Sermon - 8/2/20

<p>As we live these present days, the challenges we face are affecting us in multiple ways.  I have been thinking about this and have realized one way our lives have changed during this pandemic time is that we are experiencing a certain kind of disorientation and a sense of dislocation. This is not a geographical dislocation, but dislocation as it relates to our daily patterns, structures, and activities.  All we need do is look at the way we are presently worshipping – either online, or in-person but outdoors.  As I think about our present context, the following descriptive words or phrases come to mind – dislocation, exile from what we once had, sorrow, loss, a hunger for community resulting in a sense of emptiness, and a sense of nothingness compared to what we once had.  And, as so frequently happens, today’s life-giving readings provide the nourishment we deeply need.</p> <p>In our first reading today, the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel as they experience <strong>chasmic</strong> dislocation, sorrow, desolation, emptiness, a sense of <strong>nothingness</strong> and loss.  They are in exile, in Babylon.  In 587 BCE, Jerusalem had been burned and the temple destroyed.  The king was exiled, the leading citizens were deported, and the public life they had known, all had come to an end.  And, into this context, the prophet Isaiah speaks words of consolation and hope saying, “Hey there, all who are thirsty, come to the waters!  Are you penniless? Come anyway – buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money – everything’s free!”  Imagine hearing these words, “come, buy and eat, even though you have no money.”  The prophet addresses the void, the emptiness, the nothingness compared to what once was.  He addresses the dislocation and the sorrow in the lives of the people.  And, he uses the metaphor of food to remind them of the covenant that God had established and renewed.  Isaiah likens God’s faithful, everlasting covenant to food freely given, as he says, “Listen carefull