Roger Lynn
October 13, 2019
(click here to listen to this sermon on YouTube)
Isaiah is pretty clear. There isn’t really much room to wonder what he is saying. With the confident audacity of a prophet, he dares to speak on behalf of God and declare that something has to change. It doesn’t matter if you go to church. It doesn’t matter if you say the right words. It doesn’t even matter if you fill the offering plate. Being in right relationship with God means aligning your life with God’s intentions for the world. Don’t come to me with your hands covered in blood, God says, and think that everything is just fine. Everything is not fine. The world is broken and people are being hurt. Until you start doing something about it we really don’t have anything to talk about. You want to call yourself a person of faith. You want to be in right relationship with me. Here’s where to start – cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. I desire justice for the whole world and being in relationship with me means participating in my radical vision for justice – where everyone, everywhere, all the time gets a fair shake. They will have enough to eat. They will be safe. They will have access to all of society’s benefits. They will be cared for and valued and honored. If you want to be in relationship with me, then working for that kind of a world will become your passion. And without that kind of justice-seeking passion your attempts at worship are really pretty hollow. If you are not a part of the solution then you are a part of the problem. Seek justice!
The people who first heard Isaiah preach were squirming in their seats. He was hitting way to close to home. And if we are paying attention at all, then we, too, will be squirming in our seats, because things haven’t changed very much in all those hundreds and thousands of years since then. The world is still broken, people are still being oppressed and abused and ignored, justice is still more dream than reality, and we still need to decide whether we are going to be a part of the problem or the solution. It is still about more than saying the right words when we come to church. Being people of faith still requires that we get out and do something to make a difference. The good news is that change is possible. Healing can take place. Re-alignment with God and God’s intentions for the world is within our grasp. Right after Isaiah cuts loose with his no-holds-barred diatribe against the evil ways of the people, he says on behalf of God, “Come now, let us argue it out. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18) No matter how long or how far we wander off in the wrong direction, God still desires to embrace us and lead us back to more life-filled paths. We do not have to do it on our own, but we do have to be willing to participate in the process.
Several hundred years after Isaiah, Jesus offered a practical glimpse into this same reality. In the town of Jericho he has an encounter with a man named Zacchaeus. It is important to note that Zacchaeus was not your average, run-of-the-mill resident of Jericho. He had three strikes against him before he even got out of bed in the morning. He was a tax collector. In fact, he was the district manager for all the tax collectors in the area. That meant he was actively assisting the hated Roman government in their occupation and oppression of the people of Israel. He had gotten very rich as a result, but his wealth had come at the cost of respect and acceptance within his community. He was hated. Everyone around him had long ago stopped seeing him as a human being. All they saw was a hated, despised tax collector. A sinner! The very example of what it meant to be cut off from God and God’s love. And it is this despised, hated, miserable excuse for a human being that Jesus seeks out to share a meal with. Not because Zacchaeus was perfect. Not because he was the “right kind of people.” But simply because he was a person who was loved by God. Jesus looked beneath all the surface labels – tax collector, sinner, evil, hated – and saw him for who he was. He saw a broken, hurting human being in desperate need of love and acceptance. In desperate need of justice. And because of that amazing encounter, because Zacchaeus was truly seen in all his frail, vulnerable humanness, his life was changed. He became a participant in God’s radical justice. Amends were made for past offenses. He altered course and began walking down a more life-filled path.
Isaiah says “wash yourselves – make yourselves clean.” Jesus says “follow me on this path of active, justice-filled living.” Are we willing? It’s scary business, this thing we call faithful living. It means looking seriously at how our choices and our life-styles affect the rest of the world’s population. It means looking seriously at who we reach out to embrace and who we would really prefer to ignore or reject. It means making changes when we recognize that we are heading away from life, away from God. The justice Isaiah calls for has global implications. The justice Jesus demonstrates is as close as the person next door. We are not called to accomplish it all today. We are not called to do it all by ourselves. But we are called to participate, here, now, where we live. What do you need to do to get started?
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