Music to God's Ear

Good morning! Welcome to the Vineyard. If this is your first time, my name is Kevin and I’m the pastor here. Our vision at the Vineyard is simple - we want to embody Jesus to our neighbors. This happens by growing in three ways, through what we call our pillars.

First, is Presence. We want everyone to experience the presence of God. This is what transforms us to love him and others. God’s presence is where we become fully alive. We want you to know the Father.

Then, Formation. God doesn’t just love us; he is forming us to be his people who can carry his life and love to those around us. Formation is where we learn to embody the Jesus way of life. We want you to imitate the Son.

Finally, Mission. Being on mission is how we join God in the work he is doing to bring his reconciliation, justice, and mercy to earth. This is how he is bringing healing and renewal to the world. We want you to partner with the Spirit.

Presence. Formation. Mission. Be thinking about your next step. Where is God calling you to go deeper with him?

Pray...

Intro

We are in the season after Epiphany which celebrates the manifestation of Jesus to the world. Specifically, we are continuing to look at how Jesus is revealed to us in the Old Testament. The message this morning is called Music to God’s Ear. Today we are going to settle the debate over what kind of worship music God likes the most. This has been a long-running debate in the church for the last 50 years or more. Does he like traditional hymns, praise choruses, or contemporary worship best? Does he prefer just voices only, simple acoustic worship, or a full praise band? This morning we’re going to see that Jesus has enacted God’s favorite music: the sound of justice.

Read Isaiah 58:1-9a

So, the title of the message is obviously misleading, and we aren’t going to settle this question other than to say, yes. But the passage this morning is a passage about worship. What kind of worship does God have regard for? In the context of Isaiah 58, fasting is a form of worship. It was part of the prescribed way people were to come before God - especially in times of national emergency or personal crisis. In this context, you could replace the word “fast” with “worship”. The central complaint of the people is, “we are worshipping you, why don’t you respond? we are bowing down in homage, why don’t you come to our aid?” In the first part of the passage, God gives his response.

Ritual divorced from righteousness (v. 1-5)

First, they are offering a worship ritual divorced from righteousness. Let’s define what righteousness means in this context. Here righteousness is best understood as justice, particularly restorative justice. Giving people what they need/deserve based solely upon the fact that they are image-bearers of God. It is doing right by people, and especially those who are powerless in society. This is compared to imputed righteousness. This is also a biblical understanding of the word in some contexts. It concerns our legal standing before God - declared righteous through Jesus Christ.

The Reformers brought imputed righteousness to the fore. What they got right is that we can’t earn our salvation. It is a free gift of grace through the faithfulness of Christ. What they got wrong is that God is somehow not really interested in our righteous activity.

We who were indoctrinated in this system like to quote Isaiah 64:6 “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” But we took that verse out of context and assumed God is NEVER interested in righteous deeds. Sometimes we were so quick to defend salvation by faith apart from works that we avoided good works so that no one mistakes that we are saved by faith alone. God’s entire complaint in this section is that the nation has maintained religious activity devoid of any genuine adherence to God’s demands of justice for the vulnerable. Btw - God isn’t against their religious activity; he gave that to them. But he is opposed to an empty religion that doesn’t reform the heart of the worshipper. The problem is that they made a great pretense to worship God, but in their private lives they practiced all manner of injustice. Is this the kind of worship God approves of? Is this music to his ears? Hardly.

We must settle once and for all that God is on the side of the weak and marginalized. The poor, the orphan and widow, the foreign immigrant - those who are traditionally the most easily exploited in a society - this is who God is quick to avenge. This is who he is quick to respond to when they cry out. What caused the nation of Israel to be sent into captivity was not so much idolatry or overt sins of the flesh; it was neglect for the least of these in their society.

The religion God approves (v. 6-9a)

The kind of religious devotion that God approves of, the kind that ascends to him as genuine worship, is the one that works with God for the welfare of others. [The worship God approves is the one that works with him for the welfare of others.] To stand up for the rights of the oppressed, even if it costs you something - and it will. To work to ease the burden carried by the poor, the defenseless, the stranger.

