Welcoming all "Foodies"!

Sermon from August 3rd, 2014 on Isaiah 55:1-5

Many of you have known me for years, some of you may have no idea who I am, but those of you who know me best know that I am a foodie in every sense of the word. I am not alone in this. In fact when Pastor P was first called to this congregation my wife, C and I hosted Pastor P his first night in town. I was showing off my smoker as I carefully hovered over the temperature gauge and placed just the right amount of wood chips into the smoker. I am not certain if Pastor P recalls the succulent cuisine of that evening, but I recall his request for seconds and thirds. At that point I thought he was quite a nice fit at Epiphany. (To say nothing of his dashing hair and beard style).

To this day I think this makes him a nice fit as a called Pastor in this congregation because as I look out I see a wide variety of foodies. Here at Epiphany we have a variety of tastes in food and drink. We have home brewers, competitive BBQ cooks, we even have professional chefs. Just consider the excitement that has surrounded the opening of the new Southern Season culinary and kitchenware hub, and the disappointment as our local food festivals here in Richmond come to a close in the fall.

Yes, as I look out at these many faces I see quite a few foodies. I have seen your pictures of carefully crafted meals on Pinterest and Facebook, we have exchanged many recipes, and my hand has been stabbed by many of your forks as I reached into the box of fried chicken at our congregational meals. It is in fact a very well known stereotype of Lutherans that we love food. 

In our first lesson today food is a central theme. It is a central theme to the audience in Isaiah, a segment of the Judean people returning to their homes after being exiled into a foreign land. They have been humiliated, cast aside, treated abhorrently. Upon their return they have come to find their homes have oftentimes been confiscated, lands repossessed by not only those outside of their own religious community but those who have made heretical claims to their own faith. Their land, their belongings, their very identity have all been confiscated from them. This is the ultimate desecration of not only one’s culture, faith, and society, but it is by its very nature an attack upon the individual themselves. They have been nothing less than violated by all of those that surround them. Their very return to their motherland is littered in pain and sadness. Yet here Isaiah uses food as an analogy. 

Food, the very thing that is not only central to this day in Jewish and obviously Lutheran society, but the very thing that the community listening to these words finds wanting! Of course, this is a call to return to the Lord, to be fed in a buffet of plenty. Succulent food, rich and filling. A food that will feed not the body but the soul. But who is called to this feast, who is Isaiah calling to the table?

In my travels I have come to find there is no purer form of community than around a table of food and drink. Meals as a form of hospitality have been the ultimate sign of communal respect and shared experience throughout history. It is a powerful symbol that crosses cultural barriers. 

When in the middle east if one refuses food or drink, the host is left dishonored. Waving chopsticks when sharing a meal in China is considered in poor taste, and you should never stick your chopsticks in your noodles or rice leaving them pointed upright. When in Russia it is in poor taste to refuse vodka, and in Ireland it is very similar, but whiskey is considered the beverage of choice. 

Within Judaism there was a long history of hospitality towards guests. As some of my fellow travelers who accompanied me to Israel this past January, and those who have been there before will tell you, those rules do not apply as they once did. I'm not sure when this cultural norm was lost but today when in Israel one must be certain to “get while the gettin’s good”! 

During our stay at one particular hotel in Israel, a father overheard me exclaim to another traveler “I just don’t get it, I mean, is there a line?!” after observing several Israeli citizens on vacation simply grab food nearly right out of my hand. The father, after he and his child also had food snatched from their grasp, exclaimed to me, "I have lived here all my life and I still do not understand how people don’t recognize waiting in line for food, you just have to accept the fact that there are two lines; one for those with manners and one for everyone else.” 

It makes me wonder, perhaps today’s lesson from Isaiah is where patience became so thin. A starving people are told that they are invited to the table. A table of rich food, wine, milk, and breads. A table overflowing with food provided by God. But there is a catch, they are not called to only eat, they are called to feed others. 

It’s a feast! It’s a party! We are told to come to the table, and we aren't just ordered to come to the table to feast. Just as the feast is being described as an elegant and succulent meal, we are commanded to call to others to join in our feasting. It makes me picture a young child who has just come in from outside playing, and as they have just washed their hands and begun to move that first bite towards their mouth, they are scolded to wait for everyone else. 

Everyone else……. I mean sure, everyone else. My wife, my kids, P, maybe this time he can bring his wife M and their children with them. I can handle that right? 

Everyone else…… 

But that’s not the everyone else being called to this table. God isn’t calling just our own community to this table. If that were the case, this would be nothing more than a feast of thanksgiving. A festival of gorging ourselves and selfishly hoarding the tasty delights that God provides. 

But this is a feast for the soul, the spirit and God is calling upon the Judeans and now we, to call the very one’s we despise to our table. God is charging the Judeans to themselves, call those who have stolen their lands, those who have corrupted their faith, those who have persecuted them, those who have wronged them in every way. God is calling the Judeans to serve them this meal. God is calling the Judeans to invite the enemy to their table, to not only share in this meal, but to be an extension of the hand of God. 

