Feast or Famine

Written by Marv Thiessen

Pastor Marv Thiessen

Calgary First Mennonite Church

March 7, 2010

 

FEAST OR FAMINE

The dramatic sketch you just observed was intended to cause you to think about contrasting ideas. The characters in the dramatic sketch tried to fill up their lives in the way that many people in our society do. Sometimes the activities or choices that are employed are sinful and sometimes they are amoral in themselves. Sometimes those amoral ideas can become sinful when they become overly important. In either case, people are generally pursuing what they believe will gratify themselves. In contrast, we heard the words of God as derived from Isaiah 55, telling the characters to leave behind the things that don’t ultimately satisfy and to drink from the water of life. There is a significant contrast in those ideas.

What the drama presented and what I’ve just said is something that the Bible teaches and the Christian church has always said. Sin looks appealing and enjoyable. Making things like position in life, material acquisition, or self-seeking pleasure our first priority seems to make a lot of sense and is highly desirable to a lot of people. The appeal of that pursuit, however, is the work of the devil in his attempt to draw us away from God. God wants us to say no to these sins and priorities that pull us away from focusing our desires on him. That’s what we understand the Bible to say and it’s what we’ve heard in church all our lives. Do you ever wonder if it’s really the truth? I ask that because I recently heard someone express the feeling that the church had been a brainwashing place along these lines and that it probably wasn’t true that all these things that the church labeled as detrimental to full, satisfying life were that at all. So, I wonder if you have ever questioned the idea that denying sensual pleasures and the pursuit of self is hurtful to one’s soul. Is it true that there is famine in the pursuit of self and feast in the pursuit of God? We’ll examine the text from Isaiah 55:1-9 this morning as we consider this theme of feast or famine.

As we begin looking at the text, we hear the writer of this section of Isaiah conveying the words of God. The words of God here provide a gracious invitation to the hearers. God has provision for those who are thirsty and hungry. Now, we might think from the first two verses that the invitation is to physically eat and drink. We recognize that this is symbolic language when we observe at the end of verse two that God offers the invitation to eat what is good and then says that your soul will delight in the richest of fare. It is not the stomach that will be satisfied but the soul. So we understand this invitation to eat and drink as a symbolic way of describing going to God for spiritual renewal and revitalization.

We notice more things about this invitation. This is an invitation for those who are thirsty. If we have no sense of need for spiritual renewal or no interest in having God revitalize our spiritual lives, then this invitation is not really for us. We have to want this. We have to look at our lives and say we need God to fill us with his Spirit and remake us so that our desires line up with his desires and so that we receive fulfillment from him. If we have that kind of a thirst, then this invitation is directed at us.

Then we observe that this is an invitation that does not come with any cost attached. From time to time, we receive invitations at the church office to attend functions that promise good food and information. I think we receive an invitation every year to attend the mayor of Calgary’s prestigious breakfast for important people. When I see that invitation, I feel a slight interest. What would it be like to be an important person attending the mayor’s breakfast and rubbing shoulders with other important people? But then I see that this is not a free breakfast. Important people have lots of money to spend and the mayor expects that they’ll be happy to pay substantially for the privilege of eating his food and rubbing shoulders with important people. So I throw the invitation away. I’m looking for a free breakfast. The food that God offers in this symbolic invitation in Isaiah 55 is free. God says, "Come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost."

We also note that the invitation promises something satisfying. God asks us why we would spend money on what is not bread and work for something that does not satisfy. The implication is that we can give much effort in trying to respond to our heart hunger in pursuing things that do not satisfy our souls. God says that if we listen to him and eat what is good, our souls will delight in the richest of fare. When we respond to God’s invitation to fill our hearts with him, what we receive is the best possible. We are satisfied in the richest way possible.

It’s also important for us to recognize that this is truly an invitation. There is no coercion or manipulation here. There is no demand. This is an invitation to come to God. Questions are asked to get us to think about the value of alternative pursuits and reasons are given for why we should pursue God rather than the alternative, but in the end this is an invitation. God will not force us to come. God offers an invitation and gives us freedom to respond or not.

