Being Called / Based on Isaiah 42:1-9 / Delivered on January 12, 2020 to Hudson-UMC

Being Called / Based on Isaiah 42:1-9 / Delivered on January 12, 2020 to Hudson-UMC

Isaiah 42:1-9

1 But here is my servant, the one I uphold;

    my chosen, who brings me delight.

I’ve put my spirit upon him;

    he will bring justice to the nations.

2 He won’t cry out or shout aloud

    or make his voice heard in public.

3 He won’t break a bruised reed;

    he won’t extinguish a faint wick,

    but he will surely bring justice.

4 He won’t be extinguished or broken

    until he has established justice in the land.

The coastlands await his teaching.

5 God the Lord says—

    the one who created the heavens,

    the one who stretched them out,

    the one who spread out the earth and its offspring,

    the one who gave breath to its people

    and life to those who walk on it—

6 I, the Lord, have called you for a good reason.

    I will grasp your hand and guard you,

    and give you as a covenant to the people,

    as a light to the nations,

7     to open blind eyes, to lead the prisoners from prison,

    and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon.

8 I am the Lord;

    that is my name;

    I don’t hand out my glory to others

        or my praise to idols.

9 The things announced in the past—look—they’ve already happened,

    but I’m declaring new things.

    Before they even appear,

    I tell you about them.

God be with my voice and be with their ears that we may work together to understand your word.  Amen

Here we go!  My main scripture is Isaiah but as is my usual I’m going to be pulling from a few scriptures.  We’ll start and end with Isaiah and have a chunk in the middle with some history of the trouble in recognizing someone is “called” by God.

The second half of the book of Isaiah was written to comfort the people of Israel who had been taken into captivity in Babylon.  It was a message of hope.

My study of this passage showed there is disagreement on who this suffering servant is.  Is it a single person or does it represent the people of Israel?  Is it a person of the time of their exile like maybe King Cyrus of Persia who let them go back to Jerusalem, is it Jesus, or a future person, or more than one of the above?

Matthew quotes from this passage as representing Jesus.

Matthew 12:15-21

15 Jesus knew what they intended to do, so he went away from there. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them all. 16 But he ordered them not to spread the word about him, 17 so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

18 Look, my Servant whom I chose,

        the one I love, in whom I find great pleasure.

I’ll put my Spirit upon him,

        and he’ll announce judgment to the Gentiles.

19 He won’t argue or shout,

        and nobody will hear his voice in the streets.

20 He won’t break a bent stalk,

        and he won’t snuff out a smoldering wick,

            until he makes justice win.

21 And the Gentiles will put their hope in his name.

Jesus himself quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 and associated his ministry as fulfilling its call.

Luke 4:16-20

16 Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. 17 The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because the Lord has anointed me.

He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,

    to proclaim release to the prisoners

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

    to liberate the oppressed,

19     and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. 21 He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”

From these passages I can see Jesus did take on the call Isaiah put out on behalf of God.  Yet I see God’s call as being beyond time.  God’s word is alive!  It may have represented a person during the exile, it could also be a call to the people of Israel for them take up after exile.  Being timeless means, it is still a call for us to hear today.

That thought may cause you to pause.  Could we even consider ourselves worthy of taking on a role that Jesus took on?  Remember, Jesus said, “follow me” often.  Who is worthy to be called by God?  The question of worthiness is brought out in the reading from Acts assigned to this Sunday.  If you are interested in how the early church came into being, reading Acts is the place to start!

The scripture selection chosen by the lectionary for today doesn’t include the full story but here’s what happens from the start.

A man named Cornelius has a vision telling him to have Peter come to his house.  Cornelius has two major strikes against him.  He is not Jewish and he’s a centurion, a professional officer of the Roman army which is basically an enemy.  This is not a person Peter would have wanted to associate with.  He would have been considered “unclean” by associating with him.  God knows this.  Peter’s fear is based on rules he learned from his youth, on how to best obey God by being a good Jewish person.  God needs to teach him that God is above human rules before Peter can respond to this call on the way.  I’m going to read this part directly from the scripture.

Acts 10:9-19

9 At noon on the following day, as their journey brought them close to the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat. While others were preparing the meal, he had a visionary experience. 11 He saw heaven opened up and something like a large linen sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. 12 Inside the sheet were all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and wild birds. 13 A voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!”

14 Peter exclaimed, “Absolutely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15 The voice spoke a second time, “Never consider unclean what God has made pure.” 16 This happened three times, then the object was suddenly pulled back into heaven.

17 Peter was bewildered about the meaning of the vision. Just then, the messengers sent by Cornelius discovered the whereabouts of Simon’s house and arrived at the gate. 18 Calling out, they inquired whether the Simon known as Peter was a guest there.

19 While Peter was brooding over the vision, the Spirit interrupted him, “Look! Three people are looking for you. 20 Go downstairs. Don’t ask questions; just go with them because I have sent them.”

Peter goes down and invites the three in for the night as his guests, and then travels the next day to Cornelius.  Cornelius has gathered lots of friends and relatives in his home and tells Peter about his vision and invites him to say whatever Peter feels directed to say.

Now here are the assigned verses of scripture from the lectionary plus a couple to show the end of the meeting.

Acts 10:34-48

34 Peter said, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. 35 Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all! 37 You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism John preached. 38 You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him. 39 We are witnesses of everything he did, both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to be seen, 41 not by everyone but by us. We are witnesses whom God chose beforehand, who ate and drank with him after God raised him from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone who heard the word. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 They heard them speaking in other languages and praising God. Peter asked, 47 “These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Surely no one can stop them from being baptized with water, can they?” 48 He directed that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited Peter to stay for several days.

