Second Sunday of Lent: True and False Worship - Isaiah 58

Lent

What stands at the center of spiritual practices? The prophet Isaiah’s audience was committed in their religious devotion to God, however their practices did not unsettle their hearts. Isaiah wants their love for neighbour to match the heart of God himself. In this Lent season, can we increasingly take Isaiah’s words to heart, to become agents of healing and work towards the world that is possible through the transforming power of God’s love?

Respond:

• When you engage in spiritual disciplines, do you yearn that God will notice the sacrifice that you are making and give you special favour?

  • Do you find yourself feeling ‘better than’ those who are not doing the same practice?

  • Ask the Spirit to reveal your heart and motives and for the grace to recalibrate.

• God’s problem was not their fasting, nor was it their sincerity in the acts of worship, it was that their hearts and lives did not exhibit God’s compassion.

  • Do your spiritual practices lead you to become a more understanding, compassionate and generous person?

• “The celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.” - Walter Brueggemann

  • Have you adopted the practice of setting aside a day each week for rest, renewal, relationships and for delighting in God’s presence?