Free Food and Drink – but somebody has to pay

Isaiah 55

How much would you be willing to  pay for a good meal?

On February 13, 2007 fifteen people sat down to a 10-course gourmet meal at the Dome Restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. The six chefs who prepared this expensive meal were flown in from France, Germany and Italy. Similarly, the ingredients they used were also flown in from all over the world. The cost of the most expensive meal was about $30,000 – per person – not including tax and tip.

It was estimated that the wine list totaled around $200,000 and included a rare Rothschild estate wine. Fine champagne was also available.

What do you get for $30,000?

Crème brûlée of foie gras with Tonga beans
Tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster
Mousseline of pattes rouges crayfish with morel mushroom infusion
Tarte Fine with scallops and black truffle
Lobster Osso Buczco
Ravioli with guinea fowl and burrata cheese, veal reduction
Saddle of lamb “Léonel”

Then to cleanse the palate for the last three courses, Sorbet “Dom Pérignon”

Supreme of pigeon en croute with cèpes mushroom sauce and cipollotti
Veal cheeks with Périgord truffles

And for desert, Imperial gingerbread pyramid with caramel and salted butter ice-cream

On the other hand you could try a World Meal. A World Meal is the average meal for the average person on the planet and consists of a limited amount of rice and beans. Herbs and spices are optional; as is anything you can forage from the local natural environment. Cost? About 20 cents US. If you wanted the ten course meal and ate ten bowls full, it would still cost only $2.

I’ve had the rice and beans and liked it very much. I have never had any of the ten items on the $30,000 meal.

I could take off here and preach a sermon about the disparity of wealth in the world or the poor stewardship of spending that much money for a meal, but I want to go in a different direction.

We are in a series of sermons titled: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land. Is this $30,000 meal the water we are thirsting for? The world uses the term, “happiness” so let me ask this question: Does having $30,000 available to spend on a single meal bring along with it happiness?

I read in my latest copy of The Week, a summary of news around the world, that
Several studies in recent years have established a direct link between happiness levels and income – which is not all that surprising, since, if nothing else, money enables us to buy things that can make our lives more comfortable, starting with the necessities.

But a new study of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries was the first to distinguish between “life satisfaction”, an overall sense of how it’s going, and day-to-day emotions like feeling upbeat or blah. It turns out that while there’s a strong correlation between wealth and how we rate our lives, how we actually feel is less tied to money. Instead, researchers found that positive and negative emotions were more linked to psychological and social factors, such as feeling respected, having autonomy, and being connected to supportive friends and communities.

In other words, someone who spends $30,000 for a meal and someone who spends 20 cents for a meal have a lot in common. Both are seeking an inner sense of happiness that a lot of money or only a little money will not buy. The person with 20 cents thinks, “If I only had $30,000, then I would be happy,” but having $30,000 does not make someone 150,000 times happier than having 20 cents.

This is the news nobody wants to hear that I talked about a couple weeks ago: Money and everything that money will buy in this world does not deliver on its promises. It will not and cannot satisfy. Maybe it can make life a little easier and a little more pleasant, but it will not answer the question that comes when your partner has an affair with another person. It will not answer the question that comes as you lay in a bed dying, “So what sense did all this make?” It will not answer the question that comes when someone you love dies. It will not answer the question that comes when you finally achieve what you have been longing for and there continues to be this sense of “Is that all there is?”

To a world that searches for meaning and most often looks in the wrong places, there are three invitations in this 55th chapter of Isaiah.

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;

This first invitation emphasizes the life-threatening need we have. Depending on health, people can live four to six weeks without food. But we are much more dependent on water. Without water, people live only two to ten days. Thirsting is a life-threatening situation and here God speaks through Isaiah, his prophet, inviting us to come out of a situation where our life is in danger and into a place where there is abundant provision. Come, everyone in the desert where your tongue is thick and dry and death is approaching; come to an oasis with an abundant supply of water, so much water that you can swim and splash away, drinking all you can drink and knowing when you go to sleep that there will be just as much water in the morning. Come and find in abundance what you have been desperately longing for.

