Excerpted from 2025 Lenten Guide: The Year of the Lord, a Lenten Guide for Lectionary Year C from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
Isaiah 55:1-9
Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters . . .” With these words from Isaiah, God calls us to a table of abundance, with “wine and milk” and “bread” for all. There is more than enough—enough drink, enough food, enough seats for everyone.
We read this invitation to share in God’s abundance against the backdrop of Jesus words in the synagogue of Nazareth as he reads from a later passage in Isaiah reaffirming these promises are for everyone, especially the poor, the captive, and the oppressed (Luke 4: 18-19).
Meanwhile, here in North Carolina and across the country, many are struggling and going without the basic necessities of life Isaiah outlines. A growing narrative insists resources are scarce and not everyone belongs—especially immigrants and LGBTQ+ people. Ideas are being censored, especially efforts to increase diversity and inclusion. Instead of Isaiah’s invitation to abundance, many are hearing: There isn’t enough. You aren’t welcome.
Lent calls us to repent—not just as individuals, but as a society. If we believe in the abundant life God promises, are we challenging the systems that hoard resources and deny dignity? Are we extending welcome to those pushed to the margins? Are we truly working to create communities reflecting God’s promise of abundant life? If not, repentance might be turning in a different direction more indicative of abundant life.
Lent is most often about reflection, but eventually we must act on that which we see reflected in the truth of scripture. We can use these 40 days to imagine turning away from a culture of fear and scarcity toward God’s hope-filled world—where abundance is boundless and everyone is welcome. In a world that tries to tell us there isn’t enough, we are called to live as people know that there is enough. “Ho, everyone . . . come!”
