Isaiah 58:3-8

“Worship and the Lives We Live”

Today, we continue in our series of sermons on “Isaiah the Magnificent Prophet”. During this Season of Lent, just as the Early Christians did before they had access to the New Testament Gospels, we are turning to the Book of Isaiah to better understand the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Book of Isaiah was the source book for Early Christians to understand the Christian faith. And in it, we are discovering God’s Word for our lives today.

Now, if you have been with us in this series, you will remember that when you read the Book of Isaiah, you have to read at three different levels. You have to read it in light of the historical context of what was happening in Isaiah’s day. And the last couple of weeks, I have tried to help you to understand the historical context of what was going on. Remember that the Book of Isaiah is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-39 deal with the rise and fall of Judah, and it is filled with prophesies of God warning the people that if they didn’t repent, judgment would come. The people refused to listen, so judgment did come at the hands of the Babylonians.

Chapters 40-66 then deal with the Jews’ life in exile. The Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, and carry off all the remaining Jews into slavery and exile them in Babylon. And you remember that the message of chapters 40-66 is primarily about how God seeks to comfort his people and offer them hope for their future.

So, when we read Isaiah, we have to read it in light of the historical context. But as the Early Christians did, we recognize that all of this has something to do with Jesus. So, we read it asking the question, “What does this have to say about Jesus?” When the Early Christians read the prophecies of Isaiah, they saw in every page how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of hope and restoration. When Isaiah talked about “a child that would be born, whose name will be called ‘Emmanuel – Prince of Peace – Wonderful Counselor’”, they understood that these were words about Jesus. And this is how we are to read Isaiah as well.

And thirdly, we recognize that God’s Word always speaks to our lives today. So, we also read Isaiah asking, “What does this have to say to my current experience and life today?” This is how the Early Christians read Isaiah and this is how we are to read the Book of Isaiah.

Now, the text before us today has to with our worship of God and the lives we live. The Season of Lent is that time when we as Christians examine our lives in light of the Cross. It is a time when we hear the words of Isaiah, the words of John the Baptist, and the words of Jesus ... to “repent … to make straight the path that leads to the Lord.” All of the prophecies of warning in the scriptures come in the midst of the people turning away from God and doing evil in the sight of God. They were chasing after other gods and seeking fulfillment, purpose, and meaning for their lives in all the wrong places. As a result, their lives were a mess. Their families were a mess. Their relationships were a mess. Their society had become corrupt. Even the church had become corrupt. God didn’t call them to repentance or bring judgment upon them because they were having a good time! They were headed down a path of self-destruction. And God says to them, “I have shown you the way that leads to life, true joy and real purpose, why won’t you follow it? Why do you insist on your own way?”

When I read the Book of Isaiah, I see so much of myself in these pages. We too, are a broken and lost people, who seem to be heading down a path of self-destruction. We long for happiness, for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in life, but we are seeking it in all the wrong places.

Yet on Sundays, we gather here to worship God. But what if our worship of God is all wrong? You see, the people of Isaiah’s day gathered for worship as well. But, as we read in our passage today, something was obviously missing. And the question begs to be answered: What if we are worshipping in the wrong way? What if God is really angry and disgusted at our worship, like he was with the people of Isaiah’s day? I think this is a very important question for us to ponder today.

This passage of Isaiah 58 was written after the people have come back to Promised Land from being in exile in Babylon. So, the kind of worship that is being addressed here is taking place in Jerusalem after the people have gone through the judgment of God and then were restored. But what was happening is that while in exile, they were not allowed to worship as Jews. They were forced to worship as the people of Babylon did. So when they returned to Jerusalem, they began worshipping as they had learned to worship while in exile. Now, the truth is, that before they were exiled in Babylon they weren’t worshipping as they should have either. So, this remnant who returns to Jerusalem are worshipping as they have been taught. They are worshipping as their parents did … as their grandparents and generations before them did. Perhaps they didn’t know any better, but God was still angry.

