Our first reading from Isaiah is one of my favorites, because I am sure that Jesus deliberately echoes it in his own words and actions. Here in Isaiah, God says, come to me, all you who are thirsty and hungry--I will give you wine and milk and bread. Then in the Gospel (St. Matthew's) Jesus says, "come to me all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest"; (11:28). Match that up with Jesus' feeding of the 5000, the only miracle reported in all four Gospels, where Jesus does give food to the hungry. This is Jesus' way of saying, I am doing God's work, I am bringing God's message, and ever perhaps, I am God.

A few verses later in Isaiah, God says, "your ways are not my ways". The reason this passage deliver such a powerful message, is that it is not our human way to provide a free lunch. One way or another, in all centuries and all cultures, everyone pays for the food we eat: those who do the farmwork, those who labor at jobs for a salary, those who pay with emotional servitude, and even those who make it in the stock market or inherit money. We all pay: that is the way human life is set up. So where did the concept of a "free lunch" originate? When I looked it up, I was surprised to learn that the free lunch has become a concept in economics, popularized by Milton Friedman, as well as the title of a book about complexity and evolution. It was first mentioned in print in a "New York Times" article in 1950, attributed to economist Leonard Ayres. But before that there were, apparently, bars where you could buy a drink and receive a free lunch.

Economists and philosophers agree that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Yet the Bible reports that GOD has indeed offered us a free lunch, and Jesus has confirmed the offer. God's free lunch is a meal which has at least four courses. The first course is the abundance of food which God has created for us to enjoy. Some of it comes ready to eat~~apples and milk~~and by our human ingenuity, we have discovered how to process other food, such as wheat into bread, and grapes into wine. The second course of God's free lunch is the human community, which God calls together to share the food that is available. Did you know that there are several "thousand" verses in the Bible about the poor? After idolatry, caring for the poor is the most prominent theme in the Hebrew scriptures. Over and over, God says to his people, it is your responsibility to take care of people in need. For example, in Deuteronomy 15, God says, "give liberally, and be ungrudging . . .open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor". Somehow the world has missed this message, for in the 21st century, 24,000 people die of hunger every day. So offering food at the altar, and feeding the hungry at Our Daily Bread, are a central part of our responsibility.

The third course of God's free lunch is the heavenly banquet, which God is preparing. Isaiah describes it in chapter 25; it is a "feast for all peoples, a feast of rich food, of well-aged wines", and along with the feast God will wipe away all tears and all disgrace, and God will destroy death. We often read that passage at memorial services because it is such a glorious promise of happy fellowship with those we love. Jesus, had a deliberate practice of eating meals with all sorts and conditions of people as a way of telling us that we should begin now to enjoy the heavenly banquet, in this life.

Inevitably, it follows from these three courses, that the fourth course of God's free lunch is the true spiritual food and drink which God invites us to eat, and be satisfied. From the earliest times of the Hebrew people there was recognition, that humanity does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God. Each generation must teach this to the next one, but apparently it is a hard truth to hold onto. Both in the ancient world, and perhaps even more today, there are so many urgent matters which capture our attention. Just getting our work done, and running our households, and caring for our families, fills most of our time. Small wonder that we believe we will be happy if only we can get a bigger house or a new car or the Dish network.

Why is it that we are so reluctant to receive the spiritual food and drink which God offers? Why do we often choose substitutes for God, which cannot nourish us? One big reason is that our picture of God is askew. Because we are competitive, and vindictive, we assume God must be like that on a grander scale. So if someone has been murdered while offering their sacrifice in the Temple, it must be a punishment from God. They were terrible sinners, just like those who were killed when the tower collapsed. In Jesus' day, and sometimes today, an awful death is assumed to be a just sentence for an awful sin. Did you hear Jesus saying NO to that way of thinking, when our deacon read the Gospel? NO, they were not punished by God, they were not worse than anyone else, God is NOT like that at all.

Jesus was telling his listeners that they have misunderstood God's attitude toward sin. God is not like an angry judge; God is more like a concerned parent, who weeps over a wayward child. Consider the gardener, Jesus says, who wants to give the fig tree another chance, and who helps the tree by turning the earth, and working fertilizer into it. God is like that gardener, ready to give each human sinner another chance, and prepared to provide better conditions for our growth. Jesus was specifically rejecting the God of retribution, and specifically choosing to emphasize God's forgiveness and mercy. Last week it was the hen gathering her chicks, today it is the gardener who wants to give the fig tree another chance, and next week it will be the father welcoming his prodigal son with joy. God really does have a four course free lunch for us, if only we will sit down to share it with all the other prodigal daughters and sons.

In today's Epistle, St. Paul makes a similar interpretation, with a startling result. He is drawing a comparison between the Christians in Corinth, and the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. He is saying that the Israelites experienced the same thing as the Corinthians did--by passing through the red sea, and travelling under God's cloud, the Israelites were baptized, just like the Corinthians. And by eating the manna, and drinking water from the rock, they received supernatural food, just as the Corinthians do in the Eucharist. Having got that far in his re-interpretation of Scripture, St. Paul took the next logical step, and identified the source of their spiritual drink, as Christ. This gives the most unusual image of Christ as a rock with a fountain of water spouting from it, following the Israelites in their journey. When I try to visualize this, the rock I see looks like a spaceship gliding across the desert. But when I think of it as a metaphor for God, it is quite close to the Gardener, turning the earth around the fig tree. In both cases, God is imagined "making an active effort" on behalf of the sinner.

God's active effort on my behalf, is the good news of God in Christ that you and I are called to proclaim by word and example, in the baptismal covenant. It is not necessary to be a Biblical scholar, or a theologian, to say, God has forgiven me many times. I have received guidance from God, I have leaned on Jesus and he has supported me. The Good news begins with God the gardener, replacing God the judge. The good news we are called to share, is that God has truly forgiven me in particular, and therefore I have been able to start over. God is not recording my sins in his book, God is not punishing me with illness or bad luck. I have received grace from God: undeserved favor and blessing and help.

When I look back at my life, I see some truly awful moments: of acting-out behavior when I was 18, bad judgments and decisions hurtful to others in my 20's, failures in relationships, moments of despair, and every single time, God was with me to comfort, to heal, and to restore. Sometimes the comfort came immediately; other times it seeped slowly into my soul. What matters is that today I am healed and whole by God's grace. I suspect everyone here has had such experiences, and could speak of God's grace and love. That is exactly what we promise to do in the baptismal covenant, when we say, I will proclaim by word the Good News of God in Christ. We are speaking our truth, we are saying each in our own way, what God has done for me and for you.

We also promise to proclaim the good news by example. That sounds a bit easier: volunteer some time, contribute some food for the poor, help a neighbor with their project~~all of which is good, but it is only the start. What we are really promising, is to turn our behavior from walls into windows, through which others can see God. When I choose to cooperate rather than compete, when I choose to rejoice in a co~worker's accomplishment, when I go the extra mile to help a stranger, when I assume the best motives, and especially when I withhold judgement and give support, I am proclaiming the Good news of God by example.

This is how that insignificant band of disciples created the church. They each shared what they had experienced, planting the seeds of faith with everyone they met. They were not discouraged that some of those seeds fell on rocky ground, because they knew God was at work along with them. Their responsibility, and ours, is to share our experience of the good news, to tell of the grace and healing we have received. The responsibility for growing those seeds of faith, belongs to the Holy Spirit. So our task, our call, is to invite others to share with us in God's four-course free lunch right now in this life, and for all eternity. Amen