WHEN GOD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY
Scripture: Isaiah 1:1-20

FOCUS: When our daily lives fail to match our worship proclamations God may well look the other way when we call.

 I have a confession to make. I watch America’s Got Talent. I know it is kind of cheesy, and I know there are better ways that I could spend my time, but it is a good diversion and there are a few really good acts in addition to the numerous nut jobs, who are after all humorous if nothing else. One of the judges is Howie Mandel of Deal or No Deal fame, or infamy depending on how you look at it. Howie is known to be a germaphobe and takes pride in making a huge deal of having a generally squeamish nature, though I wonder if much if not all of  that is not simply a gimmick dreamed up by his agent.

 Whatever the case may be, this past week America’s Got Talent had a guy on the show whose act was a show which combined strength and danger. It was quite a show. The fellow began by displaying a massive spinning steel saw blade against which he placed a sword, producing a shower of sparks to prove that it was indeed solid. The blade was flanked by two tables each bearing three blocks stacked end to end. The contestant informed the audience that he was about to perform the most dangerous exhibition he had ever done. He proceeded to complete a hand stand on the blocks with his head positioned directly above the spinning saw blade. As the audience “ohed” and “ahed” all of a sudden he tossed aside the blocks and fell on his hands to the table tops, his head coming within inches of the saw blade.

As the crowd applauded Nick Cannon, the show’s host asked Mandel for his critique of the performance. Howie apologized, saying that he knew it was his job as a judge to witness and then to critique each performance, but that he just couldn’t look, so all he could do was acknowledge that the audience sure seemed to enjoy the performance. He knew what could go wrong and didn’t want to witness it should the worst happen. It was a really unique talent, but not good enough it turns out to move on to the next level. America voted and he didn’t make the top 16.

So what in the world does any of this have to do with the prophet Isaiah and the people of God? Well as I read the scripture this week it revealed that that there are times when God looks the other way, hides God’s eyes. Now when we hear that truth we are likely to conjure up those times when our behavior has been at it’s worst, when we have been in places we knew we should have avoided, when we have said thing we know we should not have said, when we have acted in ways we know are not in the least Christ like, when we have participated in spiritually dangerous activities. Perhaps such is wishful thinking. I suspect we would all like to think God isn’t looking when we are at our worst, that somehow we can escape having our bad behaviors notice by God. Such is not the case.  

Or perhaps we remember those times in our lives when we endured a spiritual dry season, those times when we truly sought God’s comfort, God’s guidance, God’s presence and it just didn’t seem to come. I suspect we have all had them. It is my experience that those who would claim never to have seasons of doubt or times of spiritual drought are either delusional or lying.

There have certainly been times in my life when it seemed God had abandoned me, had refused to listen when I prayed for guidance. There have been times when things just didn’t turn out like I wanted them to, like I told God they should. Yet in retrospect, sometimes months, even years later, I have come to understand that God was with me even in the dark valleys, even when I felt like God was not listening, was not present. I have realized on numerous occasions that things which happened to me, things which, for all the world, appeared to be crushing defeats were actually exactly what God intended and what I most needed. God’s ways are often not our ways, but in the end God’s way s are always what we need, what is best for us. Often when it seems God is not listening, when it seems God has looked the other way, the truth is that God is listening closely, that God is by our side and is giving us what we need, whether we want it or not.

However, that is not the message we find in this morning’s scripture. Here we find the truth that there are times when God turns away, times when God refuses to listen, even as we pray loudly and for a long time. But the setting is not what we would expect. It is not as they gather at the local pub, or at the casino, or in the back room at the office where the books are cooked that God refuses to consider God’s people. It isn’t as they cower in the darkened corner of the worst neighborhood in town, where drugs are dealt and sexual favors sold that we find God has turned away time. It is in church, on the Sabbath, the ancient equivalent of Sunday morning that we find folks abandoned by God.

So what is the problem? Why does God turn away from a people dressed in their best clothes, all cleaned up and spiffy, gathered in a church? Why in the world would God turn away from those who sing loudly the old favorite hymns or new praise choruses? Why would God refuse to listen to the good church folk when there are so many real sinners out in the world God could be ignoring? The truth of the matter is that God often turns from the good church folk on Sunday because God know that, come Monday, they just plain ain’t so good anymore! The problem is that God recognizes that in many cases there is a disconnect between what is affirmed on Sunday and what is practiced the rest of the week, between what happens here, inside the sanctuary and what happens out there, at home, in the work place and at school.

At issue are credibility and of honesty, two traits dearly lacking in our twenty-first century world. When our daily lives fail to reflect our worship experiences, when our actions refute our prayers, God cannot bear to listen, God cannot bring God’s self to look. And God turns away. Try as we might, we can never fool God. We may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but it never works with God, for God knows our hearts and demands credibility and honesty. The good news is that when we offer God those gifts God will always listen and God will be in our midst. We need not be perfect, thank goodness, only honest and credible. 

