"With Blood Stained Hands" Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

I’ve been thinking a lot about worship these past few weeks. 

I’ve been thinking about worship because it’s the single most significant thing we do as a congregation. 

I’ve been thinking about worship because I’ve attended these past few weeks a variety of worship services incorporating a great diversity of styles, at General Assembly, at Loch Leven, and – last week – at First Christian Church of Orange. 

I’ve been thinking about worship, because I’m currently working with other leaders in our church to plan a series of worship services in September centered around the theme, “Focus on Excellence.”   

And I’ve been thinking about worship because I’ve been thinking about Isaiah, and Isaiah thought a lot about worship.

The first chapter of Isaiah is a kind of prologue to the whole book that bears his name.  The themes of the book of Isaiah are introduced here, and they have to do with worship. 

And strangely enough, Isaiah says that one of the most important things about worship – perhaps the most important thing about worship – is what happens when you’re not in worship.

God – speaking through Isaiah – says, basically, I can’t stand your worship services.  “I’ve had enough of it,” God says. 

Let me tell you why.

Worship in those days involved the sacrifice of animals.  Chrysanne Timm, a Lutheran pastor in Ohio, describes the ancient sacrificial system well.  She says:  “Offerings of grain, turtle doves, pigeons, lambs, goats, and bulls all served specific purposes. Some, like the grain offering, were a witness to the Lord's gracious provision for the people. Other offerings expressed gratitude and well-being, while still others served to remove the stain of people's sin from the Lord's sight. Aaron and his descendants were responsible for fulfilling these duties for the sake of the people.

“These practices were meant to keep the righteousness and holiness of the Lord in the forefront of the people's minds and hearts. They were established to continually remind God's people of his ready provision and faithfulness. They were intended to remind the people of the Lord's passion for justice and care for the suffering. These sacrifices were meant to restore people to community when they sinned against one another and to reconcile them to the Lord when they forgot his purposes in favor of their own.”

These are all very good reasons.

As reminders of God’s faithfulness and holiness, and as reminders of God’s passion for justice and care for those who suffer, the sacrificial system worked pretty well.  Until the people forgot what it was for.  Until they forgot that God’s passion for justice and care for those who suffer meant that they were called to work for justice and to care for those who suffer. 

I mean, one just can’t offer a sacrifice of holiness and justice on the Sabbath while ignoring holiness and justice the rest of the week.

Therefore God says:  “I’ve had enough!  I’ve had enough of your offerings and sacrifices!  I no longer take delight in them.  When you come to worship me, I will remain hidden.  You will not see me as long as you continue to practice violence and bloodshed.  You will not see me as long as you fail to practice justice and mercy and compassion.”

Several times now, I have been camp counselor to high school youth who admitted to me that they were pretty sure they did not believe in God.  And the reason they didn’t believe in God is because they have been unable to see God in the world.  God has remained hidden.

In the world, there is always a war raging.  Every day, people are killing people, and often they do it in the name of God.  Every religion has those who are willing to kill in the name of their God, and it keeps others from being able to see God.

And then there are always people willing to stab you in the back, people willing to tear you down, to speak words of cruelty, words that hurt, words that are violent. 

These high school kids read the news.  And even if they don’t, they experience every day the insults and put-downs of a world that tells them they aren’t smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, rich enough. 

Do you ever watch a sitcom and realize that most of the so-called jokes are just one character insulting another?  I don’t know about you, but it makes me uncomfortable.  I don’t like it.  It’s not funny, watching someone make fun of someone else and hurting their feelings.  It’s not funny, because it happens too often in real life to be funny.

And just like violent actions, violent words keep people from seeing God. 

Isaiah says that though the people came to worship, they came with hands full of blood, stained red with the sin and the guilt of the world.

It’s easy to say, “my hands aren’t stained red with blood!  What have I done?”

Every action, every choice we make, has consequences that we either ignore or fail to understand.

A fellow Disciples pastor commented recently about those who say they “love Jesus,” then make it their “political mission to dismantle systems and programs designed to help those whom Jesus loves -- without offering up a legitimate alternative.”  When the world sees Christians behaving in ways that withhold care and support from those who need it most, God is hidden.  God cannot be seen in the lives of those who claim to follow Christ, but act in un-Christlike ways.

We have a huge problem with ozone levels in our atmosphere, due largely to the exhaust from motor vehicles.  We have so many choices when it comes to transportation, so many choices that affect how much pollution we create and how much energy we use. 

How often could we carpool, but instead we choose to go alone?  How often could we walk, but choose to drive?  How often do we choose to buy goods that have been made overseas because they are cheaper, goods that have to be transported thousands of miles by cargo ship and 18-wheeler? 

