I must confess, this post germinated from observing a habitual practice of my friend Chris Peters. He randomly lists things for which he's thankful around Thanksgiving. It's hard to go wrong in being grateful, so I decided to do it on New Year's Eve for the year 2013. Here we go!
Over the past year, I am thankful for (in no particular order):
My Life of Prayer class
The South Korean Church
My favorite book that I've read thus far in seminary
Music
People who are good with biblical languages
New friends
Hawaiian breeze scent sticks
Panda toothbrush holders
Auburn football
Finishing my paperwork for provisional membership in the North Alabama Conference of the UMC
Getting to meet and be prayed over by Bishop Debbie Wallace-Padgett
The One and Onlys
Family
Laughter
Growth
The trusty Toyota Corolla
Embrace UMC
Old friends
Faithful volunteers
People who are hospitable with their homes/good hosts
The Book of Common Prayer
Praying with others
Concerts
The Nutcracker
The Triune God
Exercise
Asbury Theological Seminary
Mentors
Healthy Choice microwaveable dinners
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Beard experimentation
Hikes in rain or shine
Novels
Running shoes
Home-cooked meals
Hugs
Healing
Risking
Lectio Divina
Sleep
Preaching
Honest people
Saying goodbye
Pictures
Rest
I'll stop with these. Here's hoping that in 2014, we discover again and again that God is better than out best thoughts, that the darkness cannot overpower the Light, that life really is a gift, and that we need Jesus and each other. Blessings.
2013 has held some cherished music finds for me. I'll give this disclaimer up front: Some of these albums did not come out in 2013, yet all of them are discoveries that I made throughout the year. Some are from bands that have been familiar to me for quite a while; others I had never encountered before this year. I share here what I like about each record. I hope you enjoy these artists as much as I have!
#5- -I Am Mountain by Gungor
Gungor take a turn toward the mystical in their latest effort. The lyrics are often searching and full of wonder, betraying hearts that yearn to move further in and higher up in the mysteries of life. The technical prowess of the band is not in doubt in my mind. Guitarist and vocalist Michael Gungor is at home leading flamenco-style acoustic songs, ripping a thick blues solo, and shredding with the best of rockers, while pianist and vocalist Lisa Gungor deftly moves from classical arrangements to pop ballads. Such proficiency is quite a rarity for artists who make music for both the church and wider audiences today. These same chops can be detected in I Am Mountain, though tastefully employed in service to the songs.
Musically, I Am Mountain is at home in several different genres, capable of offering something that will satisfy a diverse range of palettes. The album has a more electronic feel than the band's previous work. The title track sounds like it could have come from the 80s with its oddly paced guitar and keys. "Let It Go" sounds like 70s disco/funk and 80s synth had a love child that has just come of age. "Wayward and Torn" is a short, rough-and-tumble, folksy tune that seems to be out of place when compared to the rest of the album, but is still good. My favorite song, "Long Way Off," is a great pop tune that will have you singing along by the end, and it is the only song I know that has "apophatic mystic" as part of the lyrics. Seminary win!
Listen to "Long Way Off" here:
#4- - Glad All Over by The Wallflowers
I remember hearing The Wallflowers as a kid. My brother got their Bringing Down the Horse album, and "One Headlight" was on the radio all the time in the 90s. Frontman Jakob Dylan's cool voice and penchant for songwriting were evident even then, though my young mind did not recognize it. Both incarnations of Dylan are hard to top when it comes to lyrics. I happen to prefer Jakob over his father Bob- -he writes and performs in a way that is more appealing to me. Unfortunately, The Wallflowers faded from my ears and mind until recently.
Glad All Over is an album formed out of a reunion- -the band had been on hiatus for several years before working on this record. They are composed of several artists who are well known for their work in other bands: Rami Jaffee is a touring keyboardist for the Foo Fighters and drummer Jack Irons plays with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They deliver a full, invigorating, pop-rock sort of sound. No one musical instrument seems to take precedence; here we have a good example of a bunch of guys who play as a unit, making some good rock n' roll. My favorite song is the epic "Love is a Country," which puts Dylan's lyricism on full display. Other good songs are "Misfits and Lovers," "Reboot the Mission," and "First One in the Car."
