Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, August 7, 2016
Luke 22:31-34, Isaiah 1:1,10-20
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who invites you to come to his presence. Amen.
When I was at a seminary, I learned the original language of the Old Testaments, Hebrew, from a Jewish professor. Whenever he started his lecture, he always sang a song in Hebrew. “Shema Israel, adonai eloheinu adonai echad.” This phrase means "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One." The Jewish people always sing this short song at least 3-4 times as part of their liturgy at the worship. This sentence is like their identity; their religious and national tradition. This important phrase has come down from Moses’ era until this time in the Jewish history.
It is traditionally known that Moses wrote the Torah, the first five books in the Old Testaments (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The Jewish people are taught since their childhood to literally memorize the Torah. Just by this, we know how important the Jewish people consider Torah to be. And this phrase “Shema Israel” is the starting phrase of one of the essential passages in the Torah. It is also the title (sometimes shortened to simply Shema) of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Like such, if you look closely at the Bible, you will find numbers of phrases where God emphasizes on listening to God’s Word. Jesus often said to people, “Let anyone with ears, listen!” In today’s reading in Isaiah, the writer in verse 10 also says “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorah!” And today, God calls on each one of us to listen, Shema, to the Word of God.
In today’s reading, Isaiah tells us that God did not delight in the worship. This is the easier version of what we just read about God’s feelings: The Lord says, “I do not want all these sacrifices you give me. I have had enough of your sacrifices of male sheep and fat from fine animals. I am not pleased by the blood of bulls, sheep and goats. You come to meet with me. But who asked you to do all this running in and out? Don’t continue bringing me worthless sacrifices! I hate the incense you burn. I can’t stand your New Moons, Sabbaths and other feast days. I can’t stand the evil you do in holding your holy meetings. I hate your New Moon feasts and your other yearly feasts. They have become like heavy weights on me. I am tired of carrying them.”
It sounds like the people of Israel observed their Sabbath and seasonal festival very well, but God obviously does not seem to be happy about it. They sacrificed many burnt offerings full of fat oil toward God, since God told them, “I have enough of it.” It became burden on God’s shoulder and made Him weary of bearing them. But God commanded the people to sacrifice burnt offerings, right? It was God’s commandments in the law of God to observe the Sabbath and give the offering with appropriate order. They were just trying to obey what God told them to do. On the surface, that’s what they thought that they were doing, but in God’s eyes, it was not even close to what God had commanded them to do. Coming back to the word Shema, Shema has various meanings. It is to hear, to pay attention, to understand, to be willing to obey, and to respond in action. When God commanded, it is right that the people obey the commandments. But the concept of Shema is nothing like the blind obedience or the obedience to military order which implies ‘obey otherwise die’. Rather, there is an active thought process involved in Shema. God created us in God’s image and gave us free will and the power to think. God wants us to understand the commandments which give us life and follow the rule with gladness and thankful heart.
Unfortunately, what the Israelites showed God was a blind obedience. This is the era where King Uzziah brought peace in the region through victories in the war with neighboring countries. People of Judah thrived in their wealth and its religious institutions seemed to flourish. Jerusalem’s temple overflew with worshipers running around with their sacrifices, offerings and incenses. However, the high places for pagan gods were not removed. This means that, at the same time, the people still sacrificed and burned incense for their wellbeing to foreign gods along with the God of Israel. For them, the LORD was their God, but the LORD was not One.
Do you see any similarities with this world that we live in today? This reminds us that while today’s text may be nearly 3,000 years old, both its context and the sins described are nearly as contemporary as today’s time. We are living in this thriving and wealthy country. The high technology, strong economy, and military institutions seem to flourish like few others in world history. Also, we have a higher percentage of active worshipers than any other countries. So, on the surface, things look good. But are we confident that we are doing okay in God’s eyes? Can we firmly believe that our faith is different and better than the people of Isaiah’s time?
