“Arguing with God” a sermon based upon Isaiah 1:10-20 preached at York Pines United Church August 11, 2019
Hear the word of God,
you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of God, you people of
Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing
offerings is futile; incense is an abomination
to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation
- I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your
appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When
you stretch out your hands, I will look away
from you, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are
full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your
doings from before my eyes; cease
to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead
for the widow.
Come now, shall we argue it out, says God: though your sins are
like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though
they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and
obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of God has
spoken.
*****************************************************************************
Woooo. Ouchie! Get the sense that God is just a tad ticked off? Hotter than Death Valley in the middle of July? Who can read these words, without getting reduced to ashes? God is the Sovereign Mad Hatter who shoots at us with firebrands of finger-pointing and indictments. And sitting squarely in the bull’s eye of God’s displeasure, it seems, is our most treasured sacred cow, the one which garners more comments and complaints from congregations than just about anything else. And here is God, attacking the time-honored practice of worship altogether.
You can almost see the smoke and flames, hear the thunder. All of the promises and the covenant have been disregarded. Yet when the people come to worship they offer sacrifice of animals, incense, and as God says - insincere prayer. God says “who asked you to do this? I didn’t!” God says that the worship practices of this people are a travesty - charades, smoke and mirrors, talk of religion and faith even while the sins and evil continue.
What is it about worship that’s got God’s dander up? What makes God’s nostrils flare so? Note, that it isn’t the ‘order’ of worship. If that were all, we could just tinker and make a few editorial changes in the bulletin. God isn’t particularly upset by the content - the call to worship and prayers of the people are fine. I don’t think God even gets too upset about the chaos of Passing of the Peace. Nor do I think God is really concerned about whether our responses are Taize, or verses from old hymns.
What has God incensed is that worship lasted only an hour on the Sabbath; there were people consulting their portable sundials and signaling the priest from the rear, if worship went overtime. People didn’t want to spend any more time than they had to in the temple - there were other things to do. Worship was fine, but don’t take any more time than necessary to get through the rituals. Fire up the altar, light the incense, pray hard - and get it all into an hour.
God’s original intent was that worship would be a 24/7 expression of faith. For too many Israelites in Isaiah’s day, worship was an intentional, carefully enacted-performance. The rest of the week they went back to live the way they wanted with no reference to God, and certainly no interference from God.
Hypocrisy is the sin here - singing one thing and doing another. Offering prayers but never being part of an answer to prayer. Preaching against the enemy on Sunday, and making lucrative deals with the enemy on Monday. God says to these worshipers, "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."
The great Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard, says that worship minus direct impact on our neighborhoods = silly geese. Here’s a paraphrase of his story. There was a barnyard full of a gaggle of geese. Each Sunday they gathered to hear wonderful words about creation, God’s plan, and extol the glorious destiny of geese. "We were meant to become air-borne on the winds and to soar in the heavens," the leader of the flock would tell them. At the mere mention of heaven the ganders would cackle and the rest would curtsey. After the meeting they would waddle home. But that’s as far as they ever got. They grew fat and plump and at Christmas they became Christmas dinner. Behind the story of tubular necks and webbed feet, Kierkegaard saw weak worship that had its “performance” of religion once a week, but failed to impact the neighborhoods in practical ways.
There is a television drama called “Hitler: The Rise of Evil”. One of Hitler’s arguments in the early years was that people were indifferent, didn’t care about their country. He was able to play on emotions and fan the flames of racism and hatred, yet few in Germany stood up to him. The church was conspicuously absent in opposing him, with the sole exception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yet at the beginning even Bonhoeffer did not speak up. And in the end, indifference, and fear, prevented the stopping of Hitler.
Since we are hearing Kierkegaard, let’s take a look at Denmark during the war. Denmark had an uneasy kind of agreement with Hitler, and yet was able to refuse to allow his excesses. By far the greatest success in Danish policy toward Germany was the protection of the Jewish minority. Throughout the years of its hold on power, the government consistently refused to accept German demands regarding the Jews. They would not enact special laws concerning Jews, and their civil rights remained equal with those of the rest of the population. German authorities became increasingly exasperated with this position but concluded that any attempt to remove or mistreat Jews would be "politically unacceptable."
Of particular note was the Norwegian resistance following Hitler’s ultimatum. King Haakon reported the ultimatum to his cabinet, mindful that although he could not make the decision himself, he could use his moral authority to influence it. He told the Cabinet: “I am deeply affected by the responsibility laid on me if the German demand is rejected. The responsibility for the calamities that will befall people and country is indeed so grave that I dread to take it. It rests with the government to decide, but my position is clear. For my part I cannot accept the German demands. It would conflict with all that I have considered to be my duty as King of Norway since I came to this country nearly thirty-five years ago.”
Nor, he said, could he appoint any government headed by the man named Quisling because he knew neither the people nor the government had confidence in him. However, if the Cabinet felt otherwise, he himself would abdicate so as not to stand in the way of the Government's decision.
