If/Then Justice

Then your light will break forth like the dawn...   [photo by DLK]

The Lectionary’s Old Testament passage this week is the first part of Isaiah 58 (1-9)—one of my favorite passages in the Bible, as you can tell by my “logo” above—“Repairing the Breach.”

In my life, there have been a lot of breaches—breaches between me and others, between me and myself, even between me and God. This chapter lays out the problem, and states the cure. It looks deceptively simple…

If you…

Break yokes, end injustice, stop pointing the finger or speaking evil, feed, clothe, and house the poor, and stop hiding…

Then…

“Then your light will break out like the dawn,

and your recovery will speedily spring forth;

and your righteousness will go before you;

the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

(vs. 8, 9a, NASB)

But then, as I read it more and more, and meditated on it, I began to ask deeper questions.

What yokes? Break them how?

What do I do, daily, that helps to end injustice?

Am I really supposed to bring the homeless into my house and give them my food?

In what ways am I hiding, from whom, and how do I quit?

Because, I have to tell you, I love the sound of those promises! Dawn! Recovery! Righteousness! God before me, behind me and speaking to me! That’s glory, all right, and I want to do anything I can that will put myself and others into the way of receiving that.