Sermon for 8.8.10 - 11th Lord's Day After Pentecost
Last week we read from Hosea 11 and were reminded about God’s graciousness, which Hosea described as being like a parent always seeking to welcome back children who have gone astray. We also pondered ways that we, like the people of Israel, turn away from God. This week, and for the next three weeks, we’ll continue to look closely at God’s graciousness in spite of our sinfulness, and how God’s grace enables us to be fruitful and faithful children of God.
With this in mind, let us turn to the opening chapter of the prophet Isaiah. In verse 18, God offers an invitation to the people of Judah, to whom Isaiah is a prophet. God says, “Come now, let us argue it out.” To me, this entire chapter sounds like a legal battle in which God makes a case against the people of Judah, and all who follow in their footsteps. So, as we consider God’s message from Isaiah I invite you to imagine you’re sitting not so much in a church as in a courtroom with opposing counsels ready to make their opening arguments.
From the second verse of chapter one, God is making God’s case, calling to the heavens and earth to serve as witnesses: “Hear, O heavens, and listen O earth; for the LORD has spoken: I reared children and brought them up but they have rebelled against me” (v.2). Indeed, this rebellion is so serious that God refers to the people of Judah as “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah” in verse 10. Now, I probably don’t need to remind you that Sodom and Gomorrah were cities famous for their wickedness (see Gen18-19). To be lumped together with these cities was a terrible insult and judgment against Judah and its capital, Jerusalem.
I. From these opening accusations, God turns on the heat, directed squarely at Judah’s worship practices. “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough…” of your burnt offerings, blood offerings, and incense (v.11). Indeed, God considers their worship practices to be nothing more than trampling God’s courts and tells them to give it up: “[Bringing] offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. […] I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me” (v.12b-14).
From all this, it sounds like God’s case is about worship particularly, as though the people of Judah are doing something wrong in the ritual acts. But verses 15-17 get at the true heart of God’s case against Judah: they have bloody hands, which makes their worship untruthful. They are dirtied with sin and injustice. They do evil, avoid good, ignore the oppressed, and fail to defend the orphans and widows. This is why God refers to the people as Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 10, for, according to Ezekiel 16:49, the guilt of these cities was that “[they] had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” This is why God turns from prosecution to recommendations for right conduct. “Wash yourselves,” God says, “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (v.16-17). The heart of God’s case isn’t a technical critique of Judah’s worship practices, it’s that God sees and knows that the people are not being faithful. They’ve turned away from God and the life God called them to. As a result, their worship is tainted, indeed, God doesn’t even consider it true worship.
Were this an actual legal case, the defendant, Judah, would have an opportunity at this point to make a rebuttal or a counter-argument in hopes of proving its innocence. Yet, Isaiah doesn’t record one here, probably because there’s no case to be made. After all, the one bringing the case is God, the Holy One of Israel and Creator of All That Is. Instead of searching for opposing arguments and justifications, as we read this text and hear God’s case against Judah and Jerusalem, we ought to hear God’s case against Judah for what it truly is: this is God’s case against an unfaithful and fallen creation – God’s case against us.
II. In this, it might be tempting to think that God’s case against us has something to do with our specific worship practices: Oh, they didn’t just sing that song again! or Who asked them to pray like that?! Yet, to focus on the specific parts of our worship practices misses the point. God, in Isaiah, is not critiquing our worship practices so much as God is calling us to account for the ways we have at times failed to connect what we say we are in worship with who we are in the rest of our lives. In the words of musician Matt Papa, God is calling us to “stop going to church and start being the Church,” which he writes in reference to his song, “To the Least of These.” The chorus of that song sings boldly, “I will love you Lord with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. And so I’ll love the ones you love. Now I’m taking up my cross for you, obeying your commands. I want my worship to be true, ‘cause when I’m loving them, I’m loving you.”
God’s case against us is the same as God’s case against the people of Judah, which we are reminded of in our communal confession, which we so often say in worship (UMH, 8): “We confess that we have not loved you with our whole hearts. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy.” What does this confession mean? What does it mean that God accuses us, and that we, in confessing, readily admit to having bloody hands, so to speak? In pondering these questions, it’s not at all helpful for one in the pulpit to point out a list of sins and ways we have fallen short. Instead, I’ll share two stories.
