Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
The
Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday suggests that we read Isaiah 58:1-9a,
possibly through verse 12, but leave off the last two verses. It’s a long chapter, for sure. But I propose
that we read the entire chapter. In
order to help us be attentive to the words of the prophet, I’m going to stay very
close to the text. So keep your Bible close at hand.
First, there are several things you
need to know about this text. Chapters
40 through 66 are often known as Second Isaiah. They were not written by the prophet Isaiah,
who lived in the eighth century BCE, but by a community of prophets bearing his
name, written in the sixth century, written to God’s people during their time
in captivity in Babylon. These words
were written by and for a community in exile, far from home. The community is anticipating a return, once
the Babylonian Empire finally falls (which it did in 536 BCE). Before they return home, however, they need
to be clear about who they are as God’s people.
Second Isaiah calls the people to change, to confess their sins, to
prepare their hearts for liberation. And
at the heart of Israel’s experience with God was something that was always true,
straight from the beginning: the connection between worship and justice, the
connection between worship and service, the connection between worship and
action. Israel has forgotten this, but
the need to remember.
In chapter 58, God confronts Israel—and
through Israel confronts the Church. God
said to Isaiah, “Shout out. Do not hold back!”(Is. 58:1). What follows is a
searing condemnation of false worship, false religion. Isaiah tells the people
what Yahweh requires. This is an extremely provocative text. No one comes out unscathed. It's a profound statement on the nature and
purpose of worship, on the imperative to connect what happens in the sanctuary
with how we live in society. Here we learn the kind of worship God expects from
us. And we discover what faith enacted in society is supposed to look
like.
True worship can’t be self-serving. We don’t worship God for what we get out of
it. We don’t worship in order for God to do things for us. We don’t show up for worship each week to
curry God’s favor to help us when we need or want something. The worship of God is always an end in
itself, which then shapes how we live in the world. In other words, we cannot sever what goes on
in the sanctuary from the way we live outside the sanctuary. If your
worship isn’t deepening your commitment to care for the needs of your
neighbors, the needs of strangers, anyone in need, if your worship doesn’t lead
to a more generous heart, a more expansive life, then something is seriously
wrong with youre worship life.
Yes, it’s tough to preach on a text such as this because
it says all that needs to be said. So,
let’s follow the flow of the text.
God commands
Isaiah to, “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and
delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous
judgments, they delight to draw near to God” (58:1-2). Here, God’s people say that they want to know
and serve God, but they reject God’s will.
They think their nation is righteous, they think that their nation is
doing God’s will, but it is far away, indeed, from God’s will.
Next, God (through
Isaiah) echoes back the people’s complaint in verse 3. (Note the quotations in the text.) “Why do we
fast, but you do not see?” In other
words, they ask, “Why do we bother with
worship, God, if you don’t pay attention to us?
Why do we practice our piety if you’re not going to listen to us?” “Why [should we] humble ourselves, but you do
not notice?”
Then God
replies, through Isaiah, in verse 3b, and blasts them: “Look, you serve your
own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to
fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not
make your voice heard on high. Is
such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?” All you do, God says, is boast about yourselves. God asks, “Is it to bow down the head like a
bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?” In other words, God says, Why do you go about being so mournful and
joyful and preoccupied with yourselves?
God asks, “Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?”
Instead, God says in verse 6, “Is not
this the fast that I choose”—here it comes, these sweet words of life, the way
of true religion. “Is not this the fast
that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Every
yoke! Break every yoke! It is not
enough to simply remove the yoke of oppression.
You must shatter it! God asks, “Is
it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into
your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself
from your own kin?” (Is. 58:6-7).
You see, this is the kind of worship or religious
expression that God desires of us. This is what worship is for—worship
enables us to be advocates for the oppressed, the broken and bound, the hungry
and homeless, to open our hearts. We
Christians should be breaking the yoke of oppression, not becoming a yoke of
oppression ourselves! If after worship
our hearts are still closed, are still cold, are still turned inward, are still
selfish, then something is seriously wrong.
So, what will
happen when God’s people really practice true worship, true religion? Isaiah says, in verses 8 and 9, “Then your light shall break forth like
the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go
before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then
you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help,
and he will say, Here I am.” Then you will have God’s attention
because God will know your heart is in the right place. Then
God will show up!
For this—this is what Yahweh asks of us! There’s absolutely no room for debate or
argument on this matter. This is what Yahweh asks of us, verse 9b,
“If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the
speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of
the afflicted, then your light shall
rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” Then.
Isaiah tells us how the world will
be transformed. Verses 11 and 12: “The Lord will
guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your
bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail. Your
ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many
generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of
streets to live in.”