God spoke to Isaiah in this first chapter of the first book of prophecy and the words God led him to speak were words of condemnation, not for the heathen masses from faraway lands, not for the poor, not for the prisoners, rather God instructed Isaiah to speak words of condemnation to the church folks and the religious leaders. Isaiah condemned the leaders as no better than the rulers of Sodom and the masses as resembling the people of Gomorrah.

We tend to equate Sodom and Gomorrah with all sorts of wretched behavior, sexual excess, pagan worship, drunkenness, gluttony. In reality the sins for which the two cities were destroyed were none of these. The sins which led to God’s condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah were a lack of compassion and an unwillingness to care for the needy. Through the prophet Isaiah God was saying to the people, “Because your lives don’t match your proclamations and your actions defy your prayers, because you live lives of selfish excess while neglecting those in need, I refuse to listen to your prayers no matter how frequently you call out to me. I can’t stand to look at you no matter how many hymns you sing, no matter how much you put in the offering plate.”    

There is an old spiritual which is the product of slaves working in the fields on Sunday mornings as their masters and their families attended lively services of worship in the nearby white only churches. The masters and their families could be heard singing with great gusto. There would inevitably be eloquent prayers and fiery sermons overheard from within the whitewashed sanctuaries. As they worked in the field one of the slaves would begin to sing “Everybody talking about that heaven ain’t necessarily going there. Everybody talking about that heaven ain’t going. Everybody talking about that heaven ain’t necessarily going there. Oh my Lord.” Soon others would join in with the verses. “Well I read about the streets of gold, and I read about the throne, not everybody callin' "Lord, Lord" is gonna see that heavenly home. If you wanna go to heaven you gotta do more than talk about it.”

Those slaves saw in the worship, in the prayers, in the lives of those masters and their families, in the lives of many of those preaching on those Sunday mornings what Isaiah had seen, what God had seen in the lives of God’s people many years ago. They saw what, sadly, God still sees in churches all around the globe today, worship and prayer which is insincere, incredible and dishonest. When there is a dramatic disjunction between the way we talk and the way we walk, something has gone seriously wrong.                    

Howie Mandel couldn’t look this week because he didn’t want to be watching should the fellow’s stunt go wrong. In our scripture God couldn’t look because God was already witness to the tragedy which was the life of God’s chosen people, already witness to the shallowness of their worship and prayer. I can’t help but wonder what God is thinking this morning. Is God looking down, pleased with what God sees and hears? Pleased because the way we live all week matches, at least part of the time what we affirm in this holy hour. Or is God looking the other way, disgusted by our inattention to the things that really matter as we go about our daily routines Monday through Saturday.

Note that I didn’t offer the possibility that God was looking down on us, pleased that we always reflect what we affirm. None of us do that. None of us are capable of doing that. That is why it is important that we not only affirm the challenge of the first part of our morning’s scripture but also claim the wonderful promise we find in the closing verses. “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out. If your sins are blood red, they’ll be snow white. If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like white wool If you’ll willingly obey, you’ll feast like kings.”  To be sure there are consequences if we refuse to follow, if we rebel. But if we turn, if we repent, if we come to say “no” to wrong more often than not, if we learn to do good and work for justice, if we become advocates for those who have none, by God’s grace those sins which are ours will be cleansed and we will be blessed by God.

How ironic, it was as they gathered for worship, as they prayed piously, that God looked away from the people of Judah, disgusted by the meaningless show of it all, frustrated by the charade. I am convinced that this very morning, in many places, some with tall steeples, others with only a handful of pews, people worship, sing hymns, and pray as God looks the other way. I am also convinced that in other congregations of all sizes God looks on and appears, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in their midst, proud to call them citizens of the kingdom.

I ran across a prayer this week which is an appropriate ending for our time here this morning. It is a reminder of the call which is ours, of the challenges and of the hope which are ours. “Lord, forgive us when we turn your worship into our program of self affirmation, when the hymns we sing are songs which celebrate our success, when the prayers we pray are no more than a listing of our perceived virtues, when the church in which we gather becomes a place to hide from the demands of discipleship, when we encourage the clergy whom we call to serve to flatter rather than to confront us, when the scripture that we read is carefully selected so as not to challenge our present position. Lord, speak to us that we might more truthfully speak to you and for you. Transform our prayer and our worship from a celebration of ourselves into a living and courageous encounter with your will for our lives. AMEN.

What is God’s will for our lives? We have read a pretty good summation this morning. Isaiah gives us the prescription, “Clean up your act, stop doing wrong and learn to live right. See that justice is done. Help the helpless, defend the oppressed, stand up for those are down and out.”