"Stop bringing meaningless offerings!Your incense is detestable to me.New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations --I cannot bear your evil assemblies.Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feastsmy soul hates.They have become a burden to me;I am weary of bearing them.When you spread out your hands in prayer,I will hide my eyes from you;even if you offer many prayers,I will not listen.Stop doing wrong,learn to do right!Seek justice,encourage the oppressed.Defend the cause of the fatherless,plead the case of the widow.See how the faithful cityhas become a harlot!* * * * * * * *They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;the widow's case does not come before them.
I'm a little bit behind in writing my posts this week because my last living grandparent died on Monday. Grandma Fisher was 94 years old. She lived in a nursing home attached to a hospital in Standish, Michigan. She was bedridden and in poor health at the time of her death. But, for the past four years every Friday at noon, she would receive a single red rose from "Someone Who Cares." The family tried to figure out who was sending the roses but never could. Friday after Friday the roses kept arriving from Kitzman's Flowers in Standish but the identity of the person who was sending them remained a mystery -- a mystery that brought so much joy to so many people: to my grandma, to my mother and her sister that someone would think enough of their mother to extend this kindness, to the caregivers and nurses who had something uplifting to wonder about while they did a difficult job of caring for people so in need. The mystery was a constant source of joy for so many people.
Then when grandma passed away the family learned who the kind soul was. Out of respect for his wishes, I'll not reveal his name. He didn't give the flowers to bring attention to himself. When asked why he sent the roses to grandma, he said the Bible tells us to take care of widows and orphans and he didn't think the church did enough for them so he sent the roses to my grandmother.
And then I come home to post about the scripture above. God doesn't want ceremony. He wants our hearts. He wants us to care for those who have no one to care for them, the forgotten and powerless. Take care of the widows and orphans. It's referred to over and over again in both Old Testament and New Testament. In James 1:27, the brother of Jesus puts it succinctly when he writes:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Maybe that's why Jesus makes special arrangements for John to take care of his mother as he is dying on the cross. Lord knows.
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