Scripture Text (NRSV)
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
1:1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
of Judah.
1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the
teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
1:11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed
beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of
goats.
1:12 When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your
hand? Trample my courts no more;
1:13 bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation-- I cannot endure
solemn assemblies with iniquity.
1:14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.
1:15 When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are
full of blood.
1:16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of
your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend
the orphan, plead for the widow.
1:18 Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall become like wool.
1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the
land;
1:20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the
sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Comments:
Isaiah announces God's displeasure with the offerings and sacrifices
of a people who are without compassion and pleads with Judah, the
Southern Kingdom, to return to the Lord that they might be cleansed.
why do we come to worship today? Does our worship prepare us to be
God's people the other six days a week? why or why not? Hook
As a layman, I receive the opportunity to lead my faith community's
worship service from time to time. Invariably I end up on DPS, and
appreciate the diversity of views and often the kick-start I need to
start my message. I am sure that God's presence is here because of all
the wonderful contributors. Thank you all, or all who read this
anyway!
This Sunday is one such Sunday, and I hope to draw a correlation
between this and the Gospel reading. As a measure of who you are to
God, to others and to yourself will not be measured in material
possessions...whether you have alot, or a little. It will be measured
by what's in your heart. Material wealth is a measure of how good you
are with your money, Spirtual wealth is measured by how you treat
others.
It may be simplistic, but I think it works!
PC in NB
I think it is very interesting that God, via Isaiah, calls the people
of Judah, the people of Sodom and Gommorah. Judah, the country of
God's chosen people, where God's holy city of Jerusalem is situated!
These people who are supposed to be righteous, and indeed seem to
think they are righteous, are being likened to the corrupt people of
Sodom and Gommorah. OUCH!
Sometimes we need someone to hold up a mirror and tell us that we
aren't exactly what we think we are. We are not Christians because we
go to church on Sunday. We are Christians because we are transformed
by worship and sent out into the world, we are Christians because we
live the Christian witness throughout the entire week.
Anyway, this is where I am headed this week. Any thoughts are much
appreciated.
Erin in Ontario
How does God feel about our festivals of praise, our offerings of
affluent gifts (things, possesions),our prayers of self-interest, our
"entertainment" worship? I love worship, the Christian year, the
sacred stories!...but... If my worship does not enable me to meet the
"wounded healer", the Christ at work in the world of the suffering,
then I'm afraid it stands before the same judgement bar as Isaiah
testified. Personal holiness must not be alienated from social
holiness. Worship must lead to the wounded in the midst of the world
or it is simply a "god-game". "Playing church" is not the same as
"costly discipleship" founded upon "costly grace"! This is not meant
to demean the Church, the ekklesia, the fearful disciples transformed
into courageous apostles, the koinonia fellowship of the suffering,
the caring. This statement is to affirm the Church and the call to
sacramental spirituality as a ministry of "wounded healers"
gift-giving themselves in "kenosis" for a "wounded world". (PaideiaSCO
in north ga mts)
JG in WI to PaideiaSCO in north ga mts
I agree with what you're saying, but to me, the issue with Isaiah is
found in verses 15-16. How can we come before God, whether in loud
praise or in quiet contemplation, when our hands "are full of blood?"
You're right when you say, "Personal holiness must not be alienated
from social holiness," but it is also true that they are not the same
thing. We must enter social holiness from the position of personal
holiness. Paul, speaking to the Corinthians says that the Macedonian
Christians "gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in
keeping with God's will." (2 Corinthians 8:5)
So I believe Isaiah calls us to both forms of holiness, without which,
worship is blasphemous.
JG in WI, I agree that the personal and social are sometimes different
but is it not possible to come at the personal from the social as well
as the other way around? Do works of justice lead one to an
understanding of GOd just as an understanding of God leads to works of
justice?
Isaiah certainly is calling us to both but I believe that he is
condemning the tendency within human nature to focus on the personal
to the detriment of the social. In the same way that i find it
impossible to truly love (as opposed to idolatrous love) God and self
without loving neighbour I find that it is impossible to have true
personal holiness that is not at least equally focussed on social
holiness. After all we proclaim the Messiah whose own dedication
message was one of social holiness and justice "...to bring good news
to the poor...proclaim release to the captives...let the oppressed go
free, to proclaim the year of the Lords favour" (Luke 4:18-19, NRSV)
GW in Ontario
How do I preach the message that God is concerned about social justice
to a congregation that is focused on personal piety?
