple meal of bread and wine
his own, eternally, and whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we are
at table with desperados and tax collectors, Pharisees and upstanding citizens,
women of property and women of ill repute, widows, lepers, orphans and
immigrants. We are all here. So if you would prefer to dine with distinction,
this is not the place. This is the table of grace. Jesus is the host, and we
are the guests.
But, we are
also the body of Christ. As the church, as Christ in the world we are given
charge of this meal, not to act as bouncers at the door, not to screen
candidates for the table, no, we are called to bring them all in. Look around.
Who is missing? Where are the desperate? Where are the poor? Where are the
students? Where are the children? Where are the dispossessed? Where are the
grieving and the sick? How do they know they are invited, welcome, and
expected, if no one invites them? Do you know whose job it is to invite them?
It is up to
all of us together and each of us individually to act on behalf of the host,
who says, go out to the highways and the hedges and bring them all in! Use
everything. Turn up the volume on the invitation. Bring them all in because
this is not our table. This is the table of the Lord, the Christ of God. Ho!
Everyone who thirsts, come!
Homework:
When and where have you felt extravagantly welcomed? At a hotel, a resort, a shop, someone's home? What was that like?
Now, how do we replicate that experience for everyone who comes to our church? Then everyone can experience God's extravagant welcome, without money, without cost. Free. Just like grace.
