The Ways and Plans of God

Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke 14:15-24

Everything starts with an invitation. “Let there be light.” God was inviting new possibility into being. “Follow me.” Jesus was inviting disciples into a new way of being.

Isaiah 55 begins with an invitation, too. Just like all the other invitations of God, it’s an invitation to participate in something that seems too good to be true: food and drink, free of charge; a seat at the richest of feasts. But it’s even more than that. Abundant life. Satisfying life. God is inviting us to new possibility and a new way of being.

Free of charge.

But not free of change.

The invitation to a new way of being implies that there is an old way of being to leave behind. Isaiah explicitly mentions: “Let the wicked abandon their ways and the sinful their schemes.” But the old way of being is not always so obviously the way to leave behind. Jesus asked his disciples to abandon their fishing nets, their trades, their employment...those things that they did to put food on the table for themselves and their families. Sometimes the way being left behind is a good way, a worthy way, a valuable way...it’s just not God’s way.

It’s harder to commit to following God’s way when we think our way is pretty good, too...I would imagine it being especially difficult to commit to God’s way if I thought I knew a shortcut....

But I digress. I’m trying to draw a connection between the human desire to feel like our way is the right way, the good way, God’s way...and sin: the temptation to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, to “become like God,” as the serpent puts it.

If God’s invitation to a new way of life sometimes seems too good to be true than I suppose it makes sense that any temptation to avoid that way could also seem truer to us, more appropriate. All this to say: we sin. Sometimes we sin maliciously, with intent to harm, with disdain and disrespect for God. Sometimes we sin unintentionally, with intent to do good, with care and concern for what we truly think to be best.

God knows what’s best. God invites us to it. That’s where the text from Luke starts to sound familiar. “Come, for everything is now ready.” And we, like the guests, begin make excuses. I don’t think this is a parable designed to shame us, to make us feel feel bad for wanting to go our own way, to keep our plans...but a parable designed to inspire us by reminding us of the better way. The way that leads to life in God’s presence. The only things keeping us from receiving this gift are our excuses, our insistence on going our way, and our reluctance to let go of our plans. “Why would anyone ever decide [that there’s any place they would rather be?]” asks Paul Hanson. “Because you want to determine the menu. You want to be in control of the company you keep.” [1]

The illusion of control is at the heart of most (if not all) of the temptations we face. This is one of the reasons why, as I mentioned last week, we are so prone to give in to temptation when we feel powerless. But God doesn’t want us to feel powerless, and so we read on in Isaiah, after God has invited the “wicked to abandon their ways and the sinful their schemes”: “Let them return to the LORD so that he may have mercy on them, to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.”

Not only is God generous with food and milk and wine...but God is also generous with mercy and forgiveness. God invites new possibility into being for us by freeing us from the anchors of the past that trap us and trick us into feeling powerless and purposeless.

God offers us forgiveness--the ability to leave behind our old ways, our guilt and shame. By forgiveness, God wrests the pen from the grasp of the worst thing we’ve ever done and allows our life to be written instead by the best we are capable of.

“My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.”

Not only does God know what’s best for us, but God invites us to it. A way of new life. Abundant life. Satisfying life. God is inviting us to new possibility and a new way of being.

What if light had refused God’s invitation? What if chaos had kept to its own plan? What if Jesus’ disciples had insisted on going their own way? Fortunately we don’t have to ponder those questions.

But I invite you to ponder this one: what will you do with your invitation?

[1] Hanson, Paul. “Isaiah 40-66” from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.