Sermon delivered on the 4th Sunday before Lent A, February 5, 2017, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.
If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, click here.
Lectionary texts: Isaiah 58.1-12; Psalm 112.1-10; 1 Corinthians 2.1-16; Matthew 5.13-20.
In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What are we to make of the Lord’s stern rebuke of his people’s worship in our OT lesson today? Is there anything we can learn from this smackdown? Indeed there is and this is what I want us to look at this morning. What constitutes real worship?
In our OT lesson, we see the Lord, through his prophet, taking his people to task for their worship behavior. The Lord tells Isaiah to announce to his people that they are rebels. And how are they rebellious? They have the audacity to worship the Lord, to seek after the Lord and his ways. They delight in drawing near to him. They seek God’s righteous judgments and do all the right things like humbling themselves before God. And God’s response? God calls them sinners and rebels for doing so. We listen to the prophetic announcement and we want to say to God, “Say what? What are you talking about God? We thought you want us to worship you and humble ourselves before you and do other pious things like fast and pray! I mean, look at us! We’re good Anglicans. We use proper liturgy in our worship. We listen to your Word each week and hear excellent preaching on it (well, at least when Fr. Maney is preaching). We come to your table each week and feed on our Lord Jesus’ body and blood. We pray the Prayers of the Peeps and act all holy and stuff. Are you telling us that this doesn’t please you? Are you suggesting that we too are rebels and sinners, just like your people Israel? Surely you jest!” To which the Lord replies, “No I don’t and don’t call me Shirley [rimshot in the background]!” So what’s going on here (besides bad standup comedy)?
The answer lies in a careful reading of the entire text. Of course God wants us to worship him because we inevitably become what we worship. That is why regular corporate worship of the one true and living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is so critically important to those of us who want to have a real and life-giving relationship with our only Source of life. Our worship will help shape us to become more like God our Father who reveals himself supremely in Jesus the Son so that we can become the truly human beings God created us to be.
The key to understanding Isaiah’s timeless prophetic criticism of the way God’s people worship is found in verse 2a: “Day after day they seek me [in worship] and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation [or church] that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.” In other words, God knows that worship is more than just personal piety. It is more than just us acting all holy and stuff on Sunday mornings, critically important as regular corporate worship of God is. But true worship of God extends far beyond Sundays. We are to worship God 24/7 in our lives. In other words, Who and how we worship on Sundays must translate into action so that we think and speak and act like the true image-bearing creatures we really are. Without this corresponding action, our worship will sooner or later turn into idolatrous self-worship where we pat ourselves on the back for being such “good” and “holy” people. This, in turn, inevitably leads us to become proud and self-righteous people who are ready to pronounce judgment on all who are not like us. When that happens, we really don’t have a chance to practice God’s righteousness and justice because we are too busy practicing our own distorted sense of righteousness and justice. The result? More darkness instead of God’s light.
Real worship of God, worshiping God in spirit and truth (John 4.24), always involves our acknowledgement that we don’t rule God’s world, God does, and that God has rightful claim of our individual and corporate lives because God is our Creator. When we act selfishly, we cut ourselves off from God’s love and power and should not expect to find that which we need to live truly human lives. But when our worship leads us to act in ways that are consistent with our call to be God’s image-bearing creatures who reflect God’s love, mercy, righteousness, grace, and justice out into the world, then we discover that we have tapped into a power that is far greater than our own and in that power, we find our peace and purpose for living. That is what God promises in our OT lesson when he tells us that he will be before and behind us, and when we call to him for help he will be present to us (v.8b-9a). And if you were paying attention to this morning’s psalm, this is exactly what the psalmist promises us. In short, when we practice God’s righteousness and justice, and not the world’s or our own often distorted sense of righteousness and justice, we will become like God in the best sense possible. What an awesome privilege!
