God the Street Vendor

Isaiah 55:1-5, the First Reading appointed for the 9th Sunday in Pentecost in the Year of Matthew, is unusual because God sounds like a marketplace merchant - a street vendor.  "Ho, everyone who thirst," the vendor cries.  Everyone?  It will be the preacher's task to make clear that God means exactly what God says here: everyone who is thirsty is invited.  Perhaps recognizing our thirst is our biggest obstacle.

(The following questions are not meant to be exhaustive but have been developed to answer questions which are important for Law and Gospel preachers.  These questions center on how the Word is functioning in the text.  To learn more about this method and Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide to Law and Gospel preaching, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The Word here is almost completely a gospel word.  God is offering water, wine, and milk to everyone who thirsts, and there is no price.  God is inviting all to listen and eat what is good and delight in abundance.  God is promising to make an everlasting covenant with all who will enter into his embrace.  This is a gospel word.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  The Law is not present except in the form of a question:  "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?"  The Law is clearly present here as God calls into question futile ways of living.  Yet, God is not condemning here, but rather pleading, therefore it is a 'softer' form of the Law.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  We are the hearers of this text.  God is speaking to us for we are those who so easily spend all we have in futile, senseless pursuits which do not lead to life.  We are the ones whom God is pleading with.

4.  What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text?  This text is a call to faith, not a call to obedience.  God is calling to us to trust in the covenant offered to us.  God is pleading with us to believe in the gifts God is offering.  This is a call to faith.

5.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  The two futile pursuits named in verse 2 give us some fodder for couplets:  not bread/bread of life; not satisfied/filled to overflowing.

6.  Exegetical work:  The Hebrew text is illuminating in verse 2.  A rough translation which is more direct could be, "Why are you weighing out a piece of silver for fake bread, and bartering your labor for worthless fillers?"  The Hebrew lifts up the futility and foolishness of such transactions.  Claus Westermann, in his classic commentary, says God is like a water seller here.  "The repetition of 'come' and 'buy" is an imitation of street vendors." (The OT Library series, Isaiah 40-66, p. 282).  It is interesting that God, the merchant, not only invites all to come and partake without price, but God also steers the listeners away from other vendors who are selling worthless items.  Luther is quick to identify the life-giving merchandise as the grace God gives.  Luther says, "They labor for that which is not bread.  Note therefore that all righteousness outside of grace is toilsome and futile... Thus you see that the prophet is calling us away from our own righteousness in highly forceful and dramatic words and is directing us to the free righteousness of God."  (Luther's Works, vol. XVII, p. 251). 

7.  Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic?  This text might be a good one to remember Eugene Lowry's advice that the preacher is well-served to conceive the sermon as a plot wherein we move the listener into disequilibrium and then back to equilibrium.  This text seems to lend itself to such an approach.

Blessings on your proclamation!