The supernatural and the community

Let's go to the Word of the Lord in Isaiah Chapter 58. And you will wonder, 'Well, why does the León de Judá Church dedicate so much time, so much effort and so much money to social, community work? And I just want to establish a biblical and theological foundation for the community or social work that we do.

Because for many Christians, social work is often seen as totally secondary and perhaps even unnecessary. Perhaps in the Hispanic community there hasn't been that tradition of the involvement of the church in the city at times. And we want our Congregation to feel that it understands why we are doing what we are doing at the community level.

Because it would be counterproductive if the church leaders are in one place and the Congregation is in another place biblically speaking. That's why we want to be on the same page biblically and theologically. So then, we come to Chapter 58 of Isaiah. It says here: “Cry aloud. Do not stop, raise your voice like a trumpet and announce to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their beating. Who look for me every day and want to know my ways as people who have done justice and who have not left the law of their God. They ask me for just judgments and want to get closer to God”.

And we go here in Verse 3 where God begins to unite what we commonly call spiritual with the social, community. God begins to unite what is spiritual piety with the ethical social part. It says here: “You ask why we fasted and you didn't listen, we humbled our souls and you didn't understand. Behold, on the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers.

You see here, the idea is 'Yes, you fast something spiritual but on the other hand your behavior in terms of justice is not in accordance with that spirituality'. That is the ethical part of the Christian life. So in Verse 4 it says: “Behold, for strife and debate you fast and to strike wickedly with your fist. Do not fast like today so that your voice may be heard on high”. You see here something as profoundly spiritual as fasting, God is linking it to social behavior, human relationships.

It is not enough to come to church. It is not enough to speak in tongues or to worship the Lord enthusiastically. It is not enough to fast, it is not enough to tithe, it is not enough -not even- to give a lot of time and effort to the church in different activities. For this spiritual activity to be complete and significant, this ecclesiastical activity has to be complemented with a life, a behavior that reflects the spiritual quality that we are declaring.

Spiritual statements have to be supplemented by ethical actions. Then God rhetorically asks in Verse 5 “Is the fast that I chose such that by day man afflicts his soul, that he bows his head like a reed and makes a bed of silicon and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?

In other words, is it enough to just limit ourselves to the merely spiritual aspect? Or is there something else that God truly considers pleasing to Him? So watch how the Lord clarifies a part that we tend to ignore but that is very important to Him in terms of the action of the church on Earth. Look at verse 6.

He says: "Is not the fast that I chose to loosen the bands of wickedness, loosen the claws of oppression and let the broken go free and break every yoke?" “Is it not that you break your bread with the hungry and shelter the wandering poor at home? When you see the naked, you cover it and don't hide from your brother? And it says verse 8, and this is the consequence of that kind of all-encompassing behavior.

It says: “Then your light will rise like the dawn and your salvation will soon be seen and your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rearguard”. And I'm not going to read the rest of the verses, although they are very beautiful in themselves, but if you read you will see that the blessings that come from that consistent and balanced life are very, very great. What God is promising us as the culmination of his Word is that if we care about the greatest needs of the community, if we care about the spiritual, supernatural part, but we also complement it with the ethical, social part.

If we care about spirituality but also about mercy and love; if we care about the supernatural; If we care about the glory of God but we also care about the community, its basic needs then we will see the glory of God manifested. Give glory to the Lord. Amen.

And that is the balance to which the word of God calls us. you know? One could read this passage and think that God is saying: 'I don't care about the spiritual part, I don't care if you fast or seek my face in prayer.' But it's not true. This is what is called a false dichotomy. The Lord cares about fasting and He cares about spiritual things. But what He says is 'Don't just focus on that, but in addition to that think of the other part, too, and unite the two parts in a fully integrated way.'

That has been the tragedy of the church through the centuries, that we have not known how to maintain that balance in our church life. Historically, churches and Christian groups have gone either to one extreme or to the other extreme. Today there are so many churches that everything is spiritual, spiritual, supernatural. There is talk of spiritual warfare and fasting and praise. There is talk of holiness and the second coming of Jesus Christ but nothing to worry about the needs of our youth, to improve the quality of marriages in the community, to improve the economic and financial conditions of our people, to be a moral voice and ethics for justice and equity in the world.

