Lectionary for 1/6/09

Today's readings are from Isaiah 66.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Is.+66.1-20 ) and Luke 3.21-38 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Lk.+3.21-38 ).

It is very common for us to look at the Christian life in general, and particularly at worship, from the perspective of what we bring to God.  We present ourselves as offerings to our Lord.  We approach his holy mountain with clean hands and a pure heart.  We prepare our hearts for worship and seek to be that acceptable sacrifice to God.  And it is right and good to come to worship, corporately or individually, with the attitude of repentance the Lord requires.  It is good to enter the courts of the Lord joyfully.  We should pursue holiness and righteousness in all things.  And as we strive to live a life of holiness before the Lord we find that we are more ready to approach the throne of God with joy.  Yet there's a fundamental flaw in this line of reasoning.  Though most of the statements above are drawn from Scripture, there is a big problem with the application.

We are sinners, every one of us.  We are unsatisfactory offerings.  We do not have clean hands or a pure heart.  Our preparations for worship, based on our attempts at righteousness, are vile and filthy before God.   We aren't even able to repent well, as we are always looking for the reward the Lord will give us because we are so good in our repentance.  When we are joyful in Christ we too often are not actually joyful, but simply putting on a false front.  Or we are blithely unaware or in denial of the depth of our sin which brings grief and death to our Lord and Savior.  The problem with our pursuit of holiness and righteousness is that if we are doing it we are immediately able to adopt a motive that says we will earn God's favor, or at least the favor of other people.  Thus our striving for holiness becomes self-deception and idolatry.  Let's be real.  Like Israel in the book of Isaiah, what we have to offer is vile and despicable in the sight of God.  How, then, do we worship the Lord as we are commanded?

Thanks be to God, we read in Scripture that God has made it possible to bring right service to him by providing the holiness and righteousness that we need.  The source of our worship, the source of our holiness, the source of our approach to God is God himself, in the person of Jesus. God has raised up salvation of his own accord, for his own purpose, using his own means, because he knows the more we strive the more we will fail.  Let us look to our Lord in hope.  Let us depend on his offering of himself to the Lord.  Let us approach our Lord with the clean hands and pure heart of Jesus applied to us.  Let us receive the repentance the Lord gives, along with the forgiveness he has provided in Christ.  Let us enter worship with the joy and gladness that comes from knowing Christ has paid the penalty for our faults.  And let us receive the holiness and righteousness that he gives through repentance and forgiveness, also given by him.