Step six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Here is Isaiah, whom we saw in last week's text being so awed by God's presence, so totally aware of his uncleanness before God. His was a majestic experience of worship. In this morning's text God speaks through Isaiah, questioning the validity of the people's worship.

The local Chamber of Commerce recently came out with a listing of the best of Gwinnett. It listed the best pizza, the best athlete, the best country road. And it listed the best sermon. I do not know how many of the members of this congregation were involved in that vote. I just know I did not win.

Aside from that offense, I found that whole notion of voting for the best sermon an extremely inappropriate measure of the life of a Christian church. Isaiah looked at all of the ways by which worship was judged, and said that the things that get you listed as "Best in the County" are not what God is looking at.

Worship and preaching and singing are not intended to please people, but to glorify God. How can we measure the quality of worship? How can we determine the quality of our confession? Isaiah makes it plain. "Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fearless, plead for the widow."

This is the litmus test to measure our worship and life together. Where have we turned our own lives and our world from evil to good?

In preparation for the upcoming religious leaders' conference on adolescents and addiction which I am hosting, I visited the denominational book stores in Atlanta. I visited what is probably the largest denominational book store in Atlanta to find out what books, church school curriculum and/or youth program materials they had on adolescents and drug and alcohol abuse.

After an extensive search of their store and catalogues, they discovered they had absolutely nothing on the subject. While I was waiting, a man came in and asked for material on "childhood salvation." They had a whole section of material on childhood salvation. I stood there in amazement.

What are you saving kids from if you are not saving them from drugs? To attend your solemn assemblies? Or are you saving them to learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow?

There are many forms of worship, many kinds of solemn assemblies, but there is only one true end of worship. Isaiah's worship experience ended with the statement, "Here am I. Send me." True worship has to do with both confession of our faults and being willing then to act for God.

Some churches will say in their bulletin, "Enter to worship, depart to service." Others say, "Service begins when the worship is ended." The worship and praise of God are only the beginning, the energy charge, the course correction which send us out to change what is wrong in our lives and our world.

I learned something this week about the importance of integrating our words of faith and action. I learned this past week about the fascination of many adolescents with Satanism. It is a common theme with some musical groups. Some adolescents wear jewelry and/or clothes with Satanic symbols. I discovered that a major appeal of Satanism for many youth is as a way of rejecting the church, rejecting the religious establishment of their parents just as God did through Isaiah.

It is a rejection of the scarlet sins of the church. Our best weapon against the appeal of evil represented in Satanism is to cleanse ourselves, as Isaiah calls us to do.

The author of Hebrews gives us the promise that we are not doing that by our own power alone. There are a lot of folks who will come to church as long as all is well in their lives, as long as there are none of those scarlet sins to which Isaiah refers. But make one big mistake, one nasty sin, and they just do not believe they can ever walk in a church again.

That is tragic. That is like thinking that as long as you are healthy you can visit your friends in the hospital, but if you should become ill, you are forbidden from entering the hospital for your own healing.

It has been appropriately stated that the church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. We have all done things of which we are not proud. But because of our Savior, we can still come here in confidence that those scarlet sins can be removed.

When you have a big problem you like to have someone you can trust there to help you. If your engine is making a funny noise, you want a mechanic you can depend on. This past week I had to replace two tires on my truck. It would have been nice to have a friend I knew I could depend on to sell me the right product at the right price.

The author of Hebrews tells us we have the insider, one who has had all the common experiences - like flat tires - but one who got through life without sin. He is our High Priest. The book of Hebrews refers to the Jewish worship custom of the high priest each year on the Day of Atonement, passing through the outer sanctuary which any priest could enter, on through the curtain beyond it, and into the Holy of Holies itself.

This "passing through" was the great moment of his priesthood, it was the act for which the high priesthood existed. We do not have to wait a year or a day. As we found in last week's story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria, again we find Jesus having particular insight into a person, for he has gone through all we have gone through.

The setting is by the pool of Bethsaida. Beneath the pool was a subterranean stream, and every now and again the stream bubbled up and disturbed the water of the pool. It was believed that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and troubled the water. People would wait for the moving of the water. Whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.

There lay on a pallet a man who had been ill for 38 years. The pallet was a light, flexible mat which could be rolled up and carried. It does not mean that the man had been lying at the pool for all 38 years without ever leaving. But he had been ill that long and somehow had never gotten into the healing waters.

In this little story there is a great deal for us. There is a rejection of superstition. That is a comment for anyone who tries to schedule life changes via the horoscope. There is a rejection of the way of life which involves some outside force coming in to take care of my ills.

I think of folks who always put a couple of dollars on a number, always buy a lottery ticket, always lay out too much for the weekend game, and always find themselves losing out. They are looking for something to happen to them to get them out of their situation.

