Improving Your Serve
Sermon
Something's Coming ... Something Great
Sermons For Advent, Christmas And Epiphany
Charles Swindoll in his popular book, Improving Your Serve, tells of how he was at first haunted and then convicted by the Bible's insistence that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)." The more he studied what the Bible says about servanthood, the more convinced Swindoll became that our task in this world, like that of Jesus, is not to be served, not to grab the spotlight, and not to become successful or famous or powerful or idolized. Our calling is to be authentic servants who genuinely give of themselves without concern over who gets the glory.
For many of us, that term servant may conjure up an image somewhere between an African slave named Kunta Kinte straight out of Roots, and those thousands of migrant workers who, at harvest time, populate the farmlands and orchards of America. In my mind is a rather pathetic person, bent over, crushed in spirit, lacking in self esteem, soiled, wrinked and weary. And my first response is "Who, me, a servant? You gotta be kidding!"
If that is the kind of mental picture you have of servanthood, then the prophet Isaiah has some good news for you. In our text for this day, Isaiah paints a kind of word portrait of the Lord's servant. Now biblical scholars will continue to ask, "Who is meant by the servant in these verses? Is Isaiah speaking of himself, of Israel, or of a future messianic figure?" We can leave that debate to the scholars, because the Christian tradition has always read these servant songs in the light of Jesus and his ministry. Clearly, Isaiah's vision of the servant gave form and substance to Jesus' ministry, and to our calling to be the servants of Christ in the world today. So, let's let Isaiah introduce us to authentic servant-hood.
1. God's Call To Be A Servant
Isaiah makes this calling of God intense and personal. "The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name." God has called the servant and has given the servant a name before that person was ever born! Now recall that for the Hebrews, the name not only identified the person, but shaped the reality of the person's character. The prophet uses this vivid language to remind us that God's grace precedes any possible human merit or ability.
I recall a line from some unknown poet that goes, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." Israel as a people always had trouble understanding what it meant to be called to be a servant people. But election by God both for Israel and for us has nothing to do with our human merit, nor with being a privileged people. From the beginning God has chosen people for the sake of humankind. We are chosen, set apart, elected, not because of any worth on our part, but by God's grace, to call all the ends of the earth to salvation. How often, in our struggles to proclaim our self-importance, do we forget that it is the living God who calls us to be servants!
A senator, a clergyman and a Boy Scout were passengers in a small plane that developed engine trouble. "We'll have to bail out," the pilot announced. "Unfortunately, there are only three parachutes. I have a wife and seven small children. My family needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I'm the smartest politician in the world," said the senator. "The country needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I've had a good life," said to the clergyman to the Boy Scout," and yours is still ahead of you. You take the last parachute." "Don't need to," shrugged the youth. "There are two parachutes left. The smartest politician in the world jumped with my knapsack!"
Servants are people of God to serve and to give. God wants to build into our lives the same serving and giving qualities that characterized the earthly life and ministry of our Lord. To me, it is always inspiring when someone in the public spotlight remembers this basic call of God to be a servant. Many of you will recall the name of Colonel James B. Irwin who was a part of the team of astronauts who made the successful moon walk. When Irwin returned, he spoke of the thrill connected with leaving this planet and seeing it shrink in size. He mentioned watching earthrise one day, and thinking how privileged he was to be a part of this unique crew. And then, as they were en route back to earth, he began to realize that the experience he had shared with his crew in space would make them overnight international celebrities. It was then that James Irwin, a person of deep faith in God, made a decision. In his own words, he said: "As I was returning to earth, I realized that I was a servant, not a celebrity. So I am here as God's servant on planet Earth to share what I have experienced that others might know the glory of God."
That is still our calling from God - to be servants and not celebrities. Caught up in the fast lane of 20th century life, making mad dashes through airports, meeting deadlines, coping with the stress of meeting other people's demands and our own high expectations, it is very easy to lose sight of our primary calling as Christians. But God's plan from the very beginning has been to use human instruments for the redemption of the world. That is God's call since we were formed in our mother's womb - to be servants of the Living God.
