A couple of folks who are not connected to my churchs fb page have asked me to share my lenten devotionals on my personal page so they can access them, so here goes... Isaiah 58:1-12 Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice? Look, 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. 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? 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. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. As yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the start of the holy season of active preparation and repentance that is Lent, it is perhaps not surprising that most of my conversations in the church this week have been around the topic of how we live out our faith. Folks in our community are really digging deep and pondering what, exactly, it is that God is calling them to do in this special season. Over the last few days, Ive talked a lot about Lenten disciplines, those things that we give up or take on, usually in our private lives, to enrich our relationship with God. Practising lenten disciplines is a truly wonderful way to enrich your faith, and I hope you will choose to engage in one or more this Lent. However, today, I found myself in a few different conversations about how we are called to live out our faith in more public ways this Lenten season-to let the world know just what it is that we think Christs life, death, and resurrection are actually about. From our efforts with the Ashes to Go program, dispensing ashes to commuters at the local train and trolley stations, to our on-going plans for our vegetable garden to provide food to people in need, to the outreach committee deciding to share in our lenten bounty by providing soup for local hungry families, we are a congregation that is going about the business of speaking Gods word to the world, and I couldnt be prouder of the wonderful work that you all are doing in Gods name. During a bible study this afternoon, though, the question of prophecy came up-of how we know what prophets to listen to in our own time, how to test what theyre telling us and figure out whether it is, indeed, the word of God, and whether we are called to take on the prophetic role in our own lives. We wondered whether its enough for us to simply go into the world and preach Gods love through our words and actions, or are we also called to do as the prophets did and speak the hard truths to the world, letting it know where it has gone astray, and what it must do to get back into right relationship with the Almighty. I did not know at the time of our meeting that the text above was the one appointed for today, but its message speaks right to the heart of our discussion. Isaiah tells us here that prophecy is the job of all the faithful, that we are called to live out our faith by shouting out like a trumpet to those who oppress the weakest and most vulnerable among us, to serve as the voice for the voiceless. This can be a hard thing to accept, living as we do in an age of pluralism and tolerance of differing opinions coming from every corner. How do we respect the beliefs and wishes of others, yet still stay true to who our faith calls us to be? Well, the answer to this may vary day-to-day and issue-to-issue, but when it comes to speaking out for the needs of those who society regards as the least, the last, and the lost, scriptures answer is fairly simple-we are called to speak out with and for them, publicly and frequently, loudly, but with great love, simultaneously condemning the actions of all those (ourselves included) who participate in oppressive systems, while also speaking the great and glorious promise of what our lives will look like when we finally step into the role that God has prepared for us-if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Now theres a message Im prepared to shout out from the rooftops! As I read this text and pondered the discussions Ive been having around the church this week, my thought kept turning to the Moral Monday movement, started by people of faith in North Carolina who have been observing the governments recent policy changes that come at the cost of the people most in need-from cuts in educational funding, to longer jail sentences for petty crimes, to cutbacks to medicare/medicaid, many of the recent legal changes made by the state legislature will have profound negative effects of the quality of life for the people who are the most in need of help . I lived in North Carolina from 2010 to 2012, and as I went to meetings of local faith leaders during that time, the feeling that we were being called by God to do something for the vulnerable people being most affected just grew and grew, and eventually, one of the pastors from right there in my sleepy little hometown realized that God was calling him to take to the streets and speak to those in power on behalf of those who had no voice. And so he went to Raleigh and protested. And the next time he went a few more people went with him, and then a few more, and a few more, and eventually Moral Mondays was born-a day each week where people go to the capitol and protest and pray, speak and sing on behalf of the voiceless in their state. I only was able to attend a handful of times before I moved back to PA, so I was not there long enough to see the crowds grow into the hundreds of faithful souls that are there now (though I did attend for long enough to have my name added to a homeland security watch-list of potentially dangerous individuals agitating for the poor, which I consider a badge of great honor). Each monday, as I see the pictures and stories stream across my facebook page, I am reminded that all those gathered there are not anybody special, really-theyre pastors and priests, teachers and students, doctors and nurses, parents and grandparents, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, all united under the belief that God has put a word of truth into their hearts and on their lips. There is nothing stopping us from speaking this same word of truth wherever we are, and however we can. I invite you tonight to watch a brief video from one of the Moral Monday events, and to ponder a societal ill that God is calling you to correct today. Whatever it is, go get some people fired up about it-maybe some friends at work, us here at the church, your friends on-line, your family at the dinner table, all the while trusting in the mighty power of Gods voice spoken through your lips. youtube/watch?v=rHpVOZQxJkwyoutube/watch?v=rHpVOZQxJkw -- Wishing you a Lent full of Justice, Peace, and Grace
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 05:26:29 +0000
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