Loving God, come to us this day in your life-giving Word, renewing us in your love, and filling us with your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            The message that we heard today from Isaiah was originally addressed to people who had been in exile for a long time.  They had been forced to live in a foreign land, knowing that both their homes and their Temple had been destroyed.  Some of them had started to return to Jerusalem, but what they found there was a pile of rubble and lots of thorns and briers. They had very little money and a shortage of food, in spite of the allowance given to them by King Cyrus of Persia.  It is into this time of rebuilding and uncertainty that God speaks through Isaiah, inviting all who are hungry and thirsty to come.

         The invitation is for young and old, rich and poor.  In fact, you can’t buy your way in to this particular banquet.  The invitation is for all who are thirsty and are ready to listen to God’s word.  For, those who come, and eat and drink, and listen, discover a word of grace – an everlasting covenant with David, in spite of his frailties and failings, that now becomes an everlasting covenant with all those who come to the waters.

         Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, come!  Those who thirst for the living God, come!  Those who have lost all hope, come!  Even the wicked, it seems, are invited – not just to come, but to repent, to turn around, to turn away from their sins and turn back to God.  It is not too late – even for them – for God is waiting for them to repent – waiting to have mercy on them – waiting to abundantly pardon.

         That’s the thing about God’s justice.  It is never just tit for tat or crime and punishment. It is always tempered with mercy and with underlying love and grace.  One might compare it to the way a loving parent might deal with wayward children.  Yet, even this comparison has its limits.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (Is. 55:8).  God is always more ready to forgive than we can begin to imagine – and when God says, “you are forgiven,” it is done.

         God’s word, you see, always makes things happen.  It is like the rain and the snow that come from heaven to water the earth, causing seeds to grow and providing bread for those who are hungry.  It always accomplishes God’s purposes – like in the very beginning, where God speaks creation into being.  God says, “Let there be light,” and there is light (Gen. 1:3).  And then, many years later, Jesus only needs to say, “Peace!  Be still!”, in order to calm the wind and the waves (Mk. 4:39).

         “Indeed,” says the writer of Hebrews, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow” (Heb. 4:12).  It is God’s word that has the power to change hearts and lives.  It is God’s word that has the power to heal and forgive.  And ultimately, in Jesus, it is God’s Word that becomes flesh and lives among us, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14).

         And so, all you who are thirsty, come.  All you who are feeling hopeless, come.  All you who seek life in the midst of death, come.  For, God’s word continues to give life, and healing, and forgiveness, and hope.  God’s word continues to promise joy, and peace, and love in the Holy Spirit, and life-giving food and drink.  God’s Word continues to come to us through Jesus, speaking to our hearts, and reminding us that we are loved, and saved, and forgiven.

         Still, in the midst of God’s invitation to come, listen, and receive, the question remains, sitting there almost like an accusation: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Is. 55:2).  Why do you spend your time and money on things that suck the life right out of you, rather than seeking the bread of life and the living water?  For, it is God’s living Word who will sustain us, even in the midst of destruction and death and uncertainty – and it is God alone who has the power to give life.

         And so, come and listen.  Come, and hear God’s word to you that you are created in the image of God, claimed and forgiven through your baptism into Christ, and loved with an everlasting love.  Come, and be renewed in the Holy Spirit, who is like “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14).  Come and “listen, so that you may live” (Is. 55:3), through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

Advent 3 (NL 4)                                Isaiah 55:1-13

December 12, 2021                        John 4:13-14

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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