A sermon from Febuary, in text form.
We have our rituals. Our morning routines, designed to get ourselves ready for the day in a timely manner. For me, a work day ritual involves hitting snooze only twice, gathering my clothing and heading straight to the bathroom for the same cleansing routine every morning. If I feel lazy or have an extra stop on my way to work I know I can skip shaving for one day. I know how much time I can spend checking Facebook, and which route to take to work. I have it down pat, even if I am barely awake I can get myself together.
When I get to work, I know my routine there. One day a few weeks ago my battery died and I had to wait for my sister to come jump it. I was 25 minutes late, I arrived only 5 minutes before I had to open the store. I knew my routine well enough to streamline it in my head on my drive, what tasks were urgent and what I could put off until after I opened the doors. I clocked in while archiving sales, I hit the lights as I flew past them. I was a model of efficiency that morning. I had the store open by 9 AM.
Years of almost mindless repetition had made each task part of my body, I didn’t have the think at all - which made opening the store easy. But when have I made my spiritual life a routine? Do I go through the motions so often that I don’t even think about what I’m doing or who I’m doing it for?
In Isaiah’s time, the people of Israel had created a routine. They knew when they sinned, they just had to fast and pray and BAM! Forgiven, God’s favor shines, all is well. They didn’t want to think about what God wanted from them. Just skip a day of food, maybe throw on some sackcloth and itch a little. It’s cool.
Nearly every major religion makes use of fasting to some extent, In Catholicism, there are fasts on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and the practice of giving up meat during Lent. Many Protestant denominations have similar Lenten fasts. In Islam, the month of Ramadan is spent abstaining from food, drink and sex during daylight hours. And the Jewish faith have seven full days of fasting, including Yom Kippur.
The passage from Isaiah this morning appears to be referring to Yom Kippur, The Day Of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, besides abstaining from eating and drinking, there is no bathing, no using perfumes or lotions, no wearing leather shoes and no marital relations. It also included animal sacrifices.
Fasting is a way to sacrifice, to give up something we need as a reminder of God’s sacrifices. As a way to remove a barrier to spiritual communion with God. A tool to teach us patience and self control. But it can also become a routine, just another ritual to go through to get what we want from God.
And that is what the people of Isaiah’s time were doing. Instead of treating each other with respect, treating their employees well, giving to the poor and hungry they just went through the motions, continuing on with their rituals.
But God was not looking for routines and rituals. God says:
“Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh? Then your light will break forth like the dawn…”
God is looking for us to give up our selfishness and our greed. God is not satisfied by rote repetition of spiritual practices. God is pleased when we fast and pray, when we bow before our Maker. But not when it becomes a replacement to following God’s commands.
We are called to be God’s light into the dark places of the world. We are called to stop injustice when we see it. We are called to share our food with the hungry. We are called to provide the wanderer with shelter.
We can’t hide inside church walls, behind the liturgy and tradition when there is a world that needs our light.
In Matthew, Jesus tells us we are the salt of the world. In ancient times, salt was highly valuable. The Greeks called it divine. It was a common food preservative, it keeps food from spoiling. It also increases the flavor of food.
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth? It means that we are here to preserve it. To keep the world, and the people of it, whole, healthy, unspoiled. And like the flavor of meat and vegetables are enhanced and brightened by salt, Jesus has tasked us with adding flavor and meaning to this world. To be the one to show the deeper layers of life. To say, there is more than just what is going on in my own little head. Saltiness is one of the 5 flavors our taste buds can detect, and salt distracts from bitter edges of some flavors making them seem sweeter. That is one of our roles as the salt of the earth. To bring sweetness, goodness and joy to the forefront.
Jesus also tells us that we are the light of the world. Just like a city on a hill cannot be hidden, people do not put a light under a bushel. Now, most of us probably think of a candle tucked under a bushel basket when we hear this passage, but the kind of bushel used in Jesus day was an earthenware bowl. So instead of merely hiding a light, the lamp would be snuffed out by the lack of air.
If we are to be the light of the world, we cannot hide ourselves until we lose our light, we must shine proudly. We must “Shine our light before all, that they may see our good works and glorify our Parent in heaven.”
We cannot hide within these walls. If we are to be light shining in the dark places of this world, we cannot stay contained within our church. We cannot circle the wagons, creating a smaller society of Christ followers that have no impact on the outside world.
Since I was a small child, I have seen churches and their members attempt to isolate themselves. To make a separate community, one where Christians and non-Christians do not mix. There are Christian banks, Christian business groups, attempts made to create Christian only housing developments. There is nothing wrong with wanting to interact with other Christians, but our intent must never be to hide.
God has given us a light to shine, but if we hide it away we will smother it. It is no use to us if we do not shine, to go into the world and show God’s love, compassion and mercy to the world.
We must do our part. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, caring for the outcasts of society. We are not put on this earth to rubber stamp approval onto the status quo, to turn a blind eye the atrocities humans inflict on each other. We are to be rebels, revolutionize the world leaving it better than we found. Brighter. Saltier.
For too long the church has cast off its role, leaving governments and businesses to care for the ailing and the destitute. We don’t like what we see, the homelessness and hungry in so much need. But so often we have expected someone else to take care of it.
How is that being salt and light? How are we shining a light into a dark place? This world is filled with darkness, children taken as soldiers in Africa or sold as sexual objects in Asia. Whole families going to bed hungry in the US and around the world. People dying of Malaria in Africa. As long is there is social injustice, inhumane practices and hate, anger and fear in this world, we must shine a light.
We have each been given a skill set, are we using those skills to leave this world a better place? Are we enhancing the world around us?
There is nothing wrong with fasting. With prayers and ceremonies, traditions and rituals. These are ways to draw close to God, to absorb the spiritual energy that God provides. There is nothing wrong with Christian fellowship. These things are good and wholesome. They are designed to fuel our fire, not to be the be all and end all of our existence. If we think that is the extent of our spiritual journey, that is where it goes wrong.
In James chapter 2, the Apostle says this: “What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them “Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed” but does nothing about the physical needs, what good is it?”
First off, if someone says “Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed” with the knowledge that this person doesn’t have the means to do so, that person is kind of a jerk. Jerk stands in for a lot of other words that I couldn’t use this morning.
But, furthermore, that person is doing the very thing Isaiah was prophesying about some 700 years before. It seems that people never change. We go through the motions of following God, but don’t always want to do the work.
Notice what is says above the door way as you walk out of this sanctuary. “What does the Lord require of you? To do Justice. And to love Mercy. And to walk Humbly with our God.”
That is the light we have to share with the world. Justice. Mercy. Humility.
We want the rewards, like God owes us something. We want God to forgive us, so we can go do the same thing again. We have to change, we have to become salt and light and impact our community and that is not easy. There is so much darkness in the world, where can you shine your light?
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