Check out "Love is a Country" here:
#3- -One True Vine by Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is a great American icon. You may not recognize her, but the chances are good that you've heard her. She, along with her family in the Staple Singers, are responsible for the great oldie "Take You There." Add in that she and her family were closely connected with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement and that Bob Dylan once asked her father for her hand in marriage, and it quickly becomes apparent that Mavis is someone special. One True Vine is her second album to be produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who is a musical tour de force in his own right. Their collaboration has led to great things in the past, yielding a Grammy in 2011 for You Are Not Alone.
This album has a profoundly religious vibe to it; it is authentic gospel music of the best quality, though some of the lyricists may not be Christian. Sometimes arrangements are sparse, showcasing Staples' great voice, as in "Holy Ghost." The bluesy "Every Step" feels like it could have been an old African American spiritual or sung marching in the Civil Rights Movement- -it got me through my finals week this Fall semester. "Can You Get to That" is a fun cover of a Funkadelic classic. "I Like the Things About Me" is a dirty, groovy tune about self-acceptance. "Jesus Wept" is a visceral song about wrestling with loss, and is my favorite from the record. Here are the lyrics for the chorus:
Side streets I have worn
Through late summer storms
I should've told you
I could live without you
But I don't want to
Listen to it here:
#2- -Bloom by Beach House
April 2013. I was on a 12 hour flight from Narita airport in Japan to Detroit after a wonderful taste of the South Korean Church. Trying to find ways to pass the time that did not involve me wondering about the neighboring Japanese man who never used the bathroom the entire flight, I decided to peruse the musical selections on the American Airlines console. I selected the Americana genre and listened to some of the artists they had on display. Nothing really seemed to capture my attention. Then I selected the Bloom album by a band I had never heard of: Beach House. The first song on the album, "Myth," started playing. From the first counting off of the drum machine to the incoming wave of effects-laden guitar and arpeggiated keys, my attention was transfixed. Here was something melodic and musically fresh- -it reminded me of The Cure. I had so many questions: "Is the singer a man or a woman?" "How on earth did this get put in the 'Americana' genre?" "What the heck are the lyrics about?" No matter. I was along for the ride and thoroughly enjoyed my first listen through the album. I still have no idea how this album made it into the Americana genre; perhaps the American Airlines folks decided it would serve as a nice catch-all since they didn't have a "Dream Pop" genre.
"Lazuli" was the first song to get stuck in my head. With French-born Victoria Legrand's haunting huffs to guitarist Alex Scally's pleasant melodic descents, the song swells as Legrand chants with mantra-like obsession Like no other you can't be replaced. "Wishes" is another good tune, and "The Hours" holds more good guitar work with wistful lyrics. I liked this album so much that I got it for my brother for Christmas! It's stuck with me for months now. It may not suit everyone's tastes, but I found it to be quite enjoyable.
Listen to "Myth" here:
#1- -Inland by Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay is one of those bands that has stuck with me over the years. A friend got me into them back when I was in a church youth group as a teenager. Some of their songs have spoken to me in profound ways. I can still recall the first time I heard "The Valley Song" when I was listening to the radio in my Mercury Cougar as a teenager.
Inland is an album on which the band spent a lot of time- -years, in fact. They recorded in Portland, OR and had to pare down from the many songs they had written to the twelve on the record. This is a return to form for the band, particularly since their last couple of albums had bright spots, but left more to be desired for me as a fan. There is a raw honesty in this record, and the lyrics are pure poetry. Jars take you from playfulness about the innocence and silliness of new love in "Age of Immature Mistakes" to brooding depression in "Pennsylvania." "Human Race" is a favorite of mine, and depicts a whimsical commentary on the shallowness present in all of us. "Fall Asleep" is a poignant piano ballad and is the most powerful song on the record. To me, the song is about loss, cherishing the moments as they pass, and getting older. In fact, this whole album seems to have a strong theme of coming of age, of maturing. Overall, this is a wonderful album with many strong songs and a discernible theme throughout. They don't make 'em like this much anymore. I highly recommend it. The song I've kept coming back to the most is "Love in the Hard Times," a song about the commitment to love in spite of limitations, disappointments, and arguments.
Listen to it here:
There you have it folks, my prized gems culled from a year in music. I hope you like them!
I know, I know. You've always wondered what an exegesis paper actually looks like. Have no fear! This blog post is your window into the world of exegesis. Here's a paper I just finished on Psalm 88.
