Looking into the lectionary - Clergy organize nationwide to resist ICE

Isaiah 58:1-12 Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany February 8, 2026 What is the fast we choose? While serving a church in Indianapolis, I spent an afternoon working in the food pantry, assisting clients as they shopped for groceries. An older man, clearly past retirement age, came in for the first time and provided his information for our database. Over the course of our conversation, I learned that he juggled three jobs to support his family, including overnight warehouse work near the airport that required lifting heavy boxes. Despite his extraordinary work ethic and commitment to providing for his loved ones, something felt fundamentally wrong about a man his age standing before me, exhausted, needing our pantry’s assistance to feed his family. The prophet Isaiah minces no words in Isaiah 58:1–12. God’s judgment toward Judah (and God’s people more broadly) is unsparing: “Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.” Injustice is rampant, and God will not tolerate it. The passage focuses especially on religious hypocrisy. Public displays of piety, such as fasting and prayer, are abundant, yet the very same people who practice them are perpetrating harm against society’s most vulnerable people. Isaiah 58 is categorized as part of “Trito-Isaiah,” or “Third Isaiah.” In terms of authorship, scholars suggest that these chapters were written by a collective of authors who sought to speak with the spirit of the original prophet. It is also highly likely that they were written well after the return from the Babylonian Exile and, as such, were meant to interpret the causes and effects of that calamitous experience. Very clearly, the author(s) of Isaiah 58 viewed the injustices and hypocrisies of the people as one of – if not the – most important causes of Judah’s exile, believing that God’s judgment for such unfaithful living could be the only explanation for such a tragedy. But there is also a remedy. ... Read the rest of the commentary at pres-outlook.org. Thank you to this week's writer, Owen J. Gray. Want the worship resources for February 1, 2026? You can find them here. Order of worship — February 8, 2026 by Owen J. Gray Why do some people stay in their religion and others leave? by Bob Smietana Horizons — Finding Our Joy in Christ, Philippians 4 by Rosalind Banbury 2026: A year for the rural church by Phillip Blackburn Inside the effort to organize clergy nationwide to resist ICE by Jack Jenkins Presbyterians oppose detention of lawfully resettled refugees by the Office of Public Witness  IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... Holy Disruption: A Manifesto for the Future of Faith Communities     In "Holy Disruption," pastors Amy Butler and Dawn Darwin Weaks tell bold, hopeful stories of congregations that looked outward, listened to their neighbors, and invested their resources for justice. — Amy Pagliarella If Jesus is with us, then where is he? What do we do when Jesus feels absent — and the work feels impossible? Kate Murphy offers a reflection and some hope. Sustenance On a winter morning, seeds are scattered, tea is poured, and patience becomes prayer. Barbara Chaapel offers a poem about the quiet truth that giving sustenance sustains us. Discovering sustainability as a church Tim Hart-Andersen argues that church vitality is not about relentless growth but about long-term sustainability and Spirit-filled adaptation. A church at the center of crisis speaks: “We refuse to submit to chaos and terror” At the center of recent violence in Minneapolis, Westminster Presbyterian Church's session calls for courageous love. A daily Lenten devotional Explore how to live faithfully amid division and uncertainty through Matthew’s Gospel.