Is 55 “HO! all who are thirsty come to the waters, hey, you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk w/o money - it’s free!Why do you spend your money for that which does not satisfy?Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich nutritious food.”
What an invitation that is given to you and me by God! We are in a long line of guests invited to this rich feast!God invited King David, the guy who wrote the Psalms in the OT.God invited the Israelites as they wondered in the wilderness after they left slavery in Egypt and again when they were in exile away from home in Babylon. God invited Jesus’ followers, and now Jesus invites you and me.God is reaching out to us with this abundance of relationship, this cornucopia filled and overflowing with the rich food of faithfulness to all generations.
How can you not come to this banquet?What is keeping you? There is always more than enough at this rich banquet and it certainly does not cost money.“Listen carefully to me, eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”That is what it says in Isaiah.
So how does this incredible invitation to the banquet of rich food connect with what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel?Well, come with me on this. (LET US PRAY)
(pause)
REPENT OR PERISH the sign says.Anyone else see that guy standing on the boulevard on the corners of Paul Bunyan Drive and Bemidji Ave. REPENT OR PERISH are the words that Jesus says to those gathered in today’s Gospel.This message was given to David and Isaiah, the people surrounding Jesus listening to his teachings, Paul is also speaking to the Corinthians about the need to repent as well.
The message of the young man on the corner in Bemidji is bringing us is the very same message today: REPENT OF PERISH. Repent, metanoia, in Greek means to think differently, to feel sorry about previous actions.
Perish: apollumi, to destroy fully.
Human nature is amazing.The people gathered around Jesus are quick to point fingers at others saying the tower in Siloam fell on the 18 and killed them because of their sins. Almost like gossiping:‘Did you hear, that tower fell on those 18 in Siloam, I wonder what they did to deserve that!”Jesus immediately turned their concern away from pointing fingers at others and put the light directly back on them.Jesus tells those gathered that the people who died were no worse than themselves.You keep your nose in your own business.“Unless YOU repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
The overall theme of these readings is about turning away from what does not bear fruit and live a life that is rich in God’s mercy and feeds your soul with the rich love of God.
Repenting may mean that you need to take time healing from a hurt your carry deeply inside, you need to allow for the nurturing of your soil as the gardener gently and lovingly cares for the fig tree for a full year before the gardener expects fruit.BB Taylor says: sometimes terrible things happen and you are not always to blame.There is a torn place within you that, in the healing process is opened up and feels torn, this is a holy place.Pause and look around while you are there in that space.Pay attention to what you feel.It may hurt you to stay there, and see that pain, but this healing hurt does not lead to death.It is the kind that leads to life.
We are to eat the real food of life.The banquet of the rich food of life is to feed on our relationship with God in Jesus Christ.As we dwell, as we live in our relationship with God,
·God can have God’s way with us.That is when repenting and healing happens.
·Sin means being turned in on ourselves.
·Dwelling in God’s Word,
·spending time with other Christians,
·spending time in the quiet listening to God and to the quiet voice within that tells us who we are,
·studying Jesus’ life and the life of the disciples
·and by simply having a good conversation with God;
·We are partaking in the cornucopia of rich food that nurtures our deepest selves, fills us and calls us to turn outward toward the world that God created and loves.
This feast brings us to live differently.
Karoline Lewis, a professor at Luther Seminary says, "Repentance is that which makes you go outside of yourself and lets you see that it's not just about you but about the world that God loves, and how it is that you are a part of that."
Repentance is not something you do, but how you respond to the healing love and compassion of Jesus Christ who knows your heart, beckons you to dwell with Jesus; allowing the healing, refreshing death and new life waters of Baptism to wash through the hurt and pain of your life and calls you to rich abundance in the life that God loved so much that he gave his life for.
So come to the banquet table, the feast is set for you to come, to eat of the richest food that will fill your cravings for relationship with the one God who loves you so much that He was willing to die for you. Come to the banquet, eat the bread, drink from the cup
and be reminded again that you are the body of Christ.
