"WHAT'S YOUR PRICE?"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
March 2, 2025
Isaiah 55:1-9 NRSV
1Ho, 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 labor 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.
Hey! God is inviting everyone to a free feast! “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.” That’s the invitation God is making. Ho, are you buying that?
Isaiah, the prophet, is telling us this is God’s economic plan. The King had been telling the people that he had a plan to save them from all their troubles. Problem is that the King’s promises resulted in the people of Israel being attacked by enemy nations and dragged off into exile for 70 years. The King’s promises didn’t work out so well for people. Would they decide to trust God’s promises? Would they buy an alternative reality to the one the King was selling?
We live in chaotic times. Leaders all over the world are promising they can solve all our problems if we just give them unlimited power. The problem I have with that is I believe in one God. Period. Full stop. That God has told me over and over again that God is the only one I can truly trust. The God I believe in asks me:
2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3Incline 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.
So whose vision for life am I willing to buy? Am I suggesting that God will wave a magic wand and feed everyone? Of course not. God works through people and systems that govern us. So we have a responsibility to decide if we buy God’s vision for the world or someone else’s. Then we work to implement that vision as people of faith. I am pretty sure God’s vision does not include the wealthiest nation in history shutting off the funding of food that saves the lives of hundreds of thousands of children around the world to save less than 3% of our national budget. But that’s what we’ve done. There’s a form of paste that alleviates the worst form of malnutrition known as “severe wasting.” The current shipments sit, ordered not to be delivered, so literally tens of millions of people will be affected. We are all responsible, no matter who we voted for or even if we didn’t vote. Which vision do we want to work for? God’s, or our own?
Who do I choose to worship and follow? That is the question of faith for every day of our lives. Will we spend money, time, and effort on that which does not satisfy? God continually offers an alternative reality to the one humans seem to choose. The challenge of living a life of faith in God is choosing God’s plan for life over the ones humans seem to think are best.
Alistair Roberts, [“The Politics of God’s Plenty,” politicaltheology.com, July 28, 2014], admits, “This passage confounds the logic of our capitalist economies. … God summons people to buy, ‘without money and without price.’ Wealthy or penniless, we are called to the waters …, invited to share in the Promised Land’s riches, its wine and its milk. [God calls us] to delight in God’s abundance and to feast on the good things that [God] offers.” And our faith insists that this same God still promises this to us today.
Isaiah’s words are intended to “remind us of God’s provision on the wilderness journey [ in the Book of Exodus.] The manna of the wilderness subverted the logic of regular human economies. It couldn’t be accumulated and stored. None experienced lack, yet none had excess. The needs of all were perfectly met in plentiful divine gift.”
The writer tells us God’s “riches must be both received and enjoyed as gifts, gifts that can never be alienated from their Giver and subjected to the power-grasping often inherent in human exchanges of property. They can never become anyone’s private possession but are furnished as an open banquet to all who respond to a general invitation. … There is more than enough to go around. No one need be without. There is no one percent in God’s kingdom.”
Isaiah invites us to buy into a new vision for the world. The writer says, “This vision promises a new world, … a vision [where] we can find hope, determination, and a sense of direction. This is what we look forward to. This is what we must seek to make a reality. Within the life of the Christian Church, this passage acquires a new potency in our celebration of the Eucharist. All alike are invited to partake of God’s food and drink at this table.”
As you and I ponder whether to trust God for the direction of our lives and our world, let us first feast at the table. Let us become strong in faith. God has prepared this table for us as a sign of God’s eternal and everlasting love. Remember it is given to us freely. Let us celebrate that everyone is welcome to feast at God’s table. Even the old prophet, Isaiah, said that people from other nations, you know, foreigners and immigrants, will run to us to get a taste of the free bread and drink that God gives abundantly. In this day and age we need to trust God more than ever. In these times we need to follow the way of Jesus more than ever. Jesus never rejected the poor, the powerless, or the outsider. Jesus welcomed all at his table. He is the one who shows us the way to live in these times. He was and is he living symbol of God’s abundant love.
You know what I am buying? I’m buying into abundant love. I can’t afford hating those who aren’t like me. I can’t even afford to hate those who hate everyone who is not like them. I need to buy some more love, to be honest. So I’m going to God and thank God for everything loving. I am thankful for a God of abundance. I give thanks for a table where everyone is welcome, not just here, but at God’s table in the world and in the realm to come. And I am thankful that love is free. I can buy into that. What are you buying these days? AMEN.
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