While the Israelites were, like we are, busy doing their “religious things,” the prophet compared them to Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 10. Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities which were destroyed by God due to their corruption of sexual and moral conduct. Nothing that the Israelites were doing in the temple pleased the Lord. Suppose Isaiah lives in this present time, what would he tell us on our religious institutions? What would he tell us about how God react to our worship? This is something to think about, right?
If you look into the Bible, you can see that God lets the people know what makes God angry and what they have been doing wrong. This is not simply to judge and scold the people, but to let people know that God wants them to come back to Him. So to let His people know what it is that God truly wants, God continues on to reveal the reason why God hates their sacrifices and offerings. God says, “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity… your hands are full of blood.” If you read further in Isaiah chapter 1, he says, “Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.” While the purpose of sacrifices and offerings was to repent their unrighteousness and turn their ways toward God, they didn’t even look into their sinful heart nor change their life which was full of iniquity.
But where there is full of sin, there is abundance of grace. God invites the people of Israel to come and reason with God in verse 18. Even though their nature was evil just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, God once again reaches out His hands towards them, willing to embrace them whenever they come with broken heart.
When I was young, my mom used to ask me to do a favor when she prepared for a meal. She asked me to run to the supermarket and buy certain ingredients or to bring utensils out and place them on the table. One morning, my mom asked me to go to the supermarket as usual to buy a piece of tofu. So I went there and bought a tofu. At that time, they used to sell tofu in a plastic bag, not in a plastic box. I wanted to quickly go back home and play, so I ran toward home, swinging the plastic bag in one hand, trying to deliver it as soon as possible. But life isn’t so easy. I tripped over a stone and smashed the tofu as I fell on the ground. I hurriedly checked the poor tofu, but the tofu wasn’t a tofu anymore. I was so afraid that my mom would scold me because of the ruined tofu. So I dumped it into a trash can and came home pretending that nothing happened. My mom asked me where the tofu was and I answered that the woman in the supermarket didn’t give me the tofu after receiving the money. My naïve calculation was that my mom would just give up and continue on fixing the breakfast. But again, life isn’t easy. My mom got angry and went to the supermarket with me and started arguing with the woman. I was so embarrassed and wanted to hide myself to avoid this situation. Finally, the woman grabbed my arm and forced me to tell her the truth. I had to admit it. On the way home, my mom asked me what had happened to the tofu, and I explained to her as I cried. But my mom didn’t scold me but instead gave me a hug and taught me the importance of telling the truth even in the situation where I made a mistake.
This story of mine could be a good illustration of today’s text. Just like my mom, God wants us to come and tell God our mistakes and our sins. Even when all that we have to offer Him is a broken heart, God is always ready to embrace us in His arms with full of compassion and empathy.
In verse 18, this sentence “Come now, let us reason or argue it out” could be translated as legalistic sense of dispute or argue in front of God, the judge. And it could also mean to turn our way of wrong doing and listen, Shema, to what God speaks to you. Then, God declares “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
The Israelites came to God regularly on Sabbath, New moon and all kinds of convocations with generous offerings, full of incense sacrificing their animals, but there was no concept of repent and they came neither with broken heart nor guiltiness. Killing the animals and shedding their blood as sacrifice to God connoted that their sins were being forgiven through the shed blood. But they were doing all this without a repenting heart. It was nothing more than a ritual for them. This is why God said, “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.” Stretching out the hands is an act of praying for the Jews. Can you imagine how tragic and fearful it would be to have God close His eyes and ears from our prayers?
Let’s look back into our time of worship. We should not attend worship only to show God that we are sitting inside the church. Just like the animals were sacrificed for the sake of our sins, our time of worship should include a time of confession and repentance. So I encourage all of you to allow yourself a time before worship to reflect upon your past week and see where we need forgiveness. Let this time of worship be a time to confess our weaknesses and wrong doings with a broken heart and to earnestly ask for God’s help.