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According
to mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1O LORD, God of my salvation, at day I cry out, in
the night I cry out[2]
before you.
2May my prayer come
before you; turn your ear to my cry.
3For my soul is full
of trouble and my life draws near the grave.
4 I am counted among
those who go down to the pit; I am like a young man[3]
without strength.
5 I am forsaken among
the dead,[4]
like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off
from your care.
6 You have put me in
the lowest pit, in dark places, in the depths.[5]
7 Your wrath lies
upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah
8You have taken from
me my friends and have made me an object of loathing[6] to
them. I am confined and cannot escape; 9my eye wastes away from affliction.[7]
I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to
you.
10 Do you work wonders
for the dead?[8]
Do the ghosts[9]
rise up and praise you? Selah
11Is your love
declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?
12 Is your wonder made
known in darkness,[10]
or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry to you
for help, O LORD, in the morning my
prayer comes before you.
14 Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face
from me?
15 From my youth I
have been afflicted and close to death[11];
I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.
16Your wrath has swept
over me; your terrors have destroyed me.
17All day long they
surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.
18 You have taken my
companions and loved ones from me; my friends are [in] a dark place.[12]
Psalm 88 has the characteristics of
a lament psalm. The contents of lament
psalms typically convey confusion, anger, isolation, and apprehension, and Futato
notes they are designed to answer the three questions of who, what, and why:
“Who is there to hear the psalmist pray,” “Why [is the psalmist] experiencing
trouble,” and “What does the psalmist want God to do?”[13] Of particular note in this psalm is its
deeply personal nature–it never expands to the first person plural; it always
uses the first person singular. Also of
interest is the dearth of answers to the “what” question in this psalm.
Structure
-Title–Much of the
significance of these titles are ambiguous.
The instruction “For the director” seems to indicate that this was performed
musically in a corporate setting at some point in Israel’s history. Heman was one of the three temple musicians
appointed by David in 1 Chron. 6:31-47, which would further support a musical performance
of this psalm. There also is a wise man
named Heman listed in 1 Kings 4:31 who some list as a candidate for this
designation.[14] Korah rebelled against Moses in Numbers 16, which
resulted in him and much of his family being destroyed by YHWH, though his “line
[…] did not die out” (Num. 26:11, NIV).
The despairing nature of this psalm seems consonant with the grief that
would be present in Korah’s descendants concerning the divine wrath that befell
the family, so one can see the logic behind what may have been an early Jewish
interpretation of the psalm. One can
speculate over the meaning of the titles, but their utility for interpretation
is not apparent.
-Vv. 1-2–These opening
verses answer the “who” question in Futato’s scheme. This is a personal summons to God and
contains one of the few positive affirmations in this psalm–YHWH is the “God of
my salvation.” While the psalmist is in
dire straits, he still believes that voicing his lament to YHWH is of some
value, so there is an implicit trust in God’s goodness and availability. Verse 2 is the only explicit petition in the
psalm (13a may serve as an implicit one), a request that God would simply
listen.
-Vv. 3-5–This section begins
the lament proper. The psalmist is
brimming with grief and existential angst; his very life seems to be sliding
away. He bewails death’s closeness, his
own weakness, and his forsakenness in relation to God and others. This psalm is referring to someone who is
afflicted with a severe malady. “The
individual statements let us recognize a very sick person who is near death.
[…] Very likely the petitioner is afflicted with a serious illness from his
youth. It is possible that he lives
outside the gate as an outcast.”[15] Many people in the writer’s context would have
seen “a direct connection between sin and sickness and [would have understood]
the sickness as the effect of God’s wrath.”[16] People external to the diseased lamenter
consider his fate sealed; he has been resigned to death in their minds and
abandoned.
-Vv. 6-9a–The
lamenter starts directly attributing his sufferings to God’s action. YWHH has put him in the pit. YHWH has placed his overwhelming wrath on
him. YHWH has taken away friends and
made the afflicted one repulsive to them.
The writer has a pervasive sense of YHWH’s sovereign activity behind
these sufferings. With his own weakness,
his friends’ consigning him to death, and YHWH’s wrath, he feels trapped in
utter despair with no source of help.
