Isaiah 1:21-31 (NRSV) Morning Prayer 12-4-12
How the faithful city
has become a whore!
This lesson spoke to me quite strongly of our current situation, especially our economy.
She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
They do not defend the orphan,
and the widow’s cause does not come before them.
The disparities in income and wealth are egregious and well documented. The Occupy movement has underlines them so well that we cannot avoid reading them. Widow’s and orphans and we poor in general do not come before the institution of the rich; we are not taken into consideration. The primary consideration is the increase of income. It is incumbent on industries and corporations to generate income for the owners, that is, the stockholders. Indeed it is the corporations’ fiduciary responsibility in law to do so. many, if not most, of us are dependent on that increase. Many own stock, many have retirement accounts, many have college funds for their children. Our institutions are dependent, if they have endowments. Our churches depends on them. Where would be be without them? The problem is structural; it is deeply entwined around all that we do as a people. So well might Isaiah say, as he did of his own people:
She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross,
your wine is mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
Advent is an advantageous time to consider this. We look forward, as Isaiah did, to a world of righteousness, where all have what they need, fruitful and abundant life, true life, deep life, Godly life, the life God intended for us. But it has gone wrong. Just look around. Look at our lives, look at the lives of those we love, the lives of our neighbors. God created the world to be a certain way; what we have is not it. God gave us guided to how to live in the Godly way. There are the Ten Commandments, or better Words, counsel from God. And many other words of counsel on how to be as God would have us be. I suspect that is the nature of Torah, a deep description of how God meant life to be. The prophets wrote of punishment for violating the law. But I don’t see a wrathful God hurling thunderbolts, plagues, floods, droughts, and famines. At least not out of personal wrath. God made the world to be a certain way, to work this way and not that. This has consequences, as putting your hand in a flame burns. It’s just the way things are. This is the God whose ways we discern though science, through our best understanding of the Way Things Seem To Be. This is the God of the Wisdom literature. This might even be the God of Torah as Tao.and this is the God of the prophets’ understand of the world such as we read in today’s reading from Isaiah.
First the wrath, the pain, the punishment, the Threat:
Therefore says the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies,
and avenge myself on my foes!
I will turn my hand against you;
I will smelt away your dross as with lye
and remove all your alloy.
And I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counselors as at the beginning.
And then, ah, then, afterwards, the reward, the Promise if we turn again to the Torah, the Tao:
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city.
Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Do note that this is a Process, this turning back to God and as always there are consequences.
But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
For you shall be ashamed of the oaks
in which you delighted;
and you shall blush for the gardens
that you have chosen.
For you shall be like an oak
whose leaf withers,
and like a garden without water.
The strong shall become like tinder,
and their work like a spark;
they and their work shall burn together,
with no one to quench them.
Think about these things. Advent is the advantageous time for that.