Isaiah 58:1-12 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 58:1-12 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 58Shout 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. Verse 2Yet 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.
Verse 3"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. Verse 4Look, 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. Verse 5Is 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? Verse 6Is 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? Verse 7Is 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?
Verse 8Then 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. Verse 9Then 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, Verse 10if 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. Verse 11The 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. Verse 12Your 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.
Devotion
Superficial worship, which makes ritualistic gestures toward God while people practice injustice, is worthless. God promises Israel, “Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high” (Isaiah 58:4b). Specifically, we identify with Israel, judged to “…serve your own interests on your fast day and oppress all your workers…[and] you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist” (Isaiah 58:3b-4a). So much for economics and politics. Sadly, the church also mixes devotion and injustice. Through the prophet Isaiah, God calls us to do differently. “Is not this the fast that I chose: to loose the bonds of injustice…to let the oppressed go free…share your bread with the hungry…to bring the homeless poor into your house…when you see the naked, to cover them…then you shall call and the Lord will answer” (Isaiah 58:6-9). Such is the Lenten journey that God blesses, that we might be called repairers of the breach, restorers of the streets on which we live.
Prayer
In this Lenten journey, O God, allow us to move from rite to righteousness, from gesture to genuine holiness, through Christ our Lord. Amen.