Isaiah 1:10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Proper 14 / Year C
If he were here with us this morning, I am confident Ed Campbell
would not be happy. Ed, my clergy mentor
when I was in seminary, loved the 50th psalm, portions of which we
read just moments ago. Why would he be
unhappy? Well, it appears a revision to
the Lectionary now omits his favorite verse.
After laying out the case for why God rejects the animal sacrifices of
the people, the psalmist records these words from God, which are no longer included
in the assigned reading:
I will take no bull-calf from your stalls,
nor he goats from your pens. (Psalm 50:9)
Ed’ translation was somewhat freer: “I will take no bull from you
or your house.”
Coalescing over the centuries, today’s readings from Isaiah and
Psalm 50 are a part of a devastating biblical critique of the sacrificial
system. Perhaps the capstone of this
writing is found in the 51st Psalm:
Had you desired it, I would have offered
sacrifice,
but
you take no delight in burnt offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;
a
broken and contrite heart, O God,
you will not despise. (51:17-18)
Prophets and sages come to realize God wants something more from
the faithful than rituals and blood offerings.
Here is what Isaiah says is required:
Wash
yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings from before
my eyes;
cease to do
evil,
learn to do good;
seek
justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend
the orphan,
plead for the widow. (1:16-17)
For us here this morning, this is hardly a radical
idea because long ago God’s people came to understand how we treat one another
is more important to God than the rituals we perform. What would it say about our parish if, for
example, we held the most splendid service on Christmas Eve, but failed week in
and week out to welcome the stranger in our midst?
All of this has me pondering a Latin phrase: ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est
– “A Reformed church is ever reforming” – a phrase coming out of the
Reformation which has picked up steam over the last hundred years or so as the
Church has grappled to understand God’s dream for all people.
The history of the Judeo-Christian scriptures tells a
story of on-going divine revelation and discernment:
·
Abraham’s belief
in monotheism
·
Moses
distribution of the commandments
·
The Prophetic
critique of institutional religion
·
Jesus’ teachings
and actions
· The early Church breaking down the walls separating
Jews and Gentiles.
Why is on-going reformation necessary? Here are three primary reasons.
First, we are sinful people who are prone to do everything from
wandering down the wrong path to willful disobedience. Where the Church is corrupt it must be purified. In a teen inquirers’ session this past week
we asked our young learners what is required to have your sins forgiven. Their answer: confess to God and say you are
sorry. They were surprised to learn in
the Middle Ages you had to pay the Church in order to be forgiven. Corruption.
Here is another reason the Church must always be reforming: the
times and the culture changes. In
another session we touched on the tremendous revolution the invention of the
printing press brought to society. It led
to a growing desire to be able to read the bible on one’s own. It gave rise to worship in the language of
the people, rather than a tongue only a few educated elites could understand. Change.
The final reason is perhaps the most important: we are not a perfect
people. Our understanding is limited,
yet we possess the potential for discovery and growth. Jesus points to this when, at the Last
Supper, he says to his disciples, “I have many things still to say to you, but
you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).
Paul writes this:
Now
we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we
will see everything with perfect clarity.
All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know
everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (I Cor. 13:12)
I liken this to a time when I arrived at a campsite after dark and
struggled by flashlight to set up a tent and other equipment. I could see little of my surroundings. Dawn brought with it a heavy fog. I could barely see for the first time a
stream twenty feet from where I pitched my tent. As the fog lifted, I could see treetops, then
ridges, and finally, once the fog burned off, mountains in the distance. All of this was there all along, I just
couldn’t see it at the time. Over the
course of the morning, as the skies cleared, so too did my awareness of my
location.
To be a follower of Christ is to be a
person of deep conviction who is courageous enough to question what you hold
true and dear. It is to pray, as we did
with today’s Collect, for a “spirit to
think and do always those things that are right, that we… may by [God] be
enabled to live according to [God’s] will.”
It is to recognize that when it comes to understanding God’s generosity,
love, and mercy, we are shrouded in fog, but the fog is lifting and as new understanding
comes into clarity we reform our views and our ways to reflect what we now know
of the Holy One.
This on-going reformation
of God’s dream makes many uncomfortable.
Some of us are distressed because we equate change with being unfaithful
to the faith handed down to us. Others are
impatient because we are slow to adopt what they have come to understand God’s
will to be. Today I want to remind you
of what the psalmist learned long ago: When you come before God spare the bull
and offer you behavior.
