Lent Exercises: Trumpet - A Call for Compassion and Integrity
Tim wasn’t responding to my messages. It was odd. After all, Tim had been the one to reach out to me. After seeing an early draft of my book, Tim suggested his colleagues might be interested in helping promote it. Why wouldn’t he return my messages?
Maybe Tim’s early enthusiasm had waned. Maybe his colleagues hated it. Was Tim avoiding me because he changed his mind?
These thoughts circled through my mind. Several months passed. Then the scandal broke. The ministry Tim worked with was in the news. Layer after layer corruption came to light. Tim’s colleagues, I’d hoped would add credibility to my work, were exposed and discredited.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a number of high-profile scandals within Christian churches and ministries. Closer to home, I’ve been close to a handful of church leaders and ministries that have imploded through misconduct, misuse of authority, or sexual misconduct.
Each of these situations is heartbreaking. Every scandal diminishes trust for the whole church, its ministers, and its message. Mishandling of money, authority, or sex are obvious signs of spiritual malaise. Today’s reading emphasizes a, perhaps, less visible scandal.
Trumpet: Isaiah 58:1-12
The prophet Isaiah uses the image of a trumpet to call attention to a scandal.
“Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.”
These verses invoke the ancient Jewish festival of trumpets. The trumpets call the community back to God. They remind God’s people of Sinai, of the connection between God and people meant to be good news for everyone.
These trumpet blasts are also confrontational. They announce the community’s rebellion and sin. God’s people have exploited workers for economic gain. They have ignored the poor. They have used their religious practices, even their fasting, to obscure their injustice. They pretend to be righteous, while ignoring vulnerable, shunning the poor, and enriching themselves.
These are not just ancient problems. We too are quick to turn a blind eye to injustice. We too pretend to righteousness while ignoring our neighbors while seeking our own wealth. Too often our churches participate in consumer and celebrity culture uncritically.
The point of this call is not to shame or discredit the community of faith. The point is to restore it. God desires to saturate the common dust of our humanity and create a community of hope in the midst of a hostile world. God does this so that everyone can see that it is possible for the invisible God to make himself visible through creatures of dust and spirit. Injustice diminishes us. Compassion toward the vulnerable shows the face of God.
This Lent, consider almsgiving as a part of your fast. Set aside a certain amount of money to give to vulnerable people (secretly if possible) as you remember God’s generosity.
Give generously, like God, and you might experience his love more deeply.
