God Wants
Justice and Mercy, Not Religion,
and We're
Falling Short
by Pastor
Paul J. Bern (Isaiah 58)
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For
this week's message I have been inspired to write about the true
meaning of the twin brothers of the Spirit of the Lord known as
justice and mercy. I saw an item of general human interest on the
evening news on one of the local channels here in Atlanta about a
man, one Sonny
Bharadia,
who has been locked up for 17 years for a crime he did not commit. It
has only recently come to light that the DNA evidence in his case
points to another man who is already serving a life sentence for
murder in a separate case. And yet the state prison system here in
Georgia is refusing to hear the evidence and release the man (to view
the whole story, click
here). This is injustice at its absolute worst! So I took this to
the Lord in prayer, as I often do, and inquired as to what part of
the Scriptures I should use to deliver a message condemning the State
of Georgia's refusal to hear the evidence that would exonerate this
man. The result of my communication with the Lord will be a message
on Isaiah chapter 58, and I will begin at verse 5.
“Is
this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble
himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying
on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day
acceptable to the Lord? Is this not the kind of fasting I have
chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the
yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke? Is it not to
share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with
shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn
away from your own flesh and blood?”
(Isaiah 58, verses 5-7)
Fasting,
from a Biblical standpoint, is the voluntary abstention from all food
and drink except for plain water. This usually means abstinence from
sexual relations as well, and for a certain period of time, usually
for anywhere from 24 hours up to an entire week or more. So, when God
defined fasting through his prophet Isaiah, he meant different kinds
of fasting besides simply doing without food. What can we compare
this to today? In the first place, what we call 'dieting' today is
what used to be called 'fasting'. When we're dieting we're still
eating, but a lot less of it. But when we're fasting, we're doing
without everything all at once. By doing this, we rely on the Lord
for our sustenance and him alone. That's why fasting brings us closer
to God. Although my fasts are of the 24 hour variety because I have
medical issues, I find even little fasts like those can bring me into
closer union and harmony with God.
False
humility will not cut it before the Lord either. Go ahead and give
your unwanted clothing and chattel furnishings to the charity of your
choice, tithe your 10% to the church of your choice, and when you
attend your charity gala's, be sure to be there to see and be seen.
Those are the people who gladly humble themselves when everyone is
looking at them, but when they are out of sight they turn into
ravenous beasts of prey. But we know who they are, don't we? But then
the Lord corrects us in verse 6: “Is
this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of
injustice and …. to set the oppressed free and to break every
yoke?”
To me at least, 'loosing the chains of injustice' would include the
injustice that has been committed against men and women like Sonny
Bharadia. Although the Bill of Rights contained in our still-beloved
Constitution says we are all innocent until proven guilty, oftentimes
in today's American criminal in-justice system the defendants in
these cases are considered guilty right from the start, which is
clearly unconstitutional. This is apparently what happened to Mr.
Baradia.
To
“set the oppressed free” in today's world means, to me as an
American, normalizing relations between Native Americans, other
minorities and people of color with the remaining majority white
Anglo/Caucasian population. To 'set the oppressed free', then, should
be defined as normalizing race relations in America. As we have seen
from the police shootings of unarmed Blacks, not to mention Rosanne
Barr's racist tweets and Neo-Nazi's openly running for political
office in states like Illinois and Virginia, my country has a long
way to go towards 'setting the oppressed free'. What about this,
people? Please, we have to do something about America's race problem
immediately! Otherwise, our 'Christian faith' becomes little more
than a Sunday morning social club.
What
about “breaking every yoke”? This would presumably mean yokes of
bondage. Nearly 2 ½ millennia ago when these words were written,
'bondage' meant being sold into slavery, or living one's life as a
slave. Although human slavery still flourishes here in the 21st
century, the number one form of bondage in modern times is debt, the
second is very low wages and the third is taxes. Never mind the
latter two – I have already written expensively on the need for a
$15.00 per hour minimum wage, and I outlined a simple way to overhaul
the tax system in chapter 9 of my 2011 book, “The Middle and
Working Class Manifesto”, which is still available in its third
edition on Amazon from
here. Debt is a topic for yet another day.
