Friday, August 28, 2015

The Contrite and Humble in Spirit

God's Prophets Demand Justice
God' Prophets Demand Justice


Advocates of Justice for All


Return to a Just God

Isaiah 57:10-21  The Message

3-10 “But you, children of a witch, come here!
    Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
    sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
    A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
    and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
    any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
    and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
    Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
    to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
    you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
    and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
    and loved every minute of it,
    adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
    and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
    send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
    and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
    never got tired of trying new religions.
11-13 “Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,
    leaving me high and dry,
    forgetting you ever knew me?
Because I don’t yell and make a scene
    do you think I don’t exist?
I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,
    and expose the absurdity of it all.
Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:
    A good wind will blow them away.
    They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.
“But anyone who runs to me for help
    will inherit the land,
    will end up owning my holy mountain!”
14 Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!
    Clear the way, remove the rocks
    from the road my people will travel.”
15-21 A Message from the high and towering God,
    who lives in Eternity,
    whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy places,
    but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
    get them up and on their feet again.
For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,
    I’m not going to be angry forever.
Otherwise, people would lose heart.
    These souls I created would tire out and give up.
I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.
    I struck him hard and turned away in anger,
    while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.
When I looked again and saw what he was doing,
    I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,
    creating a new language of praise for the mourners.
Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God
    “and yes, I will heal them.
But the wicked are storm-battered seas
    that can’t quiet down.
    The waves stir up garbage and mud.
There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”
For Reflection 
A few Sundays ago some one asked me if I thought Christianity was changing.  My answer, unhesitatingly, was yes!  God is always changing the way God's children worship.  Many feel that the Church is dying.  They point to the disruptive arguments about sex and women's rights and how to serve communion and who should read and interpret the Bible.  Many times the hypocrisy of the church seems cartoonish and driven by self preservation.

Ironically, the maturity of the church hangs in the balance of these arguments.  In my early years arguments about divorce and women as church officers (let alone in the ordained ministry} was argued with such intensity, such vitriol as some argue contemporary issues.  In the pressure of resolving these issues, God worked God's own way.  God will continue to present opportunities to grow into God's kingdom.

The church is not dying.  The church is maturing.  Those who reject religion or  leave religious institutions still have a desire for spiritual transcendence.  God has a long history of sending prophets and leaders to advance God's will.  God will see to it that God's church will evolve so that all will find a pathway to reconciliation and into a loving community, the household of God.

Pray
for those who challenge us.  Pray for those who fear change.  Pray for God's prophets who sacrifice themselves for the advancement of God's agenda.  Pray for the church universal. Pray for and hope for the establishment of the household of God.

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