This is costly devotion. It requires something of us other than trying to just be a good boy or girl. It demands we get our hands dirty in the mess of others. To intervene. To advocate. To borrow a phrase, to sometimes speak truth to power - especially when that power is trampling over others. This is music to God’s ear. This is the worship that gains his attention.

Salt and light

Unless we think this is just the OT, Jesus said it this way:

Read Matt: 5:13-20

Growing up in and around church people, we used to debate if salt could actually every lose it’s salty taste. I think we often did this to try and defend our once saved/always saved/we-don’t-have-to-do-good-works-because-we-are-saved-by-faith-alone position. After reading multiple commentaries, I still don’t know if salt can become tasteless. But I do know this: it can become useless. It can be spoiled by what gets added to it so that it is no longer good for anything. It can be so corrupted as to make it unfit for its purpose of seasoning food. And the same can happen to us when we maintain only an outward appearance of religion. A worship divorced righteousness.

We also use to debate if salt here was primarily about providing taste or acting as a preservative. The answer is “yes”.

Salt and light are intended to make a difference. We are the salt and light that seasons and illuminates the reality of the kingdom of God to others. We are called to be people who give others a positive taste of God. We serve as a preservative as we work for restorative justice. We are to be a light that points others to Jesus. 

There is a warning here as well: unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we won’t enter the kingdom of God. Unless we bring a genuine kind of devotion to God, we will find ourselves on the outside looking in. I don’t think just having Jesus as a get-out-of-hell-free card is going to work.

Unless our righteousness exceeds the Pharisees, unless it exceeds the superficial rituals of those in Isaiah’s day, we will not enter the kingdom. Does this mean we work to earn salvation? No. But the genuineness of our salvation will be evident by our works. James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

In thinking about this message I confess I’ve struggled with how to make it practical. That we are to work for justice is a given; how we are to work for it is complicated. So many of the problems and injustices in our world are simply too big for us. We can try and buy ethically sourced food and clothing, those where employees receive a fair wage, and I guess if enough of us do it it will make a difference. We can write our representatives to advocate for the fair application of law, and maybe that will help. We should probably do all of that kind of stuff. Corporately as a church we can continue to make sure we serve the under-resourced in our community by giving our time and money. But when faced with the magnitude of injustice in the world, I admit to being stymied on what I can do.

This past week we saw the horrible event that unfolded with Tyre Nichols as he was beaten nearly to death while crying for his momma - a beating he later died of. I’m always hesitant to bring things like this up, not because I don’t care or that I don’t think this is a “church” topic, but because so often more news comes out later that brings some justification to what was caught on film. But it seems in this case this was just pure police brutality. Let me go on record saying I love the police and those who serve. I’m not trying attack an institution. My point in bringing this up is simply that when faced with some of the extreme kinds of injustice that happen in the world, I’m at a loss on what I can do.

What these kind of events do, however, is remind me that Jesus has come, and that he brings God’s justice with him. As his rule and reign spreads, so does justice. Jesus is and will make things right. He will make things right for Tyre Nichols. He will make things right for the countless girls that have been trafficked. He will make things right for those who suffer injustice from those in power. And he will make things right for you. [next steps slide]

When I boil this down, I think Jesus simply calls me and you to work for justice in whatever sphere of influence we reside. If we are in business, are we giving people an honest value for their money or do we exploit the ignorant? If we’re in medicine, do we give fair treatment to everyone or only those who have means to pay? If we are educators, do we give the same grace to those students who don’t come from the best homes? Wherever we are, whatever place we hold in life, this is where we are called to enact the justice and righteousness of God’s kingdom. This is where we are called to be salt and light.

The good news of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ we now have the power of the Holy Spirit in us to do what we cannot do in our own power. We can sing the song of justice. As I said last week, the answer is not in striving to add up religious works - even good works - but to lean into genuine friendship with God. Walk with him, and you will become like him, and you will do the righteous work of the kingdom out of the overflow of your genuine devotion to God. This is the worship that is music to God’s ear. Amen.