2. God's Preparation Of The Servant
Isaiah's portrait of God's servant continues with a description of how the servant is prepared for a universal task. Wrote Isaiah, "He made my mouth like a sharp sword ... he made me a polished arrow and in his quiver, he hid me away." The prophet's imagery suggests that God prepares servants with a sharpness that will penetrate the resistance of those in the sixth century B.C. or those in the 20th century A.D. who harden their hearts to the message of grace and salvation.
It is as if the piercing quality of the servant's message must break through the hardness of custom and conventionality which enamels peoples' minds and consciences.
Ours is a tough, rugged, wicked world. Aggression, rebellion, violence, cutthroat competition and retaliation abound, not just on an international level, but in our personal lives as well. According to a study done at the University of Rhode Island, the American home is the most dangerous place to be outside of riots and war. No less than 30 percent of all American couples experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetimes! Somewhere up to 15 million women are battered in our nation each year! The heart of humankind can be very hard. A tramp discovered that when one day he waslooking for a handout in a picturesque old English village. Hungry almost to the point of fainting, he stopped by a pub bearing the classic name, "Inn of Saint George And The Dragon." "Please, ma'am, could you spare me a bit to eat?" he asked. The woman who answered his knock on the kitchen door took one look at him and said, "A bite to eat for a sorry, no good bum, a foul smelling beggar like you - No!" She slammed the door. Halfway down the lane the tramp stopped, turned around, and eyed the words "Saint George And the Dragon." He went back and knocked again on the kitchen door. "Now what do you want?" the woman asked angrily. "Well, ma'am, if Saint George is in, may I speak with him this time?"
That's the kind of resistance God's servant can expect to encounter, but the Spirit of God will, according to Isaiah, glorify the servant and use the servant's message to be "a light to the nations."
3. God's Universal Task For The Servant
But now, as Isaiah completes the portrait of God's servant, the prophet focuses on the universal task. "I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." The imagery of light is very suggestive in understanding the servant's task. Light is silent. There's no noise, no big splash, no banners - light simply shines. It's like a single lighthouse on a rugged shoreline. All it does is shine forth its beacon as it turns.
Moreover, light attracts attention. You don't have to ask people to look when you turn a light on in a dark room. It happens automatically. If you are a Christian on an athletic team filled with non-Christians, you are the light in the darkness. If you are a Christian family in a non-Christian neighborhood, you are the light in that darkness. The same is true if you are the only Christian nurse on your floor, or professional in your firm, or student in your school. You are a light in darkness - a servant of God who is being watched, who gives off a very different message with hardly a word being said. At first, others may hate the light, but they cannot help being attracted by it.
Now the ancient Hebrews understood the importance of being a light, but they always had trouble with the idea that their light was to shine on more than just the house of Jacob. How easy it is in any age for a nation to think of itself as God's favorite! We quickly condemn the narrow focus of these ancient Hebrews or the British or the Germans in the modern era, but how quickly we Americans forget our 19th century policy of Manifest Destiny. God had given America great natural resources and we Americans can believe that our mission was to bring civilization to benighted nations, even if it meant conquering them for their own good.
Nowadays we are somewhat chastened and more realistic. We no longer regard ourselves as the civilizers of the world.
Instead there are many voices suggesting that, rich though we are, we have no responsibility for sharing with the hungry nations of the world if that means lowering our own standard of living. Paul Scherer suggests that we modern Americans are like the crew on a ship stocked with provisions to be carried to a sick and starving community. On the way the crew members forget the purpose of the voyage; they eat the bread and drink all the wine themselves. Maybe that sounds grotesque, but it is no more grotesque than nations as well as individuals, rich folk, cultured folk, church folk, sitting in the midst of plenty and consuming it, while all around us are the cries of God's other hungry, needy children.
The task of the servant in our world today is to be a giver. Let me encourage you, in spite of the high cost of giving and the small number of servant models you may see around you, to determine to be different. We are never more Godlike than when we give. Shortly after World War II, Europe began picking up the pieces. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of the little orphaned children starving on the streets of war-torn cities.
Early one morning an American soldier spotted a little lad with his nose pressed against the window of a pastry shop. Inside the baker was kneading dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts. The hungry boy stared in silence. His eyes glued to the glass as he watched those mouth-watering morsels being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The soldier's heart went out to the nameless orphan. Hurrying inside he quickly purchased a dozen hot doughnuts and took them outside to the hungry boy. "Would you like these doughnuts?" he asked. As he turned to walk away, the soldier felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child say, "Mister, are you God?" We are never more like God than when we give. The glory of being God's servant is the opportunity to do what God did in Jesus Christ our Lord. "For God so loved the world, that he gave...."