One night in my prayer time, I was so afraid of the thought that God may forsake me because of my ceaseless and continuous sins and mistakes. I tried to be perfect in God’s eyes but I realized that I can never be perfect. I was deeply disappointed at myself. And I prayed again and again asking God not to forsake me. In the middle of praying, God spoke to me through a bible scripture in Isaiah chapter 49 verses 15-16, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
God has engraved each one of you on the palms of His hands. And that is the scars on Jesus’ hands when he was nailed on the cross for our sins. The power of the blood of Jesus still applies to us. Jesus is stretching his arms and inviting all of you to come freely. Jesus wants us to listen, Shema, to his voice.
And Jesus shows us this forgiveness of sin in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus warned Peter by saying, “Simon, Simon, listen, Shema! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus already knew that Peter was not ready to confront the threatening yet. Jesus knew that Peter would betray him three times that night. But Jesus had already forgiven Peter and knew that he would turn back to Jesus with many tears. There is a big contrast between Judah Iscariot and Peter. They both were Jesus’ beloved disciples and they listened to Jesus’ teaching for almost three years. They both loved Jesus but they both betrayed him at the end. While they made the same mistake, Judah committed suicide after severe stress of blaming himself, but Peter came back to Jesus full of regret.
What happened after Peter’s return? Once he came back to Jesus, he did what Jesus told him to do, that is, strengthening his brothers. This is exactly what Isaiah tells us to do in verses 16-17: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before God eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Just like my mom gave me a hug and told me that I should not lie but tell the truth always, and just like Jesus encouraged Peter to strengthen his brothers after his repentance, God wants us to leave behind the past sinful acts and take a step forward to participate in the life saving acts of God. Do you see the connection here with the Isaiah text? God is capable of turning our sin that is red as crimson into white as snow. Only God can release us from the captive of sins and give us freedom. But in order to do so, you have to come to God first. You have to fall before God and confess that you need Him. Therefore, come now before God in whatever circumstances and whatever feelings you are in. Do not let yourself go astray because of your guilt. And listen, Shema, to the Word of God. Come back to God and find rest in him. There, you will find comfort.
Luke 22:31-34, Isaiah 1:1,10-20
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who invites you to come to his presence. Amen.
When I was at a seminary, I learned the original language of the Old Testaments, Hebrew, from a Jewish professor. Whenever he started his lecture, he always sang a song in Hebrew. “Shema Israel, adonai eloheinu adonai echad.” This phrase means "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One." The Jewish people always sing this short song at least 3-4 times as part of their liturgy at the worship. This sentence is like their identity; their religious and national tradition. This important phrase has come down from Moses’ era until this time in the Jewish history.
It is traditionally known that Moses wrote the Torah, the first five books in the Old Testaments (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The Jewish people are taught since their childhood to literally memorize the Torah. Just by this, we know how important the Jewish people consider Torah to be. And this phrase “Shema Israel” is the starting phrase of one of the essential passages in the Torah. It is also the title (sometimes shortened to simply Shema) of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Like such, if you look closely at the Bible, you will find numbers of phrases where God emphasizes on listening to God’s Word. Jesus often said to people, “Let anyone with ears, listen!” In today’s reading in Isaiah, the writer in verse 10 also says “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorah!” And today, God calls on each one of us to listen, Shema, to the Word of God.
In today’s reading, Isaiah tells us that God did not delight in the worship. This is the easier version of what we just read about God’s feelings: The Lord says, “I do not want all these sacrifices you give me. I have had enough of your sacrifices of male sheep and fat from fine animals. I am not pleased by the blood of bulls, sheep and goats. You come to meet with me. But who asked you to do all this running in and out? Don’t continue bringing me worthless sacrifices! I hate the incense you burn. I can’t stand your New Moons, Sabbaths and other feast days. I can’t stand the evil you do in holding your holy meetings. I hate your New Moon feasts and your other yearly feasts. They have become like heavy weights on me. I am tired of carrying them.”
