Qualities of the Beloved of God

I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events that surround us.  I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.  I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and violence, without resorting to violence and oppression.  I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace… a way that rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love.    I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.  I believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies… education and culture for their minds… and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.  I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.  By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed.  "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid."

When the sky is a bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head.

I hear the human race is falling on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But ev'ry whippoorwill is selling me a bill,
And telling me it just ain't so.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!  Not this heart…

Am I a cockeyed optimist… or are there others who believe that there is a pathway to peace… opportunities for love… and a chance for a future filled with hope? 

Our text today is one of the four “Servant Songs” from Isaiah.  These servant songs were addressed by the prophet to a people without hope… a people whose dreams and expectations have been crushed… the children of God in exile in Babylon.  This Servant Song portrays God speaking to an unidentified audience about God’s servant. Because of the timing of this passage in our lectionary, we often assume that the servant is Jesus, the Messiah… but that servant is never identified.  That servant could be you… or me.  Take a look at the text again and see how its impact on you changes if you substitute your name for this unnamed servant.  “Here is Sharon, my servant, whom I uphold… my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon her; she will bring forth justice to the nations.”  Here is Ralph… Sylma… Diane… Betty… Evelyn… Jack…   It changes how you hear it, doesn’t it?

The task of the servant is to execute justice… and yes, it is God’s work.  It is the work that Jesus did while he walked this earth.  Is it not the work that we are to do as his disciples?  “I am the Lord, I have called you… Russell… Sue… Joe…, I have taken you… Anita… Jim… Ruth… by the hand and kept you; I have given you… Theresa… Skip… John… Eloise… as a covenant to the people… a light to the nations… to open the eyes that are blind… to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon… from the prison those who sit in darkness.  Yes, we are called to execute justice even today.  And we are not exempt if we live in Stephenville, Texas.  Even here… even now… injustice exists.

The interesting thing is not just what we are to do… but the way in which we are to do it.  We are not to be heavy-handed in our administration of justice. Our task is not to be accomplished with a raw display of power… neither is it to be trumpeted loudly for all to hear.  As our text says, “He… Don… Bruce… Dee… will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench”… yet somehow… “he will faithfully bring forth justice.”   There is a recognition here that even those who sit in seats of power have themselves been bruised and beaten… and to come in swinging a hammer will do more damage than good.  The person who denied benefits to one who was deserving may be the dimly-burning wick that should not be quenched.

I started my career working in not-for-profit organizations in the Midwest… and one of the first things I learned as I worked as an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised was that those who worked in government agencies often began their careers with a love and passion for their work that was beaten out of them as they saw how few resources were at their disposal to deal with the overwhelming problems that confronted them each day.  Bound by government regulations… and limited by the resources available… they were forced to turn away people in desperate need.  The faces of the poor haunted them at night.  The voices of mothers without food for their children… the silent tears of the elderly with no shelter from the cold… feeble cries of the sick and dying who had no means to seek assistance… all these tore at their hearts and they dreaded the mornings when they had to return to their desks and make more decisions that deprived more people of the assistance that they needed.   The only way to survive was to shut the voices out… to distance themselves from the people they served… to protect their bruised spirits from the cruelty of the world.  In time, the flame that was burning brightly became a dimly-burning wick…

We are called to administer justice to the people and yet, in the face of a hopeless situation, we are to rekindle hope in quiet and unassuming ways… the ways of Jesus… ways that are wondrously strong, for they are the ways of God.   One of the first things we are to do is to put ourselves on the same level as those we have come to help.  One of the puzzling questions of Christian theology for many is why John baptizes Jesus.  John himself asks the question: “I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me?”  But Jesus answers, “Let it be so now; for it is proper.” In order for the people to identify with Jesus as Christ, Jesus first identifies with them.  Never setting himself apart, Jesus lives among them… walking with them… eating with them… serving them as he teaches them.  In our text, the servant is inconspicuous and gentle… and yet, he perseveres and, eventually, he is triumphant.    Inconspicuousness and gentleness are not signs of weakness.  Surely, we can see that in numerous examples from history, in the work of such people as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrate this week.

Many of those around us live in a hopeless place.  Whether they are crushed economically… by bad marital relationships… by violence in our streets… by drugs and alcohol… or by poor decisions they have made… people today need hope.  Despair has always been with us… but despair today often speaks with a violent destructiveness that was unknown in earlier times.  God’s servant brings hope to a hopeless people… to those who have been crushed… like reeds.  How do reeds become crushed? By the forces of nature and of people. Reeds become smashed because of storms and diseases… because of people stomping over them… because of inadequate nourishment. All of us are reeds, subject to the forces of life that we cannot control and that sometimes descend on us with frightening speed and mercilessness. And so, we live our lives in a crushed condition. I have a friend who currently feels crushed. She has gone through some significant trauma in the past few years and is seemingly emerging from it, but the trauma comes back to haunt her. She is a crushed reed, and seems sometimes to be so vulnerable to seemingly indifferent forces of life which would like nothing better than to crush her further.  What news can you or I bring to a person in such a situation?  Only this:  that we, the servant in whom God's soul delights, won't crush her further. Instead of tearing out the "unproductive" reeds of life… or smashing them underfoot… or burning them with the trash… we will not crush the ones who have been bruised… whether they are the oppressed or the oppressor… for all are children of God.  

One of the Bible translations I examined as I prepared this message said, “He (the servant) will not puff out the most dimly guttering lamp wick.”  When a candle gutters, it is almost out because all the wax has melted away.  The light flickers, but without wax, it can no longer burn steadily.    How often have we felt like a guttering wick… a flickering candle... like our energy… our resources were almost gone?   What word do we long to hear in those times, but a word of comfort and a word of care… not a word that punishes or chastises us… a word that threatens to blow out the flickering light that remains. Sometimes, there is nothing that we can do about the injustice we find.  Yet in those times, we can still stand with those who suffer… and not bruise them further.  Isn’t it a comfort to know that God will stand with us…even in our weakness and vulnerabilities?  Can we provide comfort to others by simply being there… not loudly or abrasively… but inconspicuously and gently?  It takes courage to be there… to leave the comfort of our homes to be with those who suffer.  Yet it does not take any skill… just the willingness to be present and a word of comfort. (P)

All of the “you’s”… every time the word “you” appears in this passage… like the word “you” in verse six… all are singular… are addressed to one person… with the exception of the “you” in verse nine.  That “you” is plural… a “y’all” if you will. “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare… before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”   There is something new in store for us… for all of us… as we are called forth to minister in Christ’s name.  It is a ministry of justice for the people.  What form this ministry will take, we may not know… but we do know that God is calling us to be a servant to the people… and God is showing us what kind of a servant we are to be.  I don’t know about you, but I know I have a lot of work to do to become the kind of servant that is Beloved of God… one who reflects the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ.   It may take a lot of work to mold me into the kind of servant that God wants me to be, but I believe that it is possible.  After all… “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope and I can’t get it out of my heart… not this heart…” and I don’t think I’m the only one. 

I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events that surround us.  I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.  I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace… a way that rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.  I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.  I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.  By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed.   "And I do believe that the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid."  Maybe what we need is some cockeyed ministries for all the cockeyed optimists who long to serve our Lord in this place.  Amen.

Isaiah 42:1-9