Dunbar UCC

March 7, 2010

Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-9

Luke 13:1-9

Free Food

I.        The phrase free lunch refers to a tradition once common in saloons where you got a "free" lunch if you bought at least one drink. These free lunches were worth more than the price of a drink but the saloon-keeper hoped a person would buy more than just one. The saying "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" refers to this custom, meaning that things which appear to be free are always paid for in some way.

II.       We get into trouble when we think something is free.  Maybe it’s a Bob’s furniture commercial that says, “Buy one chair -- get another free!” So we end up refurnishing our whole house! And who can resist “free” credit?  Buy a car and pay no interest!  Then one day, as our house is forclosed and our car is being repossessed we realize that all this free stuff cost a lot of money!

III.      Can we trust someone who tells us that something is free?  In our first reading this morning, Isaiah tells us that God is offering a free lunch!  He says, “You that have no money -- come!  buy and eat!...“Buy wine and milk without money and without price.”  

IV.     I don’t know.  You’ve got to watch these religious types -- these prophets -- these .....ministers!  Here I am offering you a free lunch.  I kind of feel like Bob:  “Come on down -- God has a free lunch for you!”

V.      Isaiah said we work hard to make money and then spend it on things that don’t satisfy us.  In a poetic way he asks:  “Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread?”

VI.     Jesus also used the metaphor of bread.  In the Lord’s prayer he said, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  He wasn’t just talking about food -- he was saying, O God let us know your will so we can have a meaningful life.

          For both Isaiah and Jesus, the only thing that will give us peace and contentment is seeking God every day, and doing God’s will.  That’s the daily bread Jesus was talking about.  When the devil said to turn the stone into bread, Jesus said that’s not what’s important -- what we need to live is to “eat” every word that procedes from the mouth of God.  In another place, Jesus said, “My bread is to do the will of God.”  What sustains us, spiritually, is doing God’s will.

VII.    That’s the free lunch.  God gives us his will, and if we can discover it -- and follow it -- there are intangible rewards  -- an inner peace, maybe joy or a feeling of wellbeing.  Maybe it’s different for each of us.  But Jesus believed that repenting -- following God alone -- was worth more than anything money could buy.

          “Turn to God and seek him alone,” Isaiah and Jesus said, “it’s free, it costs you nothing -- nothing.  Only your life.”