Responding to the existential crisis of the day

A Reflection for Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

By coincidence, I wrote on these same readings when they came up in the lectionary cycle in 2024. My reflection on the Gospel passage is here. This year, I will focus on the first reading from the prophecy of Isaiah.

Isaiah the prophet lived late in the turbulent eighth century B.C. The ancient Near East, after centuries of division into small, local, ethnic states, once again witnessed the rise of great kingdoms. The empire of Assyria, based in what today is Kurdistan and Iraq, began to absorb small states throughout Syria, the southern Levant and Egypt. 

Two of those small, local, ethnic states were Israel and Judah, the divided remnants of David’s kingdom. They were still self-consciously the descendants of Jacob and the inheritors of the greatness of David and Solomon, but they lacked the economic and military power to resist the Assyrian advance. The northern kingdom of Israel responded by banding together with other small states in the region in an effort to defeat Assyria. This effort failed, and in 722 B.C., Assyria conquered Israel, deported its people and ruled the land as a conquered province.

The southern kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, was smaller and poorer than the kingdom of Israel. It refrained from joining the alliance that destroyed the northern kingdom. By doing so, it managed to maintain its autonomy in the face of the Assyrian advance. Nonetheless, Assyria plundered Judah with demands for tribute, demands that, if resisted, would serve as pretext for war and conquest.

Refugees from the north had flooded south during the Assyrian conquest. They brought two things with them that inspired Isaiah the prophet. Northerners had extensive written texts detailing Israel’s history and religious belief. Northerners also had begun to develop an idea, one so prevalent today that we simply take it for granted, that right worship begins not with the hands and the voice but with the heart. Only a heart that seeks God in all things can offer pleasing worship through sacrifice and prayer. 

This provided a satisfying response to the existential crisis of the day: “How could God let Israel fall when they were the chosen people?” Although citizens of the northern kingdom may have been outwardly faithful to the covenant, inwardly they had no interest in a right relationship with God. This inward duplicity revealed itself not in their poor worship but in their treatment of fellow Israelites. The prophets Amos and Hosea testify to the violence, dishonesty, oppression and impoverishment that were widespread in the northern kingdom. In Isaiah’s mind, this was evidence that Israel’s hearts did not seek God. 

Your hands are full of blood!
Wash yourselves clean!
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 plea, defend the widow.

Around the year 740 B.C., Isaiah had a series of visions that reinforced this message. Today’s reading comes from the first of these visions, one that serves as a prologue to the many prophecies that follow. It has endured as a challenge to every generation. Right worship occurs when our hearts, voices and hands act in unison. Righteousness means that we thirst for God, believe in the covenant God offers and make our every action conform to the divine will. This means working for peace, practicing honesty, freeing others from injustice and guarding ourselves against laying unjust burdens on others. 

It is easy to say all the right words in church on Sunday. It is much harder to act righteously on Monday at work. It is easy to adhere to all the right politics or associate with the right people. It is much more difficult to sacrifice one’s own wants to satisfy another’s needs. Yet this is what God has called us to do from the beginning. 

Isaiah’s community responded to his challenge imperfectly, but it was enough for Judah to survive. Judahites developed the distinct religious culture that gave rise to Christianity and Judaism. Without Isaiah, all this may have been lost. With his challenge before our eyes, we can build our relationship with God with confidence.

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