And to be a voice that keeps governments, our governments aware that we are watching their behavior. Because the church is the moral voice of society. Without the voice of the church there is no true morality in the strict sense of the word. If the church does not advocate for the needs of the voiceless, powerless, and without access to the resources of society, then the poor and needy are always at a disadvantage.

They are trying to get out of inertia but they do not have the resources to get out and that is why the generous hand of the church is required. That is why the church has to invest its resources and take that theological, biblical love and manifest it through works of generosity and social justice. And traditionally there has been another sector of the church that unfortunately has fallen so in love with social love and social justice that it has forgotten that, as the Apostle Paul says, "Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers." Amen

And that no matter how many social efforts we make, if we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit, our good intentions of justice will be worth nothing. And that if we forget about the morality and holiness to which the Word of God and the spiritual part of the Gospel call us, then our efforts are destined to fail. What we will have is simply social action like the action undertaken by those who do not know God with a very thin layer of spirituality and religion on top of it, as we will say, like a spiritual deodorant. That's all.

A balanced vision is needed. Both things, one with the other. Give a round of applause to the Lord. Amen. And I believe that this is the tension to which the word is calling us through this text. you know? It is good that this text is in the Old Testament because many people think that it was like when Jesus Christ came, God agreed that social justice had to be done and be generous with others. Another false dichotomy is this idea that the Old Testament is sort of balanced and completed by the New Testament.

In reality, the love of God in all its dimensions is manifested from the very beginning of creation. God has always been concerned that we care for and treat responsibly the creation that He has placed in our hands and that includes the environment. That's not just for liberals, by the way. We have to take care of creation. And above all, we have to take care of the maximum manifestation of God's creation, which is human beings.

Sometimes we think of the Book of Deuteronomy as just a book of barren laws about food and drink and the like. But if we look carefully we see that God in Deuteronomy is also very concerned. Not only the ritual aspects but also the ethical aspects.

Look, for example, in chapter 10 of Deuteronomy verse 17 it says: “For the Lord our God is God of gods and Lord of lords. Great, mighty and fearsome God." You see, that's the spiritual part. We cannot take our eyes off that almighty God that we need. We cannot neglect worship, praise and the search for the power of that God. But neither can we neglect the just and compassionate character of the God we praise.

It says "great, powerful and fearsome God who is no respecter of people". We have there, for God the poor and the rich are the same before his eyes. The highly educated person and the illiterate person, for God are two spirits that He loves in the same way and values them in the same way. Then he says: "Neither does he take bribes."

In other words, there is the call that we have to make to governments and institutions not to be corrupted or make a distinction between one group and another. But keep an even and fair gaze. Do you know that the church sometimes has to raise its voice, its prophetic voice and denounce the injustice of governments? Brothers, even, and you know what? Injustice manifests itself in many ways.

I can't hold ourselves back these days and I thank God before continuing, because the Lord has been powerful with us and I believe we are moving forward. We have made great progress this week. But the truth is that many times even the church can be the object of injustice in a society that every day goes more and more towards humanism and secularism and that neglects spiritual things and so the governments reflect that secularism and that humanism.

So there is also injustice towards spiritual things and spiritual institutions and we are in times that go in that direction, I am afraid. And that is why the church will also have to raise its voice and say 'You do not pass through here'. In the name of the Lord. That is, there has to be a balance in both directions. And by the way, if the church does not get involved in social, political and economic matters, then what will happen is that they will paint us in a corner and we will not be able to leave from there.

If the church does not proactively make its presence felt and if the church does not affirm its moral and spiritual values as well as its love for the poor and the weak and the voiceless, then the fault of the church losing its rights is ours and not from anyone else. And that's why there has to be a balance and that's why we participate in all these social things.

So, for example, Alpha Ministry was in Washington advocating for immigrant rights and for just and compassionate immigration reform.

