Sincerely Wrong

Read Isaiah 58:1-14

It's easier to see the problem from the outside. In Rihanna's music video "Take a Bow," her ex comes to her house, apologizing and crying, trying to get her back. But when she drives away, he gets upset with her. He might think his efforts to get her back were sincere, but she sees through it. His cheating speaks louder than his professions of love. In Isaiah 58, God doesn't drive away, but directly addresses his people's leaders. They pray every day, know how to quote the Bible to God, and observe the required fast days. But they're also angry at God because they feel he hasn't kept his promises to them. It's a transaction: they've done the religious thing, so God is obligated to give them what they want. But God doesn't let sincerity cover up injustice. He defines true spirituality in what appears to be unspiritual language. He says it looks like sharing the bread in their kitchens with hungry people outside their doors, sharing their clothing with those shivering in the streets, and even inviting the homeless to come in and spend the night. Instead of leveraging a bad harvest to take someone's land and reduce them to debt slaves, it looks like forgiving the loan entirely. It means giving their workers the time off they need for worship and rest. The original complaint is that God doesn't answer prayer. So God explains that once they stop ignoring their own flesh and blood, he will stop ignoring them. Even more, he will not just answer their prayers, but give them his presence: Here I am (verse 9). If they will stop approaching him like a vending machine, God will make them his friends. Repentance isn't a tool to manipulate God into doing our bidding. If we want to be God's friends, we must participate in God's mission. We cannot "follow Jesus" unless we walk down the road with him. These worshippers see themselves as godly, but now they're exposed as self-deceived and exploitative. If God only judged them, the shame would be overwhelming. But God offers them mercy and says they can get a new identity. When they stop their injustice and start caring for their neighbors, they will become "repairers" and "restorers." It's the same reason the early church in Antioch became known as "Christians": the community could see their lives resembled Christ. The final irony is that these religious people are angry that God isn't making them happy by answering their prayers, yet God wants them to delight in him. They must stop using rituals to rebrand themselves as good when their lives are bad. If they stop delighting themselves and start spending themselves for the poor, then God will give them his own joy. I recently got updates from a Creating Jobs trip to Uganda. We prayed for them when they spent a hot afternoon on the side of the road with a broken-down truck. But as they met with the entrepreneurs who we're training to start and grow businesses, they were invited to worship, dance, and celebrate together. Even through WhatsApp, I felt the joy of the Lord.