It sounds like the people of Israel observed their Sabbath and seasonal festival very well, but God obviously does not seem to be happy about it. They sacrificed many burnt offerings full of fat oil toward God, since God told them, “I have enough of it.” It became burden on God’s shoulder and made Him weary of bearing them. But God commanded the people to sacrifice burnt offerings, right? It was God’s commandments in the law of God to observe the Sabbath and give the offering with appropriate order. They were just trying to obey what God told them to do. On the surface, that’s what they thought that they were doing, but in God’s eyes, it was not even close to what God had commanded them to do. Coming back to the word Shema, Shema has various meanings. It is to hear, to pay attention, to understand, to be willing to obey, and to respond in action. When God commanded, it is right that the people obey the commandments. But the concept of Shema is nothing like the blind obedience or the obedience to military order which implies ‘obey otherwise die’. Rather, there is an active thought process involved in Shema. God created us in God’s image and gave us free will and the power to think. God wants us to understand the commandments which give us life and follow the rule with gladness and thankful heart.
Unfortunately, what the Israelites showed God was a blind obedience. This is the era where King Uzziah brought peace in the region through victories in the war with neighboring countries. People of Judah thrived in their wealth and its religious institutions seemed to flourish. Jerusalem’s temple overflew with worshipers running around with their sacrifices, offerings and incenses. However, the high places for pagan gods were not removed. This means that, at the same time, the people still sacrificed and burned incense for their wellbeing to foreign gods along with the God of Israel. For them, the LORD was their God, but the LORD was not One.
Do you see any similarities with this world that we live in today? This reminds us that while today’s text may be nearly 3,000 years old, both its context and the sins described are nearly as contemporary as today’s time. We are living in this thriving and wealthy country. The high technology, strong economy, and military institutions seem to flourish like few others in world history. Also, we have a higher percentage of active worshipers than any other countries. So, on the surface, things look good. But are we confident that we are doing okay in God’s eyes? Can we firmly believe that our faith is different and better than the people of Isaiah’s time?
While the Israelites were, like we are, busy doing their “religious things,” the prophet compared them to Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 10. Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities which were destroyed by God due to their corruption of sexual and moral conduct. Nothing that the Israelites were doing in the temple pleased the Lord. Suppose Isaiah lives in this present time, what would he tell us on our religious institutions? What would he tell us about how God react to our worship? This is something to think about, right?
If you look into the Bible, you can see that God lets the people know what makes God angry and what they have been doing wrong. This is not simply to judge and scold the people, but to let people know that God wants them to come back to Him. So to let His people know what it is that God truly wants, God continues on to reveal the reason why God hates their sacrifices and offerings. God says, “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity… your hands are full of blood.” If you read further in Isaiah chapter 1, he says, “Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.” While the purpose of sacrifices and offerings was to repent their unrighteousness and turn their ways toward God, they didn’t even look into their sinful heart nor change their life which was full of iniquity.
But where there is full of sin, there is abundance of grace. God invites the people of Israel to come and reason with God in verse 18. Even though their nature was evil just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, God once again reaches out His hands towards them, willing to embrace them whenever they come with broken heart.
When I was young, my mom used to ask me to do a favor when she prepared for a meal. She asked me to run to the supermarket and buy certain ingredients or to bring utensils out and place them on the table. One morning, my mom asked me to go to the supermarket as usual to buy a piece of tofu. So I went there and bought a tofu. At that time, they used to sell tofu in a plastic bag, not in a plastic box. I wanted to quickly go back home and play, so I ran toward home, swinging the plastic bag in one hand, trying to deliver it as soon as possible. But life isn’t so easy. I tripped over a stone and smashed the tofu as I fell on the ground. I hurriedly checked the poor tofu, but the tofu wasn’t a tofu anymore. I was so afraid that my mom would scold me because of the ruined tofu. So I dumped it into a trash can and came home pretending that nothing happened. My mom asked me where the tofu was and I answered that the woman in the supermarket didn’t give me the tofu after receiving the money. My naïve calculation was that my mom would just give up and continue on fixing the breakfast. But again, life isn’t easy. My mom got angry and went to the supermarket with me and started arguing with the woman. I was so embarrassed and wanted to hide myself to avoid this situation. Finally, the woman grabbed my arm and forced me to tell her the truth. I had to admit it. On the way home, my mom asked me what had happened to the tofu, and I explained to her as I cried. But my mom didn’t scold me but instead gave me a hug and taught me the importance of telling the truth even in the situation where I made a mistake.
