Your Soul’s Address
March 15th, 2010
St. David’s United Church
Rev. Dan Chambers
March 7, 2010
Isaiah 55:1-13
Your Soul’s Address
Incline your ear, and come to me, listen, so that you may live.
Isaiah 55:3
Recently I was with a person who struggles through life. She’s quite bright and persevering, but she has emotional challenges, is hard to house, and is growing increasingly paranoid. I’ve known her for almost ten years now and the church has helped her in small ways from time to time.
She wanted to meet at the Bread Garden, which we did. She said she was hungry and would I buy her something to eat. I said I would, and suggested a ham and cheese or BLT or chicken focaccia sandwich. She asked about their soup, but chose instead a basket of fries. I had a coffee and we sat outside in the sun where we could be warm and she could watch her stuff.
As she chomped on the fries, she told me how miserable her life was. People not treating her fairly. People letting her down. But most of all she was just unhappy with herself. How she looked, how tired she was, how terrible her life was turning out.
As she was talking, she piled one fry after another into her mouth, nonstop. The entire basket of fries was gone in a matter of minutes. All the while, as she shoved fries into her mouth, I kept thinking, “This is not what you want. Your body doesn’t want fries.” But for the moment, it seemed as if the fries might be a very brief distraction from the other hunger, the longing for love and happiness and fullness of life, and if all that pointed in that direction in that moment was a basket of fries, then so be it.
It was as if she held up a mirror for me of all the times I’ve tried to fill a hunger with food that doesn’t satisfy. “Looking for love in all the wrong places,” is the way that old 70’s song put it. When I watched her shovel fries, it occurred to me how God might see us as we desperately distract ourselves so we don’t feel the pain, the longing, the hunger that no greasy food or romantic affair will satisfy.
That’s what the prophet Isaiah was trying to tell the Hebrew people about six hundred years before Christ. Why bother working so hard for that which does not satisfy? God sets before you a banquet, a feast!
Isaiah addressed men and women still in exile in Babylon. “Come!” he says, “eat and drink – it’s on the house!” The sentiment recalls a royal edict proclaimed when a new king was installed on the throne. It was called the misharum, and declared that everyone was released from all debt, and a feast would be thrown in celebration of a new day under a new king.
In that same spirit, Isaiah here is throwing open the doors of invitation, welcoming people to feast and bask in the fullness of God.
I’ll read a bit, then interrupt myself. Hear this passage from the prophet Isaiah:
Listen, 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 labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good; delight yourselves in rich food.
Here the prophet takes a turn, and indicates that the feast to which he refers is as much spiritual as it is physical. Taking on the voice of God, the prophet 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 God while he is near…
Isaiah assures the people in exile that God’s word will not go to waste. Even though it’s not always obvious to us, even though things don’t always happen in our timeline, the seed of God has its own power and works toward its own good end.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
And do not return there until they have watered the earth,
Making it bring forth and sprout,
Giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
It shall not return to me empty,
But it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
And succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
And then, this beautiful blessing, a timeless benediction:
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace;
The mountains and the hills before you
Shall burst into song,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
And it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
What a word of hope for anyone in exile, or anyone longing for home, or anyone who carries a hunger around in the center of their being.
A few of our folks are at the Grand Canyon on a holiday. I wonder if they have seen the signs there that warn people of dehydration. As hikers follow a dusty trail a mile down into the canyon and back up again, signs pop up periodically that read,
Stop! Drink water. You are thirsty whether you realize it or not.
Isaiah is doing the same thing: reminding us of an underlying thirst that we’re well practiced at ignoring.
Lent, too, is a season that invites people to be in touch with that inner longing for God. This is our soul work, and Isaiah reminds us that there’s a feast to be had and we don’t have to pay a cent for it. It’s a grand banquet, and it’s absolutely free.
I remember as a typically poor university student going to a restaurant with a mentor. We sat down, opened the menu and he said, “Order what you like. It’s on me.” Wow. A wave of gratitude washed over me just to hear those words. It would have been enough simply to share a meal with this person I respected. But now he was offering to pay for my meal too! Blessing on top of blessing. Sheer grace.
And it’s nothing less than grace that God offers us.
Incline your ear, God says, and come to me; listen so that you may live.
Of course the living here is not just waking up and going through the motions of the day. It’s too easy to slip into a robotic kind of routine that we walk through more as a drag than a blessing.
Come to me, listen so that you may live.
Jesus echoed this invitation when he said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
These are words often carved into a communion table, reminding us that we are children of another bread: the bread of life, the cup of blessing.
We know in our bodies the hunger and thirst we have for God: it’s a longing for life, for love, for a sense of peace. Our body registers the condition of our soul. Our soul is expressed through our body. . In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, the body is “the soul’s address.” So when we pay attention to our body, we’re also able to pay attention to our soul.
