A Mirage of Change

INTRODUCTION We are taking a week off from our Luke series to talk about everything that’s been going on in our world lately. Before I go any further, if you didn’t see my email earlier in the week, this message is not for kids…at least young kids. If you’re worried about whether or not this subject matter is for your kids, I suggest you watch it yourself first before you show it to them. I want to respect and honor your teaching in their life respective to their age and development THE PASSAGE Before we start talking about the issues at hand, let’s open up God’s Word. We need His Wisdom right now, not just our endless list of ideas. Our passage today is 10 verses long. I’m going to read it in its entirety, and then we’ll unpack it as we go. This is God speaking to the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah…about 700 years before Jesus came to earth I want you to grab a Bible…open it up. Look at it as we read this. (Isaiah 58:1 10) – NIV “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 6 “Is not this 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? 7 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 them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. So the Israelites have acted as though they really want to know God and His ways. But, what they really want is to do things their way, AND have God’s blessings at the same time. Sounds pretty familiar, actually. And God tells them WHY they don’t have His blessing…even though they held a “day of fasting and prayer” It’s because they have fasted for a day, but then went right back to ignoring justice, and they exploited their workers, ignored the poor, and more A PAINFUL AND EYE OPENING WEEK This has been a hard week. A white police officer murdered George Floyd, a black man And it was not only wrong, it was evil. And unjust. I want you to think about this for a second What if it would have been me? I want you to picture me, a white man, on 38th & Chicago What if I would have decided to use a $20 counterfeit bill, and the cops were called? Can you imagine a white police officer doing the same to me? Holding me down by kneeling on my neck? What about a white, 65 year old woman…yelling, “I can’t breathe!” Can you see him doing that to her for 8 minutes? You can’t. And yet, we know that George Floyd is just the tip of the iceberg in the history of oppression that our black brothers & sisters have faced. There is a historical pattern of injustice. It’s been happening for a long time, and the problem is that it’s still happening There’s a church planter from our denomination on the East Coast that I know. He’s like me in many respects…many similarities…but one of the noticeable differences is…he’s black. He leads a church, speaks at conferences, you’d like him a lot. Well, in 2017, he was driving to speak at a Christian youth conference and an officer pulled him over “for driving in the left lane too long” The officer then asked this pastor if he had guns, knives, or grenades in his vehicle. He asked the PASTOR if he had any grenades!! That made the pastor nervous… So he began to record the rest of the conversation on Facebook live. The officer then went back to his police car, got on his megaphone and said, “You need to get out of your car and come back here!” I watched the video of this man I know… It was heartbreaking. He’s asking for prayer on Facebook Live saying, “Please pray. What do I do? Sir, I feel safer in my car” And they say, “Get out of the car.” Heartbreaking. He’s driving to go share the Gospel with high school students. The exact same year that happened, 2017, I was driving home one night. It’s 10:00pm, and I’m driving in Blaine…and I see the flashing lights. I get pulled over. But here’s the thing: I had just finished going to Sammy Wanyonyi’s SHINE Gala…about reaching all nations for Christ. So I’m wearing a suit, weird, I know. ☺ I’m driving a mid sized SUV, same one I’ve had for a long time But, the biggest difference is, I’m white. And listen, if you’re a close friend of mine, you know that I drive too fast. I’m a driven, intense person…so I like to get where I’m going. Besides that, I’m always thinking about some idea, so I tend to get lost in my mind a lot… So, I drive too fast. Too often. And yet, I’ve never gotten a ticket in my life. Ever. And I’ve long told my friends, “When I get pulled over someday, and they hand me that ticket, I’m going to say, “Thank you officer. I deserved this.” So, I get pulled over, and the officer says (get this), “Sir, we caught you going 72 in a 60 on Highway 65, and then, 62 in a 50 on 125th.” So, I’m waiting for my ticket. I’m not even mad. I deserve it. And he says, “Sir, make sure to pay attention to those speed limit signs. Have a nice night sir.” And then…I was mad. I almost chased after him demanding a ticket. If I wouldn’t have been so sinful and selfish, maybe I would have! And listen, unlike that black church planter on the East Coast… My parents never had to talk to me about how to interact with a police officer safely I didn’t have to show the officer where my hands were at all times This is the world we live in. And stories like that get played out a hundred times a day in a hundred different ways. I’m not an expert on systematic racism, and I won’t pretend to be one today… But I am a teacher of God’s Word. And the