Isaiah 58:9b -14

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong,and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations you shall be called the repairer of the breach,the restorer of streets to live in. If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 13:10-17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

Building the New Jerusalem

This morning, in our ongoing survey of the Old Testament, we return to the book of Isaiah. Recall that a few weeks ago, we had a reading from Isaiah Chapter One, and we talked about some of the background of the Isaiah text, and of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in Qumran. The book of Isaiah is a complex and multi-layered, highly poetic text focused on the destiny of Jerusalem.

Three Isaiahs

This morning we turn to a later section of the book. Isaiah is considered by many to be the most important book of the Old Testament. But Isaiah is not a unified work. That is, the book of Isaiah is not the writing of a single person named “Isaiah.” Rather, recent scholarship has theorized that the book of Isaiah is actually several books by several different authors. The book of Isaiah is in three parts, that is, three sections, or three Isaiahs: First Isaiah, Second Isaiah, and Third Isaiah.

First Isaiah includes the oracles in chapters 1-39, written as a response to the Assyrian threat in the 8^th century BC. Second Isaiah includes the oracles in chapters 34, 35, 40-55 and this section dates to a later period, 45 years after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 597 BC. In these chapters the author of Second Isaiah writes to the exiled Jewish community living in Babylon. And then, the remainder of the text, chapters 24-27 and 56-66 is considered Third Isaiah. The author of Third Isaiah wrote in Jerusalem around 537 BC when the exiles began returning from Babylon to Jerusalem.

So we could think of the book of Isaiah as being in three sections, each section having a particular focus. (Of course, this is broadly speaking and an oversimplification.) Our reading this morning is from the so-called Third Isaiah, the Isaiah written to the returning exiles. The Babylonian exile lasted 58 years, ending when King Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC. This King, King Cyrus, Cyrus the Great of Persia, allowed the exiled community, the community of Jews living in exile in Babylon, to return to Jerusalem, that is, to return to Zion.

New society, new problems

So the people returned to Jerusalem, and this return generated a whole new set of problems. They had to build a new society, and they had to learn how to live together again in Jerusalem, along with the other people already living in Jerusalem. And there were many disagreements about how they wanted to live together, what kind of society they wanted to have, how they wanted to work and worship together. There were expectations, and there were disappointments. The reality of their new Jerusalem did not meet their idealized expectations. They envisioned one thing, but they got something else, not quite up to their expectations.

Righteous and Unrighteous Worship

In our reading from Chapter 58 this morning, we find a debate that concerns righteous and unrighteous worship, specifically it’s a debate about fasting. What is proper fasting, and what is improper fasting. What is righteous fasting as a form of righteous worship, and what is unrighteous fasting as a form of unrighteous worship. And basically the prophet is saying, “You people, returning to Jersualem, trying to rebuild your society, you are missing the point of fasting. God does not care about your performance of fasting, about your show of holy behavior, wearing sackcloth and ashes like costumes. That’s just a fake performance for show. God cares how you treat each other. This is the real fasting. This is the true fasting, righteous fasting.

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the things of the yoke, to let th oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house: when you see the naked, to cover tem, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light sahlll break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly.” (vs.6-8a)

Here, the prophet is saying that true fasting means to remove the yoke. Remove the heavy burden and offer food to the hungry. Satisfy the needs of the afflicted. Stop pointing your finger. Stop speaking evil, gossiping about others, talking badly about others behind their backs. Stop all of that. You want to know what is the true fasting, the righteous fasting? This is the true fasting. This is the only fasting that God cares about.  Remove the yoke, Remove the heavy burden and offer food to the hungry. And this is how you will rebuild your society to be like a spring of water in parched places, a spring of water that never runs dry. This is how your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. This is how you will restore your community and heal your society. If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

The stop sign.

Now, I want to tell you about the stop sign. Shari and I live in a modest residential neighborhood in a small house at the corner of Cross Street and Central Street in Camden. And at this corner there is a four way stop at the intersection. These are small, residential streets. They are not highways. They are not boulevards or Main streets.

