See? People.

Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people— law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ and love having me on their side.

But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’ “Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, GOD, would like?

This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The GOD of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, "Here I am."

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, GOD’S holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing "business as usual," making money, running here and there— Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.

Yes! GOD says so! - Isaiah 58:1–14 MESSAGE

I decided to quote Isaiah 58 in it's entirety because I think it is an fascinating passage and worth reading. When you are done reading it, it is worth reading again and finally reflecting on it (and maybe reading it once more). It's fascinating because it's the voice of God actually spoken to and through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, and telling people who want to follow God what authentic worship looks like. According to God, worship or religion or faith that most pleases Him is not what people often think it is or what they most often do. It is not times of singing, gathering together on Sunday, living good lives or even seeking God, that is if you are not doing other very concrete things. If we do the things I just mentioned, but live lives that are not terribly different from everybody else who is looking out for #1, God says to blow a trumpet announcing we are wrong. God says through the prophet Isaiah that people who have really encountered God should be easy to spot -- not by how they worship and pray (as important as those things are), but by how they love -- especially by how they love those who society does not love.

People who have been marked by God should be concerned about injustice, poverty, the hungry and the homeless -- not just concerned but bothered to the point of action. Now look at what it says after the requirement to love; this is not some "do this because I say so," command. God actually promises that as we live this love in action, as we actually move into physically caring for the poor, we will discover that we will not run empty, but actually will become more full; firmer muscles and bones, healthier, more content, able to know God's will, able to hear His voice and able to have our voice heard by Him. "Yes! God says so! Read it again, these are amazing promises.

Amazing promises, and amazing requirements; amazing and hard. What does it look like to invite the homeless into our homes? Does God really want you to do that? What about safety? How do you actually share our food and put clothing on the shivering ill clad, where do you do it, is that even practical? Is writing check to others who do it ok? Are we supposed to do it ourselves? What does this all actually look like lived out here in 2010? These are hard, real questions. Questions that we need to ask and struggle with in community, and then to step out, to experiment together with the many ways we might begin live this way, discover together the very practical ways that we can refuse "business as usual," and move into being restorers of things that are broken, who make communities livable again. "Yes, God says so."

This past Sunday Dustin Cross with One4One shared a little of his story and the stories of his friends on the street, his friends without homes. He shared very practically how we could begin the process of moving away from business as usual, step by step. He suggested that when we see someone who is homeless, that we start with simply making eye contact and saying hi to them. The next time you see them, tell them your name and ask them theirs. Next time, ask if they would like a cup of coffee. Move toward asking them to join you next time, in a continuum from an unseen person to a person seen, a person known, a friend. It actually sounds kind of easy, when put that way, doesn't it? Is there somebody who comes to mind when you think through this continuum? What would stop you from doing it?

Peace, hope and love