Thoughts for the Day

False and True Worship

Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The people have asked God why their prayers go unanswered, and Isaiah brings God's answer. This section is from Chapters 56-66 called by many experts Trito-Isaiah (that is Third Isaiah). We don't know for sure that there were three people involved in writing the book of Isaiah - although for me there were certainly two, for their style is so different. Interestingly, fragments of today's section of scripture from Isaiah Chapter 58 were also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (written c3BCE) that were hidden in the cave in Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls). However, whenever this section of Isaiah was written it has as much relevance today as it did then.

The people are faithful in their worship of God, they fast regularly and delight in approaching Him on the Sabbath. Yet God does not answer their prayers. Why is this? Well God's answer is that if they want to fast in the way that pleases Him they should refrain from oppressing other people; stop committing evil; fight injustice; and share what they possess with the poor and destitute. By putting themselves right with other people they will put themselves right with God.

In what might be considered old-fashioned words today, these are sins of commission and omission - those things we do and those we fail to do. They are all sins against our Lord, and he wants us to put them right, which is why I have included the General Confession below, from the Book of Common Prayer, for each of us to say today. Notice the fourth sentence concerns sins of commission and omission!

General Confession (from the Book of Common Prayer)

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways, like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that be penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind, in Christ Jesu our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen.