For August 11-Is. 1:10-20, Heb. 11:1-3, 13-16

Is. 1:1-20

The basis for Hebrew ethics is care for the vulnerable: the widow, the traveler, the orphan.  Please do not read into this passage an attack on the sacrificial system itself or worship in general in favor of social justice concerns.

Many of recall the destruction of Sodom in Gen. 19 for its rejection of hospitality for attempted rape of a stranger.  Jerusalem itself, the site of the temple is now called Sodom. (see Ezek 16 on its ill treatment of the poor, however). The people of been worshipping fully, but God sees the offerings as nothing (v.13). God seems to no longer respect worship.

For worship to be proper, the people need to learn justice. Ethics are linked to right worship. As a preliminary to worship in the temple courts, God wants justice in the law courts.

Instead of ritual purity, God is seeking “ethical purity.” The worshippers have sacrificial blood on their hands but the blood of human beings due to injustice.

Some of us are old enough to remember LBJ quoting this passage-come let us reason together. Come to the table and hash this out, but the way they are going will lead to death, and the path of God’s way will lead to life.

Heb.11:1-3, 8-16

vv.1-3 We have a gold mine of material for the invisible to the visible, especially for those interest in natural science and faith (see William Brown), for instance) The eyes of faith see beyond current realities and can glimpse the future, the arc of the universe.

Faith here is relational, a part of fidelity, of abiding trust. (Again, one could go to Erik Erikson on trust as fundamental to personality) Jesus is all the “proof” we require of the substance. After all, hypostatis is Trinitarian language. “Elegchos” has a sense of Jefferson’s self-evident truth. Yet another way to go at this passage is to use its words as law court language even now-martyr after all means witness.

Many think that Hebrews is sermonic for dispirited people. Vv13-16 supports that with its reminder that the roll call of faith is met with trouble and disappointment throughout. Still, they persisted, as they kept their  eye on a brighter future, a different realm.