A Free Ice Cream Life in a No Free Lunch World

Isaiah 55:1-9

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, famously bought something unusual with his Harry Potter money.  An Ice Cream Truck!  He keeps it completely stocked all the time!  He says, “I'll drive around the local villages and if I see some kids looking like they're in need of ice creams, I'll pull over and dish them out for free. They'll say, 'Ain't you Ron Weasley?' And I'll say, 'It's strange, I get asked that a lot'. 

THAT is what God was doing in the first lesson for today!  In the voice of a crazy ice cream vendor, God is saying, “HEY!  Want some ice cream?  Come to the truck!  Don’t have any money?  Come anyway, and enjoy!  Come and get a Mr. Whippy, a 99, or a Mini Milk!  Buy without money!  Everything’s free!  

God was saying this to the people of Israel while they were in exile in Babylon.  Empires never say, “Come and get a Mr. Whippy for free!”  Empires only say, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  Empires say, “Work harder, work longer, work for less.”  Empires raise prices in times of fear to move money from the shallowest of pockets into the deepest ones.  That’s how Empire’s work and Empires work people to death.  

But death is not what God intends for us.  God calls out for us to have life and an abundant life at that!  Listen, God says.  Remember the deal I had with David.  You have that exact same deal!  I am your God.  You are my people!  And as you start living into my way of living, the way you live will grab peoples’ attention.  People will see you living your lives with Grace, Love, and Compassion… taking care of the last, the lost, and the least…  caring for one another from the bottom up… making sure everyone has enough food, shelter, community, purpose, dignity, love and when people see you living that way in the world, they will come running!  They’ll say, “Give me some of what they’re having!”

Isaiah also reminded them not to wait until were safely back home to start living that way.  Start right where you are! Even under the nose of the Empire!  God was calling them, and is calling us, to live a “Free Ice Cream Truck” sort of life, smack dab in the middle of a “No Free Lunch” world.  But how were they supposed to do that?  How are WE supposed to do that?

Isaiah recommends that we “seek God while he’s here to be found”.  In other words, look around and find where God is at work, even in the middle of that “No Free Lunch” world and put your efforts there!  You got a front yard?  How about some rainbow chairs?  You got the Appalachian Trail going through your town?  Set up a place to take care of hikers!  Isaiah says do what you can, from right where you are, even if right where you are is still in the shadow of an Empire!  Every time we choose to be generous instead of selfish...forgiving instead of vengeful... loving right into the face of hatred, we are following God into that new way of living right under the Empire’s nose. 

On Monday Nelda McGraw emailed me.  She’s one of our members who now lives up at Kimball Farms.  Her Son-in-Law had been trying to help get a colleague’s family get out of Ukraine and she was looking for connections anyone might have in any of the bordering countries.  It took emails, calls, incredible… unbelievable connections, secure messaging apps, and lots of last minute changes to the plan along the way, but on Tuesday, Natalia, her mother, daughter, and niece left Ukraine and made it safely to Romania.  They are now on their way to Budapest where a temporary place to live has been arranged.  THAT is an extreme example of living a Free Ice Cream Truck Life, right under the nose of an Empire, even as the Empire rages all around.  Living that new way relied on a community working together.  It took people putting together their gifts and connections.  It took a very trusting sort of generosity of time and money and most of all it took a belief in the power of LOVE that drove a determination, not just to live a Free Ice Cream Truck life for themselves, but to not be satisfied until God had pulled Natalia and her family free from the bombs and rockets and the evil terrorism of an Empire and closer to abundant life.  

Do you see now how that story and those people, living that crazy Ice Cream Vendor’s way of living, working right under the nose of that Empire, drew you in?  THAT is EXACTLY what God is up to in this passage and in the world.  That is God’s desire!  Not to just have some, but to have ALL people pulled into that new life!  And not just in dramatic ways far away, but in every day ways right here too.  You see, whenever and wherever we try this new kind of life… in ways either big or small, God LAVISHES us with an abundance of grace to change the world from Empire to God’s Kingdom. 

 

Neither the Israelites then, nor our world now is living as God created us to live, and the hard reality is that Empires do not go quietly into that good night.  But even in the shadows of Empire, we can begin living a new way… God’s way.  As we are generous with our time and our money and our love, we are living differently… we are living God’s way.  When we set up our Corners of Kindness, people turn around and look at us with their heads tilted to one side in wonder, and in those moments they are pulled, maybe in ways we’ll never fully see, out of Empire living and toward the Free Ice Cream Truck living we call the Kingdom of God. That’s what Isaiah was calling the people into in his day.  That is our calling in our day as well.  Amen.