“Come, Let Us Argue It Out!”
Sermon Presented August 8, 2010
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
On the editorial page of last Thursday’s Journal Sentinel (Aug. 5, 2010), Leonard Pitts’ editorial addressed the future of Christianity. It was titled: Keeping faith but losing religion. He began with these words from author Anne Rice: “Today, I quit being a Christian. I remain committed to Christ, but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried! I’ve failed! I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”
You may recall that ten years ago, Rice returned to her Catholic roots after years of calling herself an atheist. Now, she says she hasn’t lost her faith, but she’s had it up to here with organized religion. She wrote: “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat…. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.” (ibid)
According to a 2008 Trinity College study, religiosity is trending down sharply in this country. When 54,000 adults were polled, it was discovered that since 1990, the number of people who call themselves Christian has fallen by 10%, while the percentage of those who claim no religious affiliation has almost doubled (from 8.2% to 15%). Pitt goes on to say that “Organized religion, Christianity in particular, is on the decline. It has no one to blame but itself. It traded moral authority for political power. To put it another way: The Christian Bible contains numerous exhortations to serve those who are wretched and poor, to anger slowly and forgive promptly, to walk through this life in humility and faith.” We have left the message of Christ. (ibid)
Our text precedes Christianity by about 800 years. It is a message God gave to the people of Judah – of Jerusalem – through the prophet Isaiah, informing them that they are headed in the wrong direction. The book of Isaiah has 66 chapters and at least three authors. It was written over a period of 400 years. In many ways, Isaiah’s indictment of organized religion is similar to the indictment of Christianity and the Church given by Anne Rice. Hear what God says. Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
The purpose of “religion” has always been to change lives. We must hear this indictment as if we are as guilty as the Judeans, and accept that this text is addressed to us this morning. This text should not only accuse the church, but ask questions of the church. (Paul Simpson Duke, Feasting on the Word Year C, Vol. 3, p. 319)
For us, the cultic practices of the Judeans aren’t the issue. We don’t offer animal sacrifices or burn incense. The target of God’s tirade is injustice, oppression, and other evils, and the words spoken are meant to startle and offend us. It is important that we translate from the world of the text to the world of our experience. For the church today to hear this is shocking: “I hate your worship! Your prayers make me sick. Your sermons are a travesty! Your holy communion stinks. I want none of it!” Remember, that God is the first and most furious critic of religion! And God’s attack is on the bizarre disconnect of people praising God while desecrating God’s command to love. According to God, worship divorced from justice is obscene. (ibid)
This word from God isn’t feel-good rhetoric! God is fed up with the people of Judah! Temple worship has become a travesty! God’s people go to the temple, bring their sacrifices, and then live as heathens the rest of the week. There is no congruency between their claim to worship God and the way they live. God wants change – and opens a window of opportunity for that change to occur. However, change is up to the people!
By comparing the rulers and people to Sodom and Gomorrah, God emphasizes the seriousness of the sin. The people have rebelled against God – which implies an intentional, willful disobedience. This can also be translated “have broken” with God, which is far worse. It’s because the people have broken with God that their worship is so detestable! (Janet Weather, New Interpretation, Year C, 2001, p. 156)
In poetic imagination, the rulers and people of Jerusalem are addressed as Sodom and Gomorrah. The beloved holy city has been renamed by the most abhorrent names imaginable. (Walter Brueggemann, Westminster Bible Companion Isaiah 1-39, p. 17) The book of Ezekiel (16:49) states: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.” As the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah became by-words for injustice and divine judgment, Isaiah implies that Judah now mirrors their condition. (Ann Case-Winters, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, p. 318)
Judah must now make some choices – with little room for maneuverability. Real change is possible. The bloody color of sin can turn to the innocence of snow. That is the good news. The God who is prepared to terminate a relationship offers a way back to the relationship, but it won’t be easy. Judah can choose life or choose death. Their choices predict their future – choose obedience and live a fruitful, blessed and productive life. Choose rebellion and be devoured by the Assyrians. A choice is offered! (ibid, Brueggemann, p. 20)
The complexity of the system of ritual sacrifice in ancient Judaism is much misunderstood in Christian circles. For example, there were different kinds of offerings. Some were understood purely as gifts to God. Peace offerings were meant to signal a reconciled relationship with God. Other offerings were intended as an expiation for breaches of ritual committed in ignorance. Forgiveness of other kinds of wrongs done knowingly was never related to sacrifice, but was dependent upon repentance and confession. At that time, there was no understanding of divine forgiveness being “purchased” by sacrifice. (ibid, Case-Winters, p.320)
The prophet states that God’s people must learn to do good! Doing good isn’t instinct but a learning process. Last week I turned on the TV to watch the 5:00 news and saw the end of the Oprah Winfrey Show (8/5/10). The topic for discussion was hoarding, and the psychiatrist – an authority on dealing with the topic, stated that you can’t stop a negative behavior without replacing it with something positive. God told the people to stop their useless worship practices and instead: seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. We learn to do good when we replace insincere worship practices with justice for the poor and oppressed. God doesn’t want our sacrifices; God wants our hearts!
At the center of Jerusalem is the temple, the place of much priestly activity. The purpose of such activity is to remain connected to God. However, God now rejects the people because they no longer care about a serious relationship. Their offerings are dishonest. God will no longer participate in the charade of receiving gifts from people who are not sincere. The relationship is over, because God rejects every effort at communication that is rooted in dishonesty, pretense, and disobedience. The judgment sounds final. (ibid, Brueggemann, p. 18)
For this reason, we aren’t prepared for verses 16-17 which suggest there is yet a route back to God. Hope for God’s people lies in the form of obedience to these imperatives: good in the place of evil, justice to the oppressed, orphans and widows, right worship and a right relationship with the poor. (ibid)
Although we don’t participate in the kinds of sacrifices and forms of worship identified in this text, we would be remiss if we didn’t hear the prophet’s warning as something God has to say to us. In what ways have we broken with God in the reality of our daily lives while deceiving ourselves by participating in “proper worship”? (ibid, Weathers) Where does our allegiance lie?
True worship is primarily about how we live our lives before God. And in Jerusalem, there was a huge gap between religious practice and life. And I’m sad to say that this is still a core problem for God’s people. The poster at the homeless shelter reads: “How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?” That poster may seem glib, but it does point to our perpetual problem of translating our worship into action. When we ignore injustice, our praise is of no value. (Stacy Simpson Duke, Feasting …, p. 318)
Those in the church who are seekers will determine the future of organized religion. And it might behoove us to keep in mind the distinction Rice drew in her farewell: Christ didn’t fail her, she said. Christianity did. (Pitts, ibid)
08/13/2010
