Friends,
A busy week ahead with my book release party tonight (Berlin, MA, 19 Carter Street, 6 pm.) followed by the online Book Read with Episcopal Divinity School on February 5, 1 pm Eastern time (Register here).
Then February 10 I meet with the New Dawn Arts Center Writer's Group at 7 pm. 84 Main Street in Ashburnham, MA. Open to writers and readers, we'll talk about how non-fiction can move from being a lecture to an engaging story.
I hope you can join me at one or more of these.
Liz
It's About Money
We are reading Isaiah 58:1-12 in worship next Sunday. Oddly enough it shows up again for Ash Wednesday on February 18. Thus, it shows up prominently in my Lenten Study: When Did We See You? (Upper Room Books, Jan 2026).
When writing about poverty and wealth this Isaiah text is clearly about money more than about worship. It uses the word worship, and not the word money, and the translators add the header True Worship. But that is not really what it says.
The leadership, now in exile in Babylon, is complaining about God not noticing their fasting and humility. The prophet, speaking as God, suggests that this false worship/fast is done for themselves not for God. Scholars suggest that the community has added days of fasting in order to lament their removal from their homeland.
God will have nothing of this lament. They are complaining about their own condition, while at the same time ignoring the needs of their employees. "Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers" (Is 58:3b). Workers need many things--limits to their hours, breaks, and safe working conditions. But what workers mostly need is money. A fair, and life-sustaining, wage.
Lent (starting February 18) is a time of fasting, penitence/humility, and charity. I suggest we consider God's word on fasting:
"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?" (Isaiah 58:6-7).
Could it be that true worship, the important fasting, is a redistribution of wealth? What if we give up money for Lent? To do so will take some planning ahead!
Much of the Hebrew Bible is instruction to the nation to care for it's people, especially the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger. It's about what laws and enforcement should be in place to protect the oppressed from unfair labor practices and to provide for their well-being.
In this section of Isaiah, however, like in the New Testament, the people being addressed are not in the charge of their own government. Here Babylon, not Rome, are the rulers. But the leaders of the community are still called to care for one another. This text begs the question of what we are doing as a congregation to care for our members, and as a town to care for your neighbors.
Money clearly is what is needed for the hungry, the poor, the homeless, and the naked. God's words insist that we share what we have. When our wealth is in the form of bread and housing we are called to give bread, and share housing. I would suggest that today our wealth is mostly in the form of savings accounts and investments. Isaiah is telling us to give [some?] of that away.
What about loosing the bonds of injustice and letting the oppressed go free? Certainly some of what is needed is a change of our hearts and minds so that we recognize the humanity of all people. Certainly what is needed right now is for immigrants to get due process, for equal rights laws to be enforced, and more. But like the people of Judah in exile in Babylon, we don't have easy, short-term access to changing the law.
And yet still God calls us to care for our neighbors. And so we must find ways as a church to do this local, immediate work. Each congregation in each neighborhood must make sure everyone has the food, the housing, and safety from harm that they need. Some of us will provide a food pantry or meal, some will work on housing, some will stand between immigrants and the violence of our government.
Our news is filled with stories of local communities that are insisting that their neighbors are important, valuable, and worthy of protection. For those of us not yet in the path of government violence, those communities need our funding. And because no one is safe when the government is not following the law, we need to fund organizations that are planning for when the violence comes to us.
The Lenten season is coming, and it is a good time to think about our congregation's money, and our personal money, and how money can be used to as a fast that breaks every yoke (Is 58:6c).
"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and God will say, "Here I am"
(Isaiah 58:8-9a).
"Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in" (Isaiah 58:12).
What is your church doing, or thinking about doing these days? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
I love the band Gangstagrass! They are blue grass/hip hop and want to eliminate the line between white and black music. This song is about how the oppressed can go free.
It's A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood by Lady Gaga! Who'd have thunk it?
Here is how to order When Did We See You? A Lenten Exploration of Poverty & Wealth.
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