The second invitation highlights our inability and helplessness.
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!

Dry and thirsty as we are, how can we afford to enter the oasis and drink the water and eat the food we need? We have no money. Our pockets are empty of anything that has value at the oasis. We have nothing to offer and are not in a position to bargain.

We are helpless but we are invited to come and we are told to “come, buy and eat”. There is a cost for the food. We have to buy and eat. We have no money to pay for the food but it still has to be bought. The implication is that someone else will pay the bill for us. We have no money, but someone else does. Who has paid the price for this meal? It is Jesus who has paid the price for us and so we come and eat what he has paid for.

Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

This third invitation stresses the richness of what is being offered. We are offered not just the bare water of necessity but the luxurious satisfaction of wine and milk. This is the luxuriousness of the father who welcomed back his prodigal son. The son came back hoping he might be a servant in his father’s household but the father put on his son his robe and ring and killed the fatted calf to celebrate his return. As sinners we do not even deserve to slip through a side door into heaven but we will be welcomed in the front door, welcomed as God’s daughters and sons.

How wonderful an invitation is this? Come be rescued from certain death. Despite your poverty, come and eat and drink to your heart’s content. Come not to a charitable buffet, not a soup kitchen, come to a feast fit for a king – or the daughter or son of a king.

How wonderful you think this invitation is really depends on how thirsty you are. It depends on how aware you are of how desperate your situation is. It depends on how you view your life.

It may be your life is moving along smoothly: great job, great relationships, great health, great prospects. I say the world does not and cannot satisfy our deepest need and you might respond by saying that life is treating me pretty good and I have all I need.

But if you or someone you love has an advanced form of an aggressive cancer, you may be feeling more thirsty. If the world’s money is not slipping freely into your lap and you are struggling to find money for rent, you may feel thirsty. If you have a need to be loved and are not finding someone to love you, you may feel thirsty. If you have an abundance of what the world has to offer and are still feeling unsettled, unfulfilled, you may be recognizing that you are thirsty. This is what Isaiah says in the next verse.

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

One of the guests at this more than elaborate meal in Bangkok was a wealthy (obviously) Cambodian woman who lives in Malaysia, Sophiane Foster. When Foster was asked how she was enjoying the meal she was quoted during her eighth course, saying: “I can’t finish it. Your senses can only take so much.”

Our need for meaning is too powerful for the sensual pleasures of this world. Our capacity for sensuality is insufficient for our need. Our senses can only take so much. As attractive as they are, the pleasures of this world offer only momentary satisfaction and then fade away leaving us empty and still searching for meaning. Enjoy a $30,000 meal and the next day you will wake up feeling bloated from having eaten too much rich food, with a headache from having drunk too much wine and with the same problems that plagued you the day before. Relational insecurity, moral weakness, jealousy, envy, fear of death – none of these are dealt with by eating an expensive meal. This wisdom has been known through the ages.

Pliny the Younger in the 1st century observed:
An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Nietzsche in the 19th century wrote:
Possessions are usually diminished by possession.

And Bertold Brecht in the 20th century added:
What a miserable thing life is: you’re living in clover, only the clover isn’t good enough.

Look to the world and its sensual delights for meaning and prepare to be disillusioned. Jim Elliot who was martyred in Ecuador in 1956 spoke great wisdom when he wrote in his journal:
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy when God is inviting you to a fabulous feast that has already been paid for and which will satisfy your deep need for meaning and your deep need to be loved?

How do you accept such an invitation? Isaiah continues:

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

The literal translation of “listen diligently” is to listen, listeningly. Give your full attention to listening to God. Focus on God. Focus with upmost attention.

You are constantly receiving messages. Books, magazines, movies and TV shows send messages. Advertising sends messages. The news sends messages. Walk in a store and you are bombarded with messages. Conversations with friends send messages.

