334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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Sometimes, you really make me mad! Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 (it is crucial that you read the passage)  I’ve had enough of all of your false worship, your hypocritical show of how religious you are. You wear me out with such nonsense. Not for one moment am I fooled, and I have no intention of listening to you, none whatsoever. God speaking through Isaiah. God speaking then, God speaking now. Are we listening? When we pretend to be people of faith, people of God, it means nothing, nothing at all. God is not fooled by the show! And then Isaiah reports: Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord. (1:18, NRSV) Argue with God? You’ve got to be kidding, right? Actually, no, not at all.  In any relationship, it’s not likely that we’ll always be in total agreement with one another – correct? Relationships are difficult, inasmuch as we’re each different, each see things our way. We are bound to get into disagreement, into argument, perhaps even into heated argument. (Of course you understand that my spouse Dottie and I have gotten past all that – right? Just ask her. Go ahead, ask her. She’ll surely agree with me – he says, tongue deeply embedded in his cheek!) We’re in relationship with God, an extremely vital relationship! Why then would such a relationship not allow for real conversation, real dialogue, real exchange of differing points of view? Example: God vows to destroy the folks of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham confronts (yes, confronts!) God with: Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (Gen. 18:23) Abraham  debates with God, bargains with God. Abraham uses the phrase: far be it from you to do such a thing (25) to remind God of God’s justice. When it’s all said and done, Abraham exacts God’s promise that if there are as few as ten righteous persons, God will hold off on God’s wrath! (32) That’s relationship! Similarly, Moses goes to bat for the people of Israel. Look God, you brought us out of bondage, and so now, because you’re mad at us, you’re going to destroy your people? God hears Moses, and the result? And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. (Exod. 32:14) Basically, Job is in constant debate and argument with God. In fact, “he lives for the dispute. Likely that is why in ancient Israel there are no atheists. The conversation of faith is the best action in town. Job is characteristic of Jewishness that finds dispute a viable, crucial form of faith.” *  Authentic, full-fledged relationship with God leads to honest expression of who we are and how we are. It allows us to offer worship with integrity, filled with the kind of praise and interaction God demands of us. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; …cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (16-17) Talk to me, seek justice, plead for those you love, defend those who need it and I will listen – as long as you are open, honest, loving, and accept me as your God – truly, authentically.  - Pastor Piet – August 12, 2007  * Walter Brueggeman, Finally Comes the Poet. Fortress Press, 1989.