Thirst

August 08, 2017 0 0

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Isaiah 55: 1-5

1‘Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
    a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
    and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has endowed you with splendour.’

‘Thirst’ is a powerful image for strong desire, much used in Scripture. Referring to the words of Jesus from the cross, ‘I thirst’, Julian of Norwich understands this to be not only a bodily but a spiritual thirst which has raged in Jesus from the beginning and will continue until the consummation: ‘This is his thirst and his longing in love for us, to gather us all here into him, to our endless joy, as I see it. For we are not now so wholly in him as we then shall be.’

Julian spoke of her own corresponding thirst for the Lord, ‘I saw him, yet the more I saw, the more I needed to see. I had him, and the more I had of him, the more I knew I lacked.’ She describes God’s lovers as ‘those whose eyes are opened in faith…whose hearts are open…waiting for God to show his goodness.’

These themes are prominent in our passage. The invitation, Come all you who are thirsty, is a call to everyone to come and share in the ‘heritage of the servants of the Lord’ (Isaiah 54:17) outlined in the previous chapter. The invitation is to a banquet whose free food and wine, offered by God, are nothing short of life-giving. In verse 3 the metaphor is abandoned and the invitation to all from God is direct: Come to me. ‘The Lord is himself the feast’ (Alec Motyer) and in him the rich food and drink of mercy and pardon are freely available (verses 6-7). 

Meister Eckhart the 13th/14th century German theologian and mystic, argued that when one has the reality of God within them, ‘he (sic) will be like one athirst with a real thirst; he cannot help drinking even though he thinks of other things. Wherever he is, with whomsoever he may be, whatever his purpose or thought or occupation – the idea of the Drink will not depart as long as the thirst endures; and the greater the thirst the more lively, deep-seated, present and steady the idea of the Drink will be.’

The challenge of today’s reading is about the depth and direction of our thirst.

Prayer

God of abundance, your provision for us in Christ is beyond all telling. Deep inside us we discover a thirst that nothing in this world can quench but the infinite depths of your love for us. Turn us from life’s trivia to thirst for you more and more, and to find the fulfilment of our being in glorifying and enjoying you for ever. Amen.