Sermon Notes for 01162011 – Isaiah 49:1-7
What follows are some reflections on how the Servant discovers God’s concern is bigger than him and his agenda. OUCH!
Call to Worship – Psalm 40

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,
   and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
   Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Happy are those who make the Lord their trust,
   who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
   your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you.
   Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear.
   Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;
   see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your
   faithfulness and your salvation;
   I have not concealed your steadfast love
   and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11 Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me;
   let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.

SERMON SCRIPTURES

John 1:29-42
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” 35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed ). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter ).

Isaiah 49
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away!
   The Lord called me before I was born,
   while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
   he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
   yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
   to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him,
   for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—
6 he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel;
   I will give you as a light to the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
   to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers,
   “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
   because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

The Promise: The Servant Is Not Just for Insiders Anymore
When an oppressed group seeks justice, the call is often voiced, and even more often heard, as a self-focused plea:
What about justice for us?
When is it our time?
We demand equality now!
Freedom now!

In the world of zero sum economics, this requires someone to loose in order for others to gain. If you are to gain some benefit you do not have now, that must be at some cost to me.

Often this is truly the way things work.
Corporations cut laborers, extend hours, and suppress wages to increase the profits and elevate their stock value – stockholders win (including the executives with large stock options) and employees loose.
If the Republicans are to gain power and influence in Washington, our current system requires that the Democrats loose it.
If I want to be king of the hill, center of attention, the apple of everyone’s eye, then I must displace others.

What if the world didn’t have to work that way?
What if there were a limitless supply of whatever it is we most needed?
Could we, would we find a way to function differently?

What if the God who desires to bless us wishes to do something far grander than we might ask, think or imagine?
What if the blessing that we think is for us is not just for us?
And what if the blessing really only comes to us as we share it with others?

Our servant in Isaiah 49 is an interesting character. He knows that God has called him at the deepest levels of his being. This might suggest some sort of privilege, as is often supposed. He also expresses great frustration, exasperation even, that his work has been in vein. No one seems to care. No one pays any attention to what he is doing. It doesn’t seem to make any difference.

God’s response is to completely look past this childish fit.
Instead, God, acting as though the servant had not just been whining, and that in fact nothing was wrong with the plan, says, “You know what, we’re going to take this thing global! Never mind you enjoying these blessings of mine. That’s too insignificant. It doesn’t amount to anything compared to what I can and will do.”

Now, if you think about this conversation in greater detail, or at least as I do, I imagine the Servant at this point saying, “Are you even listening to me? I’m upset over here and you don’t even seem to care. HELLO!” And waving hands in front of God’s eyes, which have taken on a glassy expression as a grand distant vision comes into clearer focus.

Have you ever tried to talk to someone about some injury or insult and realized they weren’t really paying any attention? You’ve just gone on with your story for five or ten minutes, and when they finally speak its not really a response, but some non sequitur about their plans. Frustrating indeed!

Anyway, t
he servant receives an expanded call. It may be that the call has changed – God has changed the divine mind. Or, perhaps the servant just wasn’t listening before and only heard what he wanted to – the part that benefited him. OR, it could be that God’s revelation is progressive, unfolding over time, so that it only appears to us to change and develop, but God actually had the whole thing mapped out and gives us as much as we need when we need it. Or all three.

If we stop for a moment, and look at the situation from God’s perspective, or that of anyone other than the Servant, we realize how great it is that the blessing is expanding. Of course God desires the blessing to extend to all people. And for those who were the outside groups, in Isaiah’s time the non-Jews, what Good News to hear that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, was for them as sisters and brothers, enemies becoming family!

Israel had always thought of itself as the social outsider, the victim at the hands of these evil nations who worship other gods. This, all the while that they understood themselves to be the religious insiders, “God’s chosen people!” What an irony.

And now, the Word of God comes to flesh to proclaim that everyone gets to be an insider – religious and social. The Word of God comes to say that the victims will minister to their oppressors – that the lion and the lamb will dwell together in peace.

Tomorrow our nation honors the life and ministry of Rev. King. He wrote and said many great things that are worthy of study and reflection by all people in this nation and around the world. His greatest words are not those of the famous dream speech, but rather those of his other sermons, letters and essays. The dream speech is the one I want to call to our attention now, though. Because in it, King makes this great leap to believe that God’s vision is far more than what he might ask. He could, as many did, dream simply of peace and justice for his people. That would have been a good dream indeed. But it was not his dream. Let me remind you of the Word –

At times Christians have wished to divorce faith from social issues. Certainly for the Jews of Isaiah’s time, there was no possibility of separation between their faith in their God and their hopes for social, economic, and political stability, freedom, peace and prosperity. Certainly then the hope that the Servant promises is not only for “God’s Chosen People” but for all God’s people. Indeed, “God’s chosen people” is not some award like the Golden Globes or Oscars, no trophy like that of the Super Bowl where the best or the favorite are chosen, as though God loves the Jews more. RATHER, God’s chosen people are such specifically as God’s way of blessing the world.

Certainly, in the ministry of Jesus, people’s social needs are addressed by Him through the means he had at his disposal. Certainly, in the ministry of the early church Paul repeatedly explains how the Gospel tears down dividing walls of preference and favoritism, bigotry and hatred and from the rubble builds bridges of blessing and sanctuaries of safety.

Paul wrote “When one suffers, all suffer and when one rejoices, all rejoice.” We have thought he was speaking only or primarily of the church, and perhaps he thought so to. But in the reality of continuing revelation we can certainly see that, in the light of the Word of God proclaimed in Isaiah 49, this truth is a reality of the whole human family. This is why we ache to see the news from Tuscon, Arizona of a week ago, and why we smile to hear the good news of recovery for complete strangers. This is why we are incensed at t
he ongoing suffering in Haiti a year after the devastating earth quake. This is why we are ambivalent about what is best in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in Iraq and Afganistan.

This is why we tithe to outreach, and why we visit people in the hospital. This is why we helped start Family Promise of Collin County and will open ourselves to the transforming power of radical hospitality. Because their suffering is our suffering, and their blessing is our blessing. So long as others suffer, our blessing is incomplete.

Indeed the dream is that all of God’s children, throughout the world, might live in the Kingdom of God on earth for which we pray, the kingdom initiated by Jesus Christ and continued by faith through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit.