Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart… (Psalm 15:1-2).

It's difficult to know where and when it started. Maybe it was the monastic movements in which people retreated to the wilderness to focus on personal holiness. Maybe it was the division between clergy and laity that intensified during the Middle Ages. What ever its origins, the problem persists. I'm thinking about the continued divide between the sacred and the secular in which we separate corporate worship from life between worship occasions.

That is not the way Old Testament writers understood life. A holy life was integrated, walking in the ways of the Lord consistently—in the temple, the home and the marketplace. Every aspect of life was to be marked by holiness, spiritual and material, private and public, liturgical and economic. All of life was holy, faithfully lived out before the face of God.

When the Israelites gathered for worship, it was not an escape from the marketplace, the fields, or the political arena. Rather, worship engaged and challenged the economic, cultural, and political behaviours of God's people. While at worship, his people declared that he alone was sovereign of their lives. He was Lord of family and agriculture, money and markets, armies and kings, and, oh yes, the weather.

Israelite worship was considered an act of enthroning God (Psalm 29). He was declared king over private and public life. Singing together, worshipers were engaged in the liturgical act of submitting more areas of life to his sovereignty. Holiness flowed from the sanctuary into the network of relationships and activities. Both work and worship are named 'avodah', acts of service to God.

So, as you enter a new week, how will you live? Will you commit to live before God in all you do? Will you pursue holiness at home and at work, in buying and in selling, with soul and with body? How will you prepare for the next corporate worship time? As you live out this week, pay attention to the temptations you face. Which ones do you give in to? Bring them into worship for confession.

May only those without sin enter God's holy place? That was never the case. The Israelites came to worship confessing their sins and receiving God's liberating grace. We come the same way, covered by the blood of the Lamb. But those who have no desire to live integrated holy lives should not presume to worship a holy God. Let the days between corporate worship be days of preparation. Let your worship season your work and your work your worship.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you today (this week), may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Galatians 5:13-15. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In!

1. Before today's sermon, how would you describe Christianity? What is its goal?
2. What element of freedom has been the focus in the past few weeks?
3. What element of freedom was highlighted today?
4. In what situations do you find it hard to love others? How will today's sermon help increase your love?
5. In the illustration of 'the gift', what have you done with God's gift of freedom?
6. Where and how can you learn to practice love as described in 1 Cor 13?

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:5-7).

Isaiah at it again—many things lie between this text and the first chapter—yet, in both, he takes a strip off God's people. Strictly speaking our text refers to fasting, not sabbath keeping. Yet rest is at the heart of God's problem with his people. In particular, the lack of rest for their neighbours.

Once again, they are doing all the right religious stuff. I'm reminded of a senior demon's advice to his mentee, "As long as they retain externally the habits of a Christian, they can still be made to think of themselves as such."

It appears that the Israelites do want to get close to God, to be in covenant relationship with him. But there is something in the way, their attitudes towards their neighbours. Other folks are tools; tools for making a profit. And if these other folks do not have time for rest, who cares, 'not my problem'.

But, according to God, it is their problem. Ever since Cain asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" the answer is in plain sight. "Yes, I am." We cannot worship God while ignoring our neighbour in need.

In Galatians 5, Paul writes, "the only thing that matters is faith working itself out in love" (6). James wrote, "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" (1:27). John adds, "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen" (1 John 4:20).

The word 'love' used here is much stronger than how we usually use it. It includes the probability of suffering. Christ set the example for us: his patient work of healing the sick, even when tired. And we must not neglect his last days of suffering through torture and execution. This is the nature of the love we are to have for our neighbours.

The two great commandments are to love God above all and neighbour as yourself. We cannot have one without the other. With so many neighbours in need, this is difficult stuff to deal with. It starts with the heart. A heart that knows it is deeply loved is a heart that seeks to love the neighbour.

Start by worshipping the covenant God, see his concern for you. Those who love God through worship become filled with compassion for their neighbours.

As you journey on, hear Jesus' invitation:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).