Jesus is not ambiguous in his instructions to us: love God and love your neighbor. He makes it clear that everyone is our neighbor. But he also instructed his disciples not to spend time with people who wouldn’t listen to them. “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your word, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet,” (Matthew 10:14, NIV). Loving our neighbor means knowing when to step in, and when to step away. We aren’t going to argue anyone into faith; if a person can be argued into faith, that same person can be argued out of it. We need to be able to point to what is wrong in our world and work to change it, not convince others of its wrongness.
Isaiah 58 has appeared twice in our worship this week, at both the Sunday and Wednesday services. It is the appointed lectionary reading, which makes its appearance all the more noticeable (it would not be a big deal if I were choosing the readings). We will hear it again next week at the Ash Wednesday service. “Is this not the fast that I choose? To loosen the bonds of injustice, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide shelter to the homeless, to clothe the naked and not turn away from your fellow humans?” Further in the chapter, Isaiah says, “If you remove the yoke of oppression, the pointing of fingers and evil speech, if you spend your time feeding the hungry and taking care of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night become like noon day.” Sometimes God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes God blares a trumpet and puts the Word right in front of us.
People are scared. People are angry. People are tired. The easy thing to do is to block out the world and attend to our own lives and ignore the rest. Jesus never told us to take the easy way, nor did he model living a life that ignores the world around us. Jesus lived in our messy and divided world, among us and with us.
How would Jesus respond to the world we live in today? What would he say about our arguments, divisions, and anger? Are we looking and listening for Jesus in our lives? We are meant to live in the world, not ignore it. We are taught to care for and love the least of those among us. Jesus is clear in all of this. How are we responding? Are we feeding the poor, sheltering the unsheltered, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, and tending to people in need? Not all of us are called to work with the indigent, and the indigent are not the only people in need; all of us are in need of something.
God calls us to serve one another, and in serving one another, we become the truest form of who we are meant to be; Jesus came into this world not to be served, but to serve. And when we serve, the light of God will drive away the darkness in our lives; our fear, anger, and dread will be replaced with love, grace, and hope.
The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector
jason.shelby@stfrancispalosverdes.org