"Here I am."

Isaiah 58:1-12 --

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

The backdrop of Isaiah 58 is referring to the time after the exile because the Israelite fasted two months out of every year for seventy years after Jerusalem had been destroyed to commemorate the less of their homes and their king.  Fasting as a form of worship is something that is somewhat lost on us in today’s world.  Instead of depriving our bodies from food we are encourage to deprive ourselves of something else during Lent.  The entire purpose for fasting anything is to encourage us to sacrifice something on behalf of God and others.  The Israelites were fasting and were getting frustrated because they felt like God wasn't noticing their sacrifices.  They were starting to wonder what the point of their sacrifice was if God didn't notice it.  Isaiah 58:3 says, “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’”  It sounds to me like they were a little misguided in their interpretation of why they were making this sacrifice in the first place.  

During this Lenten season, I do not want us to make the same mistake the Israelites made.   We sometimes wonder why we should do things if it does not benefit ourselves like we think it should.  The fasting of the Israelites had a humble beginning and was done for the right reasons but once they felt like God was no longer showing them favor for doing it, they started to question why they were doing it in the first place.  How often does this sound like us?  We are all about a new ministry, a new calling, or a deeper faith until we start to question whether or not it is worth it.  We have all been there.  It starts off as doubts that we can easily explain away.  Then those doubts start to hang around a little longer.  We start coming up with more and more questions as why we are doing what we are doing.  Eventually, those doubts lead us to start phasing out the changes we have made because we think that it is not making a difference to God.  Just like the Israelites, we start to get frustrated when we do not hear God speaking to us through our own sacrifice.  It is not the questions or the doubts that start pulling us away from whatever “fasting” we may be doing, it is our perceived silence of God.  The Israelites started to feel like God was not acting with justice towards them for their sacrifice.

It is that sense of justice that leads to frustration.  We want rewarded for our “fasting” just like the Israelites.  We “deserve” God’s favor because of our offerings.  We come to church most Sundays, we should be rewarded for doing so.  We do a good job of tithing to church, we should gain God’s favor.  We gave up something for the entirety of Lent, we should be rewarded.  We have been a devout church, we deserve something greater than other churches.  These are examples of where our sense of justice is misguided.  When we feel like we are doing something better than someone else, when we give others the impression that we are somehow “better” than they are then we have lost sight of justice.  This Lenten season, do your fasting for the right reasons.  Don’t do it because you think it will somehow gain you favor it God’s eyes.  Do it because you are worshiping a God who gives us eternity.  Do it because God loves you.  Do it for the benefit of others.  Here is the faith lesson that comes from this:  Israel complained that God had deprived them of justice and righteousness.  God responded by demanding Israel to stop depriving those around them of justice and righteousness!  Even though Israel had been following the rituals of fasting, they completely neglected reasons behind it.  The Israelites started to feel like they were the victims, when they were really the perpetrators.

This Lenten season, make your sacrifices for the right reasons.  First and second Corinthians are littered with warnings from Paul about boasting our righteousness.  For example, 1 Corinthians 13:3 says, “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”  Our sense of justice and righteousness is not God’s.  We have to worship, tithe, love, fast, and sacrifice for the right reasons.  The moment we do any of those things just so we can point to ourselves to only glorify yourself then we lost our sense of righteousness.  We can be confident and gain strength from our faith but we must not do it for the sole purpose of glorifying ourselves.  If we start to feel like God is being silent towards us, if we stop hearing God speak to us, then maybe we have made ourselves into victims, maybe we have been misguided in our sense of justice.  Maybe we have stopped having faith for the right reasons.

The Israelites were fasting because it was their attempt to align their priorities with the will of God.  Our sacrifices, prayers, and worship are meant for us to do the same thing.  But we must be careful.  As a prophet, Isaiah was calling the Israelites to fast, but not from food; instead, Isaiah called them to fast from affluence, indifference, and privilege so that the community of faith might live in harmony with God.  This Lenten season, the sole purpose of our fast, sacrifice or worship ought to have the same goal: to live in harmony with one another and with God.  When we do this, then God’s light shall break forth like the dawn... as it says in Isaiah 58:8.  More importantly is God’s answer in 58:9 “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”  When we seek harmony with God and community, then we will see the light of God and hear his voice.        

God is relational.  All God really desires from us is a relationship.  If we can have that with him, then we cannot help but to be changed by it.  That is the light that God calls us to carry out into the world.  Sure, God offers us eternal life, unending love and everlasting grace but all of that starts with a relationship with our Creator.  There are no set of words, no amount of creeds, or any “correct” action that brings us closer to God.  It is simply a relationship and God does the rest.  It is that relationship the Israelites were missing.  They failed to take God out into the rest of the world.  That is what Isaiah was trying to make clear to them.  Isaiah’s message still resonates with us today.  Create relationships that are based on understanding and compromise then God’s light will “rise in the darkness and make our gloom like noonday.”  This year during Lent I would like to encourage you to become more relational.  Try to understand others.  Do your best to show God’s love and grace with others.  And when you do, you will hear God tell you, “Here I am.”  Amen.