Peter obeyed God’s direction and the Holy Spirit was a sign of God’s acceptance of Cornelius and his household, yet that didn’t make it easier for Peter to deal with the church politics.  When he got to Jerusalem, he had to explain the whole thing from the beginning because they were criticizing him for dining with uncircumcised men.  This was against their laws.  Peter was considered “unclean”.  They didn’t punish Peter, but the debate about circumcision didn’t get resolved until five chapters later.

There was a council in Jerusalem to decide whether non-Jewish people needed to obey the laws of Moses before they could be considered followers of Jesus.  This decision could have made being a Christian a subset of Judaism.  Peter stood up and addressed them again sharing his experience.

Acts 15:6-11

6 The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. 7 After much debate, Peter stood and addressed them, “Fellow believers, you know that, early on, God chose me from among you as the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and come to believe. 8 God, who knows people’s deepest thoughts and desires, confirmed this by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, but purified their deepest thoughts and desires through faith. 10 Why then are you now challenging God by placing a burden on the shoulders of these disciples that neither we nor our ancestors could bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we and they are saved in the same way, by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”

The council agreed with Peter.  God didn’t appear to require a person to obey all their laws, so, how could they?  Accepting that a non-Jewish person could receive a call from God was a tough concept to handle.  What about the importance of their documented rules? 

It came down to believing that the uncircumcised were called and received by God.  How do you know when someone has a true call from God?

When the apostles met resistance from the Pharisees in chapter 5 of Acts, one of the Pharisees gave a recommendation.

Acts 5:38-39

38 Here’s my recommendation in this case: Distance yourselves from these men. Let them go! If their plan or activity is of human origin, it will end in ruin. 39 If it originates with God, you won’t be able to stop them. Instead, you would actually find yourselves fighting God!” The council was convinced by his reasoning.

Even earlier while Jesus was on Earth, his disciples struggled with who is “allowed” to serve.

Mark 9:38-40

38 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone throwing demons out in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”

39 Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him. No one who does powerful acts in my name can quickly turn around and curse me. 40 Whoever isn’t against us is for us.

Trying to understand what is important to God has been a struggle.  God doesn’t obey our rules.  He doesn’t even obey the rules that we created trying to obey Him!  God calls who He wants to call.

I believe this with all my heart.  Especially since I feel called in a way that is still questioned.  The pulpit is reserved for males in some denominations.  So, am I truly feeling a call from God or is it just indigestion?

The right to be called has been subjected to human rules for all Christian history.  We’re fighting about it even now.  I lingered in the book of Acts to help give history that our current situation isn’t new.  Circumcised or uncircumcised, married or single, male or female, and more recently questions about sexuality.  Here is possibly the call selection you will believe is the most controversial! Them versus me; meaning other people versus you.

I said in the beginning that I believed Isaiah’s words were outside of time because God is outside of time.  There is no expiration date on a message from God.  Jesus accepted Isaiah’s words as part of his calling.  Could God be calling you to these words?

Being called can mean leaving your livelihood, but it may not.  Not all calls are the same.  If you immediately want to tell me “God wouldn’t call me because…” insert excuse here, I can quickly point out you are in good company because many of the Old Testament calls start off with excuses why the called person isn’t a good fit.  Then you have Jonah who flat out said no and spent three days in the belly of a fish until he changed his mind and accepted God’s call.  Take that last one as a gentle warning.

Let’s look at some of the calls from this passage in Isaiah again.  I’m going to give it a Darci translation.

We have each been given the Holy Spirit as our guide, so God has already accomplished that part. 

Acting justly is the call here.  Shouting and public speaking tends to be a fear so that is easy to skip.

Verse three is a little more confusing:

3 He won’t break a bruised reed; he won’t extinguish a faint wick, but he will surely bring justice.

One of my study books is called Feasting on the Word.  It interprets this verse as a call to be a mentor.  Help support another until they are stronger and mature enough to thrive on their own.  Help fan their good ideas into flames.   The call to act with justice is repeated multiple times again.

The beginning of verse 6 is a word of encouragement.

6 I, the Lord, have called you for a good reason.      I will grasp your hand and guard you.

You have unique gifts and talents.  There is a need for what you have to offer.  You might be called to set “stretch goals” as my corporate managers use to call goals that pushed me past my comfort zone, but they are using the gifts you already have.  In many cases a call was followed by mentoring.  God doesn’t leave us without help.

Verse 6 goes on to tell us we are to be a light to the nations.  That’s not new news.  Jesus told us in Matthew 5:14-16 that we are to be light.

14 You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven.

  

Verse 7 of our Isaiah passage could be taken as physical or emotional.  To open blind eyes, may need a medical process but it could also mean to give understanding.  To lead the prisoners from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon could mean work done by groups like Amnesty International where they work for the release of those unjustly imprisoned, or it could be helping someone escape addiction or depression.

These are not calls requiring superhuman capabilities.  They require willingness and faithful perseverance. 

It’s the beginning of a new year.  This is a time when many of us pause and look at where we are at in our lives and set direction where we’d like to be.  The Wednesday Bible study group just completed our study of the book “A Shepherd Looks at the 23^rd Psalm”.  It took the phrase “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me” and gave it new meaning for me.  I thought that meant God was coming behind me with goodness and mercy.  The book turned it around.  It is us, by our work here, that leave a legacy of goodness and mercy for those that come after us.

Some calls are universally given to all followers.

We’ll be singing the words from Micah 6:8 soon.

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you:

            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

The call to act with justice was throughout our Isaiah passage today.

I have felt called in the past.  I’m wrestling a little with whether I’m feeling a new call for expanded service.  Take a deep breath yourself.  What will your legacy be?  As you consider your life unfolding in the coming year, listen to the Holy Spirit within you.  Do you feel the stirring of a call?  God’s people need you.  Our church needs you.  It may not be indigestion. 

Amen.