2022.03.20 | Water is Life
“Water is Life”
Rev. Pepper Swanson
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
Third Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 55:1-13
Today’s Scripture reading reminds me of the old handbills enticing Dust Bowl refugees in Oklahoma and other midwestern states to come west to California for work.
At the time, which was the mid-1930s, small farmers, like my paternal grandparents, were facing both an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions. Decades of drought and poor farming practices had not only obliterated their ability to grow crops but had created dust storms that were literally destroying their health and wellbeing.
Tens of thousands lost their family farms to local banks and then hit the road in overloaded trucks filled with their children, grandparents, and remaining possessions, in search of work first, then fertile land, and ultimately community and social acceptance. The handbills, created by California farmers and labor brokers looking for cheap labor, seemed a God-send — good news that there was hope ahead at the end of Route 66.
For example, handbills would claim workers were needed immediately and that the migrants could count on both free housing and a store at the farm’s campground as well as months of wages for helping with the crop harvest.
So they headed west, toward the Pacific Ocean, looking for a better life; or at least a job, water, regular food, and eventually a house, schools for their children, and churches for their souls.
II
The author of Isaiah 55 takes a similar approach of making big promises. Bible scholars believe that the author of this portion of Isaiah, often called Deutero-Isaiah, had returned from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem and was using the voice of God to call other exiled Judeans to return as well.
Listen to all he offers in the first three verses: water for those who thirst; food, wine, and milk without cost; and choice, rich foods. And he asks this rhetorical question: if all this is free here, why do you spend your hard-earned money on what doesn’t satisfy, meaning not bread but their life in Babylon.
At the core of his offer is a belief that where they belong is in Judah, not Babylon. But what is evident to Deutero-Isaiah is not evident to the Judean people, who, being second and third generation exiles, were not born in Jerusalem, had never lived in Judea, and who had most likely assimilated into their new country, and who, until Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great, had been unable to leave due to their status. But now, under reforms adopted by Cyrus, including the freedom to leave, the Judeans are faced with a decision: stay with the known or venture forward into the unknown.
But Deutero-Isaiah has a little more up his sleeve than free food and dismissing the value of their life choices. Beginning in verse three, he offers those who heed something incredible: an everlasting covenant. And unlike God’s covenant with David, which was for an enduring royal dynasty for David’s family, the new covenant would be with all the people. There would be no human king but all would have royal status and the Davidic monarchy would be transformed into a democracy.
From verse 6 on, Deutero-Isaiah bolsters God’s offers and promises by reminding the Judeans that God freely forgives, has higher and better ways than humans, and fulfills God’s promises in due time just as the rain waters the earth, brings forth vegetation, and creates the seed for planting and bread.
He closes his enticement with the beautiful vision of the people leaving Babylon in joy and returning home secure, with mount and hill shouting aloud and the trees of the field clapping their hands. Now, who wouldn’t go after hearing a pitch like that?
III
Remembering both the Judeans of Babylon and the Dust Bowl refugees, today's reading invites us to ponder those times in our lives when we are called to consider moving, emotionally and/or physically, to a place we’ve never known. Sometimes the call is easy and the enticements obvious, especially when we are younger and moving toward new jobs, apartments, friends, and establishing ourselves as adults.
But for each of us as we age, the call is often wrought with tough decisions and the enticements are more internal than external. Consider the call to become a different person by giving up drinking or drugs or unhealthy eating or the call to leave one’s marriage or home: neither are easy but the rewards may be health and peace and safety.
Consider also when the call is not a choice, but an imperative because to not go is to face risk and possible death, as in the case of many immigrants from Central America and now, the over three million people, mostly women and children, who have fled Ukraine to escape Putin’s attack..
Like the Dust Bowl refugees, some calls to come to safety or to the perception of a better, safer life, are merely come-ons, capitalizing on their need and their vulnerability. In the case of the Dust Bowl refugees, some of those handbills lead them straight into situations where company rents and store prices gouged their earnings, leaving them with nothing after a hard day’s work.
Regardless of who is called — young, old, here, or abroad — those of us in safety and with resources need to pay attention to how we can help protect them if possible. Next week’s One Great Hour of Sharing offering, which you’ll be hearing more about in a few minutes, offers one opportunity to give to a UCC program that shares our mission to care for refugees and the victims of natural disasters like the Dust Bowl.
IV
Now I will leave you to ponder this: Deutero-Isaiah’s promises about God. He says, God’s word is like water, water that wets the soil, grows the grass, produces the seed, which humans plant, harvest, and eat. God’s word achieves what it was sent to do but possibly not in the way we expect. As Bible scholar Benjamin D. Sommer explains the water-plant-seed-havest motif is another way of saying, “God’s word is sure to have a series of effects, the most important of which are indirect and involve human input.” (1)
I believe that is true with respect to my paternal grandparents who left Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. They traveled into the unknown with 10 children, settled in Portland, and then Watsonville. They were never much above poor but they had a small house and many grand and great-grandchildren. And here I stand, many years later, a seed of God’s answer to their prayers.
And since yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my ordination, I also believe that in my own life, in my call to ministry, God’s word is watering something that will come to seed much later. Daily I provide the labor, but God’s answer as to why this call in this place at this time may yet be in the future.
How about you? What has God’s word watered in your life? What do you think God is watering in your life right now, that may come to seed much later?
My friends, God is water and water is life. May you continue to grow in your faith, follow your call, and live in joy, secure in the knowledge that God is with you. Amen.
(1) Benjamin D. Sommer, “Isaiah: Introduction” in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors; Michael Fishbane, consulting editor. The Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation. Oxford ; New York :Oxford University Press, 2004, 784