“Eat What Is Good”

(Is 55:1-9; Lk 13:1-9) Lent 3, Sun, March 23, 2025, FBC Amherst, JG White

D’you like markets? Local farmers markets? Sharon and I have, from time to time, been in the habit of visiting some. I love the rich pastries! And the local vegetables, and so on. 

But we always remember this one vendor, at a Saturday market we used to visit often. There, at the start of one aisle was the cider man, with gallons of apple cider. We can still see him, his face with a short beard, his hat, and his hand with a little paper cup of cider to sample. “Try some apple cider!” he would insist, as his hand and his face approached us, in a very forward way. 

“No thanks,” Sharon would say. She does not like cider at all. 

“Just try it,” the seller declared. 

“I don’t like cider,” she’d say. 

“Oh, you’ll like this,” the man pushed. 

Away we would walk, and get away from him.

Many markets, in many places, in every age of human civilization have had their bartering buyers and pushy sellers. We can imagine an ancient, Middle-Eastern market in the voice of Isaiah chapter 55. Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.     Buy without money—everything’s free!

Sounds too good to be true. And maybe I’m not that thirsty right now, anyway. But I might need a drink - even when I don’t realize it. In some hot, dry climates, people outdoors can forget to drink. Apparently, in Grand Canyon National Park, there are signs along the trails from time to time, saying: “Stop! Drink water. You are thirsty, whether you realize it or not.”

Here, in Church, we take a holistic view of our lives. Because our God looks at the whole person and environment. So this old, prophetic poetry calls upon us to get in touch with our real thirsts, and deepest hungers. It seems that the promises of this chapter originally were for the Hebrew people near the end of their exile, away from their Promised Land. Before they were free to go back. Would there truly be good and wonderful things for all the people? For their bodies, their hearts and minds, their society, their future?

Today, what about us? What good things can we rely upon God for in our midst? And will we take what is offered, or not eat and drink?  Why do you spend your money on junk food,

    your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?

Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,

    fill yourself with only the finest.

Eat what is good, said the prophet of old. Take in what is good. Many of us are challenged to take into our lives the best, most wonderful stuff. It is tempting to stuff ourselves with foolish things. So much entertainment that is ruder than it used to be, still belittling others like it always was, and filled with more and more violence of every variety. I heard someone say out loud the other day something about it being so good to learn something every day. Yes, indeed. Let’s not learn garbage, or learn to be negative and harsh. 

Does our Saviour have wonderful things to give to us, our bodies and souls? Shall we get trained more and more to take the best off the shelves, and leave the total junk behind? “You are what you eat.”

Next in Isaiah chapter 55 is another metaphor. After eating and drinking, now we have: receiving words - hearing or reading. Learn what is good. The word of God is available to us. The prophet:

Pay attention, come close now,

    listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.

This is a very common metaphor in scripture. The Word - spoken and written, proclaimed and remembered. The vision of a Teacher and the students, of education, is as timeless as any. 

Our modern use of the Bible itself is of great interest to me, especially in the face of a mystery. What is my mystery? Wondering if and how the people of my pews use the Bible for yourselves. After almost three decades, I have never gone back to take another degree or training certificate. But if I did, my thesis project would be “The Spiritual Practices of Progressive Baptist Christians.” What is the prayer life of the ordinary people of First Baptist Amherst, and Wolfville Baptist, and Port Williams Baptist? How do you make use of the Holy Bible? What do you not do?

And there is so much more that teaches and trains us, from week to week. Are we finding excellent things from Rabbi Jesus? We could! “You are what you read.”

We stopped reading Isaiah 55 at verse 9, but we should have gone on. Another metaphor of the biblical prophet is Rejoice in what is good. In this case, celebrate with all creation!

You Shall Go Out With Joy And Be Led Forth With Peace

The Mountains And The Hills Will Break Forth Before You

There’ll Be Shouts Of Joy, And All The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap, Will Clap Their Hands

Yes, that’s in this same great chapter. 

The various joys of springtime make for a good elixir of life. All gifts from Creator. The sap that flows from the sugar maple trees. The sunrise, or sunset, of every day. The pussy willows breaking forth with their organized white fluff in the ditches. The moving in of so many birds, back to and through the neighbourhood. 

Friday evening seemed the perfect night for frogs and salamanders! The first warm and wet evening of earliest spring, they all are on the move. So, off I went, at 11 pm, to a spot I know in Maccan, especially to see the yellow-spotted salamanders, gathering in pools of water in the woods in great numbers, to lay their eggs and get them fertilized. Not to mention every variety of frog on the go. 

All the frogs of the woods will splash their hands!

The salamanders will leave the land!

The frogs of the woods will splash their hands!

While you go out with joy!

Well, you find your own good and wonderful things to enjoy. Maybe not salamanders in the rain at midnight in the woods. You find your own creatures to praise with. 

Remember, it is a gift of God: “You are what you enjoy.”

Something we did read aloud a few minutes ago was of Jesus in the Gospels. Let’s end, briefly, with His words. First, Christ dispels the old teaching that people get bad things because they deserve them. Nope. He mentions some recent local news: some people killed by order of a local tyrant, and others killed in a nasty accident. These did not die because they deserved it. But remember how short and uncertain life is: have a metanoia before it is too late: in other words, have a change of mind, repent. 

Thanks be to God we have good options in our lives. Change your mind to what is good. Sometimes, “You are what you think.”

And the second lesson from Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth: Produce and give out what is good. His story of the fig tree with no figs is like an unfinished parable, with no ending. Did it flourish and produce figs after a year of watering and soil amending? I guess that is up to the hearer. And remember, your productivity for good in this world is not all up to you. There is a Master Gardener to nurture you. So, we find it is possible, and true, that “You are what you give.”