Here is My Servant

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Good morning. It's good to see you guys today. Today we're beginning a new series called In Every Season and I'm excited about this one because we're going back to the lectionary for the series and I know many of you grew up in traditions that preach the lectionary but for those who don't. The lectionary is a...excuse me, I've been sick this week. I'm gonna get through this sermon. The lectionary is a collection of scriptures that are intentionally selected over a three-year cycle to tell the story of God and so the passages that you're gonna hear us preach on over the next couple of weeks, thousands of congregations across the world will also be reflecting on those same passages and I love doing this because it forces us preachers to grapple with texts that we maybe not would normally gravitate towards and it gives the text a little room to breathe because there's no series theme that's guiding how we should present these texts and so we've titled this series In Every Season because no matter what season we find ourselves in we believe that God has something to say to us and God has something to grow in us and I hope that you are pleasantly surprised at how a scripture passage this ancient chosen for us on this Sunday in 1992 will speak a relevant word into our lives for today and I don't know about you but I need a relevant word for today. I need something to ground me because I'm really struggling to process my anger and my anxiety over what's happened this week with Renee Goode. I know that like so many of you I watch that video footage over and over again trying to make sense of what I saw and I couldn't make sense of it. There's no reason that that woman should be dead today and she is and that breaks my heart.

At the same time I'm also filled with so much hope because once again this community has risen to the occasion and this city has organized and we are showing up. I had the opportunity like Debbie said to stand with a group of clergy at 34th and Portland on Thursday for a press conference calling for justice and peace in our city. Peaceful protests are continuing to crop up all around us. I know many of you were at Powderhorn Park on Saturday and in other places. People in our community are continuing to deliver groceries and give people rides to work who are living in fear of ice rates. In the wake of such chaos it's amazing to me to see how this can bring out the best in people when it could so easily bring out the worst in people. In the midst of such complicated emotions that we are struggling to put into words, the electionary gives us Isaiah 42 verses 1 through 9 to reflect on this morning. This is the first servant song of Isaiah and it gives us a picture of what God's servant leader looks like in action and so my hope is that we will leave here today reassured that God is at work in this world and that we have a vital role to play in the work that God is doing. Isaiah 42:1-9 says this:

"But here is my servant, the one I uphold, my chosen, who brings me delight. I've put my spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He won't cry out or shout aloud or make his voice heard in public. He won't break a bruised reed. He won't extinguish a faint wick, but he will surely bring justice. He won't be extinguished or broken until he has established justice in the land. The coastlands await his teaching. God the Lord says, "The one who created the heavens, the one who stretched them out, the one who spread out the earth and its offspring, the one who gave breath to its people and life to those who walk in it. I the Lord have called you for a good reason. I will grasp your hand and guard you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to lead the prisoners from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon. I am the Lord. This is my name. I don't hand out my glory to others or my praise to idols. The things announced in the past look they've already happened, but I'm declaring new things. Before they even appear, I tell you about them."

This passage is written in the wake of exile. The temple has been destroyed. There's nowhere to worship. There's no king or leader. There's just the domineering presence of the Babylonian Empire. The people are able to practice their faith still, but it's very clear that Yahweh is not a concern for the Babylonians. In fact, there is a festival in the springtime where the god Marduk is taken off of his mountain and his statue is paraded through the streets in celebration. As the Judeans see all of this taking place, they're beginning to wonder, "Is God there anymore? Are we still God's people?" These are the circumstances that Isaiah speaks into to remind the people how God works and the role that they're supposed to play in that work.

But then there's this leader that rises up. His name is Cyrus, and he is miraculously benevolent to the Judean people. Cyrus is the king of Persia, and he has a massive army. He's able to actually step in, remove the Babylonian king without a war, and then he declares an edict to allow all of the Judeans to go back home if they want to after years and years of being exiled. And so, of course, the Judeans see this and they think, "Wow, this must be the new thing that God is doing. This must be the comfort and delight that God has promised."

And while it's certainly a good thing that the captives are allowed to go home, even a surface level reading of this text would tell you that Cyrus is not this promised servant who is going to be doing all of these new things through God. God's servant acts in particular ways, acts towards justice, and these simply do not line up with who Cyrus is as a leader.

