Resurrection Becomes Contagious--February 3, 2020

Resurrection Becomes Contagious--February 3, 2020

"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 rear guard." [Isaiah 58:6-8]

So...how interested is God in having big public displays of religion?

If you ask the prophet whose voice speaks on behalf of God here in Isaiah 58, the answer is at best an indifferent, "Meh."  God just doesn't seem all that interested in our big shows of religiosity or national days of prayer--especially when they are used as cover for getting away with selfishness and crookedness.  (There are, of course, times when other prophets say that God is even more than indifferent about religious festivals or solemn fasts--they say that sometimes God is downright angry them and won't listen to them if we are using them to hide our hypocrisy.)

At first blush, that seems like a strange thing for the Bible to say.  After all, I come from a branch of the Christian family tree that knows all about rituals, traditions, liturgies, feasts, and fasts.  We've got chanting and organ music and candles--and of course, rules about which candles we light on which days--and all sorts of bonus accessories like color-coded vestments, incense, ashes, and even the occasional pointy hat.  We know how to do organized solemnity: we can all recite words of confession and break out the minor key hymns to show our sorrow and remorse with the best of 'em.  

And yet, here is the voice of God saying, basically, "I see through all that."

Or maybe, more to the point, God says, "I see past all of that, to the more essential work I care about in the world--the things that give life."

We don't have to break into a war of "high church" and "low church" sensibilities here--that's not the real issue.  Saying that God is "opposed" to incense and chanting but "loves" it when we bust old the old broken-binding hymnals to sing "In the Garden" just trades one kind of ritual for another.  What the prophet here says is that God is not really here to weigh in on our debates about preferences of piety like voting for Coke or Pepsi. God says, "What if, instead, you just spent your energy giving free water to the thirsty?"

And so, God just cuts to the chase to say, "You know what?  Quit trying to impress me or fool me with your Shows of Respectable Religion, and just join me in bringing life to people.  You might just find that it brings you to life, too, along the way."

This is the sort of thing I have in mind with the theme we are looking at this year of "Little Resurrections."  It comes down to the bedrock belief that God is always about the work of bringing us to life--in many different ways and moments, in all the places we are dead.

That's why the prophet goes on to list the kind of things that matter to God: when people are kept down and treated as "less than," God is committed to lifting them up and freeing them from that oppression.  When people are taken advantage of, cheated, or made to suffer at the expense of others, God works to liberate them and undo the injustice.  When people are homeless, God's concern is to provide them a place of refuge. When people are hungry, God is in the business of feeding them.  Like Desmond Tutu famously remarked, "The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, 'Now is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.”  

From the vantage point of Isaiah 58, it really is that straightforward.  It may not be easy, and it may be complicated for us to best figure out how to attend to each of our needs in the wide circle of humanity, but the point of the mission really is that clear.  God is in the business of bringing us to life, in whatever places or ways we have settled for death.  And so when the prophet says that we are called to bring the homeless poor in our our home, or to share our bread, he's not saying we do it in order to earn something from God.  It's because when you've been brought to life already by God, resurrection becomes contagious, and now your work is to join alongside God in bringing others more fully to life as well.

I wonder what would happen if we saw our calling as "church" no longer in terms of "We have to recruit more people to keep our club going, or drum up more money to prop up our organization!" and more in terms of, "We are sent to be some of the instruments God uses to bring people more fully to life!"  

Maybe that's an experiment worth trying.  In our church life, for starters.  But also in my individual life and family life--maybe the point of my existence is not to make more money for the sake of having more money... maybe it's not to ensure my kids get funneled into the chase for more money when they grow up, too... maybe it's not about chasing after the mirage they call "the American dream" or the manufactured romantic comedy happy ending, either.  Maybe my reason for existence is getting to be a part of the way God brings people more fully to life... and I discover along the way that sharing in that kind of work bring me more fully to life, myself.

It certainly seems a better use of a lifetime than fighting over the right way to do our religious rituals, at least.

Lord God, cut through the layers of distraction we keep piling on, and take us by the hand to join you in the work of bringing all the world more fully to life.