Going Through the Motions

 "When you come to worship me, who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony? Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts ..." Isaiah 1:1-20

 
I remember trying out for the junior high basketball team as a kid. There were a whole bunch of us. It is Indiana after all. We were lined up doing individual dribbling drills in place. I quickly bored of the drills and basically made no effort unless I knew the coach was watching. In the middle of my less than half-hearted attempts at the drills, I saw the coach in the doorway of one of the side doors standing in the shadows. As it turned out, there never was a moment when the coach wasn't watching. When the roster was posted, my name was nowhere to be found.  

Isaiah's tenure as a prophet was a real mixed bag. He spoke for the Lord in the good times and in the bad. He served during the reign of godly leaders and ungodly leaders. He spoke of judgement and restoration. He rebuked and he encouraged. His book starts with a bang. It was a solid right cross to the nose. The people's worship, specifically the leaders, had devolved into a spectacle. It was religion at its worst. They went through all the motions and then some, but their hearts were cold towards the Lord. It was time to shake things up.

His warnings to the people of Israel serve as warnings to us as well. God has not invited us into stale heartless ritual. He's invited us into a dynamic passionate relationship. Which of those two is best descriptive of our experience with God these days? Attending services, prayer, obedience and even serving can look and sound good, but have absolutely nothing to do with a sincere love for God or others. If someone were able to peek into the corners of our hearts, what would they see? Jesus put us on the team. What do you say we genuinely enter into the full wonder of that privilege?

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