For many of us, that term servant may conjure up an image somewhere between an African slave named Kunta Kinte straight out of Roots, and those thousands of migrant workers who, at harvest time, populate the farmlands and orchards of America. In my mind is a rather pathetic person, bent over, crushed in spirit, lacking in self esteem, soiled, wrinked and weary. And my first response is "Who, me, a servant? You gotta be kidding!"
If that is the kind of mental picture you have of servanthood, then the prophet Isaiah has some good news for you. In our text for this day, Isaiah paints a kind of word portrait of the Lord's servant. Now biblical scholars will continue to ask, "Who is meant by the servant in these verses? Is Isaiah speaking of himself, of Israel, or of a future messianic figure?" We can leave that debate to the scholars, because the Christian tradition has always read these servant songs in the light of Jesus and his ministry. Clearly, Isaiah's vision of the servant gave form and substance to Jesus' ministry, and to our calling to be the servants of Christ in the world today. So, let's let Isaiah introduce us to authentic servant-hood.
1. God's Call To Be A Servant
Isaiah makes this calling of God intense and personal. "The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name." God has called the servant and has given the servant a name before that person was ever born! Now recall that for the Hebrews, the name not only identified the person, but shaped the reality of the person's character. The prophet uses this vivid language to remind us that God's grace precedes any possible human merit or ability.
I recall a line from some unknown poet that goes, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." Israel as a people always had trouble understanding what it meant to be called to be a servant people. But election by God both for Israel and for us has nothing to do with our human merit, nor with being a privileged people. From the beginning God has chosen people for the sake of humankind. We are chosen, set apart, elected, not because of any worth on our part, but by God's grace, to call all the ends of the earth to salvation. How often, in our struggles to proclaim our self-importance, do we forget that it is the living God who calls us to be servants!
A senator, a clergyman and a Boy Scout were passengers in a small plane that developed engine trouble. "We'll have to bail out," the pilot announced. "Unfortunately, there are only three parachutes. I have a wife and seven small children. My family needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I'm the smartest politician in the world," said the senator. "The country needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I've had a good life," said to the clergyman to the Boy Scout," and yours is still ahead of you. You take the last parachute." "Don't need to," shrugged the youth. "There are two parachutes left. The smartest politician in the world jumped with my knapsack!"
Servants are people of God to serve and to give. God wants to build into our lives the same serving and giving qualities that characterized the earthly life and ministry of our Lord. To me, it is always inspiring when someone in the public spotlight remembers this basic call of God to be a servant. Many of you will recall the name of Colonel James B. Irwin who was a part of the team of astronauts who made the successful moon walk. When Irwin returned, he spoke of the thrill connected with leaving this planet and seeing it shrink in size. He mentioned watching earthrise one day, and thinking how privileged he was to be a part of this unique crew. And then, as they were en route back to earth, he began to realize that the experience he had shared with his crew in space would make them overnight international celebrities. It was then that James Irwin, a person of deep faith in God, made a decision. In his own words, he said: "As I was returning to earth, I realized that I was a servant, not a celebrity. So I am here as God's servant on planet Earth to share what I have experienced that others might know the glory of God."
That is still our calling from God - to be servants and not celebrities. Caught up in the fast lane of 20th century life, making mad dashes through airports, meeting deadlines, coping with the stress of meeting other people's demands and our own high expectations, it is very easy to lose sight of our primary calling as Christians. But God's plan from the very beginning has been to use human instruments for the redemption of the world. That is God's call since we were formed in our mother's womb - to be servants of the Living God.
2. God's Preparation Of The Servant
Isaiah's portrait of God's servant continues with a description of how the servant is prepared for a universal task. Wrote Isaiah, "He made my mouth like a sharp sword ... he made me a polished arrow and in his quiver, he hid me away." The prophet's imagery suggests that God prepares servants with a sharpness that will penetrate the resistance of those in the sixth century B.C. or those in the 20th century A.D. who harden their hearts to the message of grace and salvation.