Our body registers the thirst of the soul for life abundant; our body also registers grace . In her book, An Alter in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor writes,
Who deserves the way a hot bath feels on a cold night after a hard day’s work? Who has earned the smell of a loved one, embracing you on your first night back home? To hold a sleeping child in your arms can teach you more about the meaning of life than any ten books on the subject. To lie in the yard at night looking up at the stars can grant you entrance into divine mysteries that elude you inside the house. (p.43)
Who deserves this? Who earns it? None of us. Yet everyday in one way or another these and other amazing gifts comes to us for free. Listen, 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.
It’s there for you. No cost. No down payment. No layaway plan. No leasing agreement. No interest. Free.
Listen, everyone who thirsts…
As the body is the soul’s address, the church is too. As the Body of Christ in the world, the church is the address of our collective soul. The sanctuary provides an oasis for healing. Here we pray together, sing and learn and play together. Here we grow together in the spirit of compassion; here we organize to go into the world offering grace to other bodies who hunger and thirst.
Those other bodies that carry their own soul’s address don’t have to go to church to know about grace, which is a good thing since most people in Vancouver don’t. Did you know that, according to stats Canada and Angus Reid, BC is the most secular province in this country and has been since its beginning? Given that Canada is more secular than the United States, we therefore hold the dubious distinction of being the most secular region in North America. “No Religion” is the fastest growing category in both the US and Canada: in BC about 36% don’t consider themselves in any way religious; in the rest of Canada about 19%, and in the US about 14% (Douglas Todd, Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia, pp.10-12). Here, about 60% of the population don’t ever attend a place of worship, though many identify themselves as “secular but spiritual” (p.56). Only about 14% do attend a temple, mosque or church more than twice a year.
Like the Hebrew people Isaiah addressed, perhaps we know something about living in exile, being a person of faith in a secular society, being a church surrounded by people who claim “no religion” as their distinct identity.
One of the challenges for us today is to let people know that there is bread that satisfies the soul, and the church can help point the way. We are challenged to find ways to encourage people to stop and drink, because as human beings we carry a thirst of the soul around with us and may not even realize it. When we taste that life-giving water, and when one way or another we share a ladle of that water with someone else, the church becomes an address for the soul.
To this secular society, we need to throw open our doors and with Isaiah proclaim,
Listen, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come and eat! Come get wine and milk even if you don’t have a cent in your name.
Listen carefully, and eat what satisfies the soul.
And here are some ways we have extended that invitation in the last year. By the numbers: in 2009, we sang 15,000 hymns, listened to 52 sermons, and offered countless prayers.
We served 1,350 meals to people at First United for Out of the Cold, supported by about 270 volunteers.
We made about 2,400 sandwiches for the North Shore Look Out Shelter.
About 100 adults, children and youth participated in the
Be the Change program last May with people from Har El and the Bahai Community.
We gave $35,000 to outreach ministries, including 70% of our M&S dollars, Korogocho, Out of the Cold dinners, First United ministry, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, the What If? Foundation supporting children in Haiti, 10,000 Villages, and special fundraising for Haiti relief after the earthquake. By the way, to date people in the United Church of Canada have given $1,500,000 for the Haiti Relief effort, which is to be doubled by the federal government).
We gave about $18,000 to the work of the broader church, including 30% of our Mission and Service dollars, Presbytery dues, Conference dues, the NSYM, and VSt.
About 15 youth enjoyed sleepovers at the church or weekends away.
85 children and youth participated in our Sunday school program, taught and supported by 25 teachers.
7 people were baptized
13 couples were married
11 were remembered with a memorial service, 5 from our fold.
About 50 people participated in discussion groups and retreats.
We made about 160 visits to people in the hospital (including Lion’s Gate, St. Paul’s, Burnaby General or Vancouver General), or care facilities (including the Kiwanis center, Evergreen, Summerhill, Inglewood, Hollyburn, and West Van Care Center)
About 30 meals were delivered to people just home from the hospital or needing extra care.
Hospitality was offered generously, including 6,000 cups of coffee served Sunday morning, and about 800 meals served (Stewardship lunch, Men’s pancake breakfast, the Men’s BBQ lunch, the AGM lunch, the Advent Workshop, the Chinese dinner and 3 gatherings of women which included dinner), and a senior’s lunch, offered 3x)
Our building is also very well used by community groups. Though we don’t have a mission statement that defines who can or cannot use the building, we operate under the umbrella of groups that generally support the well-being of others, such as Meals on Wheels, Acorn daycare center, Montessori, Gymboree, 12-step groups, a bridge group, Girl Guides and the North Shore Music Academy. At least 350 people from these groups use the building every week, plus many others that meet monthly or less regularly, adding up to at least 21,000 people from the larger community who will benefit from our building throughout the year.
This is a community that serves a purpose. In so many ways we follow the prophet Isaiah, throw open the doors and say, “There’s bread here. And a cup of blessing. Come. Eat. And live.”
Through the grace of God. Amen.
