Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them. – Isaiah 1:13-14
As our family digs out around our house from the snow and ice of recent weeks, it has been interesting to see the different approaches that each family member prefers for the task. Because the big storm had snow first and then ice, there is an icy crust on top of the snow that makes it difficult to simply shovel the snow. This has given rise to our unique strategies to clear walkways.
Wendolyn prefers to use the blade of a small kids-sized shovel to chop up the ice. Then she follows with a full sized shovel to move the pieces away. Cade, the lover of all tools, has relished the chance to put a hammer to use to smash up the ice in small pieces that are then easy to sweep away. My tactic is to stomp on the ice. It cracks the ice into much larger pieces than the other two approaches. I wear the thickest gloves that we have so that I can simply flip the block out of the way with my hands. It’s too heavy to pick up and move some of those pieces, but they slide across the ice quite well. I am sure there are all kinds of things you could take about our personalities based on our different approaches, but for my part I simply enjoy how obvious each of us feels our way of doing things is. None of us sat around thinking about different ways to get the job done; we all jumped into action with a plan that to each of our minds was clearly the easiest way to get the job done.
Having differences in how we approach the tasks of life is natural. It is in fact a good thing. We run into problems, though, when we think that our way is so obviously the right way that we lose sight of how obvious a different solution is for someone else. Obvious to us does not necessarily mean obvious or even best for someone else. This even applies to our religious life. We love to do things our way. It seems so right and obvious. Our way is valuable, but that does not mean that it is the only right way. This applies to prayer, worship, ways to read the bible, or even managing the institutional affairs of the congregation. It can be so difficult to recognize the spiritual framework that seems so obvious to someone else. This particularly happens between different generations, who have different views on how the world works and what counts as obvious. How do we take joy in our own ways while also making room for others to function in their ways?
God in the bible consistently reminds us that the “how” is less important than the “why.” Acceptable religious actions are based more on our hearts than on the outcomes of what we do. That does not mean that anything goes, but rather than when we prioritize focusing our heart on God the more we are able to see that many different things allow us to do that more effectively. This is particularly a consistent message of the prophets. Isaiah condemns offerings and festivals that do not include turning one’s heart to God. We hear the same message from Amos and Micah, among others. The intentions of the heart are not obvious, but they are the most central. How the desire for God is expressed is less important – which prayers to say, the details of liturgy, and on and on. Lead with a heart for God and the appropriate prayer will follow.