Invitation, Promises and Celebration (Isaiah 55)

This weekend has been a big one for me. I spoke at a funeral on Friday, then a wedding on Saturday and preached on Sunday. The funeral talk I gave was pretty much reused from something in the past, so I won't be posting that. Below is the message I gave at the wedding last night. Later this week I will post the Sunday sermon. The names of the couple have been removed.

Isaiah 55 (NIV)

55 “Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

² Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare.

³ Give ear and come to me;

listen, that you may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

my faithful love promised to David.

⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

a ruler and commander of the peoples.

⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,

and nations you do not know will come running to you,

because of the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel,

for he has endowed you with splendor.”

⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

¹² You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,

and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord’s renown,

for an everlasting sign,

that will endure forever.”  

Welcome everyone. I assume we are all here because we received a wedding invite. We have all come here because we were all invited; we have come to hear E and N make promises together, and we have come to celebrate in all of this.

As the guests for this wedding, we can miss out on all the planning that was involved, and simply enjoy. We are going to share in some food afterwards, and we will not be stuck with the bill. Tonight it is E and N's celebration, and they have said it is their shout. They want us all to enjoy this day together, to be present in witnessing their promises, and so they made a way for us to enjoy and celebrate with them.

This model of invitation, promises and celebration is what our Bible reading was about.

This bit was written in a low point in Israel's history, but God is promising that He will still look after Israel. God had not forgotten His people, but maybe the people had forgotten God.

At the start of the reading, God is inviting all who are thirsty, all who are poor, all who want satisfaction to come to Him. And this is the dream, right? We can be restless and unsettled, unsatisfied in life and thirsty for something more.

We can be hooked on our phones, scrolling, watching everyone else's filtered lives come at a never-ending feed, making us feel like we haven’t made it. We don’t have what they have. You might be single and want to be married, and while happy for N and E today, this can still be a sore point.

We might work hard, maybe trying to please others and doing more and more things, only to be tired and at the end of the week, feeling drained and demoralised, knowing that you have to do it all over again next week. Surely there is something more.

And God says come and be satisfied. There is wine and milk, not just bare necessities, but luxury items, that are free, that someone else has footed the bill for. God says, satisfaction is on the house. It is His shout for all who want in, for all who accept the invitation.

God is offering Israel, and us, a banquet of salvation and satisfaction. This is not an exclusive invite. It is "for all of us who are burdened by life’s failed expectations, by our own inadequacies, and by our sin, God says, “Come and eat!” For us who are afraid of death and who often feel as if we are slaves to circumstances beyond our control, God says, “Come and eat!” For everyone who is thirsty, here is water. To all of us who have no money—nothing to give—[God] still says, “Come and eat!” "
(The Lectionary Commentary, Volume 1: The Old Testament and Acts (The First Readings) Third Sunday in Lent, Year C (Timothy E. Saleska))

Soon, we are going to hear from E and N make promises. And it is important that they keep their word. Words lose their meaning from people who say one thing and do another. There needs to always be a connection between saying and doing, othewise trust can be lost. E and N are going to promise that they will faithfully love one another. This is a huge promise, as the future is unclear. We don’t know what circumstances and events are going to happen. But, moving forward together, if they know they are for each other, that if they keep their commitment to be together in the ups and downs, they have a security that they can face the unknown, with each other by their side.

And God says in sentence 3, something similar. He says He will make an everlasting covenant with His people. This covenant will be about His faithful promise to David. Like at a wedding, God makes promises. The Bible calls these covenants. And in the past, God promised David, who was one of their best Kings, that someone from his line would be on the throne forever. But, in the messiness of life, that didn’t seem to work out. David's line was no longer on the throne. But here, God is saying, He will remember His words. He will be faithful in His love for David and will keep His promises. His words will align with His actions.

And how this comes about is different to how we might think. It didn’t come with great power but in humble service and love. This is different to what might be expected, but God’s ways are not ours. We aren’t told extensively how God is different to us, but we do get a glimpse in this passage.

From sentence 7, God accepts everyone who seeks Him. He radically forgives the wicked and the unrighteous. He shows them mercy and freely pardons those who come to Him. This behaviour is different to what we might see in people. Forgiveness is hard, it is costly, it feels unnatural. We want to get people back for what they have done to us, so they know how it feels. But God offers mercy and pardon to those who are wicked; and God promises that those who come to Him, they will be received, well fed and at the end of this section, they will go out in joy and peace, with songs and claps. The unrighteous who come will experience forgiveness and then joy.

E and N, in your marriage, you may upset and hurt each other, maybe not even intentionally, but maybe through miscommunication or having different expectations on things. When this happens, can I encourage you to be God-like? That is, to forgive and pardon and then invite them back into a joyous relationship, because that is what our God is like.

The promised King was Jesus. He was known as the Word who became flesh. Jesus resolved the justice problem of freely forgiving the wicked without punishment. He was the Word who accomplished and achieved God’s purposes of saving humanity. Jesus is now the true eternal king from the line of David, who died but overcame death, so can He not be killed again.

And the Christian life is one of celebration in what God has done for us. It’s why they sing so much at their gatherings on Sunday.

And at the end of the whole Bible, in the last chapter of Revelation, there is another wedding, and our Isaiah passage is alluded to. At the end of the Bible, God offers the same invitation. He says

“Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17 NIV)

E and N, may your wedding be shaped in the model of this Isaiah passage. One of invitation, one of promise and one of celebration. May it include forgiveness and joy. May it trust that God’s Word will not return empty, and may your marriage point to a greater marriage, an eternal one, where there are no weeds, where everyone is invited to drink and be satisfied forever.