Every day, I observe people, driving cars past our house, running the stop signs on Cross Street. Not everyone. But about 50 percent of the cars run that stop sign. Some of them slow down but don’t stop. And some of them don’t even come close to slowing down. They don’t even waft their foot over the brake pedal. Not even a hint of slowing down. They blow through that stop sign. And honestly, I do not understand it. What is so important? Why are these people in such a hurry? Maybe, by running that stop sign, they save 5 seconds. I can only imagine how wound up, how stressed out a person must be to run a stop sign in order to save 5 seconds.

We have so many time saving devices. So many things that are supposed to make our lives easier. So many things that are designed to save time, so that we can do things more efficiently, more quickly, so that we can have more time to do other enjoyable things. But really? Is that what is happening? I don’t see it. I see people who are in more of hurry now than ever and enjoying life less than ever. Blatantly, openly, shamelessly running stop signs. What is that all about?

As a society, we have really gotten off track. Apart from how dangerous it is to run a stop sign, apart from the fact that there are children who play outside in our neighborhood. What does it say about people who would run a stop sign because they know that they will get away with it? They won’t get caught. And yet, what about manners? What about respecting the people who live on that street? We are really a society with a lot of problems. Social bonds are breaking down. Respect and decency are disappearing. Running stop signs is only a small symptom of a larger illness. We are struggling with the same issues the ancients faced when they returned from Babylon. What kind of society do we want to have?

This text from Isaiah, I did not make this up. I did not pick and choose either. I didn’t cherry pick it. I mean, it just came up in the calendar of readings for today. It’s standard scripture reading. These things are in the Bible. As I mentioned last week, it’s all in the Bible. How to live as a society. How to build a decent society, a good society. This stuff is not new. What kind of society do you want? We create our society with our actions.

Giving to others

You know, I am so proud of our church. I am proud of you all because I know that you have found the heart of compassion. You have found what matters. You have found the Jesus heart, the heart that wants to give more than get. The heart that has found the joy of helping others. And let me tell you, there are a lot of people who need help. I see it every day. People who live on the edge of bankruptcy and homelessness. People who can’t pay their rent, who can’t pay the electric bill, who can’t pay for heating oil, who worry about what they are going to eat, who live hand to mouth.

And fortunately, I am in a position, because of my work here, because I have joined together with you all, working here at this church, that I can do something to help others. Just a small part. Just a small bit, I can do. You see, we can’t do much alone, but working together, we can do something. We can do one small thing to create the society we want to live in. More than just complain about it, we can do something.

And thankfully, I can help others through the pastor’s discretionary fund, which comes from your donations. And that’s not all. Here at our church, the deacons help others, the missions committee helps others, the angels in action group helps others, the food bank helps others, the women’s fellowship helps others, the trustees help others, our choir helps others, the Bible study helps others. Did I miss anyone? Honestly, folks, we are in the business of helping others around here. And what a blessing it is. We are doing something to create the society we want to live in.

Luke 13:10-17

Now let’s take a look at our Gospel reading, from the section of Luke called the “travel narrative” in chapters 9 to 19. Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem, and along the way he is training his disciples, teaching them about God’s work in the world. In this story, we see a woman who cannot stand up straight. Crippled for 18 years. Jesus says to her, “you are set free from your ailment,” and she stands up straight.

You are set free. Through love, through forgiveness, through mercy, we are set free. We can stand up straight. We do not need to be ashamed of ourselves. No matter what other people might say about us. We are free from guilt and free from sin. Following Jesus, we have a new life. This is what happens in spiritual growth. First, we are healed. And then, we go on to do God’s work in the world.

So dear people, the invitation today is two-fold. Perhaps you are here in church this morning because you are looking for healing. God can work a miracle in your life and heal your soul. I believe this. God’s love and forgiveness will set you free so you can stand up straight again, you can get your life together again, so you can look in the mirror again, so you can sleep at night again.

And then secondly, once you get your life on track and you are healed, then the invitation is to help others. And you can do that right here in our church if you are looking for a place to help others. If you want to get involved in helping others, there are so many ways to do that here. Come and talk to me about it. This is a church that helps others.

Amen? Amen.