Chosen
Isaiah 42:1-7; Mark 1:4-11[1]
One thing you may not
know about me is that I can be a pretty picky shopper. Oh, when it comes to
everyday things, like grocery shopping, I may take the path of least
resistance. But when it comes to spending my hard-earned money on something
“important,” I am incredibly selective. I shop online, I read reviews, and I
compare and contrast various options. Even then, I may or may not “pull the
trigger” and make the purchase. Of course, these days, it’s much simpler
because I can do most of that online. You should have seen me back before the
internet. I would go all over town looking for just the right purchase,
whatever it was. I can be a pretty picky shopper.
We all face choices
in our lives, and ironically we may not be so picky with some of the most important
choices we face. I find the way our churches choose pastors a bit ironic. All
you have to go on is a file with information on it, perhaps a couple of videos,
and references. And then you have a couple of “dates” with the prospective
pastor, and on the second “date” you have to choose whether or not you want
this person to be your pastor. If a friend decided to get married after the
second date, most of us would probably do everything in our power to convince
them they aren’t making a wise choice.
Our Scripture
readings for today speak of a very different kind of choice. They speak of the one
whom God has chosen to carry out his purpose. In our lesson from Isaiah, the
Scripture speaks of the “servant” of God, who would “bring forth justice to the
nations” (Isa. 42:1). That sounds a bit ominous on its own until you read on.
The servant will bring about this “justice” in a manner that is gentle and
merciful: “a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will
not quench” (Isa. 42:3). And the task of bringing “justice” to the nations is
equated with bringing “light” to them (Isa. 42:6). The kind of justice the
“servant” has been chosen by God to carry out means “opening the eyes that are
blind” and “bringing out the prisoners from the dungeon” (Isa. 42:7).
As I’ve said many
times, our idea of justice is very different from the Bible. Our “justice” is about enforcing laws and
punishing crimes. It’s about making those in the wrong pay for their actions. But in the Bible, God’s justice takes place
through compassion and mercy and peace. What that means in real-life terms is
that the hungry are fed, the prisoners are set free, the blind receive their
sight, those who are bowed down are lifted up, and the immigrants and the
widows and orphans have someone to watch over them. Simply put—God’s justice is like a light that
shines into all the dark places of the world and makes it possible for all
people to thrive equally. This was the task that the “servant” of God in Isaiah
was chosen to carry out.
It may not seem
obvious to us, but the voice that came to Jesus at his baptism indicates that
he was chosen to fulfill the task of establishing God’s justice of compassion
and mercy and peace. The voice that came to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11), contains a subtle reference to the
original address to God’s “servant” in Isaiah: “my chosen, in whom my soul
delights” (Isa. 42:1). I believe that Jesus understood very well the
implications of the voice at his baptism: he was called to establish God’s
justice that would enable all people to thrive. But he framed it in terms that
we might not recognize: Jesus proclaimed that “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” That
was his way of saying that he had come to establish God’s justice, peace, and
freedom in a world that knew precious little justice, peace, or freedom.
The hard truth is
that we still live in a world that knows precious little of God’s justice,
peace, and freedom. Looking back over the history of the world, or simply
looking back over our own histories, we might be tempted to think it incredibly
naïve to still place our hope in such a seemingly idealistic notion. It may
seem downright foolish to hope for a world in which “evil in all its forms will
be utterly eradicated, … God is really honored as God, human beings are truly
loving, and peace and justice reign on earth” as our Study Catechism puts it. If Jesus truly was chosen by God to be his
“servant,” his Messiah, the one to bring God’s peace and justice and love into
this world, we might expect to see more evidence of it in the way things
actually work.
I think this is where we all
face a choice. It’s a much more important choice than how you’re going to spend
your money, or who you’re going to call as pastor, or even perhaps your choice
of a career or a spouse. We all face the choice of how we will view the world
in which we live. We can choose to look primarily at all the cruelty, greed,
abuse of power, violence, and injustice in our world. When we do so, we will
very likely not place much faith in God, let alone put much stock in the hope
that Jesus came make a radical difference in our lives. But we can also choose
to look at our world through the eyes of faith and hope. When we do, I think we
will see that there are indeed signs of God’s justice, peace, and freedom in
our world. And that helps reinforce our faith that Jesus was indeed chosen by
God to make those hopes a reality for all people everywhere.
[1]
©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 1/7/2018 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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