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| Social Justice ( Preaching notes) |
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 Isaiah 58 True Fasting
58
‘‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’‘‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? … 6 ‘‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness a will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. ‘‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail....
Here we see the dark side of religion, so poignantly depicted by the prophet, as to the spiritual condition of Israel
This morning I will try to prove for you two things:
1) God requires that our worship and faith redound in good deeds in our community
2) social justice, or compassion, is not an option, is not something that only the liberals do, or the social activists do, it is mandatory to all of us.
Isaiah addressed his indictment to a people whose personal religious diligence was unmatched
They worshiped the true God, they fasted, and they seemed eager to know God’s way
It all looked good from the outside, but there was something wrong: they were self-centered people, materialistic, and indifferent to the poor
God was saying: let me tell you what real worship involves: it involves justice and compassion
Our western understanding of justice is individualistic to some extent, but the Bible concept of justice is of “Shalom”
Shalom means peace that encompasses all aspects of a community: spiritual peace, and material provision, with contentment
Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century Puritan wrote:
“Where have we any command in the Bible laid down in stronger terms, and in a more peremptory urgent manner, than the command of giving to the poor?”
In many churches today, compassion and justice for the poor is a department, almost like an option, usually done by missionaries or paid personal
Not in the Bible, before we move into the NT, Isaiah says something interesting: “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter”
Back in those days, family was everything, we couldn’t exist outside it, your identity was interwoven with your blood lineage
God not only requires justice for our flesh and blood, but also for the wanderer, the foreigner, the immigrant
God’s Shalom was a way to prevent tribalism and racism, and idolatrous cultural attraction
The social security system in Israel if put into practice would’ve wipe out poverty and injustice in the land
Just to give you a example, for time sakes, in Deuteronomy we read:
“"When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again, it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, it shall be for the orphan and for the widow…" (Deut.24:20,21)
And the reason he gives them for this command is in verse
22, "And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing."
But here is the problem, not many of us were slaves or oppressed by poverty, so we can’t relate very well with Shalom concept
Many say: I pull myself out by my own bootstraps, why don’t they?
If you think that way, remember that, out of the 200 times the bible speaks about poverty, 90% do not say: “you had the goods and you squandered it because of your deeds”
Poverty, like Isaiah said, is a yoke that needs to be broken, it is an unjust burden
Why?
Imagine a kid, reaching to the age of 20, that has no skills, nothing that the world values, illiterate, no talent or skills
The world will throw him away, he has no connections, no friends:
“4 Wealth brings many friends, but the poor are left friendless. Pv 19
How can you define a poor person in every culture? He can be taken from and given nothing in return
In every culture there will always be groups of people who will be kept down, in a yoke, locked into poverty for the rest of your life
Some few people, who are super ambitious or very lucky will escape the yoke of poverty
23 The field of the poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice. Pv 13
The church has responded mostly in two ways: The liberal analysis says: “we need first to fight unjust social structures – Liberation theology is the answer
The conservative groups say: no, it is the breakdown of morals and family that leads a nation into poverty, we need to put Christians in political positions
The gospel says: none of options above, in Christ we have the answer and the power to live the Shalom
How does it happen? Let me finish with this last concept
The gospel makes us become poor, in we read:
“20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Luke 6
But they were not all poor, Matthew was well off, and Peter was a liberal professional, what is the meaning of this?
It means that when the gospel comes to you, it will make you poor in spirit, humble, and only transformed people, can say:
“I am even willing to become poor for Jesus, because Him, being rich, became poor, having no obligation to die for me, gave His life so I could have life, why can’t I do the same to my neighbor?
Religion says: I will give to the poor, I will live nobly, give away money, I can do it, God owns me!
Objection, says God: Psalm14: 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind .. there is no one who does good, no, not one.
The answer: you must become poor in spirit and realize that only through Jesus,
you can have the ability to practice justice and social compassion, and that, will change your community radically
Julius, the Roman emperor who wanted to effect in his day a resurrection of the pagan worship, found it very hard to do, because of the influence of Christianity
In utter frustration, he writes a letter to his priest:
"Let us consider that nothing has so much contributed to the progress of the superstition of Christians, as their charity to strangers. I think we ought to discharge this obligation ourselves. Establish hospitals in every place. For it would be a shame for us to abandon our poor, while the Jews have none, and the impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor, but also for ours."
The world will not note our fellowship or the way we worship the true God, so much as it will respond to the attractiveness of God’s compassionate heart towards the poor
Let us pray
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