There is some uncertainty over whether the reference to imprisonment is
metaphorical or literal; a literal use would fit well against an exilic
backdrop. Such direct implications of
YHWH with disaster and disease can be theologically problematic for NT
Christians unless the psalmist is being punished for sin. He makes no Job-like plea of innocence;
rather, he seems to focus on the magnitude of his suffering, perhaps to
elucidate pity from his listener, YHWH.
Jesus repudiates the notion of sickness always being caused by sin (John
9:1-3). God is not always the cause of affliction;
sometimes it results from people being rebellious (1 Cor. 11:27-32), sometimes
it comes from evil spiritual forces (Mark 9:17-27; Luke 13:10-13), and
sometimes we simply do not know why affliction comes (Job).
-Vv. 9b-12–The
petitioning of verse 9b carries the assumption that God can make things
better. The lamenter is bargaining with
God for his life and well-being, and there seems to be an implicit vow of praise
at work here. With life and health he
can praise YHWH and declare his love and faithfulness, but as a dead man, no
such things will occur. The tacit idea
about Sheol is that it is “outside the world of the living where the LORD’s
works of salvation occur. The dead are
not remembered by the LORD; they are separated
from his power. The answer to the bitter
questions in verses 10-12 is no.”[17] The writer is unaware of God’s power over
Sheol, or at least chooses not to have it in mind (Psalm 139:8). Calvin notes how other OT authors have recognized
God’s mastery over death and yet defends the psalmist’s incomplete theology, writing
that when we are in severe sickness and sorrow, our minds do not always “pierce
to the consideration of the secret providence of God,” so we may allow
“unadvised words to escape from [our] lips.”[18]
-Vv. 13-18–Verse
13 reveals why the psalmist cries out to YHWH–he is crying out for help. This is why he petitions YHWH to listen in v.
2 and is perplexed in verse 14; there is the expectation of God’s aid. Verse 15 reveals that the illness has been
chronic and severe since youth; this has been a protracted affair. The lamenter interprets his sickness as God’s
anger constantly engulfing him and stealing away his vibrancy. He leaves us in confusion, pain, and
isolation. The final colon is perplexing,
but the parallelism of Hebrew poetry and the prevalent use of a bicola format
in this psalm would suggest that the friends are “in a dark place,” which is a
rephrasing of God taking away his companions in the previous colon.
Religious
Affections and Theology
Several commentators have remarked
that this is the darkest psalm in the whole psalter. Though hard to detect upon first reading, the
writer has some positive views of God. God
is the “God of my salvation” (v. 1), a God with whom it is good to speak (vv.
2, 9b, 13). God is able to work wonders
in this life (v. 10); his love, faithfulness, and righteousness are things that
can be made known (vv. 11-12). The
perplexity at affliction (v. 14) betrays an anticipation of God’s goodness to be
manifested in the life of the psalmist.
Yet these beneficent affirmations and expectations never seem to come to
experiential fruition for the writer. In
spite of his hopes, he is constantly haunted by pain, exclusion, and death’s
slow crawl toward him. There is no happy
ending or optimistic recalling of YHWH’s faithfulness, no skipping off to hope. This psalm compels us to deal with the ugly
reality of undesired suffering and isolation, of being abandoned by others and
feeling abandoned by God. We are forced
to come face to face with our mortality and weakness, realizing that we have
nothing apart from the sheer grace of God.
The profound loneliness and misery here reminds us that it is fitting to
express our grief and our frustrations with God; we do not have to run from these
or pretend that everything is okay. In
fact, we are given a model of how to proceed in grieving as we enter into very
dark times.
The
psalmist displays a dogged persistence. Regardless of years of affliction and his
prayers not being answered the way he would like, he still comes to God in
prayer day and night, morning by morning, the pathos of his bruised faith cutting
straight to the heart.He is a strange coalescence,
in a “state in which Hope despairs, and yet Despair hopes at the same time.”[19]The Holy Spirit has placed this psalm on our
lips for times when we are in the midst of terrible affliction ourselves, that “our distresses, however grievous, may not
overwhelm us with despair; or if we should at times be ready to faint through
weariness, care, grief, sorrow, or fear, that we may not on that account
despond.”[20]We, too, can persevere in prayer and not lose
hope when we are hard pressed (Luke 18:1).
