A Sermon for the Second Sunday after The Epiphany
Year A – January 19, 2014
David Hathaway Knight, Priest Associate
Send your spirit, God to open our hearts and our minds to your word, and strengthen us to live according to your will, in Jesus name. Amen.
From the book of the Prophet, Isaiah,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
One of my favorite services of the church year in places where I have served over the years is the Epiphany service of the Feast of Lights, a service that ushers in the season of Epiphany. It is a service rich in imagery. During this service, from one candle that is lighted in the chancel of a darkened church, the light is passed to the congregation until the whole place is aglow with light. This symbolizes the Light of Christ going out into the world. In the season of Epiphany, focus on Jesus shifts from his being an infant to his earthly ministry and how the church that bears his identity is called to carry out his ministry, spreading the light of the Gospel to the darkness in our time and in a world that is desperate for hope.
In this morning’s passage from Isaiah, we hear about the servant called to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel. There has always been speculation among biblical scholars as to who this servant may be, but the pastoral impact of this passage does not depend upon a definitive answer to our question as to the identity of the servant . Paul Hanson, a biblical scholar has put it this way when he describes the servant as both the faithful individual and the obedient community of the faithful. In the larger picture, the call to faithfulness while powerful, is not unique to any one historical figure or any particular time. It is God’s call to each of us to be lights in the world in our day as well. The voice of God’s representative in this passage we hear this morning speaks to us not out of weakness, but rather with the tongue of a warrior. In the place of weapons, however, these are the words we hear, “He made my mouth like a sharp sword… he made me a polished arrow…And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” The aim? God’s will for salvation is meant for all. It is compassionate justice that God has created and upon which all else must rest. It is that quest for justice that calls for the voice of the church, and the church, if it is to be a light to the world, must not remain silent. In that context therefore, how are you and I called to be servants?
Just this past Wednesday at our seniors’ lunch and program we were fortunate to have as our speaker, Bob Argabright, certainly himself a light to the world, who for the last ten years has been quietly working full time as a volunteer, tutor and advocate at Oak Grove Elementary School in the Bellemeade community in South Richmond. He explained his involvement as a way to live his faith and share God’s love. I had occasion to meet with him for a few moments on Thursday and he said simply that he asks himself each day this simple question: “What am I doing today to make God’s love real to someone else?” He deals primarily with young children and it is clear that he is an example of a light that shines in the world in which they live. It is not only his work among these young lives that has been part of his being a light in that part of the world, however, but it is also his courage to speak out and raise questions about the politics of our city that suggest our priorities are askew. How is it, he asks, that we can find millions of dollars to build a new stadium in Richmond, or find hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace trees that were cut down by mistake, yet there is not enough funding to invest serious money in the lives and futures of these young children in the Bellemeade section of South Richmond? In his presentation on Wednesday, he described an image that ever since has been etched in my mind. He described what it was like to hold a mirror close to one’s face and asked what it is that we see. He then asked what we see when we hold that same mirror some distance from our face. What will be the difference? When we hold that mirror close we see only ourselves, our own image, yet when we hold the mirror at a distance, we see others and we see part of the world that includes others. That night, I woke up, sat bolt upright in bed, thought of the image he presented, and said to myself, “Self, I wish I’d said that—indeed I shall!” What a great image for us as God calls us to see beyond ourselves and to be lights of the world to others.
For each of us, being a light to the world takes form in many ways. I have had the privilege during the last several years to come to know Alex Evans who now serves as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Richmond. Formerly, he served in Blacksburg near the Virginia Tech campus. He and I have had occasion to work together in an effort close and dear to our hearts and to the hearts of many others across this land. He is a man who speaks out on matters where a courageous voice is called for, matters about which the Church must have a voice. In a recent letter to the Richmond Times Dispatch, he quoted the words of Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who served on the U. S. Supreme Court. While he was citing them in a particular context, they are words that speak to a whole host of matters we face as a nation and as the church. The Chief Justice once said, “I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of Heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” These words speak with clarity to us as we contemplate the Church’s role as a light to the world even as Christ himself was a light to the world. There were those times when Jesus was able to sail with the wind, but there were those times as well when it was necessary for him to sail against the wind. As we know, when he did that, he often got into trouble. It finally got him crucified on the cross. But sail against the wind he did when that was the direction in which he was called to head. There are times when you and I are called to bring light into our world when the prevailing winds will be against us, but sail into that wind we must. When that happens, we can rest assured that the Holy Spirit will guide us as St. Paul assures us when he writes as we heard this morning, “(Christ) will also strengthen you to the end…” As the church strives to be a light to the world, challenging as that call may be at times, the church can live in hope, because it is the example of Jesus himself that will be our strength to the end, and because God is faithful to all.
In this season of Epiphany, indeed an important question for the church remains: In what direction are we moving? Are we moving forward as we face into the wind or are we looking back over some halcyon age in nostalgia hoping to keep things as they always were in the days of yore? To look back can be very tempting, but as one lady I knew once said, “It’s OK to look back but don’t stare.” What wisdom! Other questions for us to ponder: Is the practice of our religion relegated to the inner sanctum of where we can remain comfortable with what we see in that mirror when we hold it too close to our face, and we see only ourselves? Or do we hold that mirror far enough at a distance so that we see ourselves in a larger context and thus perceive our call to have an influence in whatever way we possibly can on societal and national life where there is a need for justice to prevail? If you and I are to take the words of the prophet Isaiah to heart, if indeed we take the gospel of Jesus Christ to heart, the church cannot, and must not, remain on the sidelines in the struggle for justice wherever the cry for justice is heard. In this season of Epiphany, as throughout the year, all of us, clergy and people alike are called to show concern for the building of a better world.
In what direction are we moving?
The other day, I had lunch with a good friend and colleague who said once again what I have heard him say over some years. He said that if the Church is not pressing forward every day to meet the challenges it faces, then by the sheer momentum of the tide moving against us, we will move backwards. And he’s right. You and I are called by our baptism and by our common life to move forward with faithfulness and with the courage that is given to us by the Holy Spirit and by the grace of god. In The Baptismal Covenant we are asked, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” We respond, “I will with God’s help.”
The words of the prophet Isaiah come to us as a clarion call to respond
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
As servants of the living God, you and I are called to be lights to the world in any way we possibly can. For each of us, that will require something different. There is a promising message, however, to God’s call to you and to me and to the church when we strive to be faithful and to exercise courage in our witness to the Gospel. It is that we as servants will find strength not only in our human effort but in our relationship to God.
It was Christ’s compassion for justice that empowered him to sail, when necessary, against the prevailing winds of the day. As followers of Jesus, can you and I offer anything less? In this season of Epiphany, as the Light of Christ goes forth into the world, how might it come to pass that you and I could be called to be a light to some place in the world around us? How might you and I have the courage to speak and act even when it may well call for us to sail against the prevailing winds around us? The question that is ever before us remains,
In what direction are we moving?
Send your spirit, God to open our hearts and our minds to your word, and strengthen us to live according to your will, in Jesus name. Amen.
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