The question is, among all the messages you receive, who will you listen to? In this prophetic word from Isaiah, the encouragement is to listen listeningly to the message God sends to us. Among all the messages you hear, one will save you, the others will not. The others may amuse you, provide temporary pleasure and gratification, but they will not take you safely through life, death and what comes afterwards.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;

Listen and come to me. Come to me. Jesus is the feast. Jesus is the more than abundant, luxurious and satisfying meal. In a few minutes we will come forward to celebrate the Lord’s Supper when we remember the words of Jesus: (Mark 14:22)
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”

A ten course meal in Bangkok, $30,000. The body of Jesus, priceless.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

Eat a ten course meal and you do not need to eat for a few days. Eat the meal Jesus has prepared for you and you have an everlasting covenant.

You come in desperate need of rescue, are provided with everything you need in abundance and it is a free gift to you. You have no money to pay for it. You have nothing you can offer to repay the gift. All you can do is receive with gratitude.

I say this realizing most of us, including me, give partial attention to God. In our best moments we may focus more diligently, but an honest assessment of ourselves finds us distracted by our responsibilities, distracted by our pursuit of worldly pleasures. Rather than listen listeningly, we listen half-heartedly.

And yet the invitation continues to be made. Day after day, despite our weak attempts to follow, the invitation continues to be made.

But be careful, this is a limited time offer.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;

There is a time to seek the Lord and then there will be an end to that time. To casually follow Jesus is dangerous. To push Jesus off and think you can always come back sometime in the future after you take care of business is dangerous. You may run out of time and then where will you be?

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

If you are living a casual Christian life, now is the time to begin to listen listeningly. If you are caught up in sinful behavior, now is the time to seek help, time to get some accountability and resist the temptation that plagues you. If you are mistreating someone, now is the time to change.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about the Lord’s Supper and instructed them: (1 Corinthians 11:28)
A person ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

As you prepare to come forward for the meal you share with Jesus, examine yourself. Confess your sins. Be honest with yourself. If you need to, resolve to share with someone after the service about your struggle and ask them to help hold you accountable for your behavior. If you have been walking away from Jesus, turn around and begin again walking with Jesus. Examine yourself, prepare to come to the table and share this meal with Jesus.

The news that has amazed me many times in my Christian life is that despite my behavior, God still wants me to be his son. God is far more patient with me than I am with myself. God wants you to be his daughter, his son. He will forgive you when you come to him and confess your sin and confess your deep need for him.

God’s relationship with us is not like the human relationships we experience where people do not forgive. Most of us have experienced this and if we are honest, there may be people we are not able to really forgive. But fortunately, none of us is God. God forgives us, over and over and over again.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

That is great news. God does what we do not do well, he forgives us and he will forgive you this morning if you turn away from your sin, turn to him and confess your sin.

Let me finish with one more word of encouragement.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Paul wrote to the church in Philippi: (Philippians 1:3–6)
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

God does not leave his work unfinished. God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. I say this often, you have to cling to Jesus, but Jesus will carry you to safety.

When I watch marathon runners, I admire their steady, strong pace as they run the 42 kilometers of the race. They run up hills faster than I have ever been able to run down those hills.

The Christian life is like a marathon we run and the goal for us is to finish, cross the finish line into heaven. Not many of us run strong all the way along. Sometimes we have to walk. Sometimes we get a cramp and have to stop to massage our legs. Sometimes we trip and fall and cut and scrape our knees and elbows.

It may be we despair of ever finishing the marathon but we need to remember that God who called us into this life will work with us to bring us to the finish line.

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

There is no need to despair. God is at work and his work will be accomplished. Cling to Jesus and he will carry you safely to the finish line.

So why do you worry? Why are you anxious?

The table awaits you, creaking under the weight of tantalizingly delicious food and drink. It is yours, you are invited.

You don’t have any money? None of us do. That will not keep you away. The meal has been paid for.

Examine yourself. Prepare yourself and then come forward to accept this invitation:

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.