Our table has grown smaller just as our community has grown smaller.

Today’s first lesson is a lesson much easier brushed aside in favor of the performance of one of  Jesus’ greatest miracles as we heard in today’s Gospel. But this is our charge, this is our call. We are called to share this table with the despised, the hated, the poor, the lowly. 

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This past week I heard a theological defense arguing the existence of God in the midst of the evils of the world. In this explanation the individual used a story of a barber. In the story the barber advises a pastor that he is an atheist and that he cannot believe in the existence of God in a world so full of suffering. The Pastor walks out the barber shop, after getting his hair cut,  and notices a disheveled vagrant man sitting outside the barber shop and immediately walks back in to advise the barber that he no longer believes in barbers because of the long haired vagrant sitting outside the barber shop, to which the barber replies “well, he has never come to me”

Now bear with me at this point because Christy pleaded that I take my initial reaction to this theological insight out of my sermon, but to put it lightly I was very passionately frustrated with this explanation. I found it fundamentally flawed and certainly not very Lutheran.

You see in today's 1st lesson we hear a command, “Behold, you shall call nations that you know not”. My problem with the story is this; If the Pastor truly heard these words from Isaiah we have heard today he wouldn't walk back in to argue the existence of God, he himself would have offered the disheveled man a haircut!

We are given a gift, freely given to us all. It is the gift of God’s grace. We are justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. What we do in this life, why it is we do the work of God in the world, is not for the rich food at the table, it is in response to the gift already given by God. It is God that has glorified us, this is our reward! We are called and sent by God the creator to sustain a malnourished world and redeem a creation that we fail to sustain without the direction of God’s grace and Spirit. We don’t get to choose, we aren't called to choose, we are only called to invite to the table all who are hungry and all who thirst. It is not our gift to give, it is God’s. We are just the one’s who are lucky enough to share in that gift. At this table we get to feast as the Body of Christ together. As the Body of Christ however, we are called to extend the table and add a leaf, scrounge up more chairs, and set more places. But when we are done setting that table, we are called to invite those we fear, those we despise, those who hate us. 

It’s not ours to give, it’s ours to serve. 

But what does this look like in a world torn by war, afflicted by disease and poverty? How are we invited into this call, what actions do we take? These past few weeks the silence was so deafening that we had some guests come and sit at God's table while we weren't watching.

Over the past several days I have watched a symbol sprout up across the internet in news articles and social media. The Arabic letter “nun” has drawn attention from religious leaders and faith communities as a symbol of Christian unity.You see, the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, uses the letter “nun” to identify Christians in Mosul as Nazarenes.

When Jeremy Courtney, a Christian philanthropist living in Iraq started this movement, he was hoping to draw attention to the plight of not only the Christians in Iraq but the Shia, the Turkmen, even other Sunni Iraqis being targeted by the Islamic state militants. But when western Christians heard that the Islamic State had marked Christian homes with the symbol threatening Christians to convert to Islam, pay a submission tax, face the sword, or flee, the “nun” became a sign of solidarity for Christians alone. 

What we have failed to see in our media is the growing solidarity of the people of Iraq. The symbol ended up being printed on t-shirts and etched onto skin with markers, not as a method to single a particular group out, but so that these Iraqi Muslims too may join the ranks of those Christians facing persecution and possibly even death.

In Baghdad during a sermon two weeks ago, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church Patriarch Louis Sako called the actions of The Islamic State actions not against just Christians but crimes against humanity which haver never before been seen in the history of Christendom or Islam. His words not only reached the ears of a wide Christian audience but over 200 Muslim Iraqis also in attendance wearing t shirts claiming “I am Iraqi, I am Christian”.

But why? Why would these Iraqi Muslims risk their lives, their homes, their families? Who has called THEM to the table, and can we honestly say THEY are welcome? When asked why they would do such a thing, Jeremy Courtney said that his neighbors believed that in marking their fellow Iraqis who are Christian, the Islamic State has marked them all. He claims that they have assumed that if the Islamic State comes for you, they can come for us all as well.......

You see, they have claimed the title of Christian, but not because they have converted from Islam, but because they see themselves in the suffering of their Christian neighbors.

Sisters and brothers, they are already at the table. Maybe it is time for us to serve, 

our world is full of foodies and they are hungry to be fed with a feast for the soul.

שלום ,سلام,‎ and Peace

Sources

“#WeAreN: Thousands Unite to Support Persecuted Christians in Iraq.” Christian Today. Accessed August 3, 2014. http://www.christiantoday.com/article/wearen.thousands.unite.to.support.persecuted.christians.in.iraq/39026.htm.

“#WeAreN: What the Media Misses about Iraqi Christian Persecution.” On Faith & Culture. Accessed August 3, 2014. http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2014/07/25/wearen-media-misses-iraqi-christian-persecution/.

“Behind #WeAreN: ‘If One Group Is Marked, We’re All Marked’.” Accessed August 3, 2014. http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/07/31/behind-wearen-if-one-group-marked-were-all-marked.