Loving God of all creation, You have made this child in Your image; may they reflect it in such a way even they are blessed by it! In Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Here is our text for today from Isaiah 58: 1 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back - a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! 2 They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people - law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. 3 But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. 4 You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. 5 Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? 6 "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. 7 What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. 8 Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. 9 Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, 10 If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. 11 I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. 12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. (The Message)
If you read carefully the passage above in today's language that is The Message version of the Bible, you noticed several things that either make you excited or scared. And so it is with the things of God. We sometimes don't fully understand them all, but still we press on. It was Isaiah's job to get the people back to God, as is the job of all who would profess to speak for God, and in this passage he states to the people of God, us included, that it's not enough to act holy and do holy things - ours is a life that brings all realms of it into full glory and reflection of God. The people were complaining that it seemed that their prayers were not being answered or that their lives were not being blessed yet here they were in church all the time, singing in the choir or teaching Sunday school. Isaiah replies that it goes beyond living or pretending to live a holy life, to that of truly being holy and loving towards God and others. The list of sins against the people then made me go, "ouch!" It hits close to home! Look at this meddler and how involved he's getting into our "business!"
We pray and fast for what WE can get out of it (that's what he means by "profit.").
We push others harder than we would allow ourselves to be, and that includes those who work for us.
We're in worship and doing all the right things of church, yet we bicker and fight with each other.
We act like we're not aware of injustices around us and sometimes are even the causes of those.
AND LOOK WHAT HE EXPECTS!
Feed the hungry.
Invite the homeless into our homes.
Clothe those who are shivering (it's cold in these parts isn't it?).
AND "Be available to your own family." Ouch, ouch!
Quit gossiping.
Give of ourselves.
As you've heard or as you've said, believing in God and calling ourselves Christian is not easy nor was it ever intended to be; ours is a job of love and compassion to all.
(Make this YOUR PRAYER:) Loving God, I confess that sometimes I worship and pray for the wrong reason. I have a tendency to want the best for myself and my family, and I don't do what blesses others especially the ones who do not yet know you. I saw the list and I want You to help me with it. And let me do it and live it not grudgingly, but with excitement and gratefulness for what You have done for me. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