This dynamic is also what Jesus is talking about in our gospel lesson today. Jesus was calling Israel to be Israel, to be the human agents who brought God’s healing love to the world. But Israel could not do that by being just like the world, chasing after false gods (idols) and practicing injustice and all kinds of self-serving and corrupt behavior. Neither can we as Christ’s body, the Church, live up to our Lord’s command to be his salt and light to the world when we follow our own distorted and self-centered ways instead of his. If we are to be Jesus’ light to the world so that the world (along with us) can finding healing and peace, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Paul tells us as much in our epistle lesson when he tells us that he resolved to know nothing but his crucified Lord. For you see, this is how God has overcome the world—through suffering and self-giving love, a love that was present in all that Jesus taught and did during his life, a love revealed supremely on Calvary. On the cross, God defeated the dark powers and principalities by breaking the power of Sin (a force) and offering us forgiveness of our sins so that we no longer have to be enslaved by the dark powers. This is why personal piety—worship, prayer, regular reading and study of Scripture, the eucharist, and fellowship—is so critically important. When we partake in these means of grace, we learn what God has done for us in Christ, i.e., we learn to experience God’s healing love and forgiveness, and we learn what God wants and desires us to be as his image-bearers. God wants us to embody his generous love, his faithfulness, his justice, his mercy, his grace, and his righteousness so that God can use us to bring his kingdom to bear on God’s broken and hurting world and its peoples. The kingdom doesn’t come in full until the Lord returns to finish his saving and healing work. But God uses us to advance his reign on earth and we can have confidence that anything we do faithfully in the name of the Lord is not done in vain (cf. 1 Corinthians 15.58), thanks be to God!
The world will look at us like we are crazy. It will hate our sense of righteousness and justice and love because they are rooted in God and God’s wisdom—the wisdom of the cross which is not the world’s—and that means we will suffer for the Name. But we are to take heart. When we are Christ-bearers to the world, we are confident that the power of God will sustain us because as Paul also reminds us, we are not only God’s image-bearers, we are given the Holy Spirit, who lives in us to strengthen and uphold us to do the work God calls us to do, just like God promised us through his prophet Isaiah and our Lord himself (see, e.g., John 14.18-27).
So how are we to be Christ’s salt and light to the world? We start by loving all comers, friend and foe alike. But we don’t love them according to how the world tells us to love others. We do not give in to the beloved’s disordered desires. We love them by desiring what is best for them, by desiring for them the righteousness and goodness of God as revealed in God’s word and supremely in God’s Son, Jesus. We must be very clear on this point, my beloved. If we do not love others with the love of God, we cannot make any claim to loving them at all.
Beyond this, there are a million ways to embody the love of God and to be the light of Christ to the world. In what ways is Christ calling us to be his light, corporately and individually? Let me jump-start your thinking about this. Every time we offer forgiveness instead of revenge, every time we seek the other’s good over our own, every time we manifest the generous heart of God to others in need, we allow Christ’s light to shine in and through us. In this season of irrational fear and discord in our nation, our words and actions in the political arena can bring Christ’s light and love to bear, not to mention his peace. Instead of demonizing our opponents, we resolve to debate the issues. Instead of fear-mongering, we remind others that Jesus is Lord and Caesar (whoever that might be) is not. We are kind to those who abuse us and speak the truth to power, even when we know we will get blasted for doing so. And let us not forget our own family as the Lord reminds us in our OT lesson. Let God’s reign begin at home in how we treat our spouses and children. Let us be faithful and kind and self-giving toward them. If we have children (or grandchildren), let us be bold enough to act like parents (or grandparents) and speak the truth in love to them, daring to love them enough to encourage them to use their God-given talents to the glory of God and warning them about the dangers and lies that are beckoning them to join in the fun to their ruin, all the while masquerading as the glamorous, the sexy, the hip—things like illicit drug use and the idols of popularity, sex, identity, greed, prestige, power, and the rest.
Is this hard work? You bet it is because much of the world does not want to hear about God’s love and righteousness. And if you’re from my generation, there will be this fear that we are starting to sound like our parents, meaning that we have lost our ability to be cool along with our hair. But we need to get over that lie and delusion that was foisted on us years ago and not let it deter us. We mustn’t hide under a basket Christ’s light made real and manifest in our lives. One thing is certain. Being Christ’s light and image-bearers is not for the faint of heart. But as we have seen, we are not people who have faint hearts. We are a people who are loved and claimed by the living God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us so that we can live with him now and forever, and who gives us his Spirit to equip us to do the work he calls us to do. And because of that great love, we are a people with a real present and future, unlike those who reject God and his Christ. This is worship that is pleasing to God. This is the Good News we are to live and proclaim, now and for all eternity. What a great privilege it is for us to be called to this life-giving work, which after all is the very definition of liturgy (the work of the people)! To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever.
In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.