3 Lent 2025
Isaiah 55:1-9
The large cardboard sign propped up against the curb and written in bold,
black texta said ‘FREE STUFF’.
It was as apt description. Behind the sign was a pile of what could only be described as ‘stuff’. Someone had clearly had a long-overdue clean out of their garage. Or perhaps they were moving.
I cast an eye at the pile of ‘stuff’ as I drove past. It was the usual. There was a lounge chair without cushions, and three-legged coffee table, a couple of old car tyres, a couple of stacks of old 8-tracks, a rusted bicycle frame, a rolled up old carpet.
And what was that in the back? An old piano? No. I think it was a roll top desk. But then I was past.
Later that morning I thought about that pile of stuff. Was that a roll top desk? I had been looking for one of them for a while. They are not cheap, even second hand. And this one appeared to be about the right size. But who in their right mind would give away something like that. Surely there was something wrong with it. It was badly damaged or warped, poorly constructed, etc.
All day my mind went back to that roll top desk. I finally decided that afternoon to drive back past and have another look. Perhaps it really was a roll-top desk for free.
As I pulled up alongside the curb in front of the pile of free stuff, I could see clearly that it was indeed an old roll-top desk. And it was clearly in very good condition. I could see all this because it was being loaded into the back of a ute parked just in front of me!
I had waited and dithered too long, disbelieving that anything that good was actually being given away, or thinking surely there was something seriously wrong with it that I would notice as soon as I stopped to inspect it. Many other passersby had likely had the same thought.
It would have been a great desk. Just what I was looking for. But now it was gone. I had missed the opportunity.
In today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah we have a similar situation. Isaiah is writing to a people in exile in Babylon. They are not accustomed to expecting much, and certainly nothing for free.
The prophet gets their attention in words that echoed the well-known calls of the spruikers in the market places of the ancient world selling food and fresh drinking water.
‘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!’
Many of you have travelled to places where this kind of selling still occurs. ‘You there, yes, you, Mam. You look like you could use a new hat. I have one just your colour that would match your outfit!’
Or, ‘You sir. You look like someone how could use a cool drink. I have fresh coconuts here. Just one dollar, and I will slice it open for you and include a straw. No extra charge!’
We tend to tune out these calls unless it is something we were looking for. But what if someone starts calling out, ‘You there! No money? No worries! I have food and drink for free. No gimmick. No charge.’
Well, that would get our attention. And that is the intention of the prophet in this passage. They now the familiar words of the spruikers. But who spruiks stuff for free?
We would likely be very skeptical of such an offer. It makes so sense. Surely there is a catch. Like most, we would likely walk on past, known free food and drink was too good to be true.
But that is exactly what God is doing. He is offering a people in captivity and exile grace. He is promising that they will return home. He reminds them of the great king David from their past. Those days will be restored. So come and drink and eat from the Lord’s table. By grace, he is providing this all for free.
The words of the prophet are a foretaste of the call God issues to us all in and through Christ. Come, eat and drink. Forgiveness and life everlasting are on offer – for free.
Well, as we know, free stuff, stuff that is not actually junk, just doesn’t make sense. Nor does it make sense that God would be giving away salvation for free. There must be a catch.
But the prophet knows that his readers are going to be asking these same questions. He reminds them (in verses 8 and 9) that God says ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’
Yes, free stuff – from God – doesn’t make sense. Not from a human perspective. But God reminds us that he is not us. God does’t think and act as we do. God acts on a whole new level. And in God’s world, and God’s reality, new life, forgiveness and salvation really are being given away.
But there is a proviso. We are warned that the offer is not unlimited. Now is the time to turn to God’s love, now is the time to choose to follow the path God has set before us. Now is the time to do those things we know God wants us to do. God calls us to choose him, to follow him. God calls us to his love. And he offers us life and life everlasting for free. But now is the time to respond to this unbelievable offer.
The prophet Isaiah writes these well-known words: ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let that return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them and will abundantly pardon.’ (verse 7).
It is a bit like me and the free roll-top desk. I spent so long convincing myself that there was not a catch, and that perhaps it was a perfectly good old roll-top desk behind that pile of stuff that by the time I finally decided to go back and check it out, the desk was taken. I had dithered too long.
When we know what God wants us to do, when we know that we need to change our lives or actions, when we know that we need to respond to the love that God shows to us in Jesus, there is no point putting it off, forever considering our options or trying to find the catch.
God is near to us now, he is able to be found now.
We do not know what the future might bring. Jesus, if very strong words in today’s Gospel reading, made the same point that Isaiah is making. He reminded the crowds of a couple recent tragedies, including a tower falling over and killing eighteen people. None of these eighteen expected that this would be their last day. No one saw the tower collapse coming. Some of them may have been thinking: I need to start doing the things God wants me to do. I need to make amends with my neighbour, my parents, my siblings. I need to give up some thins I am doing that are wrong. Perhaps they had been considering these things for some days, or weeks, or months, or years. But now it was too late. Jesus warns his listeners that their time might also be limited. He finishes with the story of the fig tree. It has no born fruit and the owner (God) says it is time to cut it down. But the gardener (Jesus) says give it another year. Let me work on it for another year.
Jesus does not easily give up on us. But he also warns us that and end may well come to the opportunity to choose to follow him, to choose to return to him, to do that thing that we know God wants us to do.
Free stuff? Hard for us to believe, but in God’s case, he really does offer us his love for free. And now is the time to seek him, while he is near and may be found.
Free love and mercy. It’s a deal that is hard to believe. But God’s thoughts and ways are very different to our own.
But we may not always be is position to respond to God. We do not know when Christ will return, we do not know when our own earthly journey will end, we do not know when circumstances will change and the opportunity to do something that we felt God was calling us to do will pass.
So the message of both Jesus, expressed in stark terms in today’s Gospel text, and that of Isaiah, expressed more gently, is the same. It is one of urgency. God’s grace is on offer. God wants us to return to him. But now is the time to respond.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie.