I can see clearly now

Isaiah 58:1-12

          As you may have made noted, I am currently taking a month long at-home retreat. One of the things that we are addressing this week is our vision. How do we see things.  I had admitted that I had hoped that during this month I might be able to attain some of the vision that our retreat master has. However, I have come to realize that seeing is very much like listening. Years ago I had taken a course in listening and it is amazing how we listen, how we choose not to listen and what we easily overlook. Listening as it turns out involves much more than our ears. Facial expressions, bodily expressions and certain nuances with words often speaks volumes if we train ourselves to "listen".  What we "see" is not surprisingly very much like listening. We have a whole range of talents as well as hindrances that affect how and what we see (or don't see)

             This is not a new phenomena. Perhaps it is part of the human condition . Perhaps it is the result of that "original sin" when we try to choose our way instead of God's way. We fail to see so very much and sometimes, sometimes, we are quite arrogant over what we think we know or see. 

              Quite some time ago I railed (I am sure) about personal acts of piety that some religious think makes them holier than everyone else.  These acts become a basis for salvation when in fact any act of piety should be solemn and lead you to a deeper faith but certainly not faith by itself. When we assure ourselves of our salvation by what we know or can recite we are woefully mistaken. The days when answering the Baltimore Catechism with all the correct answers never did give you salvation. Just like obeying the ten commandments scrupulously is not he complete answer either. The righteous man who walked away dejected because he obeyed all the laws faithfully but yet was reluctant to give everything of his away as Jesus suggested is a good example too. Today we have televangelists and would be saviors who feeling quoting the word of God, chapter and verse, is what will give them and you salvation. It just ain't so.

        Roughly 600-700 years before Jesus became incarnate, Isaiah spoke of intent and conscience long before Jesus found the need to come and say the same thing. It is not the laws that save you; it is not the fasting that saves you; it is not the circumcision or the un-circumcision that saves you.

        It is simply how you live and love. Do not obscure your vision with the plank of righteousness, ignorance or man made laws. Read Isaiah and see what is written.  Let us pray for clear vision.

Shout out, do not hold back!

   Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their rebellion,

   to the house of Jacob their sins. 

Yet day after day they seek me

   and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practised righteousness

   and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgements,

   they delight to draw near to God. 

‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?

   Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,

   and oppress all your workers. 

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

   and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today

   will not make your voice heard on high. 

Is such the fast that I choose,

   a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

   and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast,

   a day acceptable to the Lord? 

Is not this the fast that I choose:

   to loose the bonds of injustice,

   to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the 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 them,

   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

   and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator shall go before you,

   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. 

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. 

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.