Reflections
JUST RIGHT
By Harry Heintz
Texts: Amos 5:21-24, James 1:26-27
Wait a minute. We do something right—we get up and come to worship and put something in the offering plates—and it’s not enough? What does God want? Blood? Our life savings? Coming to all three services every weekend? How could God not be impressed with our worship and our offerings? I have a vested interest in your coming to worship. I don’t like preaching to no one. I have a vested interest in your giving regularly. That pays the bills here, my salary included, and supports a ministry that stretches around the world. I want people to honor God in worshiping faithfully and giving generously. I try to worship and give in gratitude to God; I expect that you do too. Here we are—do we need to hear this? Yes.
God is not keeping worship attendance and giving ledgers, at least not in the way churches often do. God is looking for something more. In fact, God can be downright repulsed by our worship. This prophetic word of the Lord has three “I will not . . .” statements in it:
“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals, I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”
Our worship, our offerings, and our music unacceptable? Ouch! It seems that God is looking for something more. What makes our worship and our offerings acceptable?
A Salvation Army office in
God is concerned about integrated living: worship and work in harmony, not dissonance. There is an old word for godly living that is not much used today and when it is it often has a negative feel to it: pious or piety. We tend to think of pious people as what we don’t want to be, stiff-necked people that ooze self-righteousness, that they’re better than the rest of us and they know it. The simplest dictionary definition for piety is devotion and reverence for God. That’s good—God wanted that from ancient
Here is piety that honors God: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” God doesn’t tell us to stop worshiping, but to let worship flow into right living. Here’s piety that honors God: “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.” God is fine with us coming to worship every week—in fact the Bible makes clear that God wants us to worship in community regularly. God is fine with us bringing our tithes and offerings—in fact, the Bible commands us to bring them before God in worship. What God despises is empty worship, devoid of concern for holy living in the world. disconnected from daily life.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Justice and righteousness are so closely related, but each has a slightly different nuance. Righteousness suggests getting our personal lives in order before God. Justice suggests getting our public lives in order before God. James helps us with these two sides of one coin. Righteousness is keeping ourselves unstained by the world. In “The Message” it is interpreted this way: “guard against corruption from the godless world.” This is not calling us to be “goody two shoes—holier than thou,” but to be like Jesus, who is not only perfectly God and human, but the perfect blend of heaven and earth. He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” and he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” God wants our lives to be holy, different than the world around us. Let us not belittle personal piety and let’s not stop there; there’s more. Back to James: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress ...” That’s public piety; that’s social concern. Orphans and widows were the most vulnerable people in society then—they still can be today. Here is how “The Message” says it: “Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight...” Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful,” and he said, “blessed are the peacemakers...” He calls us to holy living and he models it for us. He calls us to integrated living and he models it for us.
Justice and righteousness are not two ways of serving God—this is one way of serving God, with personal and public piety perfectly intertwined and enmeshed, melded and molded together. What was so offensive about ancient
A few years back someone came up with the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” That has served well in getting us to think about how to live each day. But I don’t think Jesus is all that excited about the cottage industry that pithy little question has spawned: bracelets, jewelry, posters, booklets, etc. Now some are asking, “What would Jesus drive?” I don’t know? It’s probably not a gas-guzzling monstrosity. I’d like to think it’s a 97 blue Subaru Legacy with 78,870 miles on it, because that’s what I drive and it would me feel more righteous. And then I’d be the biggest Pharisee at all. Enough already! Instead of getting so clever with merchandising WWJD, let’s do what he did. We have the record of what Jesus did when he was hanging around down here. He loves the Father with all his heart and he loves his neighbor in practical and prophetic ways. He bucks the religious and political leaders who are so certain of their righteousness and befriends people who no one, including themselves, thought were righteous. He troubles the comfortable and comforts the troubled. He lives in utter dependence on his heavenly Father and gives his life away in service to others. There are no compartments in him. He is real, with an undivided heart.
Here is what he said about right offerings. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.” Again in “The Message: “ You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love.”
Here is what Jesus said about right worship. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” He is all for worship and tithing, coupled with justice and righteousness.
Someone who, so far as I know, is not a Christian said this after 9/11, “The paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; steep profits and shallow relationships. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.” Isn't it amazing that George Carlin—that edgy and earthy comedian of the 70's and 80's—could write something so piercingly prophetic? But then, God is always free to choose unlikely voices to speak truth.
Let me try to get it in one sentence. God wants us to bring the world into our worship and to take our worship into the world.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Harry is pastor of Brunswick Presbyterian Church in Troy, NY.
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