Isaiah 55: 1 – 2b; 8 – 11 

It is so good to be home! Our team returned from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic last night. We have returned in a manner as I think is proper for any true mission team – whether from the USA or out of the country - in need of a few good long showers, a lot of sleep, and a pizza. We also returned carrying with us memories that will undoubtedly take some time to process. Some of those memories are uplifting and wonderful. Some are troubling, and none of them will easily be forgotten. 

On behalf of our team – both the team members from First UMC and for those who represented other UM churches, as well as Dr. Larry, our Jewish brother – I would like to personally thank you for your support of this trip. Financially, you helped make it possible. Thank you for being the kind of church that actually encourages its pastors and staff to participate in this kind of thing – it would be hard to describe to you just how much that means to me. And, most of all I thank you, again on behalf of our entire team, for your prayers. You said that you would pray, and we know you did! We felt those prayers, and we needed them – and we prayed for you, as well. 

Today’s Scripture reading is not from this week’s Lectionary, but is a passage that I read to our mission team last Sunday night during our first worship gathering.  The Lord put this passage in my heart that night, and it has stayed with me the entire week. I tried to listen as carefully as I could to try and catch what the Lord has been whispering to me through these words.  I shared with our group as I read this passage to them that this is, in fact, one my favorite Scriptures. It is such a wonderfully joyful invitation… 

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. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live… 

This has been one of my favorite Scriptures for years, and so, I assumed that I understood it. You know how that goes, right? “Oh, I know that passage!”  ‘Got that one down cold!’ I should know by now, that the Scriptures are not like some static, black and white photograph or legal document. They speak to us of a living God – as we talked about a few weeks ago, the words of Scripture point to Christ, the living Word.  And after the events of just the first two days in the DR, I realized that God had quite a bit yet to share with me from these verses from Isaiah 55… 

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This was the largest group I think we ever took to the DR – 25 people! We had a medical team of three doctors (and one more who joined us in the DR), a number of nurses, and other support staff. This portion of our group ran a four-day, free clinic and saw literally hundreds of clients. Probably half were children. We had other folks with us who were there to assist a local church in the beginning of an expansion of their church building, to provide more space for the people coming to worship, as well as a lot of painting and general maintance. 

Just about everyone on our team carried (or dragged, as the case may be) in addition to their own luggage, a heavy second suitcase filled with medications to be used in our clinic. These meds were purchased with money from fundraisers, individual contributions, a generous gift from the Riverside/ Cinniminson Rotary, and other donations. For those of you who are not good at math, that came to 25 suitcases!  We were a little concerned about checking everyone in, but we managed to get it done.

We arrived in Santo Domingo right on schedule, in good spirits, marveling at the 86º very humid weather, having left snow on the ground that morning, and headed down to baggage claim. As the carousel moved around and around, and the crowd began to thin, we started to get a bit concerned. When it stopped, we were more than a little concerned. We took inventory and discovered that we were short 19 bags… and one guitar. Ten personal luggage bags and nine medical bags. (And one guitar, which meant that we had to sing a cappela at our devotions that first night.) Fortunately all the bags but one arrived by Sunday evening.

We packed everything that we had onto the bus, thankful that the med bag containing toothbrushes and toothpaste was one of those we had in hand, and headed to our hotel: the Don Nelson. In the event that you ever find yourself in Santo Domingo with no place to go, you might want to avoid this one. Dr. Fred explained to us before we arrived that there are ‘five star’ hotels, and ‘four star’ hotels, etc. “This one”, he said, “is a minus one star”.  But that really wasn’t the case… for most of the rooms.

However, “minus one” may have been a bit high of a rating when it came to my room. The fact that my door was literally inches from the door of Sue, Martha, and Carol – a room with three windows, a working air conditioner,  refrigerator, cable TV with remote, and hot water, made the contrast more … acute.

Those nice ladies called my room ‘the cell’.  Carol said she expected to see Martin Luther sitting in there doing penance. You see, my room had no windows, the TV worked, but no remote, and I had to stand on a chair to change the channel, no dresser, and a single very low wattage light bulb hanging from the ceiling, which was just barely bright enough to read by. There was an oscillating fan on the ceiling (that I couldn’t stop from oscillating) which blew stuffy, humid, moldy air around and made a lot of noise.  I did have a large bath towel, however, (a luxury) which kind of made up not having any hot water (nothing came out of the hot faucet). But the housekeeper took it the next morning, and never replaced it.

