Isaiah’s Cry for Justice to Replace Religiosity

Though often attributed to The Talmud, here is the correct citation. Shapiro, Wisdom of the Sages, 41. Paraphrase of Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s interpretive translation of Rabbi Tarfon’s work on the Pirle Avpot 2:30. The text is commentary of Micah 6:8.

The lectionary lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures for Sunday, August 11, 2019, is Isaiah 1:1,10-20. That Isaiah’s pivotal prophecy that came in a time of prosperity and religious fervor opens with such harsh criticism seems tellingly significant to me. As though a crowning insult, verse 10 identifies Judah with Sodom and Gomorrah. Through both Old and New Testaments, Sodom represents the nadir of sin, which continues to be used today to condemn sin in our time and our country.

Reflecting on this passage this week in the wake of recent mass shootings and the contentious political climate has given me pause. In verse 17 Isaiah pleads with Judah to “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” This seems completely consistent with how Ezekiel 16:49 described the sin of Sodom. “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”

Isaiah does not set this call for justice against a failure of personal morality or deficient theology but against full-blown community worship and piety. Presented as the word of the Lord, Isaiah railed against multitudes of sacrifices and offerings, called convocations, solemn assemblies, and appointed festivals. “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” (v. 15)

For some time I have been concerned that the divisiveness and hostility in our country’s social and political climate is infecting the Church. I have suggested that unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:30) is under siege. http://nstolpepilgrim.blogspot.com/2018/07/under-siege-unity-of-spirit-in-bond-of.html Reflecting on this opening to Isaiah’s prophecy has brought to mind the kinds of things I am aware of being addressed and debated in US church circles today. While there are exceptions to be sure, my impression is that a lot more time and energy are going into things other than justice for the weak. I have difficulty not grouping issues such as debating worship and music styles with the things Isaiah said wearied God.

Please understand, I do believe that theology, worship, and personal morality (including sexuality) matter. But as I consider this from Isaiah, I can’t help but wonder if those are not convenient ways of avoiding the discomfort of addressing the difficult challenges of justice. One of those challenges is that it would put Christians and their congregations at odds with popular opinion and the dominant power brokers and trend setters in our society. Hence my concern that we learn from what the Confessing Church faced in Germany in the 1930s. Yes, they were courageous but not always clear in either perception or response. We may not always be clear either, but I think Isaiah’s call for justice speaks powerfully and pointedly to our own time.

This introduction to the pinnacle of Hebrew prophecy is not some sort of cherry picked exception. It is rooted in the Mosaic Law and is at the core of the entire corpus of the Hebrew prophets, on which Jesus built his teaching and ministry. This is perhaps best summarized by Micah 6:8. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Verse 18 has gnawed at my meditations this week. I learned it as a Sunday school memory verse from the King James Version. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” The application was generally aimed at personal morality: not lying, not stealing, not having sex outside of marriage, but I have no recollection of it being applied to the issues of justice for the weak and poor, which is the context in Isaiah. I will allow that my youthful memory is faulty and I just missed hearing that.

I am also struck that the NRSV translates the first phrase as “Come now, let us argue it out.” This seems a lot stronger to me than “reason together,” though in 1611 it may have had that force. Nevertheless, the image of God arguing with us about the call to justice for the weak and poor is pointedly relevant to our time. Do we not evade God’s call to justice with our churchy arguments about worship, theology, and even personal morality?

I don’t want to get too far afield with this, but based directly on the biblical texts, using Sodom as an argument in the current debates about sexuality, especially homosexuality, misses the point. The sexual part of the Sodom story in Genesis 19 is about violent gang rape to humiliate outsiders. There is plenty of other biblical material to process in the realm of sexual love and righteousness that deserves careful attention from those who advocate any particular position on homosexuality and more. I’m not going to explore that here, but suggest that by using the Sodom story in those debates we are avoiding the emphasis on justice that is clear in Scripture.