The first story is about caring for widows. Throughout middle school and high school I mowed lawns. One woman I mowed for was named Blanche. At the time, I thought she was the crotchety-est, grumpiest old woman who had ever lived. She was nagging. She was mean. I dreaded her phone calls. Even my mom grew to dread her calls. She didn’t water much, so as the summers wore on, I’d mow more and more infrequently, which aggravated her desire for consistency. But had I really cared for Blanche, I would have known that what it really did was leave her alone that much longer between mowings. She was lonely. This should have been especially clear from the way she always compared me to the last person who had mowed her lawn. She told me how he always came to do odd jobs for her and seemed to always be doing little things for her. He was around. Looking back, with all her incessant nagging, griping, and comparisons to the other guy, it’s easy to see she was just crying out for attention and company. Yet, I only let those things build up a wall between us. I mowed for her and got out as quickly as possible after she signed my timesheet, saving my time to spend with other customers who were nicer and friendlier.
The second story is about justice. While in seminary I met some Northwestern University students who had gone on a mission experience in Guatemala the year before. They shared about getting to know independent coffee farmers, whose crops were sold to Fair Trade organizations, and about other coffee growers who sold their crops to major coffee producers in North America.
One major difference between the two small coffee growers is the way they grow their coffee. Large, American coffee companies profit from buying the most product for the lowest cost. This encourages the farmers to grow as much coffee as possible by cutting down rainforests to make room for more plants and using lots of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which cause significant pollution. On the other hand, those selling to Fair Trade organizations are required to emphasize stewardship and conservation. If they’re not organic, they’re at least using alternative forms of fertilizer. They typically value shade-grown coffee, which eliminates deforestation and creates vital habitat for native bird populations.
The other big difference between the two small coffee farmers has to do with how much they’re paid and the sense of value and ownership that results. Those selling to large corporations are paid significantly less than those selling to Fair Trade organizations. This is largely due to the increased amount of people involved, all getting their cut of the profits. Let’s start backwards with each of us buying a similar cup of coffee for a similar price. If I buy coffee in plastic tubs, my money is divided between the coffee distributor, the coffee company, the U.S. broker, the processor/exporter, and the purchaser who buys the coffee from the farmer. Whereas, if I buy my Fair Trade coffee from Marise at cost, I pay the Fair Trade company, who pays the farmer co-operative in Guatemala, who pays the farmer. In all this, the point is raising one farmer’s standard of living and sense of ownership over his work, or supporting a system that treats coffee growers as little more than slaves or indentured servants without any sense of pride in his work. For me, purchasing Fair Trade coffee is a very small step that reminds me of God’s call to care for others and creation through the purchases I make.
III. Hopefully, these two examples will help us all to think about ways that we are complicit in systems that oppress others unjustly, or ways that we fail to care for others in our midst. What we must see is that the case God makes against Judah is the same case God makes against us. If our daily living does not reflect who we believe we are called to be while in worship, our worship is untruthful. Yet, just as God’s case against us is the same, so too is God’s word of grace the same for us this day as it was for the people of Judah.
After making God’s case in verses 10-17, God switches roles in the courtroom scene and takes the seat of judge and arbiter, the one who decides the case. God says, “[Though] your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (v18). As we heard last week from Hosea, God is still willing to take God’s sinful children back into God’s home. This is true for the people of Judah and it’s true for us today. God, as judge, says there’s still a way to live into the fullness of life with God. God will transform our sinfulness and disobedience into faithfulness that we might be empowered to do good, avoid evil, and share God’s grace and justice to others.
God challenges God’s people of every age to live in ways that ring true with their worship. God’s offer is still on the table. Though God has leveled an airtight case against Judah, and against all of Creation, God stands as judge ready to commute the sentence and instead work transformation in the lives of God’s people. We don’t have to feel guilty about sinfulness. We don’t have to continue pleading for mercy. Mercy is already offered; grace is already here. God simply calls us to live in ways that God created us to be, ways in which worship and justice go hand in hand. God graciously forgives us so that we can live faithfully, seeking justice, doing good, avoiding evil, and standing up for those who are beaten down.
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