best place we need to look for answers on justice…is in His Word. So let’s start unpacking our passage NOT FOR A DAY The people in Isaiah 58 are asking God to bless them, they’re even fasting and praying about it. But it was just for a day. It would be like coming to church on Sunday, maybe even fasting that day, asking God to bless you But then on Monday, going right back to ignoring the poor, giving poor wages to your workers, pretending injustice doesn’t exist, and so on Look at verse 5 again: (Isaiah 58:5) 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? This is my great fear for the white evangelical Christians right now. That we would pray about this for a “day,” and move on. That we would watch a movie on Netflix about this…and move on That we would change our profile picture to black for a day…and move on. Let me ask you a question? What have you done to help Darfur? Some of you just said, “What’s Darfur?” Darfur is the region of Western Sudan where battles between the Sudanese government and the indigenous population have raged since 2003. Over the last 17 years, 480,000 people have been killed and 3 million people have had to flee to refugee camps. Well, thanks to some celebrity voices and other organizations, the Save Darfur movement hit it’s peek in the first half of the 2010’s. In fact, the Save Darfur Facebook page had 1.17 million members who wanted to help and spread the word that what was happening in Darfur wasn’t just! Researchers eventually did a study on this exact page, and the results aren’t going on to shock you. 99.8% of people did absolutely nothing to help Darfur They didn’t go They didn’t send money They didn’t recruit anyone to help They didn’t talk to lawmakers about it They just told all their friends on Social Media that “THIS…IS…WRONG!” Like Isaiah says, “For a day, they did their religious thing in front of everyone, felt good inside about doing the religious thing, and moved on” It was a MIRAGE of change GOD WANTS YOU TO LOOSE THE CHAINS OF INJUSTICE So listen, God doesn’t want you to just get mad and let everyone on social media know you’re mad…He wants you to do something. Look at verses 6 & 7 (Isaiah 58:6 7) 6 “Is not this 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? 7 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 them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Most scholars think Jesus’ famous teaching in Matthew 25 about the “least of these” is from this verse (verse 7) When Jesus says, “If you gave food to the hungry, invited in the stranger, and clothed the naked (the least of these), you did it to me.” He goes on to say, “If you’re not doing that, you don’t know me” It’s a tough teaching. Read it. Matthew 25. He’s saying, “If you don’t serve the poor, the oppressed, the hurting, you must not have a relationship with me. We struggle with this. We struggle even with the term “social Justice” because, to many, it feels like it’s been politicized. … But I want you to read you a quote from Timothy Keller, a man many of us respect, and someone whose church is mature in addressing the needs of a diverse community, “Often that term (social justice) is just a slogan being used to recruit listeners to jump on some political bandwagon. Nevertheless, if you are trying to live a life in accordance with the Bible, the concept and call to justice are inescapable. We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God. Doing justice includes not only the righting of wrongs, but generosity and social concern, especially toward the poor and vulnerable. This kind of life reflects the character of God. It consists of a broad range of activities, from simple, fair and honest dealings with people in daily life, to regular, radically generous giving of your time and resources, to activism that seeks to end particular forms of injustice, violence, and oppression.” – Timothy Keller in his book, Generous Justice The Christian is to, as Proverbs says: (Proverbs 31:8 9) – NEW LIVING TRANSLATION!! Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. 9 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. Unfortunately, this isn’t how we often talk in the suburban church And I’ll take part of the blame here. I need to do better. We are living in a generation of American Christianity that has bit into “Christian Consumerism” hook, line, and sinker. Everything has become about “what can the church provide for me and my family?” “Do you have kids programming? Do you have AWANA??” “Does your church have the style of music I like?” “Do you have the type of small group of Bible study I want, at the day that I want, and the time I want it!” And “church,” for far too many suburban Christians, has become about God serving us…through church services and groups that are convenient for our life and schedule of course. And Christianity then gets reduced to just an add on for improving the quality of your life. But that’s a joke, that’s not Christianity. Being a disciple of Christ is about serving an awesome, and holy God, who radically came in love to forgive us and set us free, and we are to spread and show that message to the world. And part of the way we do that is through loosening the chains of injustice and amplifying the voices of those who have been calling out, but not enough people are listening. I know it might all sound a bit foreign