L.A. wants to build a giant rail transfer facility next to the border of Long Beach.  You’ve probably heard about that.  Long Beach is suing to have the transfer facility built somewhere else.  People are protesting, because the proposed facility will be built upwind from Long Beach schools and neighborhoods.

If Long Beach is successful in getting it moved (and that’s a big “if”), then the transfer facility will likely be built somewhere else.  But that somewhere else will still produce the same amount of pollution, and it will still be upwind from someone. 

A more important question is:  Why do we need a rail transfer facility in the first place?  And the answer is because we have an insatiable appetite for stuff.  Cheap stuff, which comes from overseas.  We live in a disposable society, which means we always need new stuff, which we buy, use, and then throw away, because – being cheap – it wasn’t made to last. 

And since so much of this stuff is made overseas, it has to get to us somehow.  Hence the need for a rail transfer facility.

If we refuse to change our lifestyle… If all we do is protest until the sources of pollution are moved to someone else’s neighborhood… and we keep living a lifestyle that consumes cheap, disposable goods from overseas… and we keep making transportation choices for ourselves that do not reduce the amount of pollution we create directly… and we fight against providing healthcare for the poor while we grumble about our $20 co-pays… and then we come to worship and sing songs like “For the Beauty of the Earth” and “This is my Father’s World…” and “All Creatures of our God and King…” I wonder if God will even listen to our songs of praise.

And when we talk about God’s love for the earth and for the people of the earth but we do nothing to reduce the negative impact our lifestyle has on people around the world… don’t you think that makes it hard for people to see God in and through us?  Don’t you think that makes it hard for people to see God in and through the Church?

And I haven’t even mentioned yet our sons and daughters who have died fighting in countries where the fossil fuels we depend on for our lifestyle originate, and how many people – soldiers and civilians, adults and children – have died in wars fought, at least in part, for access to oil.

In a very real way, then, our hands are stained with blood. But we don’t have to have literal blood on our hands to prevent people from seeing God.  All we have to do is behave in ways that are un-Christian, criticize someone behind their back, complain about someone to someone else, or display anything that is less than pure love for another. 

We are created in the image of God.  We are brothers and sisters, one body, and we cannot hurt another person without hurting ourselves and those around us.  It’s just not possible.  If you stab someone in the back, some of their blood ends up on your hands.

And if we in the church can’t handle disagreements and conflicts while maintaining respect and love for one another,… God is kept hidden. 

At the General Assembly, several resolutions on controversial issues were presented, and there were arguments both for and against.  I am so grateful that the discussion was both civil and respectful.  I’ve heard that in some online forums that was not always the case, but everything I saw and heard at the assembly showed the love of Christ.  After the vote on one of the most controversial resolutions, two of the most outspoken leaders on opposite sides of the issue were spotted enjoying a friendly conversation and even embrace.  In that moment of friendship, even more than in the results of the vote, God was seen.

I think that this is something that we’ve learned here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church.  It’s certainly what I’ve seen in the five years that I’ve been a part of this congregation. 

But in the world, it is not always this way; and in the church, it is not always this way.

And even though I celebrate what I’ve experienced in the church these past few years and these past few weeks, I know that we still have work to do.  We still live lives that are in need of transformation.  I am still in need of transformation in so many areas of my own life.

So I am not surprised that many young people today find it hard to see God or believe in God.  God is kept hidden by our actions, by our lifestyle, by the way we treat one another.

What’s amazing to me, though, is that the kids I’ve met – even those kids who have lost their faith in God – they still come to church camp!  They want to be there.  And the reason is that at church camp, at a place like Loch Leven, they see something they don’t see anywhere else in the world.

They see unconditional love.  They see compassion.  They see acceptance. 

You and I know that the love, compassion, and acceptance they see and experience is God.  God is love.  We read that in 1 John.  God is compassion.  We see that in Matthew 25. 

But what those kids have heard is that God is judgment, God is vengeful, God is capricious and temperamental.  No wonder they find it hard to believe in God.

At camp, they see something else.  Because of what they’ve learned, some of them don’t recognize it as God, at least not at first.  But it keeps them coming back, year after year.  And someday, if the love that they experience at camp proves to be stronger than the hate and judgment and hypocrisy they’ve experienced in the world, they will learn to see God.

And that’s the hope that is found in Isaiah.  Though our hands may be full of blood, God can take our sins that are like scarlet, and turn them like snow.  God will show us how to love, and with God’s help, we will, as Isaiah says, cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, and rescue the oppressed.

And then, God will take delight in our worship!