Christians
have an advantage over the psalm-writer: we know that God has dominion even
over the realm of the dead.“There is
suffering and death in the Old Testament, but it is only in the New that we see
what suffering and death really means, as it becomes the work of God Himself,
as God gives himself to this most dreadful of all foreign spheres.”[21]Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God
has indeed “worked wonders for the dead” and “declared his love from the grave”
(vv. 10-12). We do not have to fear
death.In fact, we can anticipate it,
for then we get to be with our Lord Jesus (Phil. 1:23a).The Christ who took our sins and afflictions
upon himself even to death (Isa. 53:4-12) shows that suffering is not
pointless, that it can be redemptive.Indeed,
those who seek to follow Christ will go through suffering and “fill up in [our]
flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,” but it is for
the positive purpose of building the church (Col. 1:24, NIV).Actually, Christ so closely identifies with
his people that our present afflictions become his own (Mat. 25:31-46; Acts 9:5).In the darkness of our own distress and unanswered
prayers, we can know that we are held by this Christ who suffers with us, the
Christ who himself bore our afflictions, the Christ who has gone before us into
death, showing us that God’s love can be declared even beyond the grave through
his triumphant resurrection.
Bibliography
Calvin, John. Commentary on the Book of Psalms, Volume III.
Translated by James Anderson.
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949.
Futato, Mark. Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical
Handbook. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel
Publications,
2007.
__________. The
Book of Psalms. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume 7. Carol Stream,
IL:
Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.
Kraus, Hans-Joachim.
Psalms 60-150: A Commentary. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress,
1989.
Mays, James L. Psalms.
Interpretation. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.
[1]
I use the NIV here, making footnoted adjustments where I think the text could
be rendered better.
[2]
I choose to see verb gapping at work here rather than a null copula withיוֹם־צָעַ֖קְתִּי בַלַּ֣יְלָה נֶגְדֶּֽךָ, since the focus of the text appears
to be on the cry.
[10]
Following NASB with the Nifal הֲיִוָּדַ֣ע, and פִּלְאֶ֑ךָis singular.
[11]
The Hebrew is mystifying here, so I follow with many of the English
translations.
[12]
The Hebrew is problematic; with מְֽיֻדָּעַ֥י מַחְשָֽׁךְ, there are no
prepositions, but the principle of parallelism in Hebrew poetry would suggest the
NRSV’s translation so that both cola refer to friends being taken away and
distant.
[13]
Mark Futato, Interpreting the Psalms: An
Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2007), 150-155.
[14]
Calvin argues for this in John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms
Volume III (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949), 406.
[18]
John Calvin, Commentary Upon the Book of Psalms, Volume III, 410-411.
[19]
The author is quoting Martin Luther.
Mark Futato, The Book of Psalms, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume 7 (Carol Stream, IL:
Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 286.
[20]
Calvin, Commentary Upon the Psalms,
Volume III, 407.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Building Community God’s Way
Back in the late 1800s, several Christian women in America started to become more active outside of the home “due to the invention of labor saving devices” like washing machines and canned foods.[1] Many women became more active in their churches through assisting the poor and sick, bringing kids to Sunday school, and witnessing and ministering to people who weren’t Christians. A lot of untapped potential was present in middle class women who no longer spent so much time doing housework, so much so that women started to organize to influence society more effectively. At the time, women taking leadership roles, both in church and in American society, was frowned upon. The greatest vehicle that expanded women’s voice into the public sphere was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This group saw “drunkenness, alcoholism, saloons, and the liquor industry as the determinate factors in crime, abuse, poverty, unemployment, and corruption.”[2] While I don’t hold to the same commitments concerning temperance, I do admire the WCTU’s ability to analyze and courageously address a problem for positive change. Methodism had a strong tradition of temperance at the time, so naturally many Methodist women were on board with the WCTU paradigm. One of those women was Frances Willard.
Willard was elected executive secretary of the WCTU in 1874 and later president in 1879, a position she held for 19 years until she died in 1898[3]. She spoke and travelled tirelessly for her cause, espousing a vision for a transformed society and a transformed church. Willard’s theology and vision starts with liberation of the human heart by our becoming born again through trust in Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit. From there, God’s transforming power spreads outward, touching the home, society, church, and government. Willard pushed for egalitarian marriages, for women to have lay representation in the Methodist Episcopal Church, for a ban of the dangerous substances of alcohol and nicotine, and for women’s right to vote in American government.