As we move on in the text, God speaks more of what he wants to do for the people who respond positively to his invitation. This particular invitation was directed at the people of Israel in the time hundreds of years before Jesus. God promises to them that he will continue to love his people faithfully. Then he says at the end of verse five that he will endow the nation of Israel with splendor to such an extent that other nations will come to them. I believe that we can be confident that God will continue in this vein with people who respond to his invitation. When we hear the invitation to come and drink and respond positively, God will love us faithfully. God will create in us a spirit and a desire to be people of love, kindness and compassion to such an extent that our lives will draw others to ask about God’s offer.

Then, it seems that verse six communicates a certain urgency about the response to this invitation. When you hear the invitation, don’t postpone and delay. Decide to come to God without waiting to receive his love and transformation, thus filling your soul with what will truly satisfy.

In verse seven, we see the invitation re-offered but framed slightly differently. While in verse one, the invitation simply went to all that were thirsty, now the invitation goes to those who clearly act against the interests of God. Wicked and evil people are invited to turn from their ways and turn to God. Then God will have mercy on them and pardon them freely. We are impressed again with the grace of God. Mercy and forgiveness are freely offered. No penance is required. No punishment will be exacted. Those who thought they would fill their lives in ways that were outside of God’s desires but who now respond to God will freely receive God’s mercy and forgiveness and will find their thirst for a full life completely satisfied.

We have observed the invitation. God has offered a satisfying of our deepest desires and thirsts when we abandon our other pursuits and respond to God’s offer of forgiveness and mercy. Are we convinced that this is true? Can it be demonstrated to be true? When we look at the people around us who pursue the kinds of things exemplified in our earlier drama to fill themselves up, are we convinced that they’re coming up short or do we suspect that they actually do find themselves filled.

We’ll return to that question, but perhaps God already anticipated that question as he made this invitation in Isaiah. In verses eight and nine, the last two verses of the text chosen for this morning, God says that his thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours are. Perhaps God recognized that people would object to the rationale of his invitation. It wouldn’t seem right to them. And he said that his understanding is better than ours is. We really will be better satisfied if we respond to his invitation than if we don’t.

Now, let’s ask again if it makes sense to us. Do we really believe that making God’s desires our heart’s desires and accepting his spiritual renewal will satisfy us more completely than what the world around us thinks will satisfy? In response to that, let’s just think briefly about the kinds of things our drama presented as being pursued by people to find satisfaction in life.

Some of the things presented in our drama as things that people pursue to find satisfaction are things that are pursued largely for pleasure. Lust and adultery were included. People pursue those things because they find pleasure in them. Food can also be pursued for the reason of pleasure. Money can be pursued because of the way it facilitates pleasure.

Others of the things presented in the drama are things that are pursued because of the way they facilitate the acquisition of possessions. Money was the prime example of that. Perhaps the choice to gamble also falls into this category of the pursuit of possessions.

The other things that were presented could be considered to be items pursued because of a desire for position. Gossip can help the one gossiping to be elevated to higher position. Pride, power and prestige were included in what might be pursued and they are all indicative of a desire for position.

I believe we will easily agree that people do pursue pleasure, possessions and position in an attempt to satisfy themselves and fill themselves up. Some of the choices in that vein that were listed are sinful in themselves and others only become sinful as they become a focus more important than God. When I think of those choices and the results they bring to people’s lives, I believe they fail to bring complete satisfaction. One of my observations as I looked at that list is that those choices often damage and destroy human relationships and that good human relationships are more satisfying than pleasure, possessions and position. I certainly believe that the unbridled pursuit of pleasure, possessions and position damage one’s relationship with God. In the end, I don’t believe those pursuits truly bring satisfaction and fulfillment. Even the Rolling Stones seemed to understand that when they sang that they couldn’t get no satisfaction.

I conclude that the pursuit of pleasure, possessions and position brings about famine in our lives. That is the stuff that God speaks of in Isaiah 55 when he asks why we spend our money on what is not bread and our labour on what does not satisfy. Orientation toward God’s desires for us, instead, and receiving his gracious gift of that which satisfies and fulfills, brings about feast in our lives. So choose between famine or feast. Let go of the famine. Hold on to the feast.