📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

God Wants Justice, Not Another Offering

Holy Covenant,

The following sermon titled, “God Wants Justice, Not Another Offering” is centered on Isaiah 1:1,10-20 (CEB) and was delivered on August 10, 2025, during our normal worship service, at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ in Charlotte, NC.

In our time, especially here in the United States, it’s hard not to notice some of the loudest voices who proudly call themselves Christian often sound the least like Christ. I’m talking about folks who wouldn’t cast a dime to the poor or legislators who hold the bible in one hand, while signing bills that rip away healthcare from millions or strip support services from the most vulnerable. People close to us—who say they follow Jesus—yet struggle to connect the unjust systems of our time with the oppressive empire Jesus confronted, the same one we see him speak out openly against.

And as a pastor you hear it. Queer people who saw on a church sign that all are welcome, only to find after the service they’ll be second class members or aren’t welcome back. People who proudly go to church faithfully every Sunday, hearing fantastic sermons on what Jesus would do, singing hymns about the mighty power of God, and offering up some of the most beautiful prayers, even breaking bread with others at the communion table with Jesus, only to notice after all that worship the things they’re saying and doing seem to be real disconnected from God’s love and justice.

Yet that’s exactly where Isaiah begins in this scripture, calling out a worshiping community and a people who claimed to follow God but seem to have forgotten the point of worship altogether. Isaiah preached during a time of political upheaval and economic disparity. A time when Israel was under threat and about to fall into the hands of the Assyria Empire. During this time of instability, Isaiah had risen as a prophet to help the Israelite people navigate the looming threat of Assyria’s imperial power and also the internal religious corruption his people were witnessing.

The Israelites were deeply religious people. They had religious habits such as a structured worship calendar, readings from the Torah, singing of the psalms, and festivals to mark meaningful events in their history such as the Passover. And they also participated in temple-based practices where they offered burnt offerings, sin offerings, and peace offerings—not exactly in terms of modern-day monetary tithes—but more so in terms of agricultural goods, livestock, and produce. Items that would have most certainly benefited temple priests and corrupt elites who colluded with them.

The priests in Isaiah urged this worship to continue despite the growing prosperity of the privileged few that was visible and the systemic injustice that noticeably plagued society: exploitation of the poor, neglect of widows and orphans, and corruption among political and religious leaders. Here we find Isaiah condemning their worship, not because he’s a six-year-old who hates going to church or has suddenly joined the ‘spiritual but not religious crowd’, but because their worship was failing to translate into just living. Because worship unconcerned with God’s justice is obscene.

The problem in Isaiah’s day—and ours—is when people see worship as nothing more than a box to check. It’s something we do or a transaction we make so that we can profess a sense of faith. “You can’t tell me I don’t follow Jesus; I go to church every Sunday.” “Did you hear the way my angelic voice sang those hymns or that powerful prayer I laid out before God last Sunday?” “I read my Bible and know what it says.” “You saw all that money I put in the offering plate?” Yet what good are all these if they aren’t leading people to live their faith in relation to the world around them?

Worship is supposed to be a magical experience, but it isn’t magic. The performative act of attending worship doesn’t automatically make us followers of Jesus nor is it something we do to appease an ill-tempered God. Worship is meant to be transformative. It’s meant to change us, to reorient us toward God, so we reflect the priorities of God’s love and justice. Worship and justice are not separate practices; they are two parts of one whole. And if our worship isn’t empowering us to love others, to advocate for people, or to live justly, then we might be missing the point of worship altogether.

In today’s scripture Isaiah is rejecting and condemning worship, not because he hates the music being offered or can’t stand the way the pastor preaches, but because their worship is ignoring the cries of a God whose heart is breaking for the oppressed. Because their worship has been complicit with injustice. Because their worship that happens inside the sanctuary is disconnected from what is happening outside of it. Because their worship has been disregarding the pain of the poor, the fairness of systems, and the economic realities of the world God’s people have been enduring.

I can still hear those cries of Isaiah today, yet instead of saying he’s fed up with worthless offerings, repulsed by incense, and the wickedness of worship, I can hear him saying there are the prayers of some churches that make him sick, sermons that he finds to be sacrilegious, music that has his ears loathing, offerings that never transfer into ministries, and a Communion whose bread stinks and wine is sour because it bars the very people God has asked us to bear welcome. “I don’t want any part of it,” he would say because this worship is not compelling us to go and do what God has sent us to do.

I say this because far too many still gather in churches across this country to worship an ancient immigrant on Sunday, only to support the deportation of immigrants and the separation of families on Monday.

Far too many come to praise the one who healed the sick without condition yet support politicians who push legislation that actively works to strip millions of their healthcare on Tuesday.

Far too many worship a brown-skinned, Palestinian Jew on Sunday, yet stay silent and complicit about the systems and structures in our society that oppress people of color on Wednesday.

Stay with me now—Far too many come to worship a Savior on Sunday who stood up to empire, yet defend that same empire’s violence and greed on Thursday.

Far too many come to worship the one who proclaimed good news to the poor, yet disregard living wages or affordable housing, as nothing more than “political issues” on Friday.

Far too many come to consume a gospel of love yet find it difficult to enact that love required of them on Saturday.

Far too many come to worship and praise a God who loves all yet refuse to welcome all to Christ’s ever-widening table on Sunday.

What Isaiah was getting at in this scripture is: our inattention to injustice nullifies our worship of God. That there is a direct link between our worship and our participation in addressing the realities of oppression and injustice. Our worship is futile if it is not empowering us to be the Christ—to love, to advocate, and to seek justice. Worship and social responsibility belong together, and as Jesus would later confirm “Love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor.” The problem today is not our worship of God, but that we don’t always let God shape our vision for justice.

And the vision Isaiah is offering in this scripture is: it’s not too late. The wider church can change. Transformation is possible. Blood-stained hands can be washed and be used to build things up again. Systems can be altered, taken down and restructured. Worshippers can become justice-seekers. We can admit our ugly deeds and the ways we haven’t put an end to the evil we see in this world. We can do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. In this text, Isaiah was not just critiquing the worshiping community, but he was igniting hope.

Hope that we might go deeper, so that our worship might propel God’s kin-dom here on earth. God isn’t shaming us, but God is calling us back. Back to a worship that doesn’t just sound good but does good. Back to a praise that doesn’t just heal but leads us to live differently. Back to a faith that isn’t about the spectacle of Sunday’s worship, but the substance of justice. Because what God wants—what God has always wanted—is not another offering, not another hour of hollow praise, but a people who will rise from the pews ready to engage in the holy work of justice and liberation.

What God wants is worship that leads to food for the hungry. God wants worship that builds housing, defends trans youth, fights for fair wages, challenges racism and white supremacy, and protects the sacredness of the earth. God wants worship that heals broken relationships, ends war, and removes the barriers that prevent human dignity from being seen as sacred, precious, and whole. God wants worship that brings people in and invites them to Christ’s table to sit as equals together. God wants worship that opens every door we’ve ever closed in God’s name.

This is the kind of worship God wants. This is the kind of offering God desires. Not one we lay on the altar, but one we live out in the world. May our worship seek to be more than beautiful, but brave. May it not only inspire us but transform us. And may our praise not only rise from our lips but be the way we live out God’s call. Let our worship not end at the doors of the church—but begin right there, as we go out to live God’s justice in the world.

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️