Isaiah 58 (Selected Verses)
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From One Generation to Another: A Presbyterian Perspective on Christian Faith and Practice
The Promotion of Social Righteousness
Isaiah 58
Luke 4:16-21
Dr. Stephen H. Wilkins
Georgetown Presbyterian Church
June 17, 2012
You know, it is often the case that when we pastors say something that makes one or
more of you uncomfortable, we're told that we've gone from preaching to meddling. Like the
time when one preacher was getting wound up and passionate about some of the behaviors
that tend to perpetuate poverty among poor people.
“We've got too many young men and older ones, too, who take their paychecks and
drink them away at the bar!”
That got plenty of head-nods, an “Amen” or two, and a few “Preach its” from the
congregation.
Encouraged by the reaction, the preacher continued: “They squander everything they
have on whiskey and gambling.”
“You got it right,” came a cry from the back of the sanctuary. “Tell it like it is, preacher.”
“Mmm Hmmm,” said the preacher. “And you know how much they could spend on their
rent and their food if they stopped smoking all those cigarettes, not to mention the damage to
their health and the health of their families?”
“That's right, brother! Amen!”
The preacher kept on going. He was on a roll. “And can you imagine how much they're
wasting on snuff and chewing tobacco?”
At this an older man got up and walked out the sanctuary. As he left, you could see the
ring-shaped imprint of a snuff can in his back pocket. Just before he reached the door to the
sanctuary, he was heard to say, “That's it. Now he's gone from preachin' to meddlin'.”
I think that's one of the fears that holds most of us preachers back. We are susceptible
to the temptation to share only what you want to hear.
The problem is, faithfulness to the Word of God won't allow us to do that. The word of
God won't allow us to focus only on those things that bring us comfort. The truth is, the word
of God, when we truly listen to it, will trouble our consciences, it will make us squirm in our
seats, it will hold our feet to the fire. For, in the words of the author of the letter to the
Hebrews, “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and
attitudes of the heart.”1
It is indeed a cutting word that comes to us today from the prophet Isaiah, in the 58 th
chapter, beginning to read in the first verse. Hear now the word of God...
...The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
Reading between the lines in the first couple of verses of this morning's lesson, it
seems that there is no lack of enthusiasm for worship among God's people: “For day after day
they seek me out,” says the Lord, “they seem eager to know my ways.” 2 “During Isaiah's time
the temple in Jerusalem was standing-room only. No one missed a service. They sang psalms
1 Hebrews 4:12
2 Isaiah 58:2
Isaiah 58 (Selected Verses)
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—old ones, new ones, all kinds of psalms. They said prayers and gave offerings.”3
They were big on enthusiasm and participation in worship. But there was little or no
connection between the worship practiced by the people of God, and the economic and social
structures of the people of God. And that's where God's word cuts deep into the heart like a
two-edged sword, offering scathing judgment against the people for their failure to act with
righteousness and justice: “On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all
your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked
fists.”4
Instead of coming before God with pious practices of fasting and worship, God says he
wants something else. The kind of worship he wants is worship that will transform the hearts
of those who worship, so that they will work for the transformation of the world.
“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 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? Then your light will break
forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear...”5
It is impossible to separate our worship and our faith in God, from the condition of the
world in which we live. To put it in parlance of the two great commands cited by Jesus, it is
impossible to love God without also loving our neighbor.
And so the cry of the prophets to the people of Israel – and the word of God to the
church today – is frequent and consistent:
“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
“Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend
the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
“Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice and do right, for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.”
“What does the Lord require, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly
with your God?”6
Jesus, too, continues this emphasis in his ministry. Jesus spends a large portion of his
time easing the plight of the outcast and the oppressed. He publicly states that the purpose of
his ministry includes “preach[ing] good news to the poor, ...proclaim[ing] freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of
the Lord's favor.”7 Jesus condemns those who focus on the outward rites and rituals but
neglect the more important matters of justice and mercy: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have
neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.”8
A list of tasks compiled in the form of what we Presbyterians know as the Great Ends
of the Church was shaped by unknown authors and adopted by the Presbyterian Church in
1910. The Great Ends are these six tasks to which the church is called:
• The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
• The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
3 Brett Younger, in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1 (Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), p. 317.
4 Isaiah 58:3b-4a
5 Isaiah 58:6-8a
6 Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:16b-17, Isaiah 56:1, Micah 6:8
7 Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2
8 Matthew 23:23
Isaiah 58 (Selected Verses)
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•
•
•
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The maintenance of divine worship;
The preservation of the truth;
The promotion of social righteousness; and
The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.
The last two Great Ends, the promotion of social righteousness and the exhibition of
the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, very much echo the call of the prophets for the people of
God to demonstrate the kind of world and relationships that God intends for humanity. It was
the recognition of the responsibility of the church to promote social righteousness, not only
within the church, but even more in the structures and practices of society as a whole, that led
the Presbyterian church in the early 20th century to take unpopular stances on a variety of
social issues, including: advocating for women's suffrage, fighting for the basic rights of the
worker.
