Periodically, preachers hear people say, "I don't get anything out of worship." When I was a young man just beginning to preach, one of my close personal friends who was quite a bit older than me complained that when he went to church, he didn't want to hear his preacher tell him what was wrong with the world. He said, "I've come to church to escape from that world. I want to sit in my pew and be comfortable and not hear about anything outside of the four walls of my church. It's the one hour of the week that I can sit with in silence."

I would almost guarantee that my friend, if he were living today, would have rebelled against Isaiah's words to us this morning. The worshiper in verse 3 complains that he has come to church and done everything right in fulfilling the acts of worship, such things as fasting, and yet God seems indifferent to him the worshiper. In other words, he doesn't get anything out of worship. Another way that modern day people make this complaint is to say, "I didn't feel the spirit moving," so they find a "spirit-filled" church.

This is where Isaiah ticks off my friend and others like him. Isaiah says, "You know why you don't get anything out of worship? It's because you are there for the wrong reason. Worship isn't about what I want, it's not about me. Worship is about God and what God wants. And when you don't center your expectations and your worship on God and God's will, God's spirit isn't going to touch you. It's only when you hear and respond to God that you truly worship God and you feel that God is with you."

Then Isaiah goes on to ask a series of questions to reveal for the people what real or authentic worship of God looks like. Worship is hearing God's concern and love for all people and for the salvation of the world. Worship is living God's concern and love for all people and for the salvation of the world as we live within that world. My friend used worship as an escape to distract him. Real worship hears God's words to us and prepares and sends us forth to do Christ's ministry, especially to the least of our brothers and sisters.

I read the scripture to you out of one translation; hear the words of verses 6 and 7 out of another translation that may be closer to your version of scripture: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?"

Do we hear these words? It may seem as though all we have to do as people of faith is to live a good life and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. And if that's the case, then why do we need to go to worship? But that's not what Isaiah is saying. Isaiah is sharing the words of God that have come to him directly from God; and the message that God is conveying to the worshiper is that authentic worship reveals how God wants us to live and to carry Christ's love and grace into a sinful and hurting world.

Worship calls us to hear God speak to us and then to respond to God's words. For the words are for us. We may not like them; we may want to avoid them; we might ask for other words; but God has specific words especially for us. And to truly worship God, we must answer with a "Yes," and follow our Lord wherever he chooses to lead.

What happens when we do that? Hear the words from our scripture again: "Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'"

When we respond to God and answer God with a yes, we will discover that God is with us in our worship. When we say no to God, we close the door keeping God out, but when we say yes, we invite God in. Obedience to God brings us into the divine presence so that God is with us in our worship.

As we prepare for communion this morning, God is calling us to hear Christ and to respond to our Lord. We may think that we have come to share in a religious meal that will make us feel good. Yet God through Christ has something to share with us to take out into the world. Through this holy sacrament we are reminded of how much God so loved the world. Let us receive these symbols of Christ's love for us and take God's love into the world to share with one and all.