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. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

"Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 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?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

I have read several translations of this passage since I received this assignment. I am sitting here on Christmas Eve thinking about the worship services that will be held around the world tonight. People go all out to make this one of the "best" worship services of the year (good music, good preaching, and a beautifully decorated church). There is nothing wrong with that.

In today's reading, however, the Lord is telling Isaiah to tell his people what is really necessary for true worship. The people seem to be proud of themselves for fasting and keeping the letter of God's law, yet in doing this they were not happy and, in fact, were making other people's lives miserable. And they questioned why God did not respond to their acts of worship.

Isaiah tells the people what God expects in true worship. Jesus repeats these instructions in Matthew 5:31-36. We worship God in the way we respond to those in need. We worship by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison and welcoming the stranger.

We can still be inspired by cooperate worship, and we like the pageantry surrounding special events of the church, like Christmas and Easter. But our true worship starts when we exit the church and respond to our brothers and sisters in need.