(I was given a hand towel from one of the ladies in the next door suite, and when we left for the work site each day, I hid it in my luggage.)  Are you getting the picture? What would you do if you were given the key to the Don Nelson room #207, knowing that you were going to spend a week there… and found that?

Well, I don’t know what you would have done, but here’s what I did… I didn’t complain. Not directly. This was a mission trip, after all, and no one expected the Hilton. But on the other hand, I didn’t miss too many chances to tell funny stories about my living conditions, comparing my room to everyone else’s. (Now, obviously, I’m still doing that, so I’m not saying that that was wrong, per se. Humor was a kind of coping mechanism.) But, when I started think about Isaiah 55, I realized that my response to that room was telling me something about myself; it was saying a lot about a built in feeling of entitlement that I didn’t think I had, but I guess I do. I’m going to come back to that in a minute.

Sunday morning we arrived at the church. We were a bit late – just a couple of minutes. The church there in Quisquaia(?) just happened to be celebrating their 29^th Anniversary last week! The service had just begun and our bus arrived. Smiling faces greeted us out on the sidewalk, we were ushered in to the sound of wonderful singing. Most of the seats were taken, but there was a plastic chair set on the end of each pew right up the center aisle, which is where most of us sat. I was all the way up front, first seat on the left.

And we realized immediately that although it was in Spanish, we knew the hymn that was being sung as we arrived: “How Great Thou Art”.  (With a distinct Latin flavor to it, I’m not sure how they did it, but I liked it.)

And we joined in with this congregation that we had never met, singing a song that expressed a connection that we had that went beyond distance, economic status, language, and the color of our skin… and my friends, I wish you could have all been there with us.  In one way, I say I wish that, but in another way, that moment was as powerful as it was because you were there!  We truly are the Body of Christ – and as the service continued, and we sang along – in English when we knew the songs, reading the Spanish from the program when we didn’t, clapping and humming when there was nothing to read, it was incredibly powerful and moving. The tears just dripped down my face, and I was wishing that I had chosen a less conspicuous seat! 

We went back to the hotel after that service, and I sat in my cell – er, room – thinking about things. And Isaiah 55 started to come to my mind.  I thought about the living conditions of so many people within a stone’s throw of where I was sitting. People who would have been thrilled to have that room that I was making light of, or share in the three daily meals that we knew were coming. And I realized that while I was (even jokingly) grumbling about these very temporary living conditions… there was a plane ticked reserved for me in a week and there were people that loved me would meet me at the airport and bring me back to this incredible life with all the blessings that we all enjoy every day… 

It began to dawn on me then, that Isaiah’s invitation wasn’t just to some other people – people who don’t ‘get it’! Isaiah, in this passage that I thought I knew so well, was calling to me, too… “Yo, Steve, you’re still trying to quench some of your inner thirst with stuff that will never satisfy you!  You’re looking for bread that is not bread… and listen, some of what you are working for will never satisfy you, either! 

Life is really not about having stuff, and material security. It’s not about houses, and being comfortable. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things, as I said, they are blessings (as well as responsibilities); but in a way, they are just ‘extras’ in the bigger picture. The really important things in life have no price tag. They can’t be bought.  The important things are all gifts from God. 

Over all those years, Isaiah was talking to me, inviting me: “Look at these people who have virtually nothing, and look at their joy!  Pay attention to the deep sense of joy that you experienced in that transcendent moment of worship on Sunday morning, and understand. 

God says: Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live… 

Didn’t Jesus say, “Come to me and I will give you not only life, but life with a capital ‘L’ – Abundant life? Again, Jesus put it like this: “Humans do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  It is such a cliché that I hesitate to even say it, but I was realizing in a deeper way than I ever have before, that the most valuable things in our existence cannot be measured in terms of money, or price tags. 

That was reinforced throughout this trip. The building that housed the clinic was begun- the foundations were laid – about ten years ago by a group from this church. Many of you were there, and you know exactly what I’m talking about. There were some of those people from the team 10 years ago who were on this trip! That building sheltered a number of people from a major hurricane soon afterward! Working there, we all started to understand that there is a deep, mysterious spiritual linkage between our congregation and that one down in the DR – not only because of our common faith in Christ, but also because we have history together! And by ‘we’ I’m not just referring to those few people who actually laid some block, or put stucco on a wall, or treated some sick people. 

Just like with those who were in our group in the DR last week, this congregation – all of you – were also ‘in’ the group that went there years ago…because  First UMC of a decade ago is part of our history right now… there is a connection in it all. And it is very real!  It is a very valuable thing - priceless, in fact.  Because it is something that God has done and is still doing. 

