Too Small a Thing
Isaiah 49:1-6[1]
Lately we’ve heard a lot of dialogue about “privilege.” I think we
as a people have always had to deal with the fact that there are some who seem
to have advantages that others don’t. There was a time when it was commonly
assumed that privilege was earned and deserved, and that those who lacked
privilege had only themselves to blame. Maybe some still hold that view. These
days much of the talk has shifted to a critical view of privilege. Those who
have privilege have an unfair advantage. They may have gained that advantage by
questionable means. And anyone with privilege is certainly suspect for the
simple fact of having it.
While it’s true that there are plenty of people out there taking
unfair advantage of others, I think our current conversation is too shallow. It
fails to take into account the fact that many who have privileges or advantages
use them in the service of others. That was the sentiment behind President Kennedy’s
statement, “Those to whom much is given, much is required.” And, of course the
original form of this was spoken by Jesus: “From everyone to whom much has been
given, much will be required” (Lk. 12:48). It’s an approach to privilege that
seems to have been overlooked in our current setting—both in the way some talk
about privilege, and in the way some approach their own privileges.
The prophet Isaiah
addressed the issue of privilege among the Jewish people. From the days of
Moses, they had a strong sense of being a “peculiar people,” a nation chosen
and blessed by God. But as the prophets make clear, the Jewish people had
turned that blessing into a right they saw as theirs. They thought that blessing would spare them from all harm,
even from suffering the consequences of their disobedience to God. They saw the
privilege of being God’s “chosen people” as an advantage they had a right to
claim for themselves.
But Isaiah reminded them that the purpose of their calling in the
first place was not simply their own privilege, but so that they might be a
“light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). This theme goes back to the days of the
Exodus, when Moses had said that they would be a “priestly kingdom and a holy
nation” (Exodus 19:6), a whole nation of people who would speak for God and
represent God’s saving purposes in the world. It goes back even beyond that to
the days when Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees, and God called him to leave
for a place “to be determined”! The purpose was to make Abraham a blessing to
all people: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis
12:3).
Somewhere along the way, however, that outlook got lost. But the
Jewish people weren’t the only ones to take that path. The church throughout
the ages has made the very same mistake.
Like the Jewish people of old, Kings and popes and preachers of all
kinds have mistaken God’s blessing for a privilege they had a right to claim.
And they have believed this privilege gives them a claim to advantages like
power, wealth, and influence that is theirs by right.
But the God whom Isaiah called his people to worship is “the
everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28), the one
who “sits above the circle of the earth” and “stretches out the heavens like a
curtain” (40:22). The God who called them and us to serve as light to the world
is the one who said, “I made the earth, and created humankind upon it; it was
my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host”
(Isaiah 45:12). I think the point is to place the calling of a particular
people as the “chosen ones” in the proper context. As Isaiah said so long ago, to
view their privilege as something that belongs to them alone is “too small a
thing” for the God who is in the process of renewing all creation.
When we walk down that path, we not only make our God too small,
we abandon the very lifeblood of the church—our calling to carry out the same
task as God’s “servant” of whom Isaiah spoke so long ago. Like God’s “servant”
we are called to serve, not to be served. Like God’s “servant” we are called to
bring God’s grace, mercy, and love to those who have been written off: to the
least and the last and the left out. It’s an approach to “privilege” that sets
aside a self-serving attitude and sees God’s blessing as a calling to serve
others.
It’s an approach to privilege that recognizes that “From everyone
to whom much has been given, much will be required.” It says to the hungry
“here’s food,” and to the stranger, “you’re welcome here.” It’s a point of view
that says to those who are thirsty, “here’s water,” and to those who are
homeless, “here’s shelter.” It seeks to set free all those who are captives and
to bring comfort to those who are suffering in any way. It’s a standpoint that helps
those in poverty to find a better life. It’s an attitude that views privilege
as a means of helping others.
The point of God’s blessing on a special people was never to
bestow upon them a privilege they could use to their own advantage. Rather it
has always been a calling to serve others. It is not about claiming rights we
think belong to us, but transforming this world into “the kind of world God had
in mind when He created it.”[2]
Anything less than that is “too small a thing” for the God and Father of our
Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ who is working through the Spirit of life to
make all things new! And it’s “too small
a thing” for us as well.
[1]
©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/19/2018 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Harold Kushner, To Life!; accessed at
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/
practices/practices.php?id=30&g=1.
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