Healing. Watered gardens. People fed and cared for. Streets—the public square—restored so that
people can live there, safely and securely. That’s what God expects of us. This is what God expects from the
church. And this is what God expects
from governments, from those in power, who have been given the responsibility
to care for all of God’s children.[1]
Then Isaiah goes on to say in verse
13, “If you refrain from trampling
the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the
sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or
pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the
heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,
for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
If we trample the sabbath, if we neglect true worship, if
we selfishly insist on our own way and ignore the heart of God, then don’t be
surprised if society unravels all around us.
If religion isn’t feeding the needs of God’s people, if it isn’t calling
us to life, if it isn’t breaking yokes of oppression, then our worship is
false. If we’re not allowing people to
blossom and flourish, to really live—and
not only Christians and Jews, but Christians and Jews and Muslims, people of
every religion and none—then our religion is false. As our sixteenth century forebear, the
reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) knew, one of the tests of a good society is
whether and how it takes care of its poor.
Calvin was adamant about this in his ministry in Geneva. One of the tests of a good society is whether
and how it takes care of its poor.[2] We are called to form and reform social
structures so that the structures of society allow people to thrive.
True worship leads to service, to justice, to acts of
love and mercy and peace. Service and
justice and acts of love and mercy and peace lead us back into the sanctuary to
offer praise and gratitude to God. Back
and forth. Worship calls forth service,
which leads us back to worship. Worship
calls for justice, which leads us back to worship. Back and forth—all to the glory of God! Unless our worship leads us toward greater acts
of mercy and enables human flourishing then it’s not of God—it might even be
demonic. And without an understanding of
the connection between worship and justice, our worship will not be able to
block the way of the demonic.
Back in 2004, the General Council of the
World Communion of Reformed Churches met in Accra, Ghana. The Communion is made up of denominations
from around the world within the Reformed theological tradition, such as the
Presbyterian Church (USA). It meets
every couple of years in different cities.[3] As part of their meeting, the delegates from
around the world visited Elmina and Cape Coast castles situated along the West
African coast. Beginning in the
seventeenth century, these castles were places where captured Africans were
kept shackled before being shipped away and sold into slavery. When the council delegates climbed up the
steps of Elmina’s women’s dungeon, they emerged to discover a Reformed
(Calvinist or Presbyterian) chapel, over whose entrance were inscribed these
words: “The Lord has chosen Zion” (Psalm 132:13). The delegates were shocked,
horrified, aghast. “For two centuries,
people who considered themselves among the Lord’s ‘chosen’ had worshiped and
prayed in this place while directly beneath them human beings were chained in
misery.” How could they have been so
morally and spiritually blind? “On this
trade in humans as commodities, the wealth in Europe was built. Through their labor, sweat, suffering,
intelligence, and creativity, the wealth of the Americas was developed.”[4]
How could they be so morally and spiritually blind? We have to be careful here. As Calvin knew, it’s easy for us to become
very blind. We have to be careful not to
judge them too quickly. Where are we
similarly blind today? We can pay lip
service to the importance of worship or bemoan the fact that more Americans are
not in worship on Sundays or we might look out with envy to megachurches
packing crowds into their sanctuaries, however, worship attendance is no
guarantee that the gospel is being preached and lived out in the world. Many white Christians in both the South and
the North filled their sanctuaries to capacity in the 1950s and 1960s, yet never
offered a word of encouragement to black Christians struggling for their rights
as American citizens, fighting to be treated with decency and dignity. Many white churches never advocated on behalf
of their black sisters and brothers, never risked anything for them, never put
their bodies on the line for the sake
of the health of the body of Christ.[5] The Church at that time, desiring to avoid
conflict—as if conflict avoidance and playing “nice” are synonymous with
faithful discipleship—failed to make the connection between worship and
justice, between worship and action, between worship and love embodied in
society. Some churches did make the
connection, but not all—certainly not enough.
The Church is always tempted to do the same—we love to play it safe,
avoid anything controversial.
Where is the Church silent today? Where are those places where worship is severed
from service in society? What about
Catonsville Presbyterian Church?
Where are those dark places in our communities that wait
for the dawning of the light? Where are
the wounds that need healing? Where are you
going to bring light? How are you going
to be an agent of God’s healing? How is
your worship, the singing of beloved hymns, the saying of prayers, the hearing
of this Word, how is your baptism shaping your service? How will your time at the Lord’s Table this
morning, how will broken bread and a cup of suffering change the way you live? How will this meal inspire you to take up a
cross and follow on behalf of your Lord?
How will this meal lead you into broken places, to places of
suffering? How will you embody the mercy
and love and light of God?
[1] See John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
(1559), especially Book IV, chapter XX: On the Church and State; Spiritual and
Civil government; The function and Authority of Civil Rulers; The Nature of
Civil Laws; and The Christian Attitude Toward the State.
[2] William Stacy Johnson
in John Calvin: Reformer for the
Twenty-First Century (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 117.
[3] For more information
about the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
[4] Story told by Johnson,
125.
[5] See Robert P. Jones, The End of White Christian America (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2016).
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