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to take a side trip from Santo Domingo to the city of Higuay. Kind of a long side trip – over seven hours on the road round trip, we covered about 2/3 of the length of the entire country!  Bob R, Pastor Chris Miller (from the Delran UMC) and I were invited to go and inspect the church that we worked on my first two trips to the DR.  I hadn’t seen it in two years. This was the church that many of us watched grow from footings in a trash filled field, to walls and forms for a roof. 

We helped put these walls up, we prayed inside with that congregation, on the dirt floor in 2004 and 2005. We pulled a voodoo charm off the doorframe that had been nailed into the cinder block the night before we left by the local shamans who were threatened by the real power of this place that was changing lives and moving out the drug dealers and the prostitution and the alcoholism that was prevalent in that area. 

The congregation has now moved into that building. They are growing and thriving… a congregation of 80 people in 2005, is now is well over 200!  What was truly amazing was that in walking around the neighborhood, reliving some good memories, I suddenly noticed that the trash that had been everywhere in both of our previous visits was completely gone. I noticed that there was building going on in every direction. New homes. Nice homes. We were invited into one – a woman just saw us walking by and invited us in.  It was very obvious what is happening down there – that congregation is continuing to change the neighborhood! God is blessing the area around that church once again in a very powerful day. 

Maybe we don’t think of it too often (and neither do they, I’m sure) but like the church in Quesqallia that we returned to this week after nearly 10 years, they are part of us too, and we are part of them! We have intertwining histories, and in the final telling of the great redemption story, there will be a little part that tells how God used people far from each other on many levels to continue his work; making a difference that will last forever. 

I thought about that…it was a wonderful thought. Then it occurred to me that the same thing is true – the same kind of interweaving of histories of the people of God is happening – in and through every mission team that we send from this place.  We got a glimpse of that when one of our mission teams returned from Dungannon, Virginia a couple of summers ago, and reported that they were surprised to find out that they were staying in a dorm whose plumbing was installed by a mission team led by Doug Sell some years before! Common History! 

But it goes even further than that! Every missionary that we support through our faith promise and budget giving is a part of our history as well; and we are part of theirs. That’s why our missions weekend is such a great time in this church. We get to hear some of what we are doing all over the world. Our lives, our ministries, are intertwined. We’re all in this together. 

I realized this week that this is what Isaiah had to say to me:  “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen to me and eat what is good…give ear to me; listen, that you may live.”  The kind of investments that pay dividends, and will never go under and those that are based in God’s work!

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Now, here’s a little reality to mix in with my lofty idealism…

Working in the Dominican Republic is often a tremendously frustrating experience. One of our team members (Bob R.) never did find his luggage. We spent a very frustrating four hours in the SD airport on Tuesday trying to find someone who would simply open the door to the room where US Air stores its unclaimed baggage, and left without ever getting in. 

Every year that I’ve done this, we’ve had construction issues, mostly financial, including this year – our thoughts about what we are supposed to be doing there and the expectations of the locals are not always the same! We think we’re finally getting through, and being very clear, and then we find out that we’re not! Prices of everything seem to change daily. Contracts are mostly verbal, and even written agreements are viewed as ‘suggestions’. 

Our clinics are carried along by the grace of God – they are classic examples of organized confusion; and rarely does time go by without one challenge or another…and it is frustrating to our medical team to know that often we’re treating lifetime ailments with 30 days of prescriptions. We can only pray that someone else will come along and continue the next steps for these people. That someone will pick up where we left off. 

But at the end of the day we mostly remember the gentleness of the Dominican believers. We will remember their patience and stoic acceptance of things they cannot change. We are heartbroken by their suffering, and poverty, by the rampant corruption, and the bleak future for so many; but at the same time we are humbled by their faith, hospitality, their optimism, and by their transparent joy in the Lord. 

And whenever we get truly frustrated, we can remember the rest of this morning’s passage: 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” 

I have come to believe – mainly through mission trips – that this wonderful promise, at least on some level, applies not only to our sharing words of faith, but also to works done in the name of the Lord Jesus. I.e., there is no wasted ministry! Jesus, in Matthew 28 assures us that even a cup of cold water given in his name will not go ‘unrewarded’.  The ‘reward’, it seems to me – at least in this life – is spiritual fruit.  The glory of God shining in a dark world. 

We may not always understand how our efforts are being used – and sometimes we may have serious doubts that anything good can come out of certain situations, and wonder what we have accomplished. But by faith, in the end we are certain…in God’s economy, all investments pay dividends! 

De Gloria a Dios!