Focus:
Justice as a form of worship
Function:
to give a passion for doing
justice
Form:
Bible Study
Intro:
In order to justify the enslavement of people as a Christian nation,
from the pulpits in European and American churches from the 16th
to the 21st century, although very few today, those voices
are still heard shouting out that white means right because if one is
righteous, then one is made whiter than snow. Sadly, I wish I was
making this up, but that is the history of slavery, racism and
America’s original sin.
And
yet, I only heard about this since I began studying God’s Word to
seek out the meaning of this healing, this salvation, that God gives
to humanity.
I
heard it in Haiti at a conference for clergy that I was helping to
lead and a young, black, Haitian pastor began to explain the history
of racism and oppression that was Haiti before the slave revolution.
I heard the history without the white colored lenses through which we
have heard the history of slavery. It was terrible how religion was
used to dehumanize an entire race of people and then enslave them. It
is downright embarrassing and a thing that I bear some responsibility
in just for the fact that I am from that race and that religion.
He
was telling us in this sort of chant, it was a slow cadence like I
was in a Stephen King movie, the chant was like their own version of
Halloween, or their own bogey man story about how the demons are
after them. Their peril came from the color of their skin. They are
black, made black by the curse of Canaan, and the only way they can
be safe here on earth and gain eternal life was by faithfully serving
the white man.
All
of it was based on this scripture “white as snow.” The idea was
logically made that if white was pure, black was opposite and
therefore evil.
It
was merely a way to enslave an entire people.
I
mention that I never heard that until I was in my 30’s and
conducting a seminar in Haiti.
Up
until then my memory of this verse: Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow with two things.
It
never says that black is evil. The “Whiter than snow” phrase is a
metaphor about purity and the entire Psalm is about forgiveness,
repentance and salvation.
There
was the hymn (sing) “whiter than snow, Lord, yes whiter than
snow, now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
I
love that hymn. It is a lullaby tune that called up a sort of
infantile scene of a newborn baby that is absolutely pure and without
blemish.
I
remember I used to change up the words just a little bit and instead
of singing (sing) “now wash me,” I would change it to
Christ in the vocative and make the chorus a prayer by singing (sing)
“Lord, please wash me and I shall be...”
The
Bible says to remember the joy of our salvation, to remember with joy
the fact that God has both healed and accepted us into God’s
family.
When
I sing that hymn, I remember that brand new experience of being
washed, cleansed, restored and accepted into God’s family.
The
song reminds us of God’s mercy towards us.
Most
often, when I heard those words about being washed and cleansed, it
reminded me of my shame, of my own youthful thought life, of those
areas that I hoped no one would ever know about me.
I
remember my Spiritual formation professor in Seminary leading us in a
guided meditation, he told us to imagine the place, or places, in our
lives that of which we are the most ashamed. He asked us to ponder if
there was or is a place that we want no one to know about, that maybe
we are terrified to admit is within us.
And
then he told us to imagine Jesus Christ Himself at this place...
...with His arms open... ...loving us in the midst of our brokenness
and understanding the power of human weakness.
He
didn’t leave us there, obviously, because if the
same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, that same
spirit will move us, set us free, heal us and save us, spirit, soul,
mind and body.
I
heard some pretty scary sermons in my day about my own ability to sin
and how important it was for me to be careful and if I really
admitted it, I was just might be that bad.
But
none of that changed the truth that even if my sins were red as
scarlet, an image of the evil of actually shedding innocent blood,
and that is consistent with the context of the text, even if my sins
are damning my soul, through repentance, healing and salvation will
come.
The
sermons were given in good intention, but I often wondered why there
was so much left out of the text.
We
read those first few verses and the very first words the jump out to
the casual reader of the Bible is the mention of Sodom and Gomorrah.
What
is the first thing we think of when we hear Sodom and Gomorrah? The
first thing we think of is that they are the symbol of sexual
impurity.
I
have heard a lot of sermon about Sodom and Gomorrah, God’s
judgment. I have heard a lot of sermons about my sins being, -well
the color “red” as crimson got changed often to black, but those
sins mainly pertained to my ability to control my sexual purity.
And
you know the story, Lot was living in the city of Sodom, angels came
to visit his house, the people were so evil that they wanted rape the
angels, God stuck them blind, the angels drug Lot, his wife, and his
two daughters out of town right before God destroyed them with a
volcano.
And
because of that, homosexual men have been condemned as the cause of
God’s judgment on a city.
A
dire warning comes from this passage indeed and I submit that it is a
dire warning for 21st Century America as well.
From
verses 11-15a, the prophet describes God’s attitude about their
insincere worship because their hands have innocent blood on them.
Listen
to those words (Read)
11What
to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt
offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood
of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
or of lambs, or of goats.
Trample my courts no more;
New moon and sabbath and
calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
I am weary of bearing them.
God
is displeased with their worship services and although they are
trying, God is not in the mood to listen because of their sins.
This
is indeed great preaching material.
And
then at the end of verse 15, we read why God is displeased:
I
will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
Sodom
and Gomorrah are mentioned, but not in context of the sexual violence
that occurred right before their destruction, but in the context of
the other time they are mentioned by a different prophet.
Look
at Ezekiel 16:49:49This was the guilt of your
sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and
prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
And
here is how we know this.
The
passage is about God’s displeasure with God’s people because of
the injustices going on in their land.
Isaiah
is reminding the people that Sodom and Gomorrah were not condemned
because of the sexual predation, they were condemned because of the
way they permitted injustices to happen.
This
was something that the even the common folks in Israel knew hundreds
of years later.
And
yet today, the wrong idea is perpetrated about the reason for this
judgment. I wonder if it is because we ourselves are to close to the
Sodomites, and not because of the Supreme Court’s decision, but
because we too have “excess of food, prosperous ease and lack of
concern for the refugee, the illegal, the minority, the oppressed,
the poor, the needy and everyone else who is marginalized.”
This
is what God cares about and every student of scripture knows this.
And
so, God gives them the formula for repentance in next verses:
I
love the way it starts in verse 16. It goes back to that heartfelt
prayer of forgiveness, healing and salvation from that lullaby: “Now
wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Here
the words:16Wash
yourselves; make yourselves clean;
But
O how I long to have heard the rest of verse 16 and 17 as what it
means for us to repent.
I
heard how my imperfect thought life was going to take me straight to
hell and there wasn’t really much I could do about it except pray
harder, read more of my bible, spend more time at youth group, pray
some more, read some more and if that didn’t work, then it had to
be my fault, I just wasn’t being honest with God.
But
the passage says it differently. Hear these words, they are a lot
easier than beating oneself up for not being perfect. Here the word
of the Lord: 16bremove
the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
Remove
evil.
Focus
on the word evil. Evil is not a white lie told to cover someone
else’s feelings. Evil is wickedness. If we want revival, then we
need to be concerned about the big things, the big evil things that
destroy others, planets, ecologies, economies, homes, families,
cities, nations and humanity.
When
we see evil, we remove it. Do we want revival, then we do our part to
remove the evil that we see happening in our lives.
And
just like the prophet is getting warmed up, he moves on to verse 17:
17learn
to do good;
seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Learn,
seek, rescue, defend, plead and don’t quit, don’t shut up, don’t
stop and don’t lose hope.
We
are the kingdom of God here on earth and this is what God’s people
do.
Seek
good and do it, that is what it means to love God.
I
love this form of repentance, I love this form of revival. We want
revival to come, then see to the doing of justice. Make justice a
mission in your life, and you will indeed be repentant.
Listen,
by doing this, we combat the evil that is prevalent in our world.
(pray)
Lord, give us a revival of justice.
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