There is in this story the rejection of the neurotic appeal of misery. I read a sermon on this passage in which the preacher spoke of this attitude of enjoying misery: "Tomorrow, maybe; tomorrow maybe I'll pull myself together and try a little harder; but right now leave me alone to grovel in my guilt a little longer; it's so sweet, so sickly sweet. Let me wait a while, until I manage to make it to those miraculous waters they say are so painless to take. Someone will come along to carry me, sooner or later - maybe tomorrow - I hope not today.

I knew a man who worked right up to his 65th birthday and retired. As soon as he retired, he began developing minor ailments. When I and others in the church would visit him, there would only be one conversation: how his ailments were ruining his retirement. Each visit he had the same conversation with me and everyone else.

I found my visits becoming further and further apart, and others told me the same thing. It was always the same conversation. We got tired of it. Finally it occurred to me that this man would rather be alone in his ailments than to be with his friends. Excuses can be good company.

There is a real luxury in feeling sorry for yourself, especially if you can convince yourself and everyone else that you are worthless, that change is hopeless. It cuts down the demands on you. This story is a rejection of blaming our problems on others.

There was a young preacher with an attractive wife who liked new clothes. She spent too much and they were in debt. Finally they had a long talk and she agreed to buy nothing without first talking it over.

Then she went to town and came back with a new dress. The young preacher said to her, "But, my dear, you promised me." She replied, "I know I did, but the devil tempted me." He said, "You should have said, 'Get thee behind me, Satan.' " "Oh," she replied, "I did, and he whispered, 'It fits so beautifully in the back.' "

This story is a rejection of blaming the conditions of the world for my problems. It reminds me of a cartoon I saw where the foreman of the jury stood and said the defendant is not at fault. He is a victim of social deficiency. The jury is guilty and ready to serve time.

This story is a rejection of smothering pity. "Oh, you poor dear. Thirty-eight years and no one said, 'You go first.' or 'Take my hand I'll help you get in.' That is terrible. People are so thoughtless and selfish. I really feel sorry for you. Thirty-eight years. Just think of that."

This story is also a rejection of insensitivity. "Look, it is not my problem, it's not my fault. Your father ought to help you. Go get yourself some welfare." This is not a justification for the hardness of heart.

Some folks think it is always okay to be gruff and insensitive. That is not what the gospel is about. Jesus did not yell, "Look, do you want to be healed or what?" to make the man feel worse about himself. It was a healing question out to remove the obstacle, not to crush a frail ego.

This is a story about Jesus giving the man, not what he asked for, but what he needed. Jesus did not do what the men wanted, because he wanted too little. All he seemed to want was pity. Instead, Jesus gave him what he needed and was too timid to hope for. And it was in the cause of this higher goal that Jesus helped him. Like a loving parent, God sometimes denies what we ask in order to give us something we need.

At the addiction conference this week the main speaker has a simple message. Addiction is a medical problem. Plain and simple. It is medical, it is chemical. What do you do with a medical problem? You go to a doctor. What does the doctor do? The doctor gives you a shot or a pill or performs an operation. That works very well if your problem is an acute appendicitis or diabetes.

But other times the problem is not cured by some external solution. Healing is not always a matter of the right operation or medication. The other part of the conference speaker's point is that while addiction is primarily a medical problem, the only workable, long-term solution is spiritual. That is the only cure for addiction.

The cure for much of what ails us is spiritual. It has to do with our relationship with God. It has to do with letting go and letting God.

This story has to do with putting our life and our healing in proper relationship with God. There is a loving accountability before God. God does not do a random survey of humanity to see who is responsible for my bad habits. There is only one person responsible.

Martin Luther once wrote, "Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. We can shout into one another's ears, but everyone must be prepared finally to meet death alone. I will not be with you then, nor you with me. Therefore everyone must know for himself the chief things of Christianity and be armed therewith."

The issue in this text is, do you really want to be healed, do we really want to be changed? Last week we considered the issue of confession, confessing to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. This is the next and necessary step. It is one thing to say that I know I have been ill for 38 years, but the question is, do you really want to be healed? Or are you, despite what you have said to God, to yourself, to another human being, really content with all in your life?

The issue in the text is cooperation. Is God trying to do something with your life and you do not want it to happen? You may recall that famous painting by Holman Hunt, of Christ standing at the door and knocking. It is based on the text from Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me."

What is so striking about Hunt's painting is that there is no door handle on the outside, only on the inside. Christ knocks on the door, but waits for us to open. Do you want to be healed? If so, let God in to do it.

The question of Christ was not cruel or curious. The question clearly implied that you can be healed. The promise is that we are free from all the scar tissue of yesterday's failures and foolishness. We are free from tomorrow's uncertainties.

The angels of God may trouble the waters that bring healing, but God leaves it to us to act, if we really want to be healed.