Good morning, it’s nice to be back with you after two Sundays away. We had a nice vacation week, lots of time to relax and just think.

One of the things I thought about was asking the Personnel Committee to change my job description. The way the last month or so has gone, I really haven’t had enough time to prepare sermons anymore, or do much pastoral counseling or weddings or things like that. I’m thinking about focusing on just two things.

The first would be discussing Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion,” Honestly, for a month, it seems like all I did was answer emails and phone calls asking me what I thought of the movie. And I just kept saying, “I think I’ll wait until it comes out!” I mean, is there nothing else to write and talk about?!

I was, in fact teasing somebody I was with this week. They were explaining sort of an ethical dilemma that they were in, and after I had listened to it I said, “Okay, I have two questions for you. First, what do you think the Bible says about this? And second…what does Mel Gibson say?!” But now I’ve seen the movie, and we can talk about it. Very intense.

My one encouragement if you choose to see it, or in conversations you might have…is to think not only about how Jesus died (which is so front and center of the movie), but also why Jesus died…how his death affects me and you.

The second part of my job would be, in a similar way, having conversations about the Dan Brown book, The Da Vinci Code — 48 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list! Amazing. Book groups are reading it, people on airplanes were reading it, people at the beach had it. Everywhere. I finally read it. We don’t have time enough to talk about it this morning. We barely even have time for me to say, “If you’re looking for a book that is full of convoluted information about the Christian faith, the Bible and Jesus…if you want some heresy, half-truths, un-truths, paganism and something that plants all sorts of sexual and pagan images in your mind that you don’t need…look no further!”

In all seriousness, I find it very interesting that these two media pieces have absolutely dominated the coffee shop conversation, newspapers and television talk across the country. And I actually think they offer great opportunity to engage with people in conversations about our faith in Christ with people who have previously had absolutely no interest in such things.

But this morning…we’re in the scriptures together. For these weeks of Lent, we will continue in our study of the Old Testament book of Isaiah. For these weeks, we will mainly be reading what have traditionally been called “the servant songs,” found in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52 and 53. They’ve been called this because in these chapters there begins to emerge a very intriguing figure, a figure that the voice of God simply calls “my servant.”

Turn with me to the first 9 verses of Isaiah 42.

I found myself thinking this week that our lives are often full of things that get repeated over and over, patterns of behavior, habits, disciplines, routines. These can be healthy or unhealthy or probably neutral. These patterns can lend stability, comfort or usefulness to our lives. Or they can suck us into dangerous territory as well, and cause us to get “stuck.”

If you know me very well, you probably have seen that I have a particular pattern with clothing. I find something I like to wear, and I tend to buy multiple pieces of it and wear it all the time. Anne says it’s my “uniform.” Right now, when we’re in fall and winter, if you see me at the office, you can pretty much bank on the fact that I’ll have brown shoes, light colored cords, a shirt and a sweater vest. Oh, different colors and stuff, but same gear. I don’t spend much time thinking about what I’ll wear the next day. It’s easy, comfortable, safe. It’s a pattern….probably fairly benign.

On the other hand, any time I do premarital counseling with an engaged couple, I have them each draw up a genogram (kind of a diagram of their family histories through three generations), and we spend over an hour going through them. As we talk them through, lots of patterns emerge, positive and negative. Things like deaths, divorces, abuse or addictions are talked about. Often these very destructive things run down through several generations. They are repeated over and over with frightening regularity.

A man’s grandfather physically abused his father. His father beat him. He wonders what will happen to his children. Anger problems, alcoholism, abuse…just move from generation to generation unless…something happens to break the cycle. Until someone is changed or transformed and a break is made.

Many times this is centered around someone having a faith experience, of getting to a point of desperately needing God and turning to Him…and then through the support of a friend, a 12-step program, a home group, a church…God begins to break through and sets things right again.

There’s a pattern that appears in the Old Testament, almost from the very beginning…that is very destructive. It concerns the relationship of God and His people.

It starts with Adam and Eve in the garden. God creates them, chooses them to walk with him, to worship and serve him and almost immediately the people sabotage God’s desire.
It continues…in so many other places. When God’s chosen people are slaves in Egypt, God frees them and reminds them they are his special servant nation…and they disappoint him. They complain, and when Moses disappears for awhile, the people go back almost immediately to worshipping golden idols and disappoint God.

Even when David and Solomon rule over God’s servant people, at the peak of Israel’s size and power and influence…the seeds of rebellion are planted. David’s inability to walk with integrity and to influence his children to do likewise pay destructive dividends as the servant people split and faction and worship other gods.

By the time of the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, it is clear that Israel is stuck. Far from being God’s light to the rest of the world, they have turned away from God and trusted in themselves or in worldly power.

Over and over and over it is repeated. It’s a pattern. By this point in Isaiah, generation after generation has experienced the same thing, and God’s desire for his servant nation is frustrated. Things are wrong. Something needs to happen. In some way, God needs to break into the world and set things right.

