Our study of scripture shows how human understanding of what God desires of us has evolved. How many animals have been sacrificed throughout history as an offering to God? Yet in Isaiah 1:11, God says, "The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.” What does God ask of us instead? “Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow” (Is 1:17).
The writer L.P. Hartley said, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” We need to be willing to examine our habits, practices, and customs, refining them to keep what has proved life giving and relinquishing what does not lead us to love God with our whole being and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Living in the midst of a pandemic this past year has been akin to being in the refiner’s fire—many of our past desires and practices have been burned away, revealing what is really of value: eating and celebrating with family and friends, expressing affection through touch, gathering to pray in places of worship and study in schools, tending personally to the needs of the ill and elderly, and mourning the dead with each other. Our painful period of refinement will bear fruit if we make these experiences a priority and change our lives accordingly instead of seeking to resume our former habits and patterns in the midst of a world that is being made new.
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