Even Faith Can Be Corrupted

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

      We had to get a new dishwasher in the Pipes household this week because the computer of our old one was corrupted. It ran about every third to fifth time and you had to sort of keep pushing it and it would E25, which is some sort of error code. And then you'd start it again.

But we live in a world where things get corrupted all the time. Maybe it's a hard drive. Maybe it's a computer. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's a government. But all things in this world, unfortunately, can be corrupted, even our faith. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

So as we listen to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 58, he's telling the Israelites how their faith has become corrupt. It's because they have smuggled in their own needs, their own desires, versus being the people that God asked them to be. And the same thing can be true for us. We can take our faith, and our faith is something in which it puts us in right relationship with God and the world, and we can make it about other things.

We can make it about power and control and authority. We can use it as a spare tire of sorts. We can do all kinds of things. We can even become complacent with it and not value it.

And so what I want to do today is I want to offer us three things. I want to offer us a word of caution. If we see this, then it might mean that our faith is becoming corrupt. I want to give us a way to measure or monitor the health of our faith. And then lastly, a principle to remember. And they all come from Isaiah 58.

So in Isaiah 58, he's challenging them and saying, Hey, listen, you're ardent and fervent in your prayer and fasting, but you're doing it, so that you think you can manipulate God, so that you can get what you want.

But that's not the purpose of it at all. The purpose of it is so that you might be a people who offer up mercy and justice and grace. And so you've missed it. And so while it might, on the outside, seem as though you're doing all the right things, on the inside, your motive behind it is not the right motive.

You know, one of the things that I think happens as human beings is we take something like faith, which is a gift and it's grace, and it gives us a sense of goodness and wonder. It can easily become something in which we use it to control, control a variety of things. We can use it to create authority improperly. We can use it to stand against or away or apart from others and offer up condemnation through it.

We can also just sort of use it as a rabbit's foot of sorts and use it there just as a comfort to ourselves, but not actually allow it to transform our lives. And so anytime you see control sneaking in your life in which somehow you're using faith in such a way where it allows you to control others, or control situations, that's a sign that your faith is becoming corrupt. That's exactly what God is speaking against the Israelites on.

One of the ways I think we can sort of clue into that is ask ourselves, what do I need to release control of? You know, sometimes we need to release control of our kids, or we need to release control of what's happening at work, or release control of a potential future outcome, because those are the places where we start to get in and try to manipulate and get what we want. So that's the word of caution.

The next part is how do we monitor, if our faith is healthy, what should we see? And this is Isaiah's second point, where God says, Hey, listen, I gave you prayer and fasting so that you might let the oppressed go free, that you might remove evil from your community, that you might offer grace and mercy.

And so one of the things that we should see in our faith, if it's healthy, is that we should see it yield good for the world, not just good for a few, but the greater good. And I think there's all kinds of ways to do that. You know, here at Grace, what we do is we partner with organizations like the Samaritan Center and Young Lives, and YoungLife. We just got back from a trip to El Salvador, and we have a long standing relationship with that community. And those are ways in which, as we practice, a collective desire to serve the world. That's an outworking of our faith. And so it says, okay, well, grace community doesn't exist just for itself. It exists for the Syracuse community and even communities around the world.

It doesn't have to just be organized like that, though. It can also be something that happens in the midst of our day to day. So as teachers, we can craft a classroom so that those who are ignored are felt heard and it's inclusive. As students, we can break down barriers and invite kids in and help them be a part of something bigger. As leaders at work, we can help our teams and our organizations be a place of equity and of justice. And a place in which people are allowed to grow as, as human beings. And even just as workers, as colleagues, and in our families, we can try to make sure that that's the way we're living out and ultimately, as we experience the love of God, it should lead to the love of others and we can monitor that and say, okay, does my life have a picture in which it looks as though there's the love of others. There's the greater good coming forth on it.

So just ask yourself, what does it look like for you to love others in your every day? Whether that's as a teacher or a doctor or a business person or at school or whatever it is you find yourself up to this week, there's a way that you can think, okay, because of the experience of love of God and my identity in Christ, here's how I might love and serve those around me.

So we want to be cautious about control sneaking in. We want to measure or monitor the health of our faith through the way that it reflects love to the greater good.

And then lastly, we want to remember this principle that we want to live in harmony with God and others. And so as Isaiah continues to write, Isaiah says, Hey, the health of your community will mean health for you. So if you remove the blame and the finger pointing and the injustice from your community, it says that your gloom will disappear like in the noonday sun. And so in that way, what we realize is that our joy is tied to the joy of others. And so what we want to do is we always want to think about how am I in right relationship with God and others.

Think about it this way, whether it's a chord or a three part harmony, those notes aren't the same, but they go together. And when they go together, it sounds beautiful. When they don't go together, it's, there's discord. It hurts your ears. You sort of lean back.

And so for some of us, we want to sort of think about our relationship with God and say, you know what, I sort of keep God in the closet, or I'm trying to get God to just give me what I want. I think of God as a rabbit's foot. But God wants to be in relationship with us, and God wants us to be a people who listen and respond. In prayer, in the Spirit, in the Scriptures, that we listen to what God has to say, and we respond with a sense of justice and mercy as Christ lays out.

Meanwhile, with other people, we want to think about our relationship with them. Are we engaged? Are we, are we loving them? Are we helping bring about justice and mercy? And when those, when all that is right, then we get to live in harmony. And so when we think about our faith, we want it to be something in which it helps us stay in right relationship with God and others.

So unfortunately, we live in a world in which things are corrupted and we have to pay attention and watch out that even our faith can be corrupted. But as we read in the words of Isaiah, God is always a God of grace that welcomes us back. And so we want to be a people that takes caution to not allow faith to be used to control others. We want to monitor and measure and say, okay, is my faith producing love of others? Is it producing the greatest good for even those who are vulnerable?

And lastly, we want to remind ourselves of the principle that our harmony with God and others is going to have a lot to do with the own, our own harmony in our own life.

Hey, I hope that you're able to get out there and live this this week and I look forward to engaging you again next week. Take care everybody.