A New Day
Isaiah 58:1-12[1]
Most of us these days are looking
for a change. We’re not happy with the way things are, and we want someone or
something to come along and make things right. Or at least make them the way
we’d like them to be. And we have all kinds of ideas about what that change
should look like. If we just had the right job, or the right house, or the
right person in our lives, then things would be the way we want them to be. But
the hard and sometimes painful truth is that usually things are the way they
are not in spite of what we’re doing, but because of what we’re doing. We’d
much rather not have to face the fact that we have to be the change we’re
looking for.
The people of Israel who were
addressed by our lesson from Isaiah for today very likely had some of the same
sentiments. They had been sent into exile in
Babylon and everything about their former way of life had been destroyed. Their dreams had been shattered, families had
been torn apart, and even the Temple lay in ruins. Then they saw the light of God’s deliverance
and they were able to return to their homeland, only to find that it was still
in ruins. They had left one kind of
exile for another! It was too painful for them to admit that they were the
cause of what they were unhappy with. They’d much rather blame the Babylonians,
or the Samaritans, or the foreigners among them. They were happy to scapegoat
anyone rather than face the fact that the change they hoped for was delayed not
in spite of what they were doing, but because of what they were doing.
That was the message of our lesson for today. Like the
other prophets of his time, Isaiah paints a bleak picture of the spiritual
condition of Israel. They acted “as if
they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the
ordinance of their God” (Isa. 58:2). The people of Israel talked the talk but
didn’t walk the walk. They busied
themselves with the routines of their worship, and wondered why they didn’t see
the changes they hoped for in their society.[2] And yet,
the truth of the matter was that while the Jewish people were apparently
extremely diligent about worshipping God, it did not make a difference in their
lives.
Isaiah spelled this out in rather
stinging indictment. Even in their worship they “served their own interest” rather
than serving God (Isaiah 58:3). The way they lived their lives betrayed the
fact that their profession of devotion to God was a hollow one (Isaiah 58:2).
In fact, Isaiah could say that they had completely missed the purpose for their
worship—to transform life (Isaiah 58:6-7).[3] Over and
over again, the Bible insists that those who truly know God will truly love
others by practicing justice and mercy toward the destitute and disenfranchised.
If the people of God do not do so, the Bible challenges whether their devotion
to him is truly authentic.
Unfortunately, the people of
Israel were responsible for their own problems. The conditions of their lives
that they hoped would change were so in spite of what they were doing, but
because of what they were doing. They made a show of faith but failed to do
what was right in the way they actually went about their lives. The fact that they would withhold fair wages
from their workers made it clear that their outward profession of faith did not
relate to any inward spiritual reality. Isaiah didn’t let them off the hook
with some theoretical ideas about how their lives should be lived. He was
quite specific: they were to restore
justice to the oppressed, they were to feed the hungry, they were to help those
who were afflicted, and they were to provide clothing for the naked.[4]
But the
picture Isaiah painted was not entirely bleak. He promised that when they
repented of their ways, ways that oppressed the poor and denied justice to the
weak, then and only then would they experience the change that they were hoping
for.[5] Then and only then would the light “break
forth like the dawn,” and their healing will “spring up quickly” (Isa.
58:8). Then and only then would the
“gloom” that blanketed them turn to light (Isa. 58:10). Then and only then
would they see the light of a new day dawning for them and for their people.
Isaiah was so sure of this promise that he concluded his message with, “the
mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 58:12).
One of
the challenges with reading the prophets is that we don’t always know how
things turned out. Did the people of Israel change their ways and find that new
day dawning for them and their people? The prophets only delivered the message,
they rarely reported the results. We have to look elsewhere to find the answer
to that question. If we look at other historical sources to find out what
happened to the Jewish people, I think we’d have to say that the results were
definitely mixed. There were some—as is usually the case, a minority—who took
the prophets words to heart and became the change they were looking for. But
the majority of them rocked along, looking for scapegoats, professing their
hollow faith, and asking God why he didn’t do anything about their
difficulties.
We’re
living in a time when a lot of people in our society are looking for change of
some kind. Like the people of Israel, we have plenty of ideas about whom to
blame for what we think is wrong. And we keep looking for someone to come along
and fix what is broken. I’ve got some news for you: the problems in our society
run deeper than any one person can change—I don’t care what color house they
occupy. Only God can restore our society. But as the prophet Isaiah put it so
bluntly, that will only happen when we recognize that things are the way they
are because of what we’re doing. We will see the change we’re looking for only
when we stop going our own way and start letting our profession of faith sink
into our hearts so deeply that it motivates us to actually live out the justice
and mercy of God. Then we as a people will see the dawn of a new day.
[1]
©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/21/2016 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf.
Paul D. Hanson, Isaiah 40-66, 204: ““The
problem is not that the people are unreligious. … No, they are hyper correct in
their religious observances and delighted to exhibit their piety, but in their
very exercise of religion they miss the essential point, God’s order of
compassionate justice.” Cf. also William Willimon, “When In Our Music God is
Glorified,” a sermon preached 2/7/1999 at Duke Chapel: “What we believe about
God is to be put into practice, embodied. As Isaiah tells us, it’s no good just
to prattle on about God with our lips; it’s got to take over our lives.” Cf.
also J. D. W. Watts, Isaiah 34–66
(Revised Edition), 845.
[3]
Cf. Hanson, Isaiah 40-66, 205: “This
passage locates God’s central concern in the exercise of justice and the
practice of compassion. Without these, all the pious motions of religion are
mere ‘as ifs.’” He says further, (ibid.,
205-206) that the prophet presents “a rigorously moral understanding that
places the one who would be true to God on the side of the same ones whom God
reached out to help and empower, those suffering injustice at the hands of the
authorities, those imprisoned for acts of conscience, those denied their fair
share of the land’s produce, those denied housing and proper clothing, those
turned away even by their own relatives.” The appeal is an impassioned one to
the heart of the community. It is a plea to reclaim authentic humanity by
replacing cold, calculating self-interest with acts of loving-kindness that
restore genuine communal solidarity
[4] Cf.
Watts, Isaiah 34-66, 844: “All forms of bondage are
distasteful to God, whether economic, political, or social. God’s people were
and are intended to promote freedom.” Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, 84: “If
we want to be free ourselves, we must free others; if we want to arrive at
peace, we must leave other people in peace. True spirituality cannot be a
solitary, selfish experience of the self, for every self exists in the network
of social and political relationships. … In Israel’s prophecy, the liberation
of the oppressed was part of true fasting and belonged to the laws about the Sabbath.”
[5] Cf.
Christopher R. Seitz, “The Book of Isaiah 40–66” New Interpreter’s Bible VI:499, where he sums up the message of
this passage well when he says, “Healing will come, the prophet promises, when
the fruit of proper devotion is in evidence.”
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