First, the text says that the servant won't cry out or shout aloud or make his voice heard in public. This is a leader who isn't making proclamations out in the streets or drawing attention to himself. This is a leader who is humble, and if you're not paying close attention, you could even miss some of the wonderful ways that this leader is working towards justice on behalf of the people.

Second, the servant will not break a bruised reed, and he will not extinguish a faint wick. This is a gentle servant. Power through violence and force is not the method of this servant. If a wick is faintly burning, a lot of us would decide to just go ahead and extinguish it and put it out, but that's not the case with this servant. Even the faintest wick and the bruised reeds are going to be cared for and nurtured and valued.

Third, the servant will not grow faint or be crushed until he's established justice in the earth. The servant is someone who can endure through great opposition and persecution. No matter what the trial is at hand, no matter the weight of the forces working against him, this servant is not going to give up until justice is established in the earth.

And finally, the servant will be a light to the nations by opening blind eyes, leading prisoners out of prison, and leading those who are walking in darkness out of the dungeon. So there is a spiritual and moral awakening that happens because of this leader. People who have been blinded to the injustice around them open their eyes and they start to see it for the first time. People walking in darkness are starting to walk in the light.

This is what God's servant looks like and Cyrus just doesn't fit that description very well. He is a king who conquers with a vast military presence and sure he's tolerant of other ethnic groups and other faith traditions, but that's simply a strategy to cut down on rebellions. And Cyrus certainly doesn't care about Yahweh's values or moral compass. And yet he's referred to in Isaiah 45 just a few chapters later as a messiah. And that's why this text is so important for us to digest today because there are so many leaders in our political spheres and in our churches who would gladly carry the banner of messiah, someone anointed by God, and yet their actions look nothing like the servant from our text this morning.

When we're scared and we're in need of joy or we are in pain and we're in need of relief, it is so easy to run to the most convenient savior possible and it is so important that we not do that because the loudest voice telling you that they can rescue you and the most domineering presence trying to intimidate you with their power is never a good savior. And so the only way for us to really figure out where God is at work is by looking at the ways that God promised God would act. That's why the first Christians could declare Jesus to be their messiah. After Jesus's death and resurrection, his disciples are trying to make sense of everything that they're experiencing.

And when they approach Isaiah 42, this starts to give them language to understand and talk about what they've experienced with Jesus. He was humble in the way that he healed others, often telling people not to say anything about the miracles that they saw him do. He was gentle in the way that he dealt with the marginalized. I think about the woman caught in adultery. All of those religious leaders are surrounding her with stones ready to stone her and Jesus sends all of them away and gently tells her that she's not condemned here and that she can go and sin no more. Jesus endured persecution to the point of death and even that became a tool that God used to establish justice on the earth and through his ministry, his death, and his resurrection. People's spiritual eyes began to open up to the kingdom of God being built around them.

Jesus's earliest followers looked at Isaiah 42 and saw Jesus there. This must be the servant that God is working through to do a new thing. And I believe that in Christ, God is still doing a new thing. In John 14 12, Jesus says this, "I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father." Jesus is saying to the disciples, "If you thought it was amazing to see what God is doing in me, just wait and see all of the new things, all of the amazing things that God is going to do in and through you." And I believe that that's a message for us today as well.

So not only should we be seeking out leaders who exemplify these godly characteristics of a servant, but we should also be seeking to embody them ourselves. And in this moment when our leaders are perpetuating violence and injustice and so many of our churches are just excusing that behavior in the name of Jesus, it is more critical than ever that we step into these spaces as God's servants. And so how do we do that in this climate that we're in? What does that look like?

I think our text for this morning gives us several steps that we can take. The first one is to resist the need to be the loudest. In our efforts to seek justice, we can't assume that the most effective way to seek justice is through being the loudest one. Our job as servants of God is not to add to the noise or to put on a spectacle for everyone to draw attention to ourselves. Our job is to reveal the heart of God and that does not mean that we stay silent or that we don't speak up. That does not mean that we don't use our voices, but it does mean that we are intentional with how and when we use our voices. The people who need to be the loudest are typically the ones who are scared that they're going to lose their power. And our call is to recognize that God is the one who has the power, not us. So there's nothing for us to be scared of. There's nothing for us to hold on to. So we don't have to use our voices to dominate conversations or to turn our advocacy into a performance.