They tend to see their faith as a private, personal thing, not
something that intrudes into the public world.
Isaiah tells us in no uncertain terms that our worship and holy day
celebrations, our offerings and our rituals, aren't what God is after,
if it doesn't change our lives.
God wants us to care for those vulnerable people in our midst.
How do we do that? I know that we've made a mess of the welfare
system, but it frightens me to know that where I live, you get five
years of help, and then you're cut off. What about the ones who won't
make it, despite all the help and job training in the world?
Then too,I am conscious of my own discomfort around people in poverty.
I don't know what to do or say or how to act. And yet, at this point
in my ministry, at my current income, if not for support from my
family, we might be on government assistance. I'm in the same boat
some of them are financially, but I come from a very different
background than many of them.
How can we begin to move toward reaching out to those in need?
Any suggestions from those who have wrestled with the same issues?
Sharon
How do I preach the message that God is concerned about social justice
to a congregation that is focused on personal piety?
They tend to see their faith as a private, personal thing, not
something that intrudes into the public world.
Isaiah tells us in no uncertain terms that our worship and holy day
celebrations, our offerings and our rituals, aren't what God is after,
if it doesn't change our lives.
God wants us to care for those vulnerable people in our midst.
How do we do that? I know that we've made a mess of the welfare
system, but it frightens me to know that where I live, you get five
years of help, and then you're cut off. What about the ones who won't
make it, despite all the help and job training in the world?
Then too,I am conscious of my own discomfort around people in poverty.
I don't know what to do or say or how to act. And yet, at this point
in my ministry, at my current income, if not for support from my
family, we might be on government assistance. I'm in the same boat
some of them are financially, but I come from a very different
background than many of them.
How can we begin to move toward reaching out to those in need?
Any suggestions from those who have wrestled with the same issues?
Sharon
This passage sounds similar to the psalm 50 passage. A God of justice.
Yes Sharon it is hard to preach. I have the same dilemma. But I think
it is because I don't want to "rock the boat" so to speak. I like my
comfort level with persons saying how much the enjoyed the sermon, not
how much they were challenged by it. That question always reminds me
of the Isaiah 6:9, where persons will have ears and not hear. I think
for me it is a question of being brave enough to bring the prophetic
word to a congregation that deserves it. It will be only by God design
and God's spirit that I do so. There is too much at stake Sharon. You
and I are responsible for our calling. So-o-o we must bring the word
as God reveals it to us.
God Bless
Shalom, Pasthersyl
Sharon,
There are cross-denominational small group courses such as "The Alpha
Course" or "Experiencing God" that have been successful in
transforming congregations such as yours into vibrant living
instruments of God's purposes. Personal piety and the privatization of
faith are secular notions that have hand-cuffed the Church. Culturally
we are being mandated to compartmentalize who we are and thus to
separate the application of our faith from the public realm. We are
hurting because of it.
Sharon, my prayer is that you and your flock will yield to the power
and presence of the Holy Spirit and present your selves as living
intruments in the hands of God. Please do not despair. You are to be a
beacon of hope, a reflection of the hope of Christ in you. The
Scriptures say that the poor will always be with us but this is
America, a land of opportunity, flawed in many ways but still grand in
so many others. Have hope... Look to Christ... Yield to the Holy
Spirit...Be used by God...
Praying for you, Rick in Va.
Sharon - perhaps through piety's attraction to scripture there is hope
for hearing the whole word of God. Though I am not a particularly
pious person, I have recently startedpracticing a kind of personal
devotional reading, (ref. Michael Casey's "Sacred Reading") and began
(by chance?) with Isaiah - the thing that strikes me in these first
few chapters, read carefully over and over again, is God's pain for
the very people God judges. The phrase (I think it is verse 4) "laden
with iniquity" captures at once the foul stickiness of sin and the
unnecessary burden thereof that God longs to lift from the shoulders
of God's people. Personal piety may lead one into interaction with
this text, but an encounter with the God who agonizes over these
people cannot help but lead us closer into doing what it is that God
is doing. The day I read this passage, I had just participated in a
vesper service of reconciliation at a nearby monastery. After
confessing and reflecting on our sin, we walked in procession past the
font, where the abbot poured water over our hands. Then that night I
read "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean." Powerful. I think this
is the passage for my sermon this week. kbc in sc
