Results
Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9[1]
I think we all want to
make a difference in this world. We want to know that what we’re doing with the
time we have in life has meaning, that it makes some kind of contribution. That
doesn’t mean that we all want to be in the “spotlight.” Some of us thrive there,
and that’s a wonderful thing. Some of us don’t, and that’s wonderful too.
Whether we’re “front and center” or working behind the scenes, what counts is
that our lives “matter.” One of the challenges with wanting to make a
difference in the world is that, at least in my experience, more often than not
we never get to see the results of our efforts. We just don’t have the ability
to see all the ways our lives may be impacting the lives of those around us.
And that can leave us wondering whether we’re really making a difference in
this world at all.
The sometimes
frustrating truth is that this is particularly the case when it comes to what
we do in the service of our Lord Jesus and the body of Christ, the church. I’ve
served the church in some way all of my adult life, and I’ve found this to be
true countless times. We do our best to “plant seeds” in the lives of the
people we try to help, but we rarely get to see the results. As St. Paul
observed, some plant, others water (and I might add that still others tend the
field), but it is God who “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). At times this can be
frustrating, especially if you’re the kind of person who is “results-oriented.”
At times it can be downright discouraging.
Two of our Scripture
lessons for today give us some help with this. The first one from the book of
the prophet Isaiah speaks about the work of the “servant of the Lord.” The
servant, the one who chosen to proclaim God’s word to the people of Israel, begins
by giving voice to his grief over his lack of success. He was given the ability
to speak clearly and effectively to the people, and yet they remained closed
off to God’s message and God’s ways. And so the “servant” of the LORD says, “my
work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose”
(Isa. 49:4, NLT). He was frustrated and discouraged by the lack of results from
his efforts.
In response, the prophet
reminds the “servant” that God was doing something bigger through him than he
could possibly imagine. The Lord says to him, “It is too small a thing for you
to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob” (Isa. 49:6, NIV). That
was not enough. He was called to a bigger task: “I will also make you a light
for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” In the
face of frustration and discouragement from a lack of results, the prophet
speaking in the name of the Lord reminded the servant that God’s plans were
much bigger than he could even dream. Despite frustration and discouragement
from the lack of results, the Lord was reassuring the “servant” that his
mission would succeed. And it would succeed so well that God’s salvation would
reach to the ends of the earth![2]
In our second lesson
from 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was dealing with problems in one of the
churches he had founded. After he had moved on in his service to Christ, they
became confused about how they were supposed to live their lives together in
Christian community. They were divided, and the factions were pulling the
congregation in very different directions. Ironically, the situation at Corinth
came about from the fact that the mission of shining a light to the nations was
well underway, and it was causing some big problems! One of their questions was
how Christians with so many differences could live together in one community of
faith.
But the Apostle began
his instructions to them with the assurance that they already had everything
they needed. He reminded them that all they did was built on “the grace of God
that has been given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:4). He told them that they had already been fully
equipped by the Spirit to carry out their work: “in every way you have been enriched
in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind ... so that you are not lacking
in any spiritual gift” (1 Cor. 1:5, 7). And just in case they had any
lingering doubts, Paul reminded them that God who is always faithful would
strengthen them to the end (1 Cor. 1:8).
I’ve said before that
it’s a tough time to be the church. The sweeping changes in our world have
certainly not left the church untouched. And while many of these changes are
directly related to recent events, they are also due in part to deeper, more
fundamental changes in our whole society. Churches everywhere in this country
are facing the same daunting challenges that we are. And as is true here, so in
most churches, we’re all working harder than ever to serve our Lord Jesus
Christ and the kingdom of God. But you couldn’t tell it by the results. At
least not by the results that are obvious. And that can be frustrating and
discouraging. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not making a difference! Because
one of the lessons we learn when we choose to serve God’s kingdom is that while
we may not be able to see the result of our efforts, God can!
That’s one of the
lessons we learn when we serve God’s purpose. Later in 1 Corinthians St. Paul
reminds us all that “nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (1 Cor 15:58,
NLT). We may not always be able to see the results of our efforts, but
then perhaps it’s not for us to see. It’s God’s business. What keeps us going,
as Henri Nouwen reminds us, is not the results we can see, but rather the hope
that is firmly grounded in Christ’s victory over death itself, which
demonstrates “that there is light on the other side of darkness.”[3] The cause we are all working for is nothing short of the transformation of this
world so that all our lives reflect God’s will being done “on earth as it is in
heaven.” That’s a bigger task than anyone can wrap their heads or their hands
around. And yet we all continue to contribute to the final victory of God as we
continue to serve him faithfully. And as St. Paul reminds us, God will do his
part: he will faithfully give us the strength to continue serving him.
[1] ©
2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD for Hickman Presbyterian
Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Christopher R. Seitz, “The Book of Isaiah 40-66,” New Interpreters Bible VI:433: “To witness to the God of Israel is
not to share information with others but to be faithful to God in such a way
that confrontation will occur but will not be an end in itself. The witness
leaves the final accomplishment to God, assured that affliction and hardship
will be the means through which ‘my salvation shall reach to the ends of the
earth’ (49:6).”
[3] Henri
J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer (1979), 76: “A Christian leader is a
man [sic] of hope whose strength in the final analysis is based neither on
self-confidence derived from his personality, nor on specific expectations for
the future, but on a promise given to him. … Leadership, therefore, is not
called Christian because it is permeated with optimism against all the odds of
life, but because it is grounded in the historic Christ-event which is
understood as a definitive breach in the deterministic chain of human trial and
error, and as a dramatic affirmation that there is light on the other side of
darkness. Every attempt to attach this hope of visible symptoms in our
surroundings becomes a temptation when it prevents us from the realization that
promises, not concrete successes, are the basis of Christian leadership. … Hope
prevents us from clinging to what we have and frees us to move away from the
safe place and enter unknown and fearful territory.”
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