“Let’s Get Our Priorities Straight”

Isaiah 1:10-17

Luke 12:34: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Isaiah 1:15-17 (The Message): When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

G. G. D. Kilpatrick (Interpreters Bible): … to lift no voice in protest against evils in the social order, to consent by silence to the existence of injustice, to see [people] made victims of greed and cruelty and do nothing about it, is to leave a fatal gap between the worship we offer to a righteous God and the attitude we assume to tolerated wrong in social relationships. Passivity in the face of evil means complicity in evil.

Trent C. Butler (in reference to Isaiah’s words being similar to those of a courtroom accusation): The prophet had a new teaching, a new law: no more offerings, no more festivals, no more prayers. Did Isaiah want to close the doors of the Temple? No! He wanted to set priorities straight. Worship must not shield people from God’s claim upon their lives. Gifts cannot replace personal action. Ritual does not rectify. Sacrifice does not substitute for service. Justice must be provided for all people before the jury allows the Temple doors to open. Then ritual can be in response to the riches of God, our Redeemer.

A bit of Presbyterian history: The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America condemned dancing and card playing. At the same time, by way of gross misinterpretation of Scripture, that Assembly upheld the practice of slavery. It was okay to treat fellow human beings as less than human, to treat them simply as one’s property to be used and abused as one wished, but you’d better not be seen dancing or playing cards!

[prayer]

One of things I must remind myself about every Sunday morning is, “It’s about God, stupid!” What I do from this pulpit is not about me. Nor is it ultimately about you. The worship service, from the prelude to the benediction, is all about giving glory and honor to God.

That’s why we gather in this place every Sunday. We are responding to God’s claim on our lives. We are celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are giving thanks and praise for the unmerited grace that God has shown us in Jesus. Everything we do – the hymns, prayers, responses, Scripture readings, and the sermon - are acts of worship and adoration. Even our tithes and offerings are a response to God’s mercy and goodness. It’s always about God. It is never about us. As the catechism so aptly puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

This worship we do does not end with the benediction. Everything we do everyday should give God glory and honor. As sinful people living in a sinful world that’s a tall order. We are not perfect. This side of heaven we will never be. The righteousness God requires of us is possible only because God has made it so by way of his incarnation and atoning acts in Jesus. We are saved by grace, not by works.

That, however, does not excuse us from answering God’s call to live a holy life. Our thoughts, our actions, our behaviors, even our attitudes must be brought more and more into line with God’s will. Relying on the power of God’s Holy Spirit we are to be more and more transformed by the Spirit-empowered renewal of our minds and less and less conformed to the ways of the world.

And nowhere is this more important than in our relationships with those around us. We must always be asking the following questions of ourselves. Does the way I treat my spouse and children give glory to God? Do my interactions with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and fellow students reflect the way and will of God? Can strangers tell by my behavior that I am a Christian? Do my social and business ethics reflect Christ-like servanthood or are they more a response to cultural expectations? Am I arrogant? Am I verbally abusive? Do I hate my enemies and look with disdain upon those who don’t look or sound like I do? Am I just and fair in all of my business, social, and family transactions?

Hard questions. Questions the honest answers to which are not always pleasing to God. Answers that don’t always reveal a clearly visible correlation between the worshipful selves we are on Sunday and the people we are Monday through Saturday. Again, we are saved by grace not works. Again, God does not expect perfection this side of eternity. But when the worshipful selves of Sunday show no correlation with our Monday through Friday selves, we are in trouble. We have somehow misplaced and mismanaged our priorities.

The chief end of man – of humanity – is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. What the catechism tells us is that glorifying God is the ultimate priority that we ought to work on getting and keeping straight. If the first priority in our lives is glorifying God – if the most highly prized treasure of our hearts is a right relationship with God – then our lives will reflect those realities. Not always perfectly, some days better than others, but always moving in the direction of righteousness.

However, if we consider our Sunday piety as some sort of package that we can leave at the church door to be picked up again the next Sunday, and further believe that what we do Monday through Saturday is totally divorced from what we do on Sunday morning, then we are totally out of touch with God’s expectations. Furthermore, if we think that talking the talk of discipleship is an adequate substitute for walking the walk, then all the Bible studies we’ve attended, Sunday school lessons we’ve sat through, and sermons we have listened to have been a waste of time.

And now to go in a direction that many Christians would rather not, especially modern American evangelicals. If we buy into the myth that Christian living is about nothing more than simply avoiding the sins of the flesh, then we need a refresher course in Biblical morality and ethics.

Referring again to the words of Mr. Butler, worship does not shield us from God’s claim upon our lives. Our offerings are not a replacement for personal action. Liturgical rituals do not rectify our ungodly behaviors. Tithing to the church is no substitute for Christ-like service to others. True piety is about more than paying lip service to God.

And referring again to the words of Mr. Kilpatrick, passivity and silence in the face of social evils, blatant injustice, and cruel greed make us complicit in those things. We can be in attendance every time the church door is open. We can teach Sunday school, lead the youth, serve as church officers, and faithfully tithe. Our sexual ethics can be as pure as the driven snow. We can totally abstain from alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, gambling, R-rated movies, pornography, cuss words, dirty jokes, and even lusting in our hearts.

But if in order to get along we are willing to go along with business, legal, or political practices that lead to the exploitation and oppression of innocent men, women, and children, then we are guilty of ignoring much of what Scripture teaches. If we are willing to silently tolerate such practices simply because the culture around us tolerates them, then we haven’t really listened to the law or prophets that Jesus came to fulfill.

Isaiah and the other prophets of pre-exilic Israel were very clear in speaking God’s Word against systems and practices that led to and upheld the blatant exploitation of some people by others, most specifically against the rich and powerful who were exploiting the poor and weak. They were very clear in proclaiming God’s judgment on those who would not repent of such practices. Jesus had some harsh things to say to those Scribes and Pharisees – those supposed paragons of piety, purity, and orthodoxy - who used loopholes in the law to steal the homes of helpless widows.

Hear the Word of the Lord as spoken by Isaiah to such sinners of his day: “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood." Or as The Message puts it, “… you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.”

Let us think about that as we seek to answer the following questions. Is there blood on our hands? How passive have we been in the face of economic, social, or political evils in our culture? How complicit have we been in such evils? Against what sins in our society have we failed to take a stand in the name of Jesus? Is there really liberty and justice for all in our nation? Can we declare with a straight face that ours truly is one nation under God? Can we? Amen.