Lent 3C 2007

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

I did some hands on research for this week’s sermon. Yup…field research. It was tough but it had to be done….I went shopping.

You know, it has been a long week…well, more like a long month so I thought I deserved a little time for me and a new outfit. Just to be honest about it, it wasn’t easy to find the time and it wasn’t really a good idea as I’ve eaten a lot to get through the stress of the month. But I made some time and went to the store.

And I found a new skirt (plenty of elastic in the waistband) and a new scarf that matches.

And what do you know? I did feel better, for a few hours anyway. And maybe I’ll feel better for that first day I wear it.

But I’m still tired and still a little stressed and still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

So I tried chocolate. All done in the name of sermon preparation, mind you. Nice, dark, rich chocolate. And I smiled with pleasure. For a moment. Then the phone rang and it was the school nurse…

And I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

Just what am I looking for? Well, what are you looking for? The perfect diet? The perfect mate? The perfect outfit? The job that will make life beautiful?

What is it that will fill up that longing? That emptiness that lurks underneath our business? That unease that keeps us on the go?

We try to find peace in shopping, or that next bottle of beer, or the lives of the folks we see on TV.

We try to find satisfaction in our jobs or our friends or our family.

But it never is enough. And we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

So we read the lessons for today and Isaiah is speaking not to folks who lived centuries ago and worlds away. But to us…here…today:

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

Good question. We spend our money and our labor daily. For a moment or maybe a day, we are happy and fulfilled. But then the moment doesn’t last and the day comes to an end and we still have that emptiness, that longing. All that money, all that work and we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

It would help if we knew what we were looking for. Like when you do shopping and say, “I don’t know what I want now, but I will when I see it.”

It would help if we actually defined our longing, if it had direction…

We want something to feel the emptiness, to soothe the ach, to dull the pain of existence. We want to be a peace with ourselves and the world.

Clothes can’t do that. Chocolate can’t do that. A nice glass of Bud Light can’t do that.

It simply can’t be bought.

And we hate that thought. For we are so used to buying everything from cars to toothpaste to friendships to politicians.

We are so used to having the answers or expecting the answers, like the folks in the Gospel who are trying to blame the dead for being dead. When it was really more complicated political systems at work.

We are used to getting what we think we need from the store or the internet or the catalogue.

But here, today, Isaiah tells us a radical thing….”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.”

What we need, what we most desire isn’t to be bought. We can’t write a check or pull out the debit card or charge it.

It is free. And that means it is available to absolutely everyone for absolutely the same price. Free. Which puts us all, from richest to poorest, in the same boat.

And what is this that we are looking for? What is it that we need yet cannot buy? What is it that will take the edge off our longing and our pain and our loneliness? What is it that will help when we don’t have the answers to the whys of life and death and the presence of evil?

And where can I get it? And there really must be catch? Right?

The Psalmist knows what he is longing for….”O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirst for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

The presence of God in our lives. That is what we are longing for and cannot pay for. That is what we need to fill the emptiness, assuage the loneliness, take the edge off the pain.

We need something more, and that “more” is God: the God who always loves us, who is always faithful to us, who is always holding out hands of forgiveness.

But there has to be a catch! There always is.

When I went shopping I went to a store with a sale…everything in the store was &19.99. Everything. It drove me crazy. I am so used to looking at the price tags first. I am so used to checking those tags that I kept doing that even though it was all the same price. Gotta’ be a catch in there somewhere. They can’t really mean that.

With God’s presence, there is no catch. And no price. That drives some of us nuts. Gotta be a hidden cost in there somewhere.

Well, yeah. God is going to change our lives. That could cost us something. Like our self-reliance and our pride and our egos.

We might find ourselves turning, repenting and heading off in a new direction. It might actually loose some things, like shame, guilt, insecurity, excess baggage that weighs us down.

But God’s love and mercy and forgiveness are that wine and milk. For all who thirst…for all who hunger. God provides, without money and without price. For only God can soothe our souls, fill our hearts, give meaning to our lives.

There are times, I’ll be honest with you here, that we are caught in our searching. Times when the promises of God aren’t the answers we want. Times when letting go and just trusting God is too hard. Times when it seems we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

But God is patient. There is no time limit with God. No deadlines or expiration dates. God out waits us.

Again, the Psalmist: “For you have been my helper, and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice. My whole being clings to you; your right hand holds me fast.”

Let us turn our longings towards God. And find what we’re looking for.

Peace, acceptance, love….and our spirits will be content “as with the richest of foods.”

Just being here, in this place--in the presence of God and of one another –just being together as the body of Christ, soothes our souls.

My new skirt is cute. But it won’t last…soon I’ll be keeping an eye out for sandals…

But the stress….the edginess…the longing….I’ll just give all that over to God. And let the peace of this day replace it.

And work on that trusting bit…

Trusting that God is all we need…

Amen.