Sunday March 23rd, 2025 Worship

“All who are thirsty, come to the waters. All who are hungry, come here and eat. All who are thirsty, come to the waters. There’s enough for all.” These are the words to the hymn “All Who Are Thirsty,” which was added to our most recent ELCA hymnal supplement in 2020. I know many people haven’t heard this one yet, but I was introduced to it while in Seminary when I attended the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University. While the words are quite simple, these four repeating lines encapsulate the heart of today’s reading from Isaiah. With the call and response style of congregation echoing the leader, it acts as a way of musically extending God’s invitation: when you are spiritually hungry and thirsty, come, there will be enough for everyone. It is an invitation to come and be nourished.
These prophetic words were spoken to the Israelites returning from exile in Babylon, trying to figure out who they were and what it meant to be an Israelite, especially when they were no longer exiled. It posed a big identity problem for them, as some had been left behind while others were taken into exile. Those who returned desired everything to go back to the way it was before they left. The problem is that most of the people who were taken into exile were the wealthy and the powerful, so those who remained behind didn’t really desire to give up everything that they had gained while the wealthy and powerful were away. Not to mention that the Israelites in exile felt like God had abandoned them and were struggling with how to move forward with their faith. With the joyous return from exile, this identity crisis remained at the center, which is why it is so important that the Isaiah reading today begins with an invitation to nourishment, with nourishment being both physical and spiritual. When the people felt like there wasn’t enough for them all to live together in the land again, whatever that enough is that they are searching for, Isaiah reminds them that there is enough for all.
I love that this Isaiah reading is a call to return to God, but it done through means of grace rather than commands. It’s this reminder that the people are focused on all the things that are not important while neglecting that which is important, which is what got them into this mess in the first place, when they kept turning away from God seeking that which they thought would bring them more satisfaction. And, I love how this hymn picks up the reminder that there is room for all and plenty for all in God’s invitation to this nourishment. This calls out the scarcity mindset that so often drives us when we are afraid, and goes back to the idea of God’s abundant grace. The nourishing grace of God isn’t something that is in short supply and we don’t have to hoard it for ourselves, but it is something that should be returned to frequently and shared widely. This abundant grace of God is nourishment for our continued growth, both individually and communally.
This gets picked up in Luke’s gospel today as well with the parable of the fig tree. After all, the fig tree isn’t producing fruit, so the owner wants to get rid of it and plant something that will give him some benefit instead. It makes sense that the owner would want the things in his field to produce fruit, either to feed him and his family or to be sold and make a profit. To him, it does no good if the tree just sits there taking up useful space and resources. But, the gardener asks for one more year, to give it a chance to produce fruit. He will tend to it and nurture it, hoping to see the fruits of his labor.
There are so many ways that this parable represents God’s abundant grace for us. The most evident is an emphasis on still having time to grow. It frees us from the false idea of perfection, and instead invites us to look at how we are growing and changing from year to year. It is a reminder that God doesn’t require us to have everything figured out all the time or that we can never make mistakes, but that there will be grace for us in those moments, and opportunity to learn and do better in the future instead of just being struck down in that moment. Remember that he’s speaking this in a time and place when people still thought that physical ailments were a direct result from sin, either of the person or their parents, and that the more severe the ailment, the more terrible the sin. Jesus is counteracting the idea that destruction immediately follows mistakes. He’s showing a different way forward than the three strikes and you’re out, baseball mentality of faith. Sometimes bad things happen, and we can’t explain them, but it isn’t a direct result of us screwing up. That even when we do make mistakes or we turn from God, all of which we will do, that there is still space for us to return to God and to continue growing as people and in our faith. This parable today shows the tenderness and compassion of God, instead of just a God of spite and anger.
I also love this parable because I think it highlights the importance of the cultivation of our faith. God’s grace and mercy are always going to be there for us, but sometimes it is hard to recognize and believe that if we haven’t been tending to our spiritual lives. When we go through those periods of not tending to our spiritual lives, we forget that the invitation to come to the waters and come and eat, be filled, is there for us too. Those feel like reminders for everyone else, but we think they can’t possibly include us, even though it is the very foundation of our faith. The gardener is intentional in his plan for how to grow fruit from the tree in the next year. He doesn’t just plan to do nothing and hope that the results will change; he plans to fertilize it and help it grow by giving it a bit more tending to than he needs to with the other fig trees. This is not to say that we always have to change things in our spiritual lives, but sometimes we need to shift our perspective to be more aware of the promises that are already there for us. Because this is ultimately a call to return to God, to nurture that relationship, where we will be nourished. When the ways of the world will let us down, God promises to care for us, even when we have a hard time understanding what that means in our lives.
Part of this also requires us to pay attention to when we are spiritually hungry and thirsty and what we are searching for, because this helps us to avoid those things that offer us quick fixes and false promises. Just as there are seasons in which trees are growing and producing and other times when they just look like twigs in the ground, we know there are times when this hunger and thirst feel stronger, like when we are going through periods of grief, loss, and unexpected hardships. But, by tending to our spiritual life at all times, it gives us more to fall back on when we are going through those periods of difficulty and doubt. It creates space in us to hold onto the invitation to come and be nourished. To hear that we are beloved and included in that invitation too. To be reminded that we are more than the mistakes we have made and that there is still so much more time and room to grow as we keep figuring out who we are while being grounded in whose we are. Like the gardener giving the fig tree more time to keep growing, so too does God continue to supply us with the grace we need to grow. We get to decide if we will accept the invitation because there is enough for all.