It is as if the piercing quality of the servant's message must break through the hardness of custom and conventionality which enamels peoples' minds and consciences.
Ours is a tough, rugged, wicked world. Aggression, rebellion, violence, cutthroat competition and retaliation abound, not just on an international level, but in our personal lives as well. According to a study done at the University of Rhode Island, the American home is the most dangerous place to be outside of riots and war. No less than 30 percent of all American couples experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetimes! Somewhere up to 15 million women are battered in our nation each year! The heart of humankind can be very hard. A tramp discovered that when one day he waslooking for a handout in a picturesque old English village. Hungry almost to the point of fainting, he stopped by a pub bearing the classic name, "Inn of Saint George And The Dragon." "Please, ma'am, could you spare me a bit to eat?" he asked. The woman who answered his knock on the kitchen door took one look at him and said, "A bite to eat for a sorry, no good bum, a foul smelling beggar like you - No!" She slammed the door. Halfway down the lane the tramp stopped, turned around, and eyed the words "Saint George And the Dragon." He went back and knocked again on the kitchen door. "Now what do you want?" the woman asked angrily. "Well, ma'am, if Saint George is in, may I speak with him this time?"
That's the kind of resistance God's servant can expect to encounter, but the Spirit of God will, according to Isaiah, glorify the servant and use the servant's message to be "a light to the nations."
3. God's Universal Task For The Servant
But now, as Isaiah completes the portrait of God's servant, the prophet focuses on the universal task. "I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." The imagery of light is very suggestive in understanding the servant's task. Light is silent. There's no noise, no big splash, no banners - light simply shines. It's like a single lighthouse on a rugged shoreline. All it does is shine forth its beacon as it turns.
Moreover, light attracts attention. You don't have to ask people to look when you turn a light on in a dark room. It happens automatically. If you are a Christian on an athletic team filled with non-Christians, you are the light in the darkness. If you are a Christian family in a non-Christian neighborhood, you are the light in that darkness. The same is true if you are the only Christian nurse on your floor, or professional in your firm, or student in your school. You are a light in darkness - a servant of God who is being watched, who gives off a very different message with hardly a word being said. At first, others may hate the light, but they cannot help being attracted by it.
Now the ancient Hebrews understood the importance of being a light, but they always had trouble with the idea that their light was to shine on more than just the house of Jacob. How easy it is in any age for a nation to think of itself as God's favorite! We quickly condemn the narrow focus of these ancient Hebrews or the British or the Germans in the modern era, but how quickly we Americans forget our 19th century policy of Manifest Destiny. God had given America great natural resources and we Americans can believe that our mission was to bring civilization to benighted nations, even if it meant conquering them for their own good.
Nowadays we are somewhat chastened and more realistic. We no longer regard ourselves as the civilizers of the world.
Instead there are many voices suggesting that, rich though we are, we have no responsibility for sharing with the hungry nations of the world if that means lowering our own standard of living. Paul Scherer suggests that we modern Americans are like the crew on a ship stocked with provisions to be carried to a sick and starving community. On the way the crew members forget the purpose of the voyage; they eat the bread and drink all the wine themselves. Maybe that sounds grotesque, but it is no more grotesque than nations as well as individuals, rich folk, cultured folk, church folk, sitting in the midst of plenty and consuming it, while all around us are the cries of God's other hungry, needy children.
The task of the servant in our world today is to be a giver. Let me encourage you, in spite of the high cost of giving and the small number of servant models you may see around you, to determine to be different. We are never more Godlike than when we give. Shortly after World War II, Europe began picking up the pieces. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of the little orphaned children starving on the streets of war-torn cities.
Early one morning an American soldier spotted a little lad with his nose pressed against the window of a pastry shop. Inside the baker was kneading dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts. The hungry boy stared in silence. His eyes glued to the glass as he watched those mouth-watering morsels being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The soldier's heart went out to the nameless orphan. Hurrying inside he quickly purchased a dozen hot doughnuts and took them outside to the hungry boy. "Would you like these doughnuts?" he asked. As he turned to walk away, the soldier felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child say, "Mister, are you God?" We are never more like God than when we give. The glory of being God's servant is the opportunity to do what God did in Jesus Christ our Lord. "For God so loved the world, that he gave...."
