Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s pea, defend the widow. The passage from the prophet Isaiah that constitutes today’s First Reading comes from the introductory section titled “The Book of Judgment.” In this introductory section, Isaiah lays down the Lord’s indictment of Israel and Judah. From the enumeration of the various “offenses,” the crime of Israel and Judah can be summarized thus: failure to offer proper worship. Whereas as one reads through the first five chapters one will realize that the sons and daughters of Israel indeed fell short of exclusively worshipping the Lord their God (they were guilty of idolatry), the crime of failing to offer true worship was broader since it had to do with their identity as the elect people. The existence (and fortunes) of Israel and Judah as a nation was tied to their identity as a people elected to be in a special (covenantal) relationship with God. The Lord God had promised to journey with them and to fight their wars. In return, Israel and Judah had to retain their identity as the Lord’s elect. The Lord had elected Israel to be a light to the nations, bestowing upon her the honor of leading the nations of the earth into the proper worship of God. This “proper” worship of the Lord God was to be characterized by right relationship (righteous living). Unfortunately, for the most part, Israel and Judah failed to live up to their calling. And when that happened, they fell out of favor with the Lord leading to the drying up of their fortunes. Their current languishing in exile was a result of Israel and Judah’s failure to remain true to their identity. Their only recourse was to return to the proper worship due God.
Proper worship due to God is not an exclusive affair between an individual and God. Rather, right and authentic worship must take into account the web of relationships upon which God inserts an individual. True worship is offered by an individual who understands that one ascends to God through his brothers and sisters. An individual truly worships God when he/she realizes that God delights not in sacrifices or oblations but rather in righteous living. The Lord couldn’t have made this any clearer to Israel and Judah:
“The praises that rise up to me must not issue from the lips that have cursed or demeaned your brother/sister. The hands that offer me an acceptable offering must not be the very hands that have deprived life or exchanged bribes. And just so that you may know, I care not about your burnt offerings because as the smoke from your offerings reaches me, so do the cries of those you have mistreated and denied justice. If you have to offer me an offering, let it be justice. Let your offering be you inability to stay alert as you say your daily prayers because your body is exhausted after spending many hours helping the poor widow rebuild her house. Let the hands that you raise to me in prayer be hands that have freed those who are oppressed in your midst.