A few verses before this, we see a few clues as to why God was angry. Their worship had become improperly focused. The focus of their worship wasn’t on God, rather it was focused on themselves. Their worship was deteriorated into a means to get something out of God. Their worship had become a means of manipulating God and getting God to do according to their will. And of course, God was angry at this, because this is not what God intended worship to be.

Now, this wasn’t the first time that God’s people had lost sight of what worship was intended to be. Many times before, God had to remind his people that worship was intended to be a renewal of the covenant that God had made with his people. You remember how God called Abraham out of Ur and he made a covenant with him, saying,

“Abraham, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing to others; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. You shall be my people and I will be your God” - Genesis 12:2-3, 16:6-8

So, every time that God’s people gathered for worship, it was meant to be a renewal of that covenant. This was what worship was intended to be for the Jewish people and Jesus taught us that it was to be the same for us … that our worship was to be a renewal of the covenant we have through Jesus Christ.

There are several places in scripture where see this. At the end of the Book of Joshua, in chapter 24, before he dies, Joshua assembles all the people and says to them, “Choose this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And when he presented the people with a choice between the gods of the other countries and the God Yahweh, the people said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” So, there was a rededication to God’s covenant … true worship took place and God was pleased.

We see this happening again in the Book of Nehemiah chapters 8 & 9. You remember that Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. As the people come back from the exile, Nehemiah and Ezra (who was the High Priest at the time) gather the people together and they read the scriptures about God’s covenant. Upon hearing this, the people weep, both out of joy and out of sadness, and they renew the covenant with God.

And what we need to realize is that this is still what God expects of us. Worship is to be a renewal of our covenant with God. It is to be an acknowledgement and rededication of our identity as God’s people … people that God has blessed, so that we can be a blessing to others.

When we celebrate Holy Communion together, we remember how when Jesus took the cup, he gave thanks and gave it to the disciples and said, “This is my blood shed for you … the blood of the new covenant.” When we celebrate the sacrament of Baptism, we are also remembering our covenant with God. As we celebrate how the one who is being baptized is now living under God’s covenant and we all renew our covenant relationship with God.

You see, true worship happens only in the context of covenant renewal. True worship only happens when we are focused on acknowledging who we are and whose we are. Worship is our joyful response for how God has redeemed us and made a covenant with us to be our God. And worship is our rededication to be the people that God has called us to be, for God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others. If our worship is not focused on this, then we need to know that God is not happy with our worship.

But God was also unhappy with the people’s worship in Isaiah’s day, because they would come to church on Sunday and they would have great services. They would go through all the liturgy. They would bow and pray before God. They would sing all the wonderful songs and give their offerings. They had great worship services! But on Monday morning, it was business as usual. When folks who went to church on Sunday entered the world on Monday, you couldn’t tell them apart from any body else. What they professed in worship was not being integrated into their daily lives. They were not living out their covenant relationship with the world around them. And this angered God.

Let’s take a look at how those who worshipped God in the church were behaving when they were not at church. In verses 3 & 4 Isaiah says,

“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.”

In verses 6 &7 he says, “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? 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?”

You see, God blessed them, expecting them to be instruments of justice in their society, but they were not doing this. So, God was angry with them. And what this shows us is that God is a God of grace and mercy, but God is also a God of justice, and God has called us to be his agents of justice in this world.

Now, how do we define what justice is? Some would define justice as “being impartial” or “getting what we deserve.” But the scriptures define justice in a unique way. In Gary Haugen’s book, The Good News About Injustice, he says, “Justice happens on earth when power and authority between people is exercised in conformity with God’s standards of moral excellence.” In other words, justice happens when we apply the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.” This is the core of how we as God’s people understand what justice is.

God created this world and what God created was beautiful and it was good. But because of our sin, our world became broken, and as a result there are all kinds of injustice. Out of our brokenness there came injustice, oppression, people fighting against each other, and neglect of those in need. And this is not what God desires. God sees the brokenness of his people and God has chosen a people to help address the brokenness. God has redeemed us and he has blessed us, so that we can be a blessing to others. God has called us to repair the brokenness and to make right the wrongs we see. This is part of our worship of God. In God’s eyes, the two cannot be separated … worship and doing justice are one in the same.

