Isaiah 58:10-12

Isaiah 58:10-12

English Standard Version 

  Have you ever stopped to consider a fountain?  If you think about it, fountains only work because they're continually draining themselves.  Somewhere in that fountain, there is a small drain that leads to a pump that cycles water back up to the top.  Only in the act of being continuously drained can a fountain fulfill its true purpose.  

  Or picture a paintbrush.  A new paintbrush is a thing of beauty -- unmarred, pure, untainted by any color.  Only by immersing itself in colored paints, risking staining and possible deformity, can it fulfill its true purpose.  Far safer to stay in the wrapper, far from paints with conflicting colors.  But not what a paintbrush is designed for.

  We are the same.  We are made, we are called, we are created to serve, to pour ourselves out for the hungry and satisfy the desires of the afflicted, for in so doing the Lord guides us and satisfies us.  In serving others, as messy as it can be, we discover grace anew.  In feeding others, we are fed.  In pouring ourselves out, we are watered, and we are renewed by grace, restored by God.  In serving, we discover anew the love of Christ who serves us.  In loving, we discover the unconditional love of God.  

  So may we serve and love, unburdened by the risks and unrestrained by the mess of one another's lives, and in so doing, may we fall in love with God all over again.

Isaiah 58:6-9

Isaiah 58:6-9

English Standard Version

  So imagine you're driving down the freeway.  You turn your blinker on, then look over and notice that there is a car next to you.  Imagine, if you will, that you then proceed to merge into that lane anyway, forcing the other car off the road and into the ditch.  Do you feel good for using your blinker?

  This is a little like the problem that the prophet Isaiah is describing.  The Israelites were fasting to honor God, but then they went out and lived lives that completely ignored the commands God had given them to care for other people.  They still wanted credit for fasting, thinking that they were honoring God by doing so.  

  Instead, God tells them that God would rather see them commit themselves to serving the poor and oppressed.  The point of fasting, God is trying to tell them, is that their relationships be restored with God and one another.  To ignore the people around you while focusing on God doesn't solve the problem, just as ignoring God while serving the people around you doesn't.  They are linked, and while we don't have to be perfect in either, we can't completely ignore half of the equation.  Faith in God naturally translates to caring about the things God cares about, and if God has created the world and the people in it, we should be caring for the world and the people in it as part of our effort to honor God.  

Isaiah 56:1-2

Isaiah 56:1-2 

English Standard Version 

  Sometimes, the commands of the Lord seem easy.  When we read them on the page, written in black and white, we think about how we can go and do these things.

  However, when we go out into the world, things often get far more complicated.  Life is messy in the real world, where right and wrong often seem far more like shades of grey.  Justice and righteousness aren't always clear, and it's easy to wonder if anyone is on the right side at the end of the day.

  It's interesting how these verses conclude.  They talk about justice and righteousness, and yet they end at the Sabbath.  Keeping the Sabbath is mentioned right next to keeping justice and pursuing righteousness.  Isn't that interesting?  

  In America, we've about given up on the Sabbath.  Youth sports have largely taken over the day, and where there is extra space, golf and errands and work have interfered.  Sunday has become just another day to try and get more things done, often trying to build our own little kingdoms.

  And yet God has commanded us to keep it holy, set aside a day for us to rest, to trust, to lean into God, to remember that it's not us holding the world together, but rather God holding us together.  

  So let's start with some sabbath time.  Maybe, just maybe, keeping the Sabbath, even if only for a few hours in the day, will have an impact on the rest of our lives, leading us to keep justice and do righteousness.  Start small, step out in faith, and God is able to do impossibly more than we ask or imagine.

Sermon on Exodus 12 for June 13, 2021