Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
Following their
return from Exile in Babylon the nation of Israel was in ruins, having been
destroyed by Babylon a generation before, and now the Israelites were faced
with the daunting task of rebuilding the nation.
Isaiah speaks to
them at this time in their history.
In today’s lingo,
he basically said: “You want to make the
nation great again? Don’t bother yourselves
with all your ‘religious rituals’ like fasting and such. Do justice.
Obey the ordinances of God. Then
and only then, will the nation be great again.”
Taking Isaiah’s
Word and applying it to our context it sounds like this:
“So you want to
make America great again.”
“Quit giving lip
service to God while ignoring his word and commandments. Quit pretending to be religious and faithful
and instead seek to do God’s will.”
And what is God’s
will?
How would God
have us act to restore the greatness of our nation?
Look, you serve your own interest on your
fast day, and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Just stop it,
Isaiah says.
Humble
yourselves.
. . .”loose the bonds of injustice, to undo
the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free. . .
. . .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?
If you remove the yoke from among you, the
pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 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.
Do this, and
America will be great again.
We live in a
highly polarized and partisan age.
And there are
those who will say that if we do this, if we feed the poor, bring the homeless
into our homes, if we cloth the naked and attend to our families, if we quit
pointing our finger at one another and speaking evil, if we end all oppression
and injustice, then we are nothing but a socialist state.
And of course, it’s
politically incorrect to promote socialism in some circles.
One of the
movements in American politics is to embrace the concept of “democratic
Socialism”.
I quote from an
article in the Business Insider:
In general,
socialists believe the government should provide a range of basic services to
the public, such as health care and education, for free or at a significant
discount.
In the present
day, "Democratic socialist" and "socialist" are often
treated as interchangeable terms, which can be confusing given Democratic
socialists don't necessarily think the government should immediately take
control of all aspects of the economy.
They do, however,
generally believe the government should help provide for people's most basic
needs and help all people have an equal chance at achieving success.
Jesus had a few
words that were similar to Isaiah’s and that also spoke to this notion that we
should collectively work to provide for people’s most basic needs.
You know the
passage. It’s in Matthew 25:
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his
glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33
and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then
the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and
you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and
you visited me. ' 37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it
that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to
drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked
and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and
visited you? ' 40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you
did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to
me. ' 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed,
depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing
to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not
give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. ' 44 Then they
also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you? ' 45 Then
he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the
least of these, you did not do it to me. ' 46 And these will go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
So are Jesus and
Isaiah socialists?
The answer to
that is “No.” You can’t put Jesus, or
Isaiah, into any of our political boxes.
And we shouldn’t.
But on the other
hand, in this teaching of Jesus he specifically says things about how our nation
will be judged, things like feeding the hungry and thirsty, welcoming the
stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned.
If that sounds
like socialism, then so be it.
But when Jesus
said it, socialism didn’t exist as a political movement.
When Jesus said
it, as when Isaiah said it before, it was not to conform to any particular
political movement or ideology, nor was it about any form of governance.
Caring for the
sick is a Godly thing.
Feeding the
hungry is a Godly thing.
The point is that
rather than identifying these commands of Jesus, of God, with any particular
political movement, we need rather to recognize that indeed, this is God’s Word
and God’s will.
And if you want
to make America great again, listen to his word and do his will.
And God doesn’t
really care how we cure the sick or feed the hungry.
God simply wants
the sick to be healed and the hungry fed.
And we don’t do
these things to be part of some great political movement.
No.
We feed the
hungry because they are hungry.
We care for the
sick because they are sick.
We’ve been
hearing Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount these weeks.
Jesus says some
radical things there. For example, he
says: "You have heard that it was
said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ' 44 But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be
children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you.
OK, so this is
the thing.
When I or anyone
else suggests that we should do that people are free to disagree and share that
they don’t believe it.
If you don’t
believe that we should love our enemies, though, it’s not that you don’t
believe me, it’s that you don’t believe Jesus.
Whether or not
you believe me is irrelevant.
Whether or not we
believe Jesus matters.
This is the
thing, though.
If we don’t
believe Jesus then all our pious prayers and lip service is simply nonsense.
Here I’ll share a
personal pet peeve.
If you listen to
some of the public discourse you’d think that all Jesus was concerned about was
whether the Ten Commandments should decorate the walls of our courthouses, or whether
teachers in our public schools should lead prayers, or whether we call that
decorated evergreen tree a holiday tree or a Christmas tree.
Jesus said
nothing about any of this.
Jesus spoke of
forgiveness. Loving enemies. Feeding the hungry. And all that jazz.
Christmas trees.
That’s such a non
issue. Actually, there is nothing whatsoever
“Christian” about a Christmas tree. It’s
not biblical. It’s a cultural, perhaps
even pagan, practice to decorate evergreen trees during the midwinter.
And yet
Christians want to make a big deal about what we call this tree.
That doesn’t
matter.
Do justice, love
kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
That matters.
Feed the hungry.
That matters.
Care for the
sick.
That matters.
Free the
oppressed.
That matters.
Forgive those who
have wronged you.
That matters.
This is the
thing.
To be a Christian
means that we listen to the words of Jesus and actually seek to live our lives
according to his teaching.
It doesn’t mean
that Jesus simply blesses whatever we choose to do.
It isn’t about
offering all sorts of pious prayers and platitudes.
It’s about
conforming our lives to Christ.
That’s it.
Amen
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