July 11, 2024 - Isaiah 58-60

The Bible has a lot to say about worship and fasting, both true and false.  The prophet warns Israel:  “Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?  Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?  Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps 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 him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” (58:5-7).  Just going through the motions, that’s what Israel was doing.  Can’t help but remember Amos 5:21-24, Hosea 6:6, Micah 6:6-8 and, of course, the episode of the tax collector and the Pharisee going up to the temple (Luke 18:10-14).  One was justified, the other was not.

Make us, O God, a church that shares

     your love for humankind;

that lives the truth your word declares,

     and heeds the Master's mind.

Help us reach out with loving hands,

     in times that try the soul,

with sympathy that understands

     and makes the needy whole.   –H. Victor Kane (1971)