What is Genuine Worship?

The first chapter of the book of Isaiah echoes a familiar tune, sung by the prophets of Israel and Judah throughout history. We hear the same theme from Amos and Micah. It echoes in the ministry of Jesus. The same tune is sung by modern-day prophets like Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. The message is this:

God considers your worship to be meaningless, unless it is followed up by acts of justice. Don’t bother praying to God unless you’re also willing to put those prayers into action.

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:

Trample my courts no more;

bringing offerings is futile;

incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—

I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.

Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me,

I am weary of bearing them.

Cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

            (Isaiah 1:2a, 12c-14, 16c-17 NRSV)

God hears plenty of praying from people who have a half-hearted faith. Those prayers are vanity, worthless, a chasing after the wind. When you come to weekly worship, but consider your duty to God complete once worship is over, God sees through your façade and knows that you could do so much more to help make the world a better place. And that so much more is what God really wants you to spend your time doing.

Worship is good. But worship cannot feed the hungry, care for the orphan, or liberate the oppressed. God wants – even expects – that faithful people will do whatever it takes to make sure that all people are cared for.

Cease to do evil and learn to do good. Seek justice. 

Really, go do it.

That’s the encouragement of Isaiah today. Don’t just pray for justice in the world, but seek it out, help to create it.

It is easy for us to hear these words, to become inspired, and to have the best of intentions, but then get stuck because we have no idea how to follow up.

Right?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Isaiah doesn’t tell us today that we have to stop all of the world’s injustice. Such a command would be impractical and overwhelming. Isaiah simply tells us that, as far as it lies within our ability to do so, we are to seek justice. Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. In other words, do everything that we can to help those who have less power in society than we do. That’s what justice means to Isaiah… and to Amos, to Micah, to Jesus, and to modern-day prophets.

           

Caring for the widow and the orphan is a kind of Old Testament shorthand for helping the underprivileged people in society. A widow in the ancient world could only make a living by begging or becoming a prostitute. Widows were a class of people who really needed extra support. Orphans didn’t have anyone to feed or house them when they were growing up, or to set them up with a spouse or an apprenticeship for a career. Orphans started life with all the cards stacked against them.

So caring for the widows and the orphans was the way that the prophets humanized the problems of society – everyone knew at least one widow or one orphan. So care for that person. And then work out from there to care for all oppressed people in the world!

We can do the same. Find someone who has less power in society that you do, and care for that person. If every person in the world did this, eventually we would be caring for all the oppressed people in the world!