to you (and to our version of cultural Christianity that we live in), but this is not foreign to the Bible. As I heard one of our elders say this week, “Just read through the Book of Luke again, and think about this, you can’t not see Jesus’ heart on justice and helping the hurting and oppressed. It’s everywhere.” In Luke 5, the Lepers are left alone to die outside the city…but Jesus brings healing In Luke 6, Jesus tells us to love your enemies In Luke 7, Jesus forgives the prostitute that no one will talk to because she’s not in the right social circle In Luke 8, the angry demoniac is also cast outside the city, but Jesus delivers him Should I keep going??? In Luke 9, Jesus feeds the hungry In Luke 10, the good Samaritan helps the dying man while everyone else says they’re too busy to help :0 In Luke 11, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for because they think their tithing excuses them from having to do justice. But if we keep seeing Jesus through the lens of a “God who’s only there to make my life better,” we won’t see it. IF WE SEEK JUSTICE, GOD WILL SHINE THROUGH US Now, we need to be careful here that when we step up to find ways to live this out, that we do this out of the Gospel, and not out of social pressure, or guilt, or to earn God’s love Because too many Christians are hearing more about social justice, and our tendency is to say: “Oh, I see…my list wasn’t long enough. I’m going to church, reading the Bible, but if I also do some form of social justice…then I’m a good Christian…and God will bless me. No, that’s exactly why God is mad at the people in verses 2 & 3 They are trying to put pressure on God They’re saying, “Look! We’re living a good life…now bless us!” Don’t guilt yourself into this… If you do, it’ll just be a mirage of change, and you’ll move on Take your heart to Jesus on this. Start saying, “Lord, I’m seeing this…maybe for the first time.” “What do I do, Lord? What would you do?” “Who can I talk to? Who can I learn from? Where can I go?” “How can I make a difference?” Christian, your desire for justice must come out of God’s heart, not your own You must not do this because it’s in vogue or because you feel pressured to We do this because if we get near to the heart of Christ… We see that He knows what it’s like to be poor. He knows what it’s like to have no shelter He knows what’ it’s like to be falsely arrested, without proper trial or representation, to suffer under injustice Even to be murdered. He knows. He understands those who suffer. He gives grace to the sufferer. And if we really understand grace and justification, then we want to show that same love to the world. Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not saying that the church needs to become a social movement centered on issues No, the church’s mission is to “go and make disciples” But if you are truly a disciple of Jesus, and you look like the Jesus we’re reading about in the book of Luke… When the Gospel is lived out in you, then love and justice should flow through you as we bring God’s Kingdom to earth …as we seek to see His will done on earth, as it is in heaven. So what should you do about this? Something. Do something. As a church, we’re already in prayer and talks about how we can carry this passage out. And not just in this area of social justice, but in others as well. We’re weak in this area, and we need to get better. Christian leader & Author, Reggie Joyner, asked 5 Black Christian leaders what white people can do… And they gave 5 things. They said: Listen Believe us Befriend us Care for us Stand up or us I don’t know where you are on that list, but start somewhere Read Generous Justice by Timothy Keller or there are plenty of other books I’ve seen people recommending online If you’re not black, listen to a black friend tell you their story Pray, and seek the Holy Spirit… And say, “Lord, how can I look more like Jesus as I go about seeking justice?” But just don’t do nothing. Don’t let your call for “change” be a mirage. Take a step today, even if it’s a baby step. Don’t fast for a day and move on like the people of Isaiah’s time. And look at the Scriptural promise here for those who do justice… this is very different than what you’re going to see on Facebook or read in some blog… (Isaiah 58:8 10) – NIV 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Do you see what He’s saying?? God is saying, “If you fight for the hungry… “If you fight to remove the yoke of oppression” “If you’re bringing justice in my name… Then, light will rise in the darkness Light will break forth like the dawn The glory of the Lord will move!! What’s happening?? People will see the light of God in you. As we reflect God, they see God. But for many, they won’t ever see Him, unless we fight for their justice first And so, God can use the Christian to bring powerful change, not only to society, but to the spiritual climate of a culture But the Christ Follower must be committed, long term, to seeking the Holy Spirit on how to bring justice If we lament, and cry foul” for a day, then it will all be a mirage of change. But if you seek God’s heart, He will lead you in this. And people will see Him in you. I pray the Lord moves your heart Let me pray. Copyright: David Sorn Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! 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