This is why the theme of poverty and social justice is so prominent in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the theme of poverty and social justice is second only to “idolatry”. So, first of all, God is a very jealous God and he is concerned about “idolatry” … the worship of other gods or putting other things in the place of God. And secondly, God is concerned about issues of poverty and social justice, because, as Jesus pointed out, “The greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and secondly, to love our neighbor as our self.”

In the scriptures, there are over 3000 verses that have to do with issues of poverty or social justice. That is 1 out of 16 verses. In Luke’s Gospel, 1 out of 10 deals with these issues. So, about one-tenth of the entire Bible deals with these issues of how we, as God’s people, are to address issues of poverty and social injustices. This is how serious this is to God.

Blessing others according to “God’s standards of moral excellence” is an essential part of our covenant with God. Part of our worship of God is to be agents of justice, caring for the less fortunate and treating others as Christ would. As it says in Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness (mercy), and to walk humbly with your God?”

Now, if this is what God expects of us, then we need to be sure that we understand this. If you break down that verse into the three things that God requires of us, I think “to walk humbly with your God” is the easiest to define. It means that we seek to live in a daily relationship with God through the spiritual disciplines. But how do we define the other two?

“To love kindness or mercy.” I think that being merciful and kind to others is when we to try to “alleviate” the suffering that comes from poverty and social injustice. For instance, a soup kitchen is an act of mercy. Because, at a soup kitchen we feed people to alleviate hunger. We don’t eradicate hunger, but we alleviate it. The next day, that person is going to be hungry again. Other acts of mercy and kindness would be to have a clothing pantry, or to provide school supplies for children in poverty, or to help restore a home for someone in need. We’re not eliminating the poverty or social injustice, we are helping to alleviate the suffering. So, these are all acts of mercy and kindness.

Now, most churches are involved in acts of mercy and kindness. We have many such ministries in our church and that is to be celebrated. This is part of what God requires of us. But how do we “do justice”? The Bible defines justice as doing things that bring about change to the systems that are causing poverty and social injustices. For instance, what are we doing to eradicate extreme poverty? What are we doing to eradicate famine and hunger? What are we doing to eliminate the systems and powers that are oppressing people? The truth is, this is a much shorter list.

Another way of looking at this would be the classic example of giving someone a fish to eat. That would be an act of mercy or kindness. Whereas, an act of justice would be to teach that person to fish. Another example would be, to be standing by a river and seeing babies floating down the river. An act of mercy and kindness would be to rescue the babies. But an act of justice would be to go up the river and see what’s going on … why are so many babies falling into the river?

Both ministries of mercy and justice are essential, but unfortunately, somehow we as the church have neglected opportunities to be in ministries of justice. But it hasn’t always been this way. John Wesley and the early Methodists were heavily involved in human rights and social justice issues. John Wesley fought against slavery and sought to eradicate the systems that were promoting it. He fought for fair wages for the working people of England in that day. He was a champion against child labor. There was extreme disparity between those who had and those who had not in his day, so he addressed that in many ways.

One of the ways he did this was in his small groups. When the church in John Wesley’s day met, they met as Societies and then broke up into small groups called Classes. And one of the purposes of these small groups was to gather money for the poor. The money they collected was used to build schools, because John Wesley realized that someone who was educated had a better chance of making it out of poverty.

Wesley also fought for the rights of women. He was the first who appointed women to preach in the pulpits and he assigned them to ministries with the sick. That was a controversial thing back then in the 1700’s and many said, “No, we cannot have women in ministry!” But Wesley preached a sermon about this, in which he said:

“It has long passed as a maxim with many that women are to be seen and not heard. And accordingly, many of them are brought up in such a manner as if they were only designed for agreeable play things. But is this doing honor to their gender? Or is it a real kindness to them? No. It is the deepest unkindness. It is horrid cruelty and I know not how any woman of sense and spirit can submit to it. Let all you who have it in your power assert the right which the God of nature has given you. Yield not to that vile bondage any longer. You (women) are rational creatures. You, like them (men) were made in the image of God and are equal candidates for immortality. You too are called of God. As it says in the Holy Scriptures, ‘Be not disobedient to the heavenly calling.’” – John Wesley

And because of what Wesley did, not only in women’s rights, but in all the other areas of social injustices, society in England changed. As United Methodists, this is our legacy. As United Methodists, we have always understood that “personal piety” and “social holiness” go together. We need to strive for personal piety. We need to worship God. We need to be renewed, forgiven, and grow in our relationship with God. But also, as it says in James, “Our faith, without works is dead.” And our faith is lived out in acts of social holiness.

