Thoughts on Isaiah 1
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: MyWords::RE::God'sWords

Before reading this entry, read Isaiah 1.

God isn't being particularly kind to his people in this chapter.

He says to his people ...

"You're dumber than a donkey" (1:3).

"You stink!" (1:13).

"You act like a harlot" (1:21).

So, what is it that's put the deity in such a rotten mood? After all, his people are worshiping him, aren't they? (1:10-15). And that's precisely the problem: They worship God passionately, with great flair and style and pomp and circumstance, but they don't love the people that are closest to God's heart.

They don't love the widows and orphans ...
... which is to say, the people who live without protection ...
... the children that meander the streets of Rolling Hills?
... the incontinent seniors at the care center?
... all the vulnerable scraps of humanity that flutter around us
 for the briefest moments before being scattered to the wind?

They don't love the widows and orphans ...
... which is to say, those that struggle to wrap their fingers around
some semblance of justice and goodness in their world ...
... the people that, in seeking to wrap their fingers around justice,
wrap their fingers around bongs and bottles and one-armed bandits.

They don't demonstrate love to the people, in other words, that most of us would prefer to ignore.

I mean, if I consciously work to love the oppressed and the unprotected, I may have to provide someone with protection; I may be required to relieve someone's oppression; in short, I maybe inconvenienced---because God isn't suggesting another series ofsweet, sentimental words to solve the world's problems. In fact, Ithink that's precisely what causes a sickening scent in the nostrils ofthe divine (1:13).

"Let's pray that things will go better for them."

"Let's send them some help."

"Let's add them to our budget."

Don't get me wrong---none of those possibilities are necessarily bad. But they're not enough.

I must choose to risk my convenience for the sake of the people who have no one else to protect them. And I don't always. Some days, I don't even want to. But, unless I am willing to obey God in this, all that I do disgusts him. The very worship service that causes me to say, "Wow, that was wonderful!" may send God down the halls of heaven to hurl in the Celestial Toilet (Rev. 3:16).

Thatis my deepest fear each Sunday ... that all the singing and clapping and videographic razzmattazz of postmodern worship and preachingdoesn't impress God at all, because the only thing that impresses God is a heart that breaks in the same places that his heart breaks.

Until our hearts break along the same fault lines as the heart of God,
though our bodies may be whole, our hearts are sick (Isa. 1:5-6),
though our buildings may be full of well-groomed people, they are empty of God's Spirit (1:7-8),
and though our morals may seem impeccable, we are no better than Sodom (1:9-10).

But there is hope.

"Come now, let's argue this out," Yahweh says. "No matter how deep yourstain, I can remove it. Even if your stains are blood-red, I can turn them into freshly-fallen snow, into the purest wool---but only if youo bey me. Let me help you, then you will have more blessings than you can handle" (1:18-19).

God, break my heart where your heart breaks,
take from my soul what you must take,
change me, God, make me like you.