“Is
it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor
wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and
not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
What happens today when somebody sees a homeless person rummaging
through their trash, or when a vagrant camps out on the porch of a
vacant house on their street? Does anybody share food or offer any
warm, dry shelter? No, they call 911 and watch triumphantly through
their windows while the cops haul the homeless guy off to jail for
trespassing. Provided, of course, the homeless guy survives being
arrested. There are even people being put out of whole families –
banished, actually – for reasons real and imaginary. The reason
this condition exists to the extent that it does in American society
today is because forgiveness is no longer being taught in the home.
How can we expect our children to learn forgiveness and loving
kindness when many of us are lacking in these qualities ourselves?
One thing is for sure – this is a time of reckoning by a lot of
people. It is a time of reckoning and taking stock of ourselves and
the world in which we live. And when we have done these things, only
then can the repair work begin. Now let's finish up this week's
message starting at verse 9.
“Then
you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and
he will say: 'Here am I'. If you do away with the yoke of oppression;
with the pointing finger and the malicious talk, and if you spend
yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the
oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night
will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will
satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters
never fail.”
(Isaiah 58, verses 9-11)
Those
who practice true justice and mercy, those who show compassion and
empathy, those who put others before themselves, they are the ones
who, when they cry out to God for help, their prayers get answered.
So, if you're crying out to God for help and it seems he's not
listening, try doing something really nice for some people. Bake them
a cake, mow their grass, babysit their child, you get the idea.
Whatever you do will come back to you. But as the prophet went on to
say, “If
you do away with the yoke of oppression; with the pointing finger and
the malicious talk....”
It's time for America to pack up her outdated and mean-spirited
racial prejudices and carry them to the curb. It's also time to clamp
down hard on human trafficking – too many women and children have
become sex slaves for the rich and powerful, and not enough people
are talking about this. Well, I am one who is, and I want to know why
there aren't more joining with me in exposing this distasteful
business! In the meantime, these same people maliciously point their
fingers at others and judge them for perceived wrongs real or
imagined. As you judge, so you will be judged. Never forget that.
“....
if
you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of
the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your
night will become like the noonday.”
Notice that Isaiah wrote “spend yourselves”, not 'spend your
money'. How is this accomplished? By devoting our bodies to a little
work, maybe get a little sweaty, or giving our precious time to a
cause greater than ourselves, such as helping the survivors of a
natural disaster. You can even make a career out of this kind of
work, people do it every day. “The
Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs....”
But, mind you all, only if you walk in His ways instead of your own.
I know, I know, this seems counter-intuitive on the surface of
things. God gave us a brain, it's our own responsibility to use the
darn thing. So making our own decisions based on our own best
judgments is the responsible thing to do, and that's right. Except,
our minds can sometimes play tricks on us, causing us to see or hear
things differently than they actually are, creating what we perceive
as audio or visual distortions. Our emotions often give us even
bigger problems than that. So consequently we take the wrong actions.
Whether this is purposeful or not is besides the point when it still
turns out to be wrong.
“....
he
will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your
frame. You will be like a well-watered garden....”
There are hidden benefits – more like bonuses, actually – to
consulting with God prior to putting our plans into action. Are our
plans congruent with God's? Better yet, does that work both ways as
well? Because if it does, God doesn't just reward us. He reinforces
us in ways that we cannot do ourselves. God can and will give us an
overhaul – sometimes whether we ask for it or not! Trust me, I've
been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. But God doesn't allow
us to go through these things to be hard on us, or to be mean to us.
He does it to build us up and to strengthen our character. So cheer
up! Life isn't so hard. You're just like a well-watered garden when
you consult God first. Who else would know any better except for your
Maker?
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