I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 3/3/13

Scripture Isaiah 55:1-9

I came across a wonderful story on the internet this week. The story involves a boy and his father.  The boy comes up to his dad and asks him, “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?” The dad was angry at the question and told his son that it is none of his business. The boy just pleaded again, please daddy just tell me how much you make an hour? The dad replies, well if you really must know, I make $100 an hours. The little boy stops and thinks about it for  a little while and then asks his dad, “Daddy, can I have $50 dollars then?” The dad gets furious and tells his son if the only reason he asked how much he made an hour was so that he could beg for money, then he needed to go straight to his room and go to sleep. 15 to 20 minutes passed and the dad started to think about the request. At first he assumed that the boy wanted it to buy some new toy, but as he thought about it he realized that the boy has never really asked for much before other than on birthdays and Christmas. The dad thought it over and decided that he would give the boy the money. He knocks on the door and finds that the boy is not yet asleep, but just crying in his bed. The dad apologies to his son and gives him the $50. The boy takes the $50 dollars, and lifts his pillow to show that he already had money under his pillow. Seeing this the dad starts to get angry again, but before he could say anything the son says, “I have enough now.” Enough for what the dad asks? The boy replies, I have $100 now dad, I have enough to buy an hour with you.”

            This is of course a tender and also heartbreaking story, a story of how caught up we can get in our everyday lives; so much so that we can forget to take time to spend with those that we truly love. While the story does teach a valuable lesson about family relations, the reason I share it with you this morning, is because the relationship between the son and the father in the story is often far too close to depicting an accurate portrayal of our relationship with God. Of course in this instance we are like the father who gets so busy, so preoccupied with things that seem so important to us, that it leaves God asking us, when are you going to spend time with me? Now some may say, well I’m here this morning; I’m giving my hour of time with God. Think again about that story, after the father recognized what the son was asking for, do you think he said, ok thank you very much, I’ll take that $100 and your hour starts now? Of course not, the father realized that he had been neglecting his son and changed his life so that he made sure he had more time to spend with him. This is the same with our relationship with God,  it’s not that God is asking for an hour of our time, it is that God is asking for us to be in a closer relationship with him. God asks us to stop, and take time think about what we are seeking after, what our primary focus is, and whether or not we are focused on the right thing.

            In our passage for today, the prophet Isaiah does what good prophets do, he speaks the word of the Lord to the people. He says, “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. 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.”  I love this passage, because the Lord is talking to the people in words that hold so much depth and substance, words that have multiple intentions, and words that really make one stop and reflect. On the surface these words seem just like every day practical advice. Don’t spend your money on things you don’t need. We see instances of this today, where people who barely have enough money to pay rent, somehow have the newest cell phones, or people taking expensive vacations and trips around the world instead of putting money into their retirement. On the surface this passage is giving us the practical advice of using our money wisely, spending it that satisfy us (food, clothing, housing) and not on frivolous things. Yet, to read the passage only in this way would be severely missing the point of the scripture.

            In fact making this practical advice is someone like a joke. It’s not a joke to make sure that your priorities are in order, that you using your money on things that satisfy rather than frivolously throwing it away; however the joke lies in the fact that none of these things, bread, wine, honey, will ever truly satisfy. Yes they are something that we need to survive, but each day you will be coming back for more. The real lesson being taught in this passage is the lesson that we know all so well from the Gospels and from that wonderful hymn, “Seek ye first the kingdom of  God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The passage is telling us that nothing satisfies us like God can. That all that we do, all of our work, all that we spend, should be done so first and foremost while seeking after the Kingdom of God; while seeking after that relationship that God so desperately wants with us.

             The passage says,  “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant... Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.”  At first, this may sound harsh to us, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. It can sound to us as if we only have a short time to make right to God, that if we don’t repent now, than God is going to leave us for good, but this is not what scripture is saying. The scripture tells us that God will make with us an everlasting covenant, that means that God isn’t going anywhere, that God has been, and always will be there for us. So then what does it mean to seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near? Once again it goes back to what we have been saying all along; that we need to seek first the Kingdom of God. It is saying that God doesn’t leave us, but that we can get so involved seeking earthly pleasures, we can even get so involved in seeking things of this Earth that are good and necessary for survival, but that we can get so caught up in these things that we no longer see God. We no longer seek after, we no longer hear God like that little child saying to us, Can I have an hour with you?

            For the Lord says, “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. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  God says to us, seek me I have more to offer,  In me you will find your daily bread. As we come together for communion today we will see the paradox of this scripture at work. We will gather partaking of the physical sustenance of bread and juice and yet the reason we gather around the table for Communion is so much more than that, we come to the table because we want to spend that time together with God.  Communion invites us to come to the table and experience true satisfaction; a relationship with God.