Nils Hjelmtveit, Minister of Church and Education, later wrote: "This made a great impression on us all. More clearly than ever before we could see the man behind the words; the king who had drawn a line for himself and his task, a line from which he could not deviate. We had through the five years [in government] learned to respect and appreciate our king and now, through his words, he came to us as a great man, just and forceful; a leader in these fatal times to our country".
Inspired, the Government unanimously advised the King not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, and telephoned its refusal to Bräuer. That night the government's refusal was also broadcast to the Norwegian people. The government announced that they would resist the German attack as long as possible, and expressed their confidence that Norwegians would lend their support to the cause.
Here’s another story - from the American Civil Rights movement:
"I walked down the sidewalk on my way to seminary and I could see the blood still on the bushes where one kid got shot. So I went to church that Sunday needing to, hoping to, hear a word from God. I needed to hear the gospel help me to make sense of the bloodshed and hatred. Instead, I sat through the entire liturgy of the worship and not one word was said about the tragedy that had rocked Chicago during the past week. It was as if nothing had happened; as if God had nothing to say about the tragic week I had lived through."
Today, in North America, we are seeing a rise of precisely the kind of thing these stories describes. More and more political leaders are pushing back the rights of women, and legislating that if a woman miscarries without a doctor present, she has to turn herself in to the police. People are arrested for peaceful demonstrations which involve singing and handing out flowers. We are seeing a rise in a police culture that shoots first - or tasers first as the case may be - and has no skill in dealing with mentally ill, confused, or just lost people. In Canada we have leaders who speak appropriate words, yet are more concerned with big corporations and big profits. Ordinary people don’t count any more, and any contrary opinion is seen as “terrorist”. Is it really so far from now, to a return to oppressive and repressive regimes which do not tolerate contrary opinions, who have government “hate” lists but present themselves as Bible-believers? Where is the Way of Jesus?
Yet God does not write this ancient worshiping community off as a hopeless case. God does not splutter like an exploding volcano ready to burn a sinning world away in wrath. Nor does God sit dispassionate and aloof, no longer caring about the people who perform "worship charades" on Sunday. God says “Come on, then, let’s sit down and hash this out, your view and mine.” God holds out hope. "If you become absolutely serious, then I’ll transform you just like colors can be transformed from red to white or white to black."
*****************************************************************************
Woooo. Ouchie! Get the sense that God is just a tad ticked off? Hotter than Death Valley in the middle of July? Who can read these words, without getting reduced to ashes? God is the Sovereign Mad Hatter who shoots at us with firebrands of finger-pointing and indictments. And sitting squarely in the bull’s eye of God’s displeasure, it seems, is our most treasured sacred cow, the one which garners more comments and complaints from congregations than just about anything else. And here is God, attacking the time-honored practice of worship altogether.
You can almost see the smoke and flames, hear the thunder. All of the promises and the covenant have been disregarded. Yet when the people come to worship they offer sacrifice of animals, incense, and as God says - insincere prayer. God says “who asked you to do this? I didn’t!” God says that the worship practices of this people are a travesty - charades, smoke and mirrors, talk of religion and faith even while the sins and evil continue.
What is it about worship that’s got God’s dander up? What makes God’s nostrils flare so? Note, that it isn’t the ‘order’ of worship. If that were all, we could just tinker and make a few editorial changes in the bulletin. God isn’t particularly upset by the content - the call to worship and prayers of the people are fine. I don’t think God even gets too upset about the chaos of Passing of the Peace. Nor do I think God is really concerned about whether our responses are Taize, or verses from old hymns.
What has God incensed is that worship lasted only an hour on the Sabbath; there were people consulting their portable sundials and signaling the priest from the rear, if worship went overtime. People didn’t want to spend any more time than they had to in the temple - there were other things to do. Worship was fine, but don’t take any more time than necessary to get through the rituals. Fire up the altar, light the incense, pray hard - and get it all into an hour.
God’s original intent was that worship would be a 24/7 expression of faith. For too many Israelites in Isaiah’s day, worship was an intentional, carefully enacted-performance. The rest of the week they went back to live the way they wanted with no reference to God, and certainly no interference from God.
Hypocrisy is the sin here - singing one thing and doing another. Offering prayers but never being part of an answer to prayer. Preaching against the enemy on Sunday, and making lucrative deals with the enemy on Monday. God says to these worshipers, "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."
The great Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard, says that worship minus direct impact on our neighborhoods = silly geese. Here’s a paraphrase of his story. There was a barnyard full of a gaggle of geese. Each Sunday they gathered to hear wonderful words about creation, God’s plan, and extol the glorious destiny of geese. "We were meant to become air-borne on the winds and to soar in the heavens," the leader of the flock would tell them. At the mere mention of heaven the ganders would cackle and the rest would curtsey. After the meeting they would waddle home. But that’s as far as they ever got. They grew fat and plump and at Christmas they became Christmas dinner. Behind the story of tubular necks and webbed feet, Kierkegaard saw weak worship that had its “performance” of religion once a week, but failed to impact the neighborhoods in practical ways.
