(Slide 1) A public reading of Isaiah 55:1-7 followed by a dramatic reading entitled ‘Christ on Trial: Witness: John’ written by Elsa L. Clark, Peter Mead, Arden Mead and Mark Zimmermann. © 2007 Creative Communications for the Parish.
Several weeks ago I got sick and spent a day and a half at home on the mend. I was frustrated by being home because there was a lot to do and I did not have time to be sick! But that time turned out to be a very valuable experience for me because I was able to do some serious reading that the Lord used to call my attention to some ‘cravings’ in my life that needed to be addressed. More about what I mean in a moment.
In one book of the books that I read, Soul Feast, by Marjorie Thompson, I was reminded of the importance of fasting during this season of Lent. (I would remind us that ‘fasting’ is a spiritual discipline of giving something up, like food or TV, for a certain period of time for, among other things, the purpose of growing closer to God.) She makes a case that in giving things up like ‘chocolate, popcorn, chewing gum, or other food frivolities’ what we have done is to participate in ‘the trivialization of a very profound discipline.’ ‘Lent,’ she says, ‘is not a six-week inconvenience in an otherwise abundant year, during which we have to somehow please God with voluntary if minor suffering.’
She goes on to note that in the early history of our faith Lent ‘was understood as an opportunity to return to normal human life… as we recognize that ‘the discipline of fasting has to do with the critical dynamic of accepting those limits which are life-restoring.’ By the time I finished that chapter, I felt God speak to me and say ‘you need to fast from such and such until Easter,’ because I was made aware that I needed to create more space for God in my life by fasting from things (other than food) which brings me to our main text for this morning that I want to re-read to you.
“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!
“Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the mercies and unfailing love that I promised to David. He displayed my power by being my witness and a leader among the nations. You also will command the nations, and they will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the people turn from their wicked deeds. Let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
One of the challenges of fasting not just during Lent but anytime of the year is that we become aware of our cravings. And in my fasting I have become aware of my cravings which have often caused me to lose sight of God. During this period of fasting, I am very grateful however, that space has been created in my heart and mind for God to speak to me in several different areas of my life that need some attention.
(Slide 2) What are you craving this morning? We crave many things (2A) such as food, love, power, work, success, and money to name a few. But do these things truly satisfy us? The truly honest answer is ‘only for a time, if at all’ and then we want more.
Notice what God says through Isaiah…
(Slide 3) Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free!’
(Slide 4) “Listen! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?’
(Slide 5) ‘Listen! I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!’
(Slide 6) Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.
Come, listen, and seek… three very important actions in finding, believing, and walking with God! But how can we find, believe, and walk with God if we are not coming to Him, listening to/for Him, and seeking Him?
Furthermore how can we do this when we are preoccupied with our cravings for love, food, work, and other things that God has created us for, but we become so obsessed with them that we can’t experience the Lord? What God is saying through Isaiah is that you need to come to me, to listen to me, and to seek me because what I want to give you what truly satisfies.
(Slide 7) What are the cravings that cause you to ‘lose’ God?
In other words, (7a) what are the habits, the desires, the attitudes, even the substances, that you are irresistibly drawn to that cause you problems and affect your relationship with God?
What we read in these verses is the truth that we must come to, listen to/for, and find the Lord and nothing but the Lord! Our experience must be first hand, not second or third hand.
The only truly satisfying way to experience food for our soul is by experiencing the grace and truth of God in our lives. Nothing else will do.
Isaiah’s audience understood what God meant. They were familiar with, as we heard in our dramatic opening, the concept of bread because they knew it meant ‘the word of God.’ In their history then knew that when they had bread they had been saved from death.
The manna of their journey to Promised Land came when they needed it. They also knew what God meant when He spoke of needing bread because they would have heard what we now call Deuteronomy 8:3, “he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people need more than bread for their life; real life comes by feeding on every word of the Lord.” So bread symbolized the active and living voice and presence of God in their lives.
So when Jesus says, as recorded in John 6:47, ‘Yes, I am the bread of life,’ they knew the history behind His words. But what He really meant, they were not prepared to hear or really understand. They were confused as they thought that He was literally going to become their next meal. But what Jesus meant was that He was going to become spiritual food that would satisfy our deepest and most profound human cravings well beyond the manna that had kept their ancestors physically alive.
Then, in identifying Himself as the ‘Bread of Life,’ Jesus added to His list of titles, notably the Son of God, that labeled Him ‘blasphemous’ or irreverent and offensive. But, as we get closer to Good Friday, we know what Jesus meant. We know that His body and His blood, in a hard to understand yet essential way, was to become food for our souls and our salvation.
This past Wednesday at our community Lenten Service, my colleague Sue Socha, shared a story that reminded me of the power of cravings to affect our relationship with the Lord.
She spoke of a book written by the late Henri Nouwen on the prodigal son. In it Nouwen wrote of an experience he had after a substantial cross country speaking trip that left him very tired and open to all sorts of temptations and cravings. He felt lost and in need of God’s care and embrace and found it, of all places, in a painting at a friend’s office.
(Slide 8) It was a copy of this painting, Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son. Sue noted that Nouwen realized, almost at once, that this is what He needed, to be embraced again by God just like the prodigal son was embraced.
Can you see the son? Unkempt and dirty. Much different than the father and the others gathered around him.
Is Jesus guilty of being irreverent or offensive? No, He is not guilty of being irreverent or offensive. Is He guilty of being the Son of God or the Bread of Life? Yes, He is guilty of being the Son of God and the Bread of Life.
What is the deepest craving of the human heart? To be loved.
Our experience with human love, if we are honest about it, has been mixed. But in the love of God, that Jesus is guilty of giving to us, there is a deep satisfaction that can help us satisfy all of our cravings.
Is there space for God in your life right now? Where is there space for God in your life right now? What do you need to either fast from or giving up to create space for God in your life?
I encourage you this morning to do the following: (Slide 8)
1. Admit your cravings. Everyone of us has a craving for love, food, and significance to name a few.
2. Turn them over to God. God created us to need these things and more, the desire for them is natural. But in our efforts to meet them we have made choices that have wounded us and others.
3. Ask God to start satisfying your cravings in His way. If God created us for our cravings, then He wants to help us experience them in the right way. He wants us to be our source of life and strength.
May you experience such satisfaction today through Christ. Amen.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘032507slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
