Bugged About Sin

Maybe your particular vision of ‘the good life’ isn’t that white picket fence. Maybe it’s a certain dollar amount in your bank account. Or that job. Or a relationship status.

As you’re considering your vision of the good life, have you considered what role religion plays in it?

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, which is a time we set aside for self-reflection, introspection and repentance.

We enter into Lent by making an assumption: that the ways of our world are contrary to the ways of God.

Take the American Dream, for instance: not every American has equal access to the dream of a house with a white picket fence — thanks to decades of housing discrimination at the federal, state and local levels, Americans of color are significantly less likely to own a home.

Wealth, relationships, healthcare - nearly any metric by which we might measure a ‘good life’ is inequitable along various likes - class, gender, sexuality.

We can look at these inequities and know this is not God’s desire for our world.

But it’s hard for us to connect faith to those inequities. For a lot of us, faith is a private activity, something between us and God. It’s not something we discuss in public.

Faith might regulate our individual activities, but faith isn’t something we think about in terms of public policy.

Faith, in other words, is personal, not political.

Except… if our culture really is turned away from God, then it’s at every level. It means our political reality is fallen as much as our personal realities.

Turn with us to Isaiah 58.

This division between personal and political realities is relatively recent in human history - maybe a couple of hundred years old.

If you were here during Epiphany, you might remember this text. It’s from the years following the Exile, when God’s people are focused so much on personal piety that they’re ignoring the suffering of the vulnerable around them.

I want to revisit this text with you as a reminder that the division we make between personal and political is a false one — at least for God’s people. Let’s read:

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Isaiah 58:1–3 NLT

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.

As far as God is concerned, personal piety that is disconnected from a whole, just society is nothing but performance.

That’s deeply important for us to remember as we head into Lent. Let’s keep reading, to hear what God wants from us:

Isaiah 58:3–7 NLT

‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Again, for God, personal piety has to be paired with political justice to mean anything. As Jesus says, we can’t separate love of God from love of neighbor.

What’s more, when God offers a vision of wholeness — what we might call the good life — it’s a world that encompasses both (personal and political holiness):

Isaiah 58:8–14 NLT

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes. “Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

This is NOT quid pro quo. This is God’s vision of the Good Life. It looks very different from the American Dream. It will cost us.

But Lent is where we trust that following Jesus to the cross leads to the empty tomb.

Song

Series

Personal + Political (where are you? What is God healing in you? What is God calling you to?)

Fast: will you?

For Catalyst: personal IS political. We want to be both.

Communion + Ashes

You only have one life. Make it a good one.

Assignment + Blessing

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