A Case Study in Bad Theology--February 10, 2023

A Case Study in Bad Theology--February 10, 2023

"'Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?' Look, you serve your own interests 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?" [Isaiah 58:3-7]

Maybe it's the church nerd in me, but I really do think that an awful lot of the rottenness around us comes from our inability to really think through what we believe about God.  I don't mean to be a theology snob, but honestly, it seems like we human beings can be just utter jerks to each other while we are equally certain we've got the divine stamp of approval on our jerkiness, all because we haven't really thought through the things we say we believe about God.

And, boy oh boy, does this passage from the book of Isaiah have that on display in spades here.  These words, which many of us heard this past Sunday as our first reading, are one of those times when God speaks directly to the Respectable Religious Crowd and lovingly smacks them upside the head to get their attention with a message.  The people are intent on getting God's attention--they want help in rebuilding after the exile, they want prosperity for their businesses and their nation, they want security from their enemies, and they want to know they have divine favor in all their pursuits.  

And so they do what Respectable Religion always does: they put on a show... for God.  They pull out all the stops and play all the greatest hits: a ritual fast, signs of humbling themselves, covering themselves in ashes and rough sackcloth, and they bow down low as they cry to the heavens.  They put on a whole National Day of Prayer and Fasting, convinced that's what will get God's attention. And when they don't get the response they were hoping for, the Respectable Religious Crowd lobs up another petition to God: "How come you're not noticing us?  Why don't you see us doing all these things to get you attention, God?" 

Well, of course, that's Bad Theology Move Number One--of course, God sees it all.  It's just that God isn't impressed with any of that theatricality.  God knows and sees everything--but not just their performed piety.  God also sees the way these same folks who insist they are devoutly dedicated to godliness also ignore the needs of their neighbors, fight with each other, and take advantage of the most vulnerable in their community.  God sees all of that, too, and God is more upset with the ways the people are mistreating each other to make a buck, ignoring each other because helping would be inconvenient, and fighting with each other because meanness is easy.

That brings us to Bad Theology Move Number Two: it's not that God doesn't see us when we are trying to get God's attention, but rather that God DOES see everything, including all the things we thought nobody noticed or paid attention to... and including the times we aren't putting on a religious performance.  The people have sort of accepted that there's some kind divide between "sacred" things that God is supposed to care about [you know, prayers and rituals and fasting and the like], and then "secular" things that are outside of God's purview [things like business and everyday life and the Dow Jones Industrial Average].  And that just ain't so.  God sees it all, and you can't buy God off over here on one side with well-produced religious pageantry while you're cheating your neighbors or letting them starve without so much as recognizing they're even there over on the other side.  This should be obvious, but sometimes we human beings just don't think it through... and we end up trying to get God's attention with religion while we're also trying to get the same God to look the other way when it comes to our cruelty and indifference to the people around us.

Underneath all of this nonsense with a pious veneer is another vital truth that the people in Isaiah 58 had forgotten--or ignored--and that we are easily tempted to forget, too.  We don't have to "do" anything to get God's attention--EVER.  That's just not how it works.  Trying to get God's attention through public displays of religiosity is like thinking you have to buy access to the air you are already breathing, or trying to bribe your parents into loving you, when they already do.  There's NO way to "make" God pay attention to you, because there's no NEED--God is already completely aware and totally attentive to all of us, all the time. 

And once we're clear on that, then we can finally get around to a final corrective God offers here to the bad theology of the Respectable Religious Folks: since God doesn't need us to "do" anything to get the attention of the divine, what WILL we do with our time, energy, and effort?  To borrow the old question of the late Gerhard Forde, "What will you do--now that you don't HAVE to 'do' anything?"  

So God speaks through the prophet to answer that question.  Since you can't [and don't need to] get God's attention with all your holy hoopla, what things DOES God actually care about?  Well, how about taking that food you weren't eating [since you were fasting, right?] and giving it to your neighbor so they can eat?  How about, since you're going around dressed in all that pious-looking [and itchy] sackcloth, what if you gave some of your extra clothes to the neighbor whose closet is bare?  How about, if you're so interested in shouting up to the skies with a loud voice, you use that voice to speak up for the neighbors who are being taken advantage of at work?  How about, instead of bowing your head down on the ground to look devout, you unclenched your fists and quit threatening each other?  In other words, when you don't have to put on a production to draw attention to your supposed piety, maybe you could actually listen to the kinds of things God cares about and realign your focus on those?  Once you've thought through your theology and realize that you didn't need to do anything "religious" to get God's attention, you're amazingly free to spend your strength on the things that actually matter to God--and it turns out that looks like love. God never wanted or needed a National Day of Prayer or a pious pageant of self-denial, but God's heart has always been centered on love for the most vulnerable without fanfare or applause.

Today, then, what if we were done with all the things we tell ourselves will show our devotion to God, and instead just practiced love that looks like God's love--care for the hungry ones, the ones without housing, and the ones being taken advantage of?  What if we were finally done with religiously-dressed boastfulness, and instead trusted that we already have God's eye and God's ear?  What if we were less interested in putting on a public show of Respectable Religion, and more committed to choices that simply made life better for the people around us, whether or not anybody else notices?

Once we get our theology straightened out, we really do get clarity for what's worth spending our energy on, and what matters to God.  So if we are a little bit more on track with our thinking, now let's get our actions in line, too.

Lord God, remind us who you are and where your heart is, so that we can spend our energy and time in ways that reflect your love.