Instead of choosing to escalate the chaos with our noise, we can choose to take a different path. And I felt that different path at the clergy press conference on Thursday at 34th and Portland. It was not an effort to just make more noise. Those clergy and faith leaders who spoke at that press conference spoke intentionally and prophetically as they made a call to demand justice in the name of love. And there was unity and purpose at that conference with Jews, Christians, and Muslims. And I was so touched by Imam Mowlid Ali's words. He said this, "This is not a war zone. This is our neighborhood. Today we come together to reject division and fear. We come together to say no to violence and to seek justice. Safety isn't negotiable." His words weren't loud. In fact, they told him that he needed to hold the microphone closer to his mouth because they couldn't hear him speak. But his words along with the other leaders were intentional. And they spoke intentionally into a very heavy day right where crime had just been committed.

So when you use your voice, may it never be to dominate a conversation, but to speak hope and to speak truth into moments like these. When you use your voice, may it never be to draw attention to yourself, but to draw attention to the plight of your neighbor and to the injustice that you see around you. The second thing that I think this text calls us to do is to protect the vulnerable. I think that the events of this week have only amplified what we already knew to be true. And that's that our neighbors are vulnerable. I can't imagine what our Somali neighbors are experiencing right now is there are threats against their lives and vandalism of their property and businesses. My heart continues to break for our friends at Park Place who can't even come to their program because they're scared of these ice rates. They were scared before this week happened. And so I imagine that their fears have only exponentially grown.

The servant described in Isaiah is going to bring about justice and not a single bruised reed is going to break. And not even the faintest of wicks will be extinguished. In other words, there is no room for God's people to crush the to crush the disadvantaged. When someone in our community is already in a precarious situation, our job is to come alongside them and lift their burdens, not make it heavier. And that's why I'm so grateful to be a part of this community because you guys are always ready to step up and to step in the hard places and serve. And I hope that we never lose that resolve because there will always be vulnerable people among us.

And that leads to the third thing is staying faithful. God's servant endures and remains steadfast through the opposition. There will always be opposition to those who are seeking justice as long as there is power to be gained by injustice. As long as fear works as a motivator to relinquish control to the most domineering voice, it will be used as a tactic. And unfortunately, it still seems to be effective. And the people of God are called to cut through that fear and stand firm in conviction and action until justice is served on this earth. And that sounds exhausting. I know it does. Because there are moments like these where so much injustice is rampant right in our backyards. And we have all of these opportunities to protest and to fundraise and to do letter writing campaigns and to go to press conferences. And all of that still feels woefully inadequate.

This is where our faith steps in. This is where we use our faith together. This is where we trust that God is good and that God goes before us and walks beside us and follows us from behind. This is where we place our energy and our effort and our resources into the hands of God to say, I know that this is not enough on its own, but I know that you can take this and you can do something good and you can do something holy with it.

And point number four, lastly, the servant of God will shine the light. It's a sacred responsibility for us to allow the light to shine through us as God's people. And what I love about the light is that all the light can do, for better or worse, is expose what is already there. It helps us see the holy and the evil more clearly. It exposes joy and pain. It reveals love and hatred. It illuminates peace and violence. And it's not lost on me that while we watch ICE agents rip families apart and detain and arrest good people who contribute to this community, worship in this community, build families in this community, that this ancient text selected for us, like I said earlier, in 1992, would tell us to be a light in such a way that blinders start to fall from people's eyes. And the people who have been imprisoned begin to be released from prison because of the work that we're doing. And I know that being the light can feel impossibly vague.

And so here's what I would say to you. Don't stop showing up for your neighbor. Keep showing up however you can, whatever resources you have to assist your neighbor. Do it. Don't waver in telling the truth, even when the truth is hard to hear. Keep telling the truth and refuse to let injustice have the final word in our community and in our world by relentlessly holding on to hope. We have to be people of hope. These are uncertain times that we are living in. And there are plenty of King Cyrus's out there who would love nothing more than to be your savior, but they don't fit the bill. And my advice to you would be to turn your eyes upon Jesus, the humble, gentle, enduring King whose light can and will shine through us and will guide us into a more just future. Amen.