2nd Sunday after Epiphany 2011 Isaiah 49:1-7
Isaiah 49:6b, “I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Our theme during epiphany is “Christ be our light.” To fulfill our mission as a light for the nations it behooves us to begin with prayer, “Christ be our Light. Shine upon us O Light for the nations. Extend through us the word of salvation.”
In our text the servant of the Lord complains, “I have toiled in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.” He had been chosen while still in his mother’s womb to be God’s messenger. God equipped him with a tongue sharper than a sword; hid away for just the right time like a polished arrow in an archer’s quiver. With that powerful message he had called to the ends of the earth urging God’s scattered people to come back to God. God had called him “My servant;” and promised that through him “I will be glorified.” But how could he be a light to his people when they lived in exile by the waters of Babylon? Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple demolished. How was God to be glorified when his sharpened word had no effect in the time of darkness and gloom? The people fell further into the abyss of sin and God’s judgment. How could he proclaim joy and restoration? It seemed outrageous.
God’s response to his complaint is ludicrous. “It is too slight a task for you to restore the tribes of Jacob…I shall appoint you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach earth’s farthest bounds.”
In the order of baptism we used for several years the congregation welcoming the newly baptized into their midst. “We receive you as a fellow member of the body of Christ…to work with us in his kingdom.” That last phrase was striking, “to work with us in his kingdom,” when addressed to an infant only a month out of its mother’s womb. “Hey kid, stop lolling around. Stand on your feet and get to work for the Lord. We need every one to pitch in.” Impossible? Ridiculous? Of course.
Think of being one of the disciples on the mountain in Galilee after Jesus’ resurrection. Their numbers depleted by the loss of Judas. Still painful was the memory of panicked running following Jesus’ arrest. Peter’s three-time denial that he even knew this guy named Jesus lay only six weeks in the past. Matthew comments, “They worshiped him but some doubted.” As in our Old Testament reading God, that is, Jesus ignores their depleted numbers and deficient faith saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything I have commanded you.” In other words “It is too slight a task I have given you so far. I shall appoint you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach earth’s farthest boundaries.” What good is it to give such a global job description to a bunch of inadequate and embarrassing followers? Ludicrous, preposterous.
Yet, they went, made disciples baptized and taught. Because here we are today, Immanuel Chapel, our name taken from the final promise given to those less than stellar disciples, “I am with you always.”
Those disciples went forth as a mighty light in the power of the Holy Spirit and making followers of Jesus, who in turn made another generation of disciples who baptized and taught still another generation of followers for Jesus. They were the light for the nations through whom God was reaching out with his salvation to the end of the earth.
For many of us that light came among our forefathers in northern Europe. It must have seemed the ends of the earth to those missionary monks who came upon our ancestors, descendants of the Vandals, Franks and Visigoths. For others the light shined in the darkness of slavery giving a hope of being free at last. For still others the gospel light broke forth into homes in West Africa. And all of us have been led by the light of Christ to be here, where now he commissions us to be as a light for the nations. It really is as St. Paul writes, “Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth”…Yet we are, “Called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to be end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
However, even with all the grace we have received from God through Christ we can begin to think, act and speak as if our work is all in vain, our strength spent for nothing and the task impossible. After all, our numbers are depleted. Worship attendance is down by half of what it was six years ago. We have a large loan to repay. Immanuel, exists in a different culture than it did even thirty years ago. How are some of us old German types of Lutherans going to make the shift? Maybe, our mind tells us, it’s even wrong and unlutheran to do so. There is something from Isaiah, I haven’t shared yet today. The servant in Isaiah follows the expression of his doubts with these words, “Yet my cause is with the Lord and my reward with my God.” Those words sound very much like words spoken by another Servant of the Lord as he sprawled in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by. Yet not my will but yours.”
In our Gospel lesson, John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples when an ordinary looking Jew from Galilee passed by. John called out, “Behold, the Lamb of God. He it is who takes away the sin of the world.” So it began. Do you know what happened next? Two of John’s disciples followed Jesus. With those two, Jesus began gathering his church. Jesus invited them to come and see where he was staying, they did and they remained with him. One of two was named Andrew. He went and found his brother Simon Peter telling him, “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).” Amazing.
However, it was not a case of onward and upward for Jesus and his buildingless church. Dark days would lie ahead. It would be in the darkness of a Friday afternoon that the light for the nations would announce, “It is finished” and the light of his life would wink out. With that he proved to be the Lamb of God, who had indeed taken away the sin of the world. Wonderful.
Now, we are called and empowered in his resurrection to tell the glad news of deliverance among ourselves and to speak of his faithfulness and salvation to the nations. For we shine forth as lights to cast the spotlight on none other than Jesus, God’s Savior, the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. Glory to the Lord.
We end as we began, with a prayer, “Christ be our Light. Shine upon us O Light for the nations. Extend through us the promise of salvation. Thank you, Lord for choosing us as your servants.”
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