'(I)t should be obvious that Isaiah 55 is not really talking about junk food. It’s junk ideas – and they usually attack us when we’re unfocused, when we’ve been working and dealing with all of the stuff life brings to us, and then the junk idea gets us. Junk ideas about God get in and fill our exhausted brains.'
SERMON
The Third Sunday in Lent
March 20, 2022
The Rev. Maurice C. Frontz, III
Text – Isaiah 55:1-11
Sometimes, after I’ve been preaching on a
particularly hard saying of Jesus, you will hear me say something like this: ‘Well,
of course it’s difficult. If it weren’t, he wouldn’t have had to say anything
about it. He never had to tell us to eat food when it is sitting in front of
us.’
Well, turns out I was wrong, for in Isaiah
55, God urges the people to eat and drink the best food, for free, and says, ‘Why
do you spend your money on that which is not bread, and your labor for that
which does not satisfy?’
Turns out that we indeed have to be told to
eat. But God doesn’t need to tell us to eat junk food. Others can manipulate us
into doing that.
It usually happens when we aren’t thinking.
That’s why the junk food is on the end of the aisles at the grocery store.
Because when you’re in the aisles, you are thinking about getting the stuff on
your grocery list. Yogurt, granola bars, fruit, rice, all the stuff that you’re
supposed to eat. But you get to the end of the aisle and for that moment when
you’re between the aisles, you stop thinking and at that moment the junk food
jumps out at you. And suddenly amid the yogurt and the granola there’s the bag of
chips and the 2 liter of soda and the Little Debbie snack cakes.
The junk food gets you when your brain is tired
and relaxed and unfocused. That’s why Taco Bell ads are run at 10 p.m. You don’t
eat Taco Bell when your brain is working. But you have worked all day, and you’re
in front of the T.V. Suddenly Taco Bell comes on, and just as suddenly you’re in
the car headed to Taco Bell. And then at 2 a.m., you’re regretting your decisions
in life. But the same thing will happen next week.
I decided to be a little bit lighter today
because the sermons have been very serious the past few weeks. But it should be
obvious that Isaiah 55 is not really talking about junk food. It’s junk ideas –
and they usually attack us when we’re unfocused, when we’ve been working and
dealing with all of the stuff life brings to us, and then the junk idea gets us.
Junk ideas about God get in and fill our exhausted brains.
Ideas like this:
God doesn’t really care whether I do
this or that.
I’m doing pretty well in following
God’s rules, but those people over there are in trouble!
I know the Bible says God forgives
sins, but my sin/their sin is so bad that it can never be forgiven.
God doesn’t do anything about my
problems or the problems of the world.
I don’t hear God speaking in my
heart, so that must mean he doesn’t speak.
And so forth.
These ideas and those like them get into
our heads, and they are unhealthy. Just as unhealthy for our spirits as junk
food is for our bodies. What we fill our ears with is at least as important as
what we fill our mouths with. So we have to be aware of what happens. We have
to be aware that when we are not conscious of them, junk ideas can creep in and
take up residence in our hearts. And we need to hear God’s word, which can make
us healthy in mind and spirit.
After the food metaphor, Isaiah records God
as saying, ‘Incline your ear to me; listen, so that you may live.’ His words
are life-giving, and the junk ideas that fill our minds tend towards death. We
need to listen to those promises which God gives, the promises of forgiveness
of sin, deliverance from evil, and resurrection of the dead.
But it’s not enough to listen once and
presume we’ve got them. Those junk ideas are pesky. It’s not enough to eat one good
meal and then presume you’re going to be healthy for the rest of your life.
Instead, you’ve got to make a habit of it. The same goes for listening to God’s
word.
I love it when people tell me, ‘Oh, yeah, I
went to church and Sunday School as a kid. I learned all of that stuff, so I
don’t really need to come to church now.’ What if a person said something like,
‘I ate a few years ago; I’m good!’
Or even, ‘Yeah, I took a bath a year ago. Why
are you standing over there?’
‘Seek the Lord when he may be found; call
upon him when he is near.’ We need to listen and cling to God’s promises and do
it now. I saw one of those questions on Facebook that you’re supposed to answer
in the comments: ‘If you were going on a diet tomorrow, what would your ‘last
meal’ be?’ One of the commenters said, ‘Start tonight! Don’t wait!’
We associate healthy food with a lack of
taste; good ideas and behaviors with a lack of enjoyment. But God’s promise is
of wine and milk and rich food. We will benefit from focusing on the promises of
God, and from listening to his word. Once we develop the taste for it, it will satisfy
us our whole life long. Let us begin and not wait! There is none other that can
satisfy.
MCF +