This story of mine could be a good illustration of today’s text. Just like my mom, God wants us to come and tell God our mistakes and our sins. Even when all that we have to offer Him is a broken heart, God is always ready to embrace us in His arms with full of compassion and empathy.
In verse 18, this sentence “Come now, let us reason or argue it out” could be translated as legalistic sense of dispute or argue in front of God, the judge. And it could also mean to turn our way of wrong doing and listen, Shema, to what God speaks to you. Then, God declares “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
The Israelites came to God regularly on Sabbath, New moon and all kinds of convocations with generous offerings, full of incense sacrificing their animals, but there was no concept of repent and they came neither with broken heart nor guiltiness. Killing the animals and shedding their blood as sacrifice to God connoted that their sins were being forgiven through the shed blood. But they were doing all this without a repenting heart. It was nothing more than a ritual for them. This is why God said, “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.” Stretching out the hands is an act of praying for the Jews. Can you imagine how tragic and fearful it would be to have God close His eyes and ears from our prayers?
Let’s look back into our time of worship. We should not attend worship only to show God that we are sitting inside the church. Just like the animals were sacrificed for the sake of our sins, our time of worship should include a time of confession and repentance. So I encourage all of you to allow yourself a time before worship to reflect upon your past week and see where we need forgiveness. Let this time of worship be a time to confess our weaknesses and wrong doings with a broken heart and to earnestly ask for God’s help.
One night in my prayer time, I was so afraid of the thought that God may forsake me because of my ceaseless and continuous sins and mistakes. I tried to be perfect in God’s eyes but I realized that I can never be perfect. I was deeply disappointed at myself. And I prayed again and again asking God not to forsake me. In the middle of praying, God spoke to me through a bible scripture in Isaiah chapter 49 verses 15-16, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
God has engraved each one of you on the palms of His hands. And that is the scars on Jesus’ hands when he was nailed on the cross for our sins. The power of the blood of Jesus still applies to us. Jesus is stretching his arms and inviting all of you to come freely. Jesus wants us to listen, Shema, to his voice.
And Jesus shows us this forgiveness of sin in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus warned Peter by saying, “Simon, Simon, listen, Shema! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus already knew that Peter was not ready to confront the threatening yet. Jesus knew that Peter would betray him three times that night. But Jesus had already forgiven Peter and knew that he would turn back to Jesus with many tears. There is a big contrast between Judah Iscariot and Peter. They both were Jesus’ beloved disciples and they listened to Jesus’ teaching for almost three years. They both loved Jesus but they both betrayed him at the end. While they made the same mistake, Judah committed suicide after severe stress of blaming himself, but Peter came back to Jesus full of regret.
What happened after Peter’s return? Once he came back to Jesus, he did what Jesus told him to do, that is, strengthening his brothers. This is exactly what Isaiah tells us to do in verses 16-17: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before God eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Just like my mom gave me a hug and told me that I should not lie but tell the truth always, and just like Jesus encouraged Peter to strengthen his brothers after his repentance, God wants us to leave behind the past sinful acts and take a step forward to participate in the life saving acts of God. Do you see the connection here with the Isaiah text? God is capable of turning our sin that is red as crimson into white as snow. Only God can release us from the captive of sins and give us freedom. But in order to do so, you have to come to God first. You have to fall before God and confess that you need Him. Therefore, come now before God in whatever circumstances and whatever feelings you are in. Do not let yourself go astray because of your guilt. And listen, Shema, to the Word of God. Come back to God and find rest in him. There, you will find comfort.