Inherent in the notion of the promotion of social righteousness is the conviction that the
“Christian believer can and should take political actions that advance the coming of the
kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven.”9
There is in the Presbyterian heritage and ethos a very strong sense of responsibility for
working toward the fulfillment of the Great Ends of the church to promote social righteousness
and exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. Over the decades, Presbyterians have taken
some very difficult and often uncomfortable positions on a variety of volatile issues. We have
made public pronouncements that make many cringe and wonder, “Why in the world are we
getting involved in that?” We have issued position statements to governments and courts
around the world. We have called for action on behalf of the oppressed.
Several years ago, the Presbyterian Church was active in a movement to boycott Taco
Bell, for its role as a major player in the supply chain for tomatoes picked by poor migrant
workers in Florida. You might wonder, “Why on earth does the Presbyterian Church need to
be meddling in the free-market actions of Taco Bell?”
Well, here's one answer: The workers who pick the tomatoes for Taco Bell work 10hour days in sweltering heat with only a 30-minute break for lunch, no other breaks, no health
benefits, and for a wage that often doesn't meet the minimum wage requirement. The workers
get paid 50 cents per bucket of tomatoes that they pick; that's a wage that has remained
stagnant for nearly 30 years. Each container weighs an average of 32 pounds. They have to
carry the container the length of the field to the truck that takes them, and then the workers
have to run back and pick another. In order to make minimum wage, a worker would have to
pick two and a half tons of tomatoes every day. There's not a parent in this room who would
want that kind of job for one of their children.
The goal of the pressure on Taco Bell and other companies that get their tomatoes off
the sweat of these migrant workers, is to improve the working conditions, including increasing
worker pay by a penny per pound of tomatoes they pick. In one grocery store last year, 32
pounds of tomatoes cost the consumer $79.63 at the checkout counter. Even if 100% of the
proposed wage increase to the workers was passed on to the consumer, that would raise the
cost of 32 pounds of tomatoes from $79.63 to $79.95. What is 32 cents out of $80?
I have to admit that there's a part of me that winces when the Presbyterian Church
takes a position like it did in regard to Taco Bell. But I also have to admit that the discomfort I
feel is largely a result of my buying into the myth that the church should stay out of the public
sector; we are, after all, a society that cherishes the separation of church and state.
9 Cynthia Rigby, “The Case for Social Righteousness”, article found on www.justiceunbound.org
Isaiah 58 (Selected Verses)
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But the word of the Lord declares that we cannot be silent. We cannot with integrity
worship the God of this world and Lord of the universe without also voicing a concern for the
conditions that exist in this world. The promotion of social righteousness is not something that
is to be relegated to our discussions in Sunday school; it is something with which we engage
the injustices and the corruptions and the oppressive structures and the inequities that exist;
the promotion of social righteousness requires that we provide a voice for the poor, the
hungry, the outcast.
I try to be non-partisan in politics. But fiscally, I probably tend to be more on the
conservative side. The conservative in me sometime cringes when the Presbyterian Church
calls out unfair labor practices, or promotes fiscally liberal policies that give the appearance of
providing handouts. But the truth is, the word of God won't allow us to be silent to the plight of
the poor. People may differ as to the right approach, but we don't have the luxury of not
acting, of not saying something.
We really can't help but be influenced by what we hear beyond the walls of the church.
And so it's understandable that we throw around words and phrases like free-market
economy versus socialism, Republican versus Democrat, liberal versus conservative. Let me
tell you, there are seriously committed Christians in every one of those categories, and
virtually any other category that you can think of in these divisive times. But the truth is, God
is neither free-market nor socialist, Republican nor Democrat, conservative nor liberal.
But God does have a special call to care for the poor, and the homeless, and the
prisoner, and the slave, and the oppressed, and the disenfranchised. And he won't let us
ignore them.
That's a task that the Presbyterian Church has taken very seriously.
At the end of this month and the beginning of next month, the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church will meet in Pittsburgh. The commissioners will debate dozens of issues
and overtures and amendments to our constitution, including actions that promote social
righteousness. Among proposals that will come before them, the commissioners will consider
a recommendation concerning Economic Justice in These Troubled Times (which was written
in response to the Occupy Wall Street movement); a Resolution on Workers' Rights and
Income Inequality; a Resolution on Racism, Incarceration, and Restoration; several actions on
immigration issues, to name just a few of the items on the agendas of the various committees.
It's likely that some of the statements and actions will create a visceral reaction in your
gut. But let me urge you this: Before you consult Fox News on the right or MSNBC on the left,
first and foremost consult the word of God. Every one of those actions that I mentioned gives
scriptural rationale for their proposal.
I want to finish this morning with some words from Mark Achtemeier, in an article he
wrote in the Presbyterians Today issue we have made available to you in the narthex. He
notes that we cannot assume that God's plan of salvation has “nothing to do with restoring the
world.” Instead, he notes, “a reconstituted social order is as much a part of God's plan for
salvation as redeemed souls and resurrection bodies. So we can be confident that our justice
work, no less than our preaching, proclaims the joyous hope of God's coming kingdom to a
needy and waiting world.”10
What does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with our God.
Amen.
10 Mark Achtemeier, “Biblical Justice,” Presbyterians Today 2011 Special Issue, p. 48.