Walter Brueggeman continues with the notion that Inversions begin in a change of language and he offers this second example:
The third image is that of nourishment. If you eat the bread of Babylon for very long you will be destroyed. There were some who liked the bread of Babylon and they became Babylonians, but Israelites who are exiles will not accommodate that imperial bread. so the poet in his statement about alternative bread dismantles the Babylonian bakery:
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters:
and he who has no money, 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? (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Exiles are not a part of the "way things are" in any land. They live contrary to what is expected by the status quo. That means that they even question sharing in that which is so essential to life within a place like Babylon. Instead, they are told of the filling qualities of the promises of God that will be enough to sustain them in any place or time. That doesn't mean things are going to be fine and dandy. Rather it means that there will be all that is needed and there will be the possibility of a life that does not have to pay duty or homage to the powers that be. Instead, we will be free from all strings and we will feast on the grace of God alone.
Connection: It is always good to take a look at what we are counting on to get us through this day. It is also good to consider what nourishment is really needed to give us life as it is promised by our God.
Lord of the Banquet, we know that there are many ways to satisfy our hunger, and yet we know that some of the food offered to us is worthless for new life. Be for us the bread that can nourish and sustain and even, transform us. Amen
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