We continue to hold in prayer the people of Ukraine. Several million people have left the country as refugees. Several million more have become displaced within Ukraine. It’s hard for me - and maybe for you, too - to imagine the scale of the disruption to normal life: the uncertainty, the terror.
Week of Compassion - which we support every year with a special offering in February - and Global Ministries - which is supported by our giving to the Disciples Mission Fund - are doing what they can to help those refugees and others affected.
They are working in partnership with other ministries and relief organizations to do whatever can be done. Through these ministries and their ecumenical partners, our church is on the ground in Ukraine, establishing mobile hospitals, and working to provide spiritual and psychological support. Aid is being distributed, and transportation for refugees is being arranged.
This is our church at work. Your prayers and your support for Bixby Knolls Christian Church help make this possible. Through this ministry, you are there, providing help and comfort to those in need.
I saw this image last week. It’s a fruit stand in Odessa, a city in Ukraine. I’m told that the sign says that the vendor has left his fruit stand in order to volunteer with the Ukrainian military, and that the fruit stand is now a self-serve fruit stand; and the sign also says that anyone without enough money is welcome to take fruit without paying.
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.
It’s always remarkable when you’re able to glimpse God’s kingdom of shalom, the kingdom of justice, the kingdom of peace, in the very midst of the brokenness of the world.
And the fruit all looks pretty good, doesn’t it? Fresh apples, and maybe some pears in the back (I can’t tell); crisp and sweet…
I like to slice my apples and spread some natural creamy peanut butter on the slices. Apple slices are also good with a little yogurt and honey, and some people like a slice of sharp cheddar on their apple slices.
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Now, I know: these are strange words to hear in the middle of Lent. In Lent we often choose to give up something, to remind us of Christ’s sacrifice, and many people choose to give up some sort of food, like wine or chocolate or red meat - something really good.
Yet the lectionary reading from Isaiah tells us to eat what is good, to delight in eating rich food.
This is part of Isaiah’s vision. Inspired by the Spirit, anointed by God, Isaiah had a vision of a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of shalom, a kingdom where every person, regardless of how rich or poor they were, is able to eat good food and not go hungry.
The other prophets also all shared this vision. And it was an alternative vision to the vision set forth by the leaders in their time.
Remember: although the Old Testament prophets lived in different time periods, one thing they all had in common is that they all lived in times when economic policy was skewed in favor of the rich, and against the poor. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” was huge.
In the different periods in which the prophets were active, the rich were getting richer and richer; while the poor, burdened by debt and oppressed by economic policy, didn’t even have enough to eat. If they owned land, they lost it; they sold it or had it seized in order to pay their debts. And for the many who still couldn’t pay their debts, they were forced into slavery, or forced to watch their children be sold into slavery.
This would not be the case if the rulers ruled with justice. This would not be the case if the rulers followed God’s teachings. Those teachings put a limit on debt, and called for all debts to be forgiven and all land returned to its original owner after a set time. Those teachings instructed that the nation’s economic wealth was to be shared with the poor, so that no one would go hungry.
Because the state of the nation is not good, unless it is good for everyone.
At times, some of the rulers of Israel and Judah did follow God’s teachings, or at least came close to it. And in those times, because there was justice, there were no prophets. They weren’t needed.
But in those other times, when the rulers ignored God’s teachings, and justice was not implemented, and the poor were forgotten, neglected, or taken advantage of, God called on the prophets. Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jonah, and Micah in the 8th century BCE; Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah at the end of the 7th century; Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, and Malachi at the end of the 6th century.
God called on these prophets to speak to the nations, to proclaim Jubilee, the forgiveness of debts, and to convince the kings and rulers to restore justice, so that the poor could have food to eat, and that they could enjoy it in freedom.
This is the vision of Isaiah in today’s scripture.
And Jesus continued to put that vision before the people. In fact, that vision is even a part of the prayer he taught his disciples, the Lord’s Prayer.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” he was envisioning the ancient practice of Jubilee, when debts are indeed forgiven, when people’s lives are restored, and they are able to live lives of wholeness, lives of abundance.
The wealth of the nation, which their labor helped produce, is shared, so that none go hungry. Even those who are poor, who cannot afford to pay, are at least able to eat of the good food that the land produces.
Only when the nations shape their economies this way will there be shalom. Only when they practice justice like this will there be peace.
Yet, as we heard in last week’s scripture, the people often don’t do what is necessary for peace. And Jesus weeps. Jesus laments over Jerusalem in Luke chapter 13; and again, in the 19th chapter of Luke, Jesus weeps again, and says: “If only you had recognized the things that make for peace!”
And if Jesus was weeping then, I’m pretty sure that Jesus is weeping today. Because at no time in recent history, has economic policy been so skewed in favor of the rich, and so against the poor.
In the United States, since the 1950s, through both Republican and Democratic administrations, the burden on the poor has become harder and harder to bear, while the wealthy receive more and more favors and tax breaks. The greed that exists today among the wealthiest citizens and wealthiest corporations is obscene.
Many major corporations, from grocery store chains to Big Oil, are raising their prices, even though their own costs have not gone up. They’re making record profits, and are also giving big raises to their CEOs and stockholders; yet they deprive their workers of a living wage.
In the past three weeks, the price of oil has dropped by $30 per barrel. Yet gas prices continue to rise. Oil companies are taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to keep prices high, even though their own costs have gone down.
That is sin. It is perhaps the most mentioned sin in all of scripture: the sin of making the poor pay more, suffer more, while the rich grow richer and richer.
The most mentioned sin in all of scripture: depriving the poor of justice.
This is not God’s will. This is not the vision of the prophets. This is not the way of Jesus.
But the vision of the prophets is not dead. The way of Jesus is still alive. And we are the ones who can invite the world to join us on that way, the ones to keep the vision of the prophets in people’s minds and hearts, to remind the world that this is what God commands; that this is the way to peace.
Indeed, that is our calling. Just as the prophets were called, so too are we. Their vision is now our vision. Their hope now dwells among us and within us.
As long as there are people in the world who are faithful to God and faithful to Jesus, that vision will not die.
Which is why I think it is perfectly appropriate that we have a scripture about eating good food, and delighting ourselves in rich food, during Lent. We should delight in eating good food during Lent, as long as we work to build a society in which all people can delight in rich food, and enjoy what is good together.
And if we should give up anything for Lent, we should give up the lie that the rich deserve their obscene wealth because they work hard for it; and we should give up the lie that poor workers don’t deserve a living wage; and we should give up the lie that rising prices are due to inflation, when really it’s corporate greed causing prices to go up.
And if we should give up anything for Lent, we should give up our level of comfort and complacency with an economy that so drastically oppresses the poor.
And if we should give up anything for Lent, we should give up our refusal to recognize just what it is that makes for peace in our world.
And together, we should work for a world where everyone has a seat at the table; where every person is welcome at the feast.
There is abundance for all, if we learn to share. That is the gospel truth. This world is a world of abundance, a world of blessing. God has bestowed upon humanity so many gifts - everything we need to not just survive, but thrive.
So every person should be able to eat the good stuff, and delight in rich food.
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