November 15, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1.15-17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

One of Jesus’ harshest attacks on the Temple leadership, Scribes and Pharisees is found in Matthew 23. Jesus calls them “white-washed tombs, pristine on the outside by all appearances but nothing more than dried up bones and residual impurities. As it would be with tombs so it was with their lives. They had the appearance of righteousness but inside, their hearts and minds were full of hypocrisy and wickedness. It would seem that things had not changed much in seven hundred years since the prophetic utterances of Isaiah. Whether it was a word to those in Babylonian exile describing the cause of their consequence or to those left behind in the land which had been promised to them, the accusation remained consistent. Taking from yesterday’s reflection on Israel as the “new Sodom and Gomorrah,” we might wonder ourselves how this nation would fare in comparison. What is it we truly believe (born out by our actions) and what is it we are willing to sacrifice to keep the dream or the illusion alive? Further, when it comes to considering the season of Advent which is upon us, what is it we might learn about the “then” and apply it to “now.”

I suppose the bottom line in these reflections on Isaiah’s God-led declarations would be, as it was for all the prophets, “what is the condition of the heart.” I find it amazing that we believe that the omniscient God actually doesn’t know everything and can’t see everything. Do we really believe that God who is the author of knowledge and wisdom is in reality, according to us, stupid and dumb? Does that sound harsh? Does it sound sacrilegious? Does it sound stupid to say God doesn’t really know and can’t even possibly imagine? How does it sound to you, mighty ones of God, for people to believe they know better than God? Or is that the reason they have a desire to espouse “there is no God” or “there never was a God” or worse “God is dead.” The great heretics of the modern age such as Marx, Freud, Darwin and Nietzche promoted that type of thinking. Either it was because they did not dare believe that humans could be accountable to a higher authority or they dared to believe they were that higher authority. Perhaps it was the lack of faith in understanding that things rarely go “our” way for those who ignore the reality of “the way, the truth and the life.” We know that reality as Jesus Christ who became servant for all, laying down His own life as an atonement for our sin. But what are we left if God is dead, Jesus never lived and there is no such thing as a Holy Spirit, der Heilige Geist? Paul said, “If Christ did not live and had not died and was not raised from the dead, then the gospel is a lie and there is no hope for all those who died in Christ; we then are left to be the most pitiable people because we have lived a lie.” (1 Corinthians 15) Doesn’t this strike to the very heart of the matter? It is a matter of, as Paul declared, “faith, hope and love- these three; and the greatest of them all is LOVE!” (1 Corinthians 13) There it is, the season of Advent and the reality of it is “love.” It is love which gives us faith and hope. Faith and hope do not give us love. In reality, it is only God who can truly love us. Without His mercy and forgiveness, without His love which is compassionate and determined for our good will, then we are left only with survival instincts reducing humanity to a higher animal form. Is that all we are? Is that then the explanation and the excuse for our actions and reactions? Are we no more and no less than that? Do we dare embrace the very image which we create then of ourselves and the world? Without God we are more than a mistake waiting to happen, we are death itself.

Hear what God is saying through Isaiah in today’s “Word from God,” in the introduction of the whole work with verses 15-17. The image is of those who “lift up their hands to praise God.” They have not considered the works of their hands nor the thoughts of the hearts. They instead have reduced themselves into rote behavior which gives the image of piety, holiness, righteousness and authority. It is “rote” behavior following after the learned behaviors of worship which have lost their affection for God. I would dare say, they were indicators of a loss of affection for themselves and, by default, others. They acted the same whether they were at home, on the street, in the marketplace or in the Temple. What were those actions? Sacrifices of flesh and blood which amounted to little more than mindless slaughter. They are externals and not internals. They were like whitewashed tombs filled with dead bones except their tombs were blood-stained. I don’t know about you but when I read “they spread out their hands lifted up in prayer” the first image which came to mind was not a people at worship as I am blessed to be a part of each week. No, I see a small child looking up at me with arms raised and outstretched having the desire to be picked up and held close. In those moments, they don’t think about dirty hands and messy lives. In those moments, what is important is the answer to the unspoken question “Do you love me enough to hold me?” Of course, a child may not know any better about dirty hands and messy lives. But adults should unless they have never been taught. If adults have been without such instruction, then they are like small children and their question is the same. Isn’t that question still the same for all of us? Isn’t it the same? Do we want to know if we are more than just animals who exist for a time having some affinity for one another and then we return to the dust from which we came? Do we want to know there is some spiritual and divine affection which lifts us up and define our existence with an eternal passion for life and living? Do we?

In Isaiah, God is speaking to “His children” but they are adults. They have been taught the “ways of the Lord.” They have been given the images of living whole and complete lives which may seem to some to simply be externals. In reality, however, they are the evidences of the internal confirmation and transformation of the heart, mind and soul…or not. In Isaiah’s day, as it was in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, there was the great disconnect. They no longer paid attention to the fact that the messiness inside was not messy outside. Their thoughts were not God’s thoughts and their ways were not God’s ways. They had reduced themselves to life-rending beings with the sole intention (had their soul become that polluted with worldliness) of appeasing God and not pleasing God. God had grown weary of it. It was time for a great reset. It was a time for honest assessment and right relationships. The call was given to “wash yourselves.” It wasn’t a call to bathe and remove the messiness of the world from their bodies. It was a call to repent and recommit to being God’s people. It was a call to not only remember the ways of God but to walk in them. It was a call to be the right people doing the right thing: love justice, embrace mercy and walk humbly before God. It wasn’t about just making sacrifices but being the evidence of a changed nature, a changed life and their true identity. They could no longer be like the nations around them. They were called to be different so that the nations could see they could be different, too.

And isn’t that what Advent is all about? Isn’t it about preparing ourselves to be in the right state of mind, heart, body and spirit to receive the King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father upon whose shoulders the weight of the governance of the world would rest? Are we clearing our conscience for not being loving enough to others, passionate enough spiritually with others and faithful enough to God that we are more committed to the externals of the season instead of the “reason for the season”? Are we still missing the mark by going off in our own direction instead of making our way to Bethlehem with the shepherds of the field (home) and the magi from afar (abroad)? Or are we willing to be in association with King Herod who spoke of “…so that I might worship Him” but meaning with full intention “…that I might shed His blood to preserve my own life.” Mighty ones of God, what is the meaning and purpose of our Advent? Is it of faith or of works? God says that our works, if not from a clean heart and a right spirit, are unacceptable. We have to determine if we are being shaped more in the image of the world or allowing God to reform us into His image. We have a ways to go!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.