Wash
yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways.
Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of
orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
I
would hope most of us would accept the fact that when we are doing wrong things
(sinning), we are aware that we have had a choice and, knowingly chosen the
wrong option. In Monday’s thought, the
apostle Paul taught us that every action we undertake should be taken with the
awareness that God’s presence is with us at all times. We are told today to wash ourselves and be
clean. This is most appropriate in our
current lives when we go shopping and each shop we enter requires us to re-sanitize
our hands. When we wash ourselves, it is
always an action that must be repeated.
At the end of the day, the only way our sins can permanently be washed
away is by asking Jesus to bear them on our behalf because through our lives,
we will always fall short of what God requires from us.
In
today’s passage from the book of Isaiah, we are being taught that in addition
to controlling our own behaviour, there are things we should be doing in
addition to this. The examples given
are; seeking justice, helping the oppressed, defending the cause of orphans and
fighting for the rights of widows. All
of this guidance from the Old Testament is equally relevant in present times.
We
regularly hear about miscarriages of justice where the wrong person has been
found guilty of a crime and the true culprit is revealed later, sometime many
years later after an innocent person has been imprisoned. We receive regular appeals for our donations on
behalf of charities or organisations fighting for those who are oppressed at
home and throughout the world.
It
is difficult to mention some of these issues without appearing political to
some degree. This, along with a few
other issues tend to be dealt with in public life and, indeed in church life in
a politically correct manner. If we look
at the ministry of Jesus and his ways of dealing with those in positions of
responsibility and authority within and outwith the church in his time, he did
what was necessary to obey the law but not if the law in itself was wrong. He was not slow in condemning the leaders of
the church in terms of their misinterpreting of the scriptures and the
resulting flawed teaching. I’ll leave it
up to yourselves to determine the appropriateness or effectiveness of the approach
that Jesus took as opposed to the ways some of the political leaders at home or
abroad go about their business!
Prayer Our Lord and our God, we thank you
for this incredibly interesting life you have given to each and every one of
us, we thank you for its variety and for the sad times as well as the happy
times. Be with us every day to help us
make the right decisions despite how difficult this can sometimes be. Equip us Lord with the strength to resist
temptation to do the wrong thing or to make the wrong choice. Help us demonstrate the love you have for us
in the way we treat and respect others. Amen
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