Do you remember television before the onslaught of reality shows? There were a lot of lighthearted programs that focused on family issues like Full House and The Waltons, game shows like Jeopardy and The Price is Right and a fair amount of first responder shows like NYPD Blue and ER. The story telling was predictable and safe. Then came “reality” television where people are thrown into a situation and we watch them as they encounter one another in real life. I think there is a lot of coaching by the producers to get the kind of content that sells, but when reality takes over, tempers flare, and the true self is revealed (see any of the Housewife iterations).When the true self comes out it is painfully truthful, but at least it is real. And we can’t stop watching.

Our passage today is the same one we looked at on Ash Wednesday. Our focus then was to think about our Lenten fasts. Did you choose something to fast from? How did it go? But today we will focus on the type of worship and relationship God desires from us. You will quickly see that God is not interested in a shallow pretense of adoration and empty ritual but seeks the real thing from us.

Isaiah 58 (Common English Bible)

Shout loudly; don’t hold back;
    raise your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their crime,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
² They seek me day after day,
    desiring knowledge of my ways
    like a nation that acted righteously,
    that didn’t abandon their God.
They ask me for righteous judgments,
    wanting to be close to God.

God called out their hypocrisy in seeking him out while they only pretended to act righteously. Indeed, they abandoned God while faking a desire for knowledge and righteousness. Then they brought their bitter complaints that God hadn’t answered their selfish prayers and faux fasting. God’s response was swift: Your fast was meaningless. By continuing to oppress their workers, by fighting violently with each other, and by pursuing self-satisfaction on fasting days, they had simply offered God a shallow semblance of worship, not the real thing.

³ “Why do we fast and you don’t see;
    why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?”
Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want,
    and oppress all your workers.
⁴ You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast;
    you hit each other violently with your fists.
You shouldn’t fast as you are doing today
    if you want to make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I choose,
    a day of self-affliction,
    of bending one’s head like a reed
    and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
    Is this what you call a fast,
        a day acceptable to the Lord?

True worship and adoration of God includes setting free all those who are downtrodden and oppressed, acting decisively to break the yoke of injustice, and providing sustenance for the hungry and homeless. Only then will our lives be filled with light and blessings.

⁶ Isn’t this the fast I choose:
    releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,
    setting free the mistreated,
    and breaking every yoke?
⁷ Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry
    and bringing the homeless poor into your house,
    covering the naked when you see them,
    and not hiding from your own family?
⁸ Then your light will break out like the dawn,
    and you will be healed quickly.
Your own righteousness will walk before you,
    and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.

The challenge is before us. God desires a deep, pure, and real response to the goodness and good news what we have been given. God deserves more than our faux fasts. We are charged with setting aside our performative religion and getting right with God. May we pray the prayer of confession from our communion liturgy every day in a real and wholehearted effort to make things right:

Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (United Methodist Hymnal, page 8)

Amen.

With Our Whole Heart by Kathy Schumacher