Reflections on Isaiah 55:1-5

The greatest enemy I face in my advancing years is cynicism. So much of the world appears to be on a track that I find wholly distasteful, altogether dangerous and dreadful, redolent more of devastating apocalypse than the realm of God. The current president of my country, Donald Trump, is nothing more than a narcissistic bully, hurling tweet storms at his many enemies while denying our gay, lesbian, transgendered fellow citizens their American equal rights, threatening those of his own party with vague retributions if they do not bow the knee to his greatness, and doing his best to make us all the laughing stock of the world. All the while he basks in his own glowing bubble, imagining that he is actually doing what is right, all the while trying to perform unimaginable harm to the environment, unthinkable assaults on the poor and weak, appalling attacks on the very constitution he swore to uphold at his inauguration. It is enough to drive anyone into a state of profound disenchantment with everyone and everything!

It must have seemed very much the same to those Israelite exiles, abandoned to their fate in the huge metropolis of Babylon some 2700 years ago. They could be forgiven if cynicism marked their lives. They had seen the world they expected to last forever blown up one facet at a time. Their land of Israel, long promised and insured by the YHWH of promise, was gone. Their kings, directly descended from the mighty David for over four hundred years, had now devolved into the blinded and helpless Zedekiah, a fellow exile rather than any sort of monarch. Their temple, a shining beacon of hope and power in Jerusalem for nearly that same four hundred years, was now a pile of stones in a ruined city. Their priests could no longer perform the sacred rites that had sustained the people. They lived in Tel Aviv, a poor suburb of Babylon on the banks of the river Chebar, grasping at a new reality that promised little more than eking out a life of poverty and want in a foreign land. A later writer spoke for many: “Emptiness of emptiness; all is empty; there is nothing new under the sun.” When all expectations have been dashed, and a dark future raises its ugly head, it is supremely difficult to maintain a sense of hope, let alone a deep desire for an ongoing life.

Karl Barth supposedly bid us all to preach the gospel with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Whether or not he actually said that particular phrase, and there is considerable debate about it, it is sound advice. Of course, which parts of the Bible one ought to be reading is itself a crucial question, if the world’s horrors are to be confronted head on. Today, I suggest II-Isaiah. That means Is.40-55. There is no argument that that portion of the eclectic book called Isaiah was in fact written in the face of exile in Babylon. Hence, whoever the author was, he confronted the world that I sketched above, a place primed for cynicism, a jaundiced and cankered refuge of lost souls. And here is what he said.

“Ah, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters!
Anyone who has no money, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money, beyond price!”

His first two metaphors attempt to turn the cynic on her head. If you are thirsty, come right up to the waters and drink—no need to be afraid, no need to be reticent. The waters of life are available for those who want them. And if you are poor, without ready cash, step right up and get your wine and your milk, a wine and milk that is priceless in the end; no need for money at all! In short, the needy world you think you are inhabiting is in reality a place where your needs are going to be met. Remember, Isaiah appears to say, “YHWH is my shepherd; I lack nothing.”

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, continue to work for that which never satisfies?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good; delight yourselves in the rich food!

Bend your ear and come to me; listen that you may live.

Here may be found a subtle and powerful anti-cynicism tactic. My people, says Isaiah, you are focusing your lives on the wrong things. You spend your resources merely to survive, to labor for goods that are in themselves completely unsatisfying. Eat what is good, and what is good are the call and demand of YHWH, whose ways of justice and righteousness are life giving. Life can be more than one damn thing after another! You do not have to work only for the weekends; fulfilling lives may be lived each day, each minute. Expand your vision beyond the banks of the local river, well beyond the topless towers of Babylon. “I make with you an everlasting covenant, represented by my certain and unbreakable love for David, who was a witness, a commander, a leader in Israel; so shall you be!” There is a future and a hope for you!

As a result of your reliance on YHWH, “nations you do not know shall run to you,” as you call them to participate with you in the life affirming power of YHWH, your and their God. Open yourselves up to the full riches of the world of God, Isaiah commands, for only in that expansive inclusiveness can you find the hope of a new future. Nations may only become great when they become genuine blessings to all the other nations that God has formed and claimed. America, and all other nations, may only be great when they are open to the world, not closed, not bordered by absurd walls and narrow ideas of other people. The antidote to cynicism is inclusion, openness to the other, real dialogue with the neighbor. No one can feel safe behind locked walls and doors; only when the walls come down and the doors are open can true safety and hope be engendered.

Isaiah faced deep cynicism among his people in 6th century BCE Babylon. We face deep cynicism on 21st century planet earth. The cure is a wide open expansiveness, an open ear, a listening heart, listening for God and for our neighbors, near and far. Thank you, Isaiah, for your sage advice.