Isaiah 58:1-12

Imagine how you would feel if you came into worship on Sunday morning, and I stood up and said, “We hope you are not planning to go through the motions in worship, singing the songs but never engaging your hearts, hearing the Scripture but not listening for God, or giving an offering but not giving yourselves, because if so, you are not doing God any favors.  You do not get points for attendance.  If you really worship God today, then you will share with the poor, listen to the lonely, and stop avoiding those in need.”  (Brett Younger, Professor, McAfee School of Theology, Atlanta)

That was the kind of shocking statement that Isaiah was making when he addressed the people of 8th century BC Israel.  He was calling them out for their insincere worship that did not lead to the people practicing their faith on other days besides the Sabbath.  They were not living the kind of lives that influenced their community for the better.

During the time of Isaiah, the Temple in Jerusalem was always crowded.  People came and sang songs; they said prayers; they gave offerings.  In fact, as Andrew Foster Connors points out, “Isaiah does not realize how good he has it.  His people can hardly wait to get themselves out of bed and into worship.  They ‘seek God’ and ‘delight’ to know God’s ways … There is nothing they would rather do than fast.  Worship is not so attractive to [God’s] followers in my city, not even to a lot of members of my church.  Church is not the first place that most people go when searching for delight.  Coffee shops and bookstores are open on Sunday mornings, the games start at noon, and while worship at our church is optional, kids’ sports teams have mandatory practices.”

While worship attendance has declined across the board in most mainline churches, the faithful still go to church.  Brett Younger writes, “Every Sunday morning we go to our worship services and say our prayers.  In some churches, those prayers are written out.  In some, they are not even thought out.  We all sing.  In some churches it is three hymns and the Gloria Patri.  In others, it is a dozen choruses.  In some, people genuflect.  In others, they dance.  In other churches, worshipers hardly move.  Some churches try to make everything seem very today.  Others make everything seem fifty years ago.  Our churches are filled with good people.  On Sunday morning …, when so many are in church, our cities seem like good places.”

But worshipers today sometimes have the same problem worshipers had in Isaiah’s day.  Their worship is insincere.  If they really meant their prayers, then surely they would change their behavior.  They were mistreating their employees.  Some people were going hungry or were homeless.  And others had no proper clothes.  The very good worship of the people was not leading to any practical actions.  As Brett Younger states, “What they did not do was let worship trouble their consciences … They did not want to make the connections between their worship and their neighbors.  They ignored the poor and everyone else they wanted to ignore.” 

When the people felt God’s displeasure, they tried to improve their worship.  They were so focused on their internal status as a community that they could not see the external work they should be doing beyond the boundaries of their faith community.  Or as Andrew Connors writes, their obsession with right worship distracted the people from fulfilling the ethical obligations of justice.

Many 21st century churches seem to feel that the reason for their decline must be that people don’t like the worship services.  And so many churches have changed their worship service to be more “contemporary,” “emergent,” “charismatic,” or focused on praise.  They have embraced PowerPoint and praise bands and all sorts of other frills and bells and whistles to lure new people in.  But the problem is, the style of worship, the way we worship, is not as important as what we do after we worship.  It isn’t about us changing worship; it’s about worship changing us.  Andrew Connors says, “Worship is the most important thing we do together.  It is the place that forms us into the people of God.  It is the place where we inhale God’s love and grace, so that we can be sent forth to exhale God’s love and grace in a broken world in need of redemption.”

The real critique that Isaiah offered was that the more focused the people became on worship, the less they were involved in matters of justice in the community.  They were more concerned with how they looked to God by doing all the right things in worship in all the correct ways than they were about how they were treating the people they walked past on their way to the Temple.

Andrew Connors shares a story about an experiment that showed how one church was totally missing the point of worship and how it should lead to a concern for those outside the church:

One year during Holy Week, a few Christians from well-endowed congregations in a major metropolitan area spent a night with homeless friends on the street.  They were looking for the suffering Christ in the lives of those who spend their days and nights suffering from hunger, disease, and rejection.  It was a chilly night, and rain rolled in close to midnight.  Looking for shelter, the handful of travelers felt fortunate to come upon a church holding an all-night prayer vigil.  The leader of the group was a pastor of one of the most respected churches in the city.  As she stepped through the other doors of the church, a security guard stopped her.  She explained that she and the rest of their group were Christians.  They had no place to stay and were wet and miserable, and would like to rest and pray.  Enticed by the lighted warmth of the sanctuary, she had forgotten that her wet, matted hair and disheveled clothing left her looking like just another homeless person from the street.  The security guard was friendly, but explained in brutal honesty, “I was hired to keep homeless people like you out.” 

Connors then writes, “Isaiah would not have been surprised.  Just like the city church, his people had every intention of excelling in their worship of God … Even so, their worship was a fraud.  [True worship] leads not simply to a reordering of the liturgy, but a reordering of the life of the community.  Those who have, share with those who need, those who are free, loosen the bonds of those who are yoked with injustice, and those with shelter, extend it to the homeless.”

We need to look around us and see whether or not our worship is bearing fruit in our community.  Younger states, “Our hometowns … are not always good for everyone.  Most cities try to hide the homeless.  Prejudice makes every day more difficult for minorities.  The working poor have it hard.  The lack of public transportation makes keeping a job complicated.  The mentally ill fall through the cracks.  The distance between the haves and the have-nots keeps growing.  We know which parts of town to avoid.  For all the progress that has been made, it is still hard for women to compete for some jobs.  It is difficult to be old in a society that idealizes youth.  It is not easy to be single in a culture that is designed for couples.  It is hard to be gay when many are quick to ostracize.”  When we look around, sometimes it is hard to see any connections between what happens on Sunday morning and the many people in our communities who are hurting all week long.

Of course, I think that our churches are doing things to take our faith out into our community.  We are feeding the hungry through the food pantry.  We are connecting people with the proper resources when they have issues around housing.  We are working with our town leaders to determine what needs are there which our church may be able to meet.  And while it is important to design worship services that give us the opportunity to praise, to pray, to connect with God and with each other, that is not enough if the worship does not compel us to reach out to others with the love and compassion and grace of God.

When worship changes us, we cannot live in such a way that we exploit others, or engage in quarreling, or get involved in fist fights.  We will not be blind to the suffering of others, but we will work to end injustice, to care for the homeless, and to care for the vulnerable.  And then when we call on God, God will answer.  God will guide us.  God will satisfy our needs.  And God will strengthen us for even more service.