Good Intentions Gone Awry

When Off the Mark is off the Rocker The scripture we heard yesterday had to do with a conversation God and Isaiah had. The conversation went something like this: You think you are fasting so well? Let me tell you something- here is the fasting I desire: Isaiah 58: 3-7 (Is this the fast I desire?) 3 Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed? Because on your fast day you see to your business and oppress all your laborers! 4 Because you fast in strife and contention, and you strike with a wicked fist! Your fasting today is not such as to make your voice heard on high. 5 Is such the fast I desire, a day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, a day when Adonai is favorable? 6 No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock the fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke to let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. 7 It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home; when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin." ------------------ So God is saying, you are violent so I am not listening to you. You are full of fighting- strife and contention. (Hard to categorize the political american election climate as anything other than this) You are oppressive to people, you enslave them. I want you to share your bread with the hungry- feed people. I want you to house the homeless- even in your own home. And do not ignore your relatives-especially those needy ones. That is the kind of action God wants rather than looking all morbidly head bowed. You call that a fast?? --------------- And there are other times when God's people got it wrong- and he kept having to tell them. Look people. I desire MERCY not sacrifice or the burning of sacrifices. MERCY. What is that? Other translations say it is something like Pity, or Forgiveness. Others construe it to mean charity or love. I desire Love not Sacrifice. God says also essentially - all your burnt offerings make me wretch. Why is he saying this? Because piety for its own sake can be self-laudatory and self-righteous and self-congratulatory. It is worse than naval gazing. It is a presumptous sin of self-satisfied self justification which negates Jesus. I did this thus I made myself holy. No, you are required to Love your neighbor as yourself as an outpouring of God's love for you. You are required to do unto others as you want them done to you. That means you are required to get off your laurels and help someone. Just like the Good Samaritan who was not like the Priest who looked the other way and did nothing to help the guy left for dead, abandoned, injured and helpless. You are required to help. No excuse you are a Priest or holy person. The holiness comes from helping someone else not contemplating your holiness and all your burnt sacrifices. There's nothing God hates as much as pride- and self-righteousness is full of pride. Can't you hear God saying 'get over yourself and go help someone!' Jesus washed feet- even of Peter, his chosen to be the Rock upon which the church is founded. Jesus got his hands dirty. He did the wash- your wash. Jesus would tell you that you have to get your hands dirty even if it means you have to stoop low to the ground to reach the filth to clean it up. We have a footwashing God. Not one perched upon some remote celestial treetop gazing down. He says help me do the laundry. And for God's sake clean up all this violence and strife-mongering.