Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,

given by Rev. Steve Ellis/January 13, 2008

  The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share

Christ's love in the world.  We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to other

  Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Isaiah 42:1-9 - Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be crushed

until he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD,

who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people upon it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness,

I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people,

a light to the nations,

to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the LORD, that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth,

I tell you of them.

Acts 10:34-43 - Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Matthew 3:13-17 - Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Sermon

Yesterday I went by the Canterbury Site where our new church will be built and I thought about what we are building for. My excitement grows as the day gets closer, as does my prayer for faithfulness in what we are doing.

Isaiah spoke of a mysterious servant of God in four passages that have come to be known as the "servant songs." They speak of a superb leader, appointed by God, who leads in an atypical way. Not full of himself. Not throwing his weight around. Not favoring the powerful over the weak. One who pleases God immensely. And this may be about the nation Israel as it should be, a yearning for the nation to represent God as God deserves and desires. Or it may speak of a great leader who was willing to spend himself and be misunderstood to accomplish God’s purpose. We certainly see in it a foretelling of Jesus.

The song says of this leader::a bruised reed he will not break/and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. This is a different kind of justice. It cares about more than the well-being of most of the people - whether the rich and the middle class feel safe and prosperous. That is what most societies look to -- are we better off than we were a decade ago? Than our parents? Will our children be? If the answers to these questions are negative, the society is in trouble, and people begin to wonder where the money is going, and they begins to yearn for justice. -- unless, of course, everyone is struggling at the same time, because of an environmental disaster like the earthquake here in 1989 or everyone is pulling together, a in WWII. But if most people are struggling to hang on, and it feels unequal, then the questioning becomes acute.

But this passage talks about a further-reaching kind of justice. This mysterious leader, in whom God's soul delights, cares for the great majority, but God anoints him or her to bring justice also for those who are left out in every society. The measure of the good society is how it treats the "bruised reed" and the "dimly burning wick". And the passage is explicit a little later, mentioning a mission to open the eyes of the blind, and prisoners from their darkness. This may refer to people who are prisoners of their illusions, of their inner darkness, as well as those with whom society has been too harsh.

The anointed servant may be the whole of Israel, fulfilling its mission to be a light to all people. It may be an idealized leader, or a foreshadowing of God’s great dream fulfilled in Jesus, who forms communities of people who take each other seriously, lovingly, in spite of all their differences and faults. But the servant’s mission is certainly a new kind of justice, a new way of people being community together. Justice beyond the strong, beyond the majority of the people, until justice is done by all people and for all people. A dimly burning wick he will not quench.

Acts says it is important to regard Jesus as "the one appointed by God as the judge of the living and the dead." Whoever accepts this and responds by doing what is right, says Peter, is acceptable to God. Now think about this interesting proposition. So often people are told they must accept Jesus. But Peter, here is saying that people are acceptable to God, or right with God, when they accept Jesus as the judge of the living and the dead, and live accordingly. What would it mean to accept Jesus as the judge of the living and the dead? To accept one’s neighbor as a gift of God, an occasion for loving God. To think of how to please God as showing the neighbor the kind of respect, forbearance, and good will that Jesus taught his disciples to show to all people. To be eager to be right with others. To be ready to forgive when wronged. To stand up to injustice. To champion the right, to get involved, to be generous, to spend yourself for good purposes. To want the best even for our enemies, and try to turn their hearts. To live larger lives than selfishness would dictate. And the slogan of this way of life, says Peter on this fateful day, is "God shows no partiality."

Then we come to the baptism of Jesus. The suggestion is that we get a clue to who Jesus is not only from the voice that says, This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased." But also from the servant song that says, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold/my chosen, in whom my soul delights . . ." Do you hear the echo? God has anointed him, commissioned him, in baptism and in resurrection, to proclaim the godly kingdom, and to be the Servant who shows us that God shows no partiality, that God loves all people, that God does not want to disregard even the bruised reed or the dimly burning wick, or shove them aside, but wants his servant to spend himself in bringing this new kind of life to the earth.

The dangerous part is when we wonder again who this servant might be. We don’t know if Isaiah meant a future leader, or one in his own day who was being mistreated, or the whole of the people. We do think it describes Jesus rather well, and that he took it as much of his self-understanding. Scripture taught him that this was what God wanted, and he decided to embody it as his answer to God’s call.

But we also know that he decided those who follow him, as a people, should embody it, that we, as the body of Christ, are that servant to bring about God’s community while the world lasts. It is that we are trying to build, I hope. Is that what you hope?