Under the leadership of Frances Willard and other like-minded women, the WCTU became an outlet for women to grow in their Christian journey, find their voice when the culture didn’t think they should have one, advance intellectually, exercise leadership, and work for positive change in society.Willard’s causes carried on beyond her lifetime, and though she didn’t live to see it, women eventually did obtain the right to vote in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1900, sending the first lay women delegates to general conference in 1904.The eighteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the sale of alcohol was ratified on January 16th, 1919, and the nineteenth amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified on August 18th, 1920.For Willard, it all began with a personal life transformed by Jesus Christ and it spread outward from that life-giving relationship.
I think Willard serves as a good counterexample to how Israel is described by our Isaiah text this morning. The people being addressed in the text are very religious, but also very unethical. They were trying to love God in their rituals, but completely disregarded their neighbors. Their faith bolstered personal aggrandizement, but did not have a positive impact on those around them.
Isaiah 58 is a Hebrew poem written to an Israel in exile, and it addresses the nature of true fasting and true religion.[4]There is no universally agreed upon theory for the composition of Isaiah, but most OT scholars today hold that there are several traditions that make up what we have in Isaiah that were compiled by a later editor.Chapters 1-39 are thought to compose the first book, which was written to a disobedient Israel and often foretells of coming disaster, with chapter 39 containing the last reference to Isaiah son of Amoz.[5]A drastic shift occurs at chapter 40, and the author assumes that the exile has already happened.Chapters 40-66 are thought to compose the second book, with traditions coming from the times of Israel’s exile from and eventual return to Jerusalem.The setting for our text seems to imply a lot of suffering and oppression, which makes it seem likely that this was written for Israel while they were in exile in Babylon.
Isaiah 58 reveals a big hypocrisy of which many of the people of Israel are guilty.And these aren’t ignorant unbelievers that we’re talking about.They don’t even appear to be lukewarm in their spirituality toward God.These are people who pursue God diligently and are even fasting so that God might draw near.People who fast aren’t slackers when it comes to religiosity; in fact, they often are some of the most zealous people.But their zeal is misguided, for they have a misunderstanding of how their relationship with God works.They believe in magic rather than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
With magic, you say a certain incantation, do the right rituals, and boom, God does what you want. You see, magic is about getting the formula right. That is why paganism had such a strong appeal to Israel and why it still has a strong appeal today throughout the world; we Christians even slip into that sort of mindset ourselves even though we know the true God! We want to manipulate God into doing something for us that he otherwise would not do. The God of Christianity has always been about relationship, not magic. We don’t manipulate him, but rather we surrender to his love and grace and come under his rule and authority.[6] It’s out of this relationship and out of a desire to see his will done on earth that we pray and ask God to move in power. The fact that some of our prayers don’t get answered is a testimony that we’re dealing with a sovereign God, not magic. The recipients of this prophetic critique have not grasped this truth, however. Though they seek God, they seek him on their own terms, not on God’s terms. They have a gap between their actualconductand what they say they believe in worship.[7]
Isaiah 58:3-4 reveals their main mistake: they did not let their faith in God translate over into their relationships with others. They viewed God as a god of goodness and blessing, but not as a God that has expectations for their conduct. Specifically, their sin has to do with economics and how they interacted with each other. They are oppressing their workers as well as arguing and fighting with each other. It doesn’t seem too hard for me to imagine how they got there.
Just think: the people of Israel were forced to leave their homeland and are living somewhere completely new, losing their sense of place and questioning their identity as a people.They are staying with a people who killed Israelite soldiers and destroyed the temple in which they worshiped Yahweh. They have been forced to integrate into a Babylonian system with people who speak with a foreign tongue and worship other gods.After such a disorienting catastrophe, they may feel justified in cutting a few corners and treating others like dirt so that they can get ahead and become upwardly mobile in this new land.They probably are angry with each other and have a few theories as to why they are currently in exile, blaming each other and getting in shouting matches and fights over their identity, the causes of their present state, and the direction of their future.The ones that still believe in God realize that they have sinned against him, so they are very zealous in their religiosity.