And that is why "Vale esperar" is trying to counteract the influence of an extremely sexualized society that strips our youth of their innocence through the media and rampant consumerism. It victimizes our young people many times in the name of a certain type of freedom and plurality. And then the church also has to counteract this destructive influence with its moral, ethical, and social action.

That is also why the Academic Resource Center does everything it can in all the different dimensions of its academic action because we have Hispanic and Afro-American youth who are not functioning adequately at the educational level. You are not receiving the stimuli and nutrients that a young person needs to be enthusiastic about learning and studying. Because this is a confused society and stuck in a contradiction from which it doesn't know how to get out.

The governments of our society have lost the capacity to help our youth to get out of the quagmire in which they find themselves. And again it takes the enlightened understanding of the church of Jesus Christ that goes beyond the four walls of the church. And that he gets involved in helping our young people to get ahead and be productive people and that they can become educated and have a balanced and blessed life for them.

So again, ending this passage says here “The God who does justice, in verse 18, who does justice to the fatherless and to the widow who loves the foreigner also.” Everyone say “foreigner”. We are foreigners and it is supposed to reflect God's love to the foreigner, especially if those foreigners are being as much a blessing as we are. And by the way these aliens are being a great blessing to this nation if I may say so myself.

OK. "They are giving him bread and clothing." The Verse says “You shall love a foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt”. Then verse 20 says “You shall fear the Lord your God. You will only serve Him, you will follow Him and by His name you will swear." Do you see that balance between social action, mercy and compassion again? And an awareness of the God who is the foundation of everything we do and the need to stay glued to the source of power and the object of worship that is that almighty God.

It is not one thing or the other, but one thing AND the other. So love the foreigner, love the orphan and the widow. But it also says "The Lord your God you will fear, Him alone you will serve, Him you will follow, and by His name you will swear." And verse 21 says "He is the object of your praise and He is your God who has done for you these great and terrible things that your eyes have seen."

I am not going to insist any more and I am going to leave it here. Say 'Glory to God,' everyone. Brethren, there are many texts in Scripture that we could use to emphasize the great concern that God has for a balanced ministry. The more time passes, the more society loses its sense of direction, the more victims fall as a result of alienation from God in this confused world, the more the involvement and voice of the church will be needed.

To tell the refugees of this lost world: "Look, that's where you have to go." And if we find them naked, we will dress them. If we find them homeless we are going to have to find them or at least tell them “There is a place where they can live”. If we find them ignorant and eager to study and enlighten their minds, we have to help them and tell them "Look, we're going to give you a hand so you can educate yourself and get ahead."

If we find you addicted to a substance or a destructive lifestyle we will help you and we will help your restoration and liberation. And if we find them, above all, in need of a relationship with Christ Jesus, we will tell them "We know him and we can tell you where he is waiting." A balanced life, that is what God expects of us. And that is why we have this center of social transformation. And that is why all the things that we do every day in this Congregation.

Because we want to be obedient to that balanced vision to which God calls us in his Word. We are going to stand up and give all the Glory and all the Honor to that almighty God that we have. Amen, amen. Glory to the name of the Lord. We give thanks to God. Take a moment there and reflect on what you have heard and ask God to make you an agent of justice and compassion and love here on Earth. And may you express God's love and compassion.

Father, we have heard your call to be a congregation that is an agent of transformation in the city. And today we again commit ourselves to be obedient to that call. We recognize that You are the source of all justice and all love. We recognize that Your word is the one that provides the norms that define what is true justice and what is true love.

And today we dedicate ourselves to whatever endeavor we undertake. We will make ourselves in the light of your commandments and your teachings. We will turn neither to the left nor to the right. We will be looking at you and listening to you. Help us to be agents of transformation. Send more resources to this church so we can give more to those who need more. We consecrate our Congregation, the lives that serve in it, our finances, and our energies to be your hands, your voice, and your feet in this culture. Send your spirit upon us again this morning. Seal this balanced vision in our hearts and thank you for everything you have allowed us to do so far.

We give you all the Glory and all the honor. In the name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Glory to the name of the Lord. A big round of applause, sir. Amen.