FREE FOOD

 

What is your favorite food? … I ask you that because our reading from Isaiah today (55:1-5) is about food. Now, if you went to a restaurant that served your favorite food, how much would you be willing to pay for your meal? $25? $50? $100? $200? What if you were invited to have a meal with some very important people, how much would you pay? $10,000? Some people can afford that and not think twice about the money. I don’t think we can afford that.

Isaiah tells the people that they can eat free! And the food that they will eat is not junk food or fast food. This food is fit for a king. This food is what God gives.

When Jesus, the Son of God, sat down with his Apostles at the Last Supper, he gave them his Body and Blood to eat and drink. Today, we believe that the food and drink that we eat and drink during the Lord’s Supper is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the forms of bread and wine. We believe it because Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, said it is.

God gives us this food and drink freely through grace. We do not have to pay for what God gives us. Because God freely gives this to us, we respond by saying, “Thanks.” That is why we say that our worship is Eucharistic. Eucharistic is a Greek word meaning thanksgiving. Our worship today is simply saying thanks to God for feeding us freely. 

Can you think of other reasons to thank God? He gives us food and life, family and friends, and a time and place to live as His children. Today, I want you to take some time today to say a prayer of thanks to God for his free gift of grace to you.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.