In 1908, the Methodist Episcopal Church came together and developed a Social Creed. It reflected our church’s involvement in the social injustices of that day and time. Every four years since that time, as United Methodist meet together from all over the world at General Conference our Social Creed is refined to reflect the challenges of the day. Our Social Principles are quite lengthy, as they seek to address all of the major issues of social injustices. You can find them in our Book of Discipline or go online to our Denomination’s website and read them for yourself. But our church has come up with an abbreviated summary of the general themes which we call “Our Social Creed.” You have it there as an insert in your bulletin. Let me read it to you, to give you a flavor of what we believe we are called to do.

We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.

We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.

We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.

We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.

We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.

We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.

We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.

Over the years, our Church has been so intentional about understanding how the renewal of our Covenant with God means, recognizing that we have been called and blessed by God, so that we will be a blessing to others. We are called to acts of mercy and kindness, ministering to those who are hurting. But we are also called to address those systems and structures that are causing the social injustices of our day.

This is what it means to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” You remember when Jesus talked about how we will all be judged one day. The question will not be, “How many times did you go to church or attend worship?” It’s not going to be, “How much of the Bible did you memorize?” Jesus said, on that day when we stand before God as our judge, we will be asked, “When I was hungry, did you give me food? When I was thirsty, did you give me something to drink? When I was a stranger, did you welcome me? When I was naked, did you give me clothing? When I was sick, did you take care of me? When I was in prison, did you visit me? For, just as you did to the least of these, you did it unto me.”

Today, as we think about the world that we live in, there are a long list of social injustices and suffering that need to be addressed. As we talked about in our recent sermon series dealing with Nehemiah, “Where do you see the greatest need?” “Where is the broken place in the wall that God is calling you to address?” God can only use those whose hearts break for the things that are breaking the heart of God.

As we think about that, maybe we can hear God’s voice speaking to us, just as he did to Isaiah in chapter 6, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah said, “Here am I; send me!”

· When we read in the News that a minimum wage is not enough to support a family of three … “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

· When we read about elderly people who have to choose between filling their pantry or filling their prescriptions … “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

· When we have a group like Kalita come to us from the Ukraine and show us how orphaned children are living in the sewers to keep warm … “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

· When you drive by the FEMA trailer park that has been established for Hurricane Katrina victims in East Monroe after a rain and see how the people have to wade through water to get into their trailers … “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Injustices are all around us.

Lisa Sullivan was a young, African American woman who worked with urban youth in Washington D.C. and all around the country. She went to Yale and earned her PhD. After working in several government and non-profit jobs, she felt the call to go develop a ministry to help troubled youth in the streets of Washington D.C. She was in the process of developing a new network of structure for all the urban youth organizations to work together, when at the age of 40 she died with a rare heart condition. Her legacy continues on though, and much change has taken place due to the foundation she laid.

There was one thing that she often said to the youth and workers that she mentored. When people would complain or question, “Where are the leaders who will help us today?” “Where are the Martin Luther Kings of today?” She would get angry and say, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

None of us here are blind. We are all aware of the many things that are broken in our society and in our world. And we may be like so many others, who are waiting for the right person to stand up or for the right leader to be elected to change the system and address the injustice. But I think God would say to us today, that “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” Can you hear the voice of God calling you today, “Whom shall send? Who will go for us?” We are the ones we have been waiting for.

There is no greater calling for us, than to be God’s agents of blessing to the needs of others. Listen to how Isaiah concludes his warning to the people about their true worship of God in verses 9-12:

“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. 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.” – Isaiah 58:9-12