Many Christians today believe that the rest of the world has never been so corrupt, so self-centered. Yet the Lessons read this upcoming weekend illustrate the maxim that “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Stories here suggest that the People of God of antiquity share the same fuzzy logic and arrogant hypocrisy as our contemporary faith communities. Me too, I’m afraid. What about you?
The third section of the book of Isaiah is said to have been created sometime between 538 and 515 BC, during the Persian period. Recently restored Israel claimed devotion to Yahweh in their words, “as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God” (58:7). But actually–“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.” There’s really a gap here: piety is useless when divorced from justice and righteousness. “True fasting involves dealing with those conditions, situations, and people that are ethically corrupting and corrupted, for the sake of the oppressed individual and for the common good.” (Carol J. Dempsey, FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:316) Godly fasting involves loosing the bonds of injustice, undoing the thongs of the yoke, sharing bread with the hungry, clothing the tattered and taking care of your extended family. “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…[the Lord] will say, Here I am.”
St. Paul continues his irony in his lover’s quarrel with the Corinthian congregations (2:1-12). He tells them that they may be “wise”, but that God’s wisdom is much different. Congregations who buy into the world’s understanding of wisdom and power will cease to be the Church. (Do you know of any congregations who’ve lost their meaning because they’ve sold out to “good business practices”?) “My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (v.4) Will someone please light a candle?
What’s that you say, Jesus? WE’re the light of the world? (Matthew 5:13-20) You want us to get involved, to be transparent in our holy ethic of caring for the hapless and “those” people? But they might be TERRORISTS! Besides, we know our way around our prison cells in the dark: a candle would show us the cracks in our safety and the leaks in our comfort… The hearers of the Sermon on the Mount remembered being once taught that Israel was chosen to bring God’s Light to the rest of the world. “It only takes a spark to get a fire going…”
These are intense days. Darkness has eaten the daylight, and even the stars can’t give us direction in the overcast. If anything can pierce the haze of our despair, it’s the rays of God-light which continue to force their way through.
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My meditations on lectionary passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking. com
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