There is a television drama called “Hitler: The Rise of Evil”. One of Hitler’s arguments in the early years was that people were indifferent, didn’t care about their country. He was able to play on emotions and fan the flames of racism and hatred, yet few in Germany stood up to him. The church was conspicuously absent in opposing him, with the sole exception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yet at the beginning even Bonhoeffer did not speak up. And in the end, indifference, and fear, prevented the stopping of Hitler.
Since we are hearing Kierkegaard, let’s take a look at Denmark during the war. Denmark had an uneasy kind of agreement with Hitler, and yet was able to refuse to allow his excesses. By far the greatest success in Danish policy toward Germany was the protection of the Jewish minority. Throughout the years of its hold on power, the government consistently refused to accept German demands regarding the Jews. They would not enact special laws concerning Jews, and their civil rights remained equal with those of the rest of the population. German authorities became increasingly exasperated with this position but concluded that any attempt to remove or mistreat Jews would be "politically unacceptable."
Of particular note was the Norwegian resistance following Hitler’s ultimatum. King Haakon reported the ultimatum to his cabinet, mindful that although he could not make the decision himself, he could use his moral authority to influence it. He told the Cabinet: “I am deeply affected by the responsibility laid on me if the German demand is rejected. The responsibility for the calamities that will befall people and country is indeed so grave that I dread to take it. It rests with the government to decide, but my position is clear. For my part I cannot accept the German demands. It would conflict with all that I have considered to be my duty as King of Norway since I came to this country nearly thirty-five years ago.”
Nor, he said, could he appoint any government headed by the man named Quisling because he knew neither the people nor the government had confidence in him. However, if the Cabinet felt otherwise, he himself would abdicate so as not to stand in the way of the Government's decision.
Nils Hjelmtveit, Minister of Church and Education, later wrote: "This made a great impression on us all. More clearly than ever before we could see the man behind the words; the king who had drawn a line for himself and his task, a line from which he could not deviate. We had through the five years [in government] learned to respect and appreciate our king and now, through his words, he came to us as a great man, just and forceful; a leader in these fatal times to our country".
Inspired, the Government unanimously advised the King not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, and telephoned its refusal to Bräuer. That night the government's refusal was also broadcast to the Norwegian people. The government announced that they would resist the German attack as long as possible, and expressed their confidence that Norwegians would lend their support to the cause.
Here’s another story - from the American Civil Rights movement:
"I walked down the sidewalk on my way to seminary and I could see the blood still on the bushes where one kid got shot. So I went to church that Sunday needing to, hoping to, hear a word from God. I needed to hear the gospel help me to make sense of the bloodshed and hatred. Instead, I sat through the entire liturgy of the worship and not one word was said about the tragedy that had rocked Chicago during the past week. It was as if nothing had happened; as if God had nothing to say about the tragic week I had lived through."
Today, in North America, we are seeing a rise of precisely the kind of thing these stories describes. More and more political leaders are pushing back the rights of women, and legislating that if a woman miscarries without a doctor present, she has to turn herself in to the police. People are arrested for peaceful demonstrations which involve singing and handing out flowers. We are seeing a rise in a police culture that shoots first - or tasers first as the case may be - and has no skill in dealing with mentally ill, confused, or just lost people. In Canada we have leaders who speak appropriate words, yet are more concerned with big corporations and big profits. Ordinary people don’t count any more, and any contrary opinion is seen as “terrorist”. Is it really so far from now, to a return to oppressive and repressive regimes which do not tolerate contrary opinions, who have government “hate” lists but present themselves as Bible-believers? Where is the Way of Jesus?
Yet God does not write this ancient worshiping community off as a hopeless case. God does not splutter like an exploding volcano ready to burn a sinning world away in wrath. Nor does God sit dispassionate and aloof, no longer caring about the people who perform "worship charades" on Sunday. God says “Come on, then, let’s sit down and hash this out, your view and mine.” God holds out hope. "If you become absolutely serious, then I’ll transform you just like colors can be transformed from red to white or white to black."
God says stop doing wrong, learn to do right, look after the weak, defend
the oppressed. Worship is meant to strengthen and prepare us so that who and
what we are has a positive impact in our neighbourhoods. It means that when
someone speaks hatred against those seen as ‘other’, we are willing to speak
back. It means when someone is treated poorly because of their colour, faith,
economic status, gender or orientation, we speak back. True worship doesn’t
begin when we walk *in* the door of the church, and it doesn’t end when we walk
*out*. True worship *begins* when we walk out the door, and come into contact
with the world, with all of its failings. True worship has no end, and isn’t
confined to a time or a place. Particularly in these times, when phobias and
fear of those who believe differently provokes legislated, and unlegislated
injustices, we who are Christians must leave the service strengthened to exercise
our worship in a way which counteracts those injustices, and holds them up to
the light. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Telling the Truth about Worship a sermon based on Isaiah 1:1; 10-20 by Rev. Thomas Hall
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Denmark
Sources:
1. Telling the Truth about Worship a sermon based on Isaiah 1:1; 10-20 by Rev. Thomas Hall
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Denmark
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