“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God. They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to take action on their behalf. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have done much penance, and you don’t even notice it!’” I will tell you why! It’s because you are living for yourselves even while you are fasting. You keep right on oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
Isaiah 58:1-4
The United States pauses today to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As we pause, I beg to question whether we, as a nation, are striving to rid ourselves of injustice and inequality or are we only giving the “Dream” lip service? More pointedly, is the Church today in the same condition it was in when the Prophet Isaiah spoke to them about their empty worship. If you read Isaiah_58 in its entirety, you might be shocked with the parallels to the conditions in our cities, our churches today.
There is a healing needed in our nation … in the church … in the Body of Christ. It will only come (Isaiah 58:8) when we begin to live out what was expressed to us in Dr. King’s “Dream” and not just give it lip service once a year.
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