Isaiah 55:1-9 (NRSV)
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Chapter 55Ho, 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. Verse 2Why 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. Verse 3Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Verse 4See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Verse 5See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Verse 6Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; Verse 7let 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. Verse 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Verse 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Devotion
Theologian Sarah Coakley, in "God, Sexuality, and the Self," says that God is found in lack—in the tugging, gnawing emptiness that is part of human experience. In emptiness we feel desire, and in desire we come to understand that to be human is to be related. Ultimately, this reflects the Being in whose image we are made: a God who desires relationship with us and all creation.
This aspect of our humanity is easily exploited. Our landfills overflow with the remnants of our excess; our web browsers hold incalculable stores of sexual fantasies on demand. But just as God desires us, our desire can only be fully satisfied in the One Who Is and Who Will Be.
Why do we spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labor for that which does not satisfy? May we drink from living waters. May we eat what is good. May we delight in the rich food of God's abundant justice and mercy.
Prayer
Teach us to incline our ear and turn to you, O God; teach us to listen so that we may live. Amen.