Sometimes things fall apart for us, too.All of us have found ourselves in hard times and tough situations.Maybe you brought disaster upon yourself by the choices you made, maybe you didn’t.The question is: are you going to cheat and exploit and fight your way into better days, or are you going to follow God and love and respect others even when you’re hurting and things don’t make sense?Are you going to try to justify hurting others and cutting corners because of your pain?Are you going to blame and blow up on others for the mess that you’re in, or are you going to work toward meeting needs and providing for those who are suffering?
Our Scripture this morning tells us to put away the yoke of oppression, stop pointing fingers, and cease speaking evil.It calls us to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry and to meet the needs of the oppressed.The text in 58:10-12 holds a promise that God will guide, sustain, and provide for the needs of those who do these things.It holds out a promise to an exiled Israel that they could be the people to rebuild the old ruins and raise up ancient foundations.They could repair the torn walls and make a devastated community a place to live again.It is a promise from God that Israel can return and rebuild Jerusalem, the most important city of their heritage, or at least build a sense of community where they are that is comparable to their glory days back in Jerusalem.“The community addressed will have the energy, fortitude, and resources that arise from genuine neighborly investment in the community.The community, as a consequence, will be renamed and reidentified as ‘repairer, restorer,’ the one who makes a new, viable community possible.”[8]
This promise holds true for us today, too.So who are the oppressed around us, those who are bound up by heavy yokes and exploited by others that they might gain?I think undocumented workers definitely fit into this category, and would urge you to pay and treat them fairly if you employ any of them.So often they are paid under the table, have no health insurance, are separated from their families, and are at risk of being deported and losing so much.And Alabama’s current policy on immigration with HB 56 is one of the cruelest and most unforgiving in the nation; it should be done away with[9].Maybe you know of someone with a mental illness who is being taken advantage of, or there’s a person who is surrounded by negative influences and needs encouragement, or someone who just needs an opportunity.Maybe there’s folks we could stop enabling and help them take responsibility for their life.I’d encourage us to be a part of breaking the chains of oppression and poverty by helping people become self-sustaining and fruitful.
But we’re not to throw our spirituality out of the window.The call is not to lose our intimate connection with God and our acts of personal devotion while we do this good work, but to have both works of justice and time spent in intimacy with God.Our passage closes with a call to observe the Sabbath.
Sabbath is the alternative to a restless, aggressive, unbridled acquisitiveness that exploits neighbor for self-gain. The ancient command provided rest for the members of the community and for all the household of the members, including workers (Deut. 5:12-15). All will rest and enjoy the abundance of creation (Exod. 20:8-11). Sabbath is a cessation of feverish anxiety and control.[10]
Taking Sabbath and resting is one of the ultimate acts of trust in God, because in it we acknowledge that we are not ultimately in control, that the world and life goes on well enough without us. It reminds us that God is our peace, that we don’t have to frantically strive to obtain it, but simply abide in God.
So the challenge for us this morning is to have eyes to see where others are kept down with no hope of having a thriving quality of life, where others are exploited and kept poor so that others might be a bit richer.We are to stop taking advantage of the weak.We are to work for a new way, a way that genuinely honors everyone and seeks their wholeness, financially, spiritually, and socially.We are to stop blaming others and using whatever tough situation we’re in to justify sinful exploitation and backbiting and we’re to start working toward better days in God’s way.We are to spend time in intimacy with God, resting in Christ our Sabbath.Once our religion combines both acts of devotion with a holy life committed to justice and compassion, then God will take notice of our fast.Then God will come near and will guide us.He will sustain us and take care of us for all of our days, raising up beloved communities all over Randolph County and elsewhere.He can make us people who develop communities, who build relationships, who make a locality a place to call home, a place where people know each other and want the best for each other.
I confess to you that I don’t have it all together when it comes to this.That’s why the prophets are hard to preach.But I want to try.I want to be faithful by growing more deeply in my relationship with God and doing something that matters and furthers his purposes in our world.We can be people of faith like that old Methodist Frances Willard, who realized that following Jesus isn’t purely individual spirituality, nor is it purely being a force for changing others and society, but it is forever both hand in hand.Jesus, who according to Luke’s Gospel quoted from the book of Isaiah when he started his ministry, wouldn’t have it any other way.After all, he was anointed to preach good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, release for the oppressed, and the time of God’s liberating favor.We, the church, are called to continue in this mission of Christ.Will you join in?
[1] Russell Richey, Kenneth Rowe, & Jean Schmidt, American Methodism: A Compact History (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2012), 113.
