This sermon did not go quite as well as I would have liked.
“Why Do You Pay Money?”, March 23, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; Isaiah 55: 1-10
Introduction: As an aside, my daughter Caitlin is preaching this same text this afternoon at a retirement center, so I stole what I could from her sermon preparation! the good stuff, of course, is her work and the suspect stuff if mine!
we continue our Lenten preaching series on questions that the biblical texts so us.
This week we return to the prophet Isaiah, the 55th chapter, for our question on which to reflect.
Listen for God’s word:
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.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says 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.
Move 1: Wine! Good wine! Get your good wine
Milk! Delicious milk! get your delicious milk
Food! Rich food! get your rich food!
Hey! come to the waters.
Hey! Come and eat!
a. Like a stadium vendor, Isaiah calls the Israelites with A surprising invitation to luxurious food.
1. We remember that Chapter 55 of Isaiah is the last chapter of what many biblical scholars would label as Second Isaiah.
2. The writer is known as an anonymous exilic prophet because he was probably prophesying God’s word to the Israelites who were in exile in the manner in which Isaiah might have prophesied.
3. Second Isaiah focuses on all that God will do for the Israelites who are in exile.
4. Second Isaiah speaks to people who are thirsty and hungry.
if not literally thirsty and hungry, they are thirsty and hungry spiritually because they have been in survival mode while in exile.
they are tired.
they have experienced the trauma of being uprooted.
I suspect they face the future with uncertainty as they wonder what will become of them. (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-isaiah-551-5-2; Brent Strawn)
b. Now they hear Isaiah prophesy words comfort to the afflicted.
1. An invitation to drink and eat of the riches God will provide.
2. A word of hope,
that they might even hear as promise from God that God’s abundance is for them.
3. How wonderful images of wine and milk and luxurious foods must have seemed to the Israelites in exile.
c. do not miss that Isaiah’s invitation is to buy with no money things that have no price.
1. They can buy with no money because God will provide out of God’s abundance.
2. The scarcity the exiles feel will be overcome by God’s gracious gifts for them.
3. gifts which are.
like the covenant God has already made, these gifts of abundance come to God’s people as pure grace.
Move 2: With the invitation comes a question: Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
a. A question about the choices we make and how those choices reflect our lives of faith.
1. A question that could be asked of those in exile.
2. A question we might ask ourselves during Lent,
or any other time when we are reflecting on our spiritual lives and our connection to God.
b. Why do you spend your money,
or your time,
or you energy on that which does not satisfy?
c. Sometimes we are looking for instant gratification.
1. we want immediate results.
2. We discover again and again that our Relationship with God is a long, sometimes challenging process.
3. Like people in exile who want immediate relief, an immediate return home, we seek that which can happen this instant instead of living into an ongoing relationship with God.
4. So we turn to that which the world offers.
what we can grab for ourselves.
what we can see in the moment that makes us feel good.
what gives us temporary satisfaction.
5. But Isaiah reminds us that what the world has to offer is not what God is offering.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
6. And what God has to offer far surpasses what the world can offer in the moment
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
7. Isaiah invites into an ongoing, long-term relationship with God that lasts for a lifetime and beyond, not just the next few hours or days.
d. or perhaps we spend our money on that which does not satisfy because We do not trust God will find us in our particular situation.
1. For the Israelites in exile, that is an important question.
2. Will God find us in exile, or will we be left here forever?
3. Sometimes, the sense that we are left on our own overwhelms us.
we look at our lives and think somehow God has forgotten we exist and left us on our own.
4. Instead of seeking God, we look for what we can do on our own or for ourselves.
5. We limit ourselves to what we can know and do.
6. And then we hear Isaiah’s invitation:
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
7. Look and listen for God, who is already in your midst.
e. Sometimes, we spend our money on that which does not satisfy because We are afraid of the unknown future.
1. Even in exile,
as they yearn for a return home,
the Israelites learn to cope and adjust to life away from their their homeland.
2. It may not be where they want to be, but they have come to know the routines,
they have figured out what life is like,
they have some certainty about what the next day will bring.
3. Perhaps you know that feeling.
not necessarily satisfied with where you are, but willing to accept that what you know instead of moving into the unknown.
4. How easy it is to cling to that which seems guaranteed instead of risking.
5. But Isaiah brings a word of hope and promise about the God who has a future for us that is far better than the future to which we feel tied.
6. The invitation to come and eat is an invitation To new life.
f. we spend our money on that which does not satisfy because We see limitations instead of possibilities.
1. the people see exile and scarcity, but Isaiah reveals the abundance God has for us.
we see scarcity.
but God offers us abundance.
2. We spend our lives worried will there be enough
will we get enough.
3. To which God answers:
eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
4. The God of abundance will provide.
Conclusion: Wine! Good wine Get your good wine
Milk! Delicious milk! get your delicious milk
Food! Rich food! get your rich food!
Hey! come to the waters.
Hey! Come and eat!
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