Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
August 3, 2008

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Have you ever had the experience of reading a Bible verse and thinking: That is so true! It is so obviously true! It is so profoundly true! Why don’t we get it? Why don’t we live it? I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience, but I have it every time I read our passage this morning from Isaiah, especially Isaiah 55:2. That verse asks the rhetorical question: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” Every time I hear that verse I think of the life I used to lead. There is a song in the Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me Kate” that some of you may know in which the male lead asks: “Where is the life that late I led?” In that song he laments the loss of a life of freedom and irresponsibility that he led before he got married. Well, unlike this character I don’t at all lament the life that late I led. It was a life of working for that which did not satisfy—money, prestige, social respect. I learned the hard way that all of that is empty, hollow, a sham, and a deceit. It truly does not satisfy. For me, in any event, so far from providing true bread it threatened to starve my soul altogether.

I got out of that life, but every time I hear Isaiah’s question “why do you spend your money for that which is not food and your labor for that which does not satisfy” I think of more than my old life. I think of the country in which I live and its culture. And I think: Our whole culture is geared toward spending money for that which is not food and labor for that which does not satisfy. As a nation we labor for power, even hegemony, in the world, and no politician of either major party challenges that horribly misplaced priority that leads only to wars and international hatred. On a more personal level our culture screams at us in hundreds of ways every day that our lives are only about ourselves and that satisfaction consists of being young and beautiful, of wearing the right clothes, owning the right electronic gadgets, and driving the right car. And it’s all a lie. It’s a lie that makes us reject and even hate our true selves so that we will spend our money and our labor for that which makes the wealthy wealthier and the powerful corporations more powerful.

And the truth is that it all leads not to satisfaction but to spiritual death. If you doubt that just look at the statistics about alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide in our country, especially among young people and people who don’t fit the cultural stereotypes. Our culture is addicted to spending its money for that which is not food and its labor for that which does not satisfying—and to doing everything it can to make us do the same. It all truly does lead to spiritual death; but our culture doesn’t care, not as long as it all makes money for those who already have money.

There’s got to be a better way. A great many people, perhaps most people, in our culture, are hungering and thirsting for that better way. There is a great spiritual hunger among us. If you doubt that just look at the religion and spirituality sections of any large book store. You may be surprised at how big they are. You’ll find literature on a myriad of different spiritual paths, some tried and true and some new and problematic, but all of them seeking to feed that spiritual hunger. Or look at the self-help and self-improvement section. There are more books out there on how to make ourselves better, how to make ourselves some variety of whole, than anyone could read in many, many years. People are thirsting for true water. People are starving for true food.

Our culture tries to kill our spirits, but the human spirit doesn’t die all that easily. It keeps fighting back, thanks be to God. And here’s the great good news. Because we have made the decision and the commitment to live our spiritual lives in the great Christian tradition, we have available to us ancient and proven wisdom that exposes the lie of contemporary American culture and offers us true bread and true satisfaction. The Christian tradition offers us profound, life-changing, world-transforming spiritual food. It offers us bread that never runs out. That’s really what the famous story of Jesus feeding five thousand men plus women and children with fives loaves and two fish that we heard this morning is all about. We can get all hung up on whether or not it really happened as a matter of fact if we want, but to me that’s not what’s really important. Frankly, I don’t much care whether it ever happened as a matter of fact because I know that it happens every single day as a matter of truth. It happens when Christians receive the spiritual bread that Jesus Christ offers. It happens when the Christian tradition connects people to their ground and their origin, to their meaning and their end, that is, to the God that we know in and through Jesus Christ. There we find that which is true bread, the bread of life. When we labor to use the magnificent stories and symbols of the Christian faith we find that which truly does satisfy. We find satisfaction for our souls. We find peace, joy, comfort, encouragement, and challenge. We find meaning and purpose. We find grace.

Today we return to the Lord’s table to partake of bread and wine. We take only symbolic amounts, but that little bite of bread and those few drops of grape juice connect us to God through Jesus Christ. When we take them into our bodies we symbolically connect ourselves to Jesus and to the God Whom he incarnated and Whom he revealed to us. As we partake together we renew our bonds of community with each other and with the entire Christian church around the globe and across the ages. And as we do we find true satisfaction. We find not the false riches of our culture but the true wealth of our Christian faith—spiritual depth, spiritual truth, and connection with God the ultimate reality.

So come to this table this morning with joy. Come to buy bread and wine without money and without price. Come with open hearts and open minds. Come to put aside the false pursuits of the world. Come to receive that which is truly bread and that which can satisfy your spirits like nothing worldly ever can. Come for true satisfaction, the satisfaction that God alone can give. Come, for Jesus Christ is our host, and true satisfaction is our reward. Amen.