The Worship God Rejects

Why God Isn’t Impressed by Ritual Alone

In my first post on Raised by Jesuits, I wrote about the gap between professed faith and lived action: What happens when religion becomes performance, when belief floats unmoored from behavior. I’ve been sitting with that tension again lately, especially in light of a provocative truth found in the Hebrew Bible:

God doesn’t reject people because they worship incorrectly. God rejects worship because people are living unjustly.

That reversal matters. We often imagine that God demands reverence, obedience, religious observance, and if we get the liturgy right, say the right prayers, sing with the right amount of sincerity, then we’re aligned with the divine.

But the prophets of the Hebrew Bible paint a much harsher, more urgent picture. Over and over again, we hear God refusing worship. Not because the music is off-key or the sacrifices impure but because injustice is being ignored.

“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies... But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
— Amos 5:21, 24

The Prophets Are Not Subtle

This isn’t a one-off moment of divine crankiness. It’s a repeated, prophetic drumbeat:

• Isaiah 1: “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you… your hands are full of blood.”
• Micah 6: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?”
• Jeremiah 7: “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery… and then come and stand before me in this house… and say, ‘We are safe’?”

The message is unmistakable: God wants justice more than pageantry. Ritual is not a shield against ethical accountability. Worship doesn’t impress God if it floats above systems of oppression, economic exploitation, or collective indifference.

Jesuit Eyes on Prophetic Fire

I was raised in a Catholic context shaped by Jesuit thought — a tradition that values critical inquiry, ethical consistency, and the persistent question: Where is God in this? Not just in the sanctuary, but in the streets. In the systems. In the silence.

Jesuit spirituality never let me separate belief from practice for long. It taught me that worship is only meaningful if it moves us to action. And the prophets go one step further: if it doesn’t move us to justice, it’s not just empty — it’s rejected.

This is, frankly, uncomfortable. I like beautiful liturgy. I like singing. I like ritual and rhythm and quiet candles. But I have to ask: Do I hunger for justice with the same devotion? Does my faith call me to comfort, or to confrontation?

Modern Echoes

I can’t help but wonder what the prophets would say if they stood in our churches or watched our headlines. Would they see worship that leads to action, or performance that protects privilege?

• When congregations fight for tax exemptions but not tenants' rights, would Amos speak?
• When Christian nationalism wraps the cross around violent power, would Isaiah weep?
• When we sing “Here I am, Lord” but avoid eye contact with the unhoused outside, does God say, “I take no delight”?

Worship That Flows into Justice

I don’t think the answer is to abandon worship, but I do believe the prophets are calling us to ask what our worship is for.

Does it soften our hearts to the suffering of others?
Does it spur us to act when silence is complicity?
Does it remind us of who God stands with — and where we should be standing too?

“To know God is to do justice.” — Gustavo Gutiérrez

The Mass, the music, the prayer are all meant to form us. But if they leave us unchanged, untouched by the call to justice, then we’ve missed the point.

Final Thought

If God showed up at our liturgies today — in flesh, in spirit, in thunder — what would God say?

Would God whisper “well done”… or roar, “let justice roll down”?