And out of this void begins to emerge a picture…something new. God’s servant. Some people think this servant is the people Israel, some think it is a Persian leader who will crush the Babylonians, some think it is a prophetic description of Jesus the Messiah. Really, most of what I want to do this morning is to look at this description with you.

First, notice that this is God’s servant: not CEO, president or master and commander. The first voice that speaks here in Isaiah about this New Servant is God’s voice:

“Here (Behold) is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”

(The words may sound familiar. In the New Testament when Jesus is baptized at the Jordan, the voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”)

“I have put my spirit upon him,”

God’s voice says. We might be surprised to find this spirit, this breath of God, in the Old Testament, thinking that the Holy Spirit didn’t appear until Christ was resurrected in the New Testament. But the Holy Spirit does actually appear in the Old Testament… more infrequently, and usually not in an abiding sense, but rather landing for a specific time and purpose. And again, such a similar statement to the spirit descending on Jesus at baptism.

“He will bring forth justice.”

Justice is an interesting word in the Bible, a powerful one. It means he will set things right. He will differentiate between right and wrong. In particular, he will champion the cause of the poor and needy.

Justice is almost always characterized in the Bible by a special regard for the poor and the weak. He will rectify the gross social inequities of the disadvantaged. He will bring into the community those who are outside.

Many of you have read CS Lewis’ Narnia books. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the kids are in this land of Narnia, but things are not right there. In fact, we are told it is “always winter but never Christmas.” When Mr. Beaver explains to the children about Aslan the lion, (a Christ-figure in the story), he quotes an old Narnian poem: “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight.”

Justice … setting things right.

“He will bring forth justice … to the nations.”

Not just to or in Israel, but the scope is much larger…the coastlands, the nations…the whole earth.

This New Servant will look and sound different, radically different than expectations:

“He will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.”

In that day, a new leader of God’s must surely gallop down the main street of the city on a white horse, with at least an entourage if not an army after him. He would raise his voice to speak to as many as he could. He would be eloquent, strong, winsome.

In our day, books and books have been written on leadership. Everyone knows that effective leaders today must gain attention, whether in politics or the church. They must get media appeal. They must put forth a particular image. They have to make an impression on the people. It’s all about impact. Ask George Bush. Ask John Kerry. But the New Servant isn’t concerned with such things. Jesus’ words come back to mind, “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant…”

“A bruised reed he will not break, a dimly burning wick he will not quench.”

God’s servant will count those who are weak, those who are broken, as important. They will not be discarded as unuseful. The servant’s task is not about gathering the strong…it’s about justice for the weak.

“He will faithfully bring forth justice”

(the second time “justice” appears in this description).

“He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice.”

Until he has set things right. Until he has “finished the work you gave me to do,” Jesus prays to God at the Last Supper.

The Servant is so different than anyone would have thought. If God was going to break into the world on behalf of his people trapped in a pattern they could not escape from, trapped in Babylon, trapped in rebellion, trapped in sin, surely he would do so in a loud, attention-grabbing, power-packed individual who rode at the head of a mighty army. But here, the New Servant, empowered and equipped by God’s Spirit, is quiet, humble, gentle, faithful and committed to the point of death. He watches out for the poor, values the damaged, speaks truth, he comes to set things right. God is doing new things.

I don’t know everything about the emergence of this new servant of God that Isaiah describes for us here. Perhaps in some ways it applied to a historical figure in his day, perhaps in some ways it applied to the nation of Israel. But I do know that when I read this description, it points me to the One who was still 600 years away or more, the one they call Jesus the Christ, the One who came “not to be served but to serve.”

I want to ask you two questions this morning. The first is this:

Where in your life are you trapped in a pattern, a cycle, a habit…that is destructive?

Where do you need God to break through into your world and be about his work of transformation? Your work, perhaps? I have a friend working 80+ hours per week, who knows he is missing his kids and wife…but he can’t make himself get out of it. Or maybe you are doing work that you don’t feel good about ethically, but have done it for so long, you barely recognize it. What would you need God to do to break through? Have you asked God to do that? Or talked to someone you know?

Perhaps you are deep in addiction, or sliding that way: food, alcohol, pornography. Where do you need God to break through your routines and transform?

Maybe your personality and past has led you to be an enabler, supporting someone else’s destructive patterns. Maybe your faith seems dry and you’re going through motions you know aren’t good. Have you asked God to break through? Have you invited someone to come and help?

God long ago saw us in our need…and sent his servant. He still comes today and breaks through.

I heard this week from someone in his fifties, who was caught in all sorts of destructive things for years, and met Jesus about two years ago. He didn’t even know exactly what happened … only that God had broke through, and now his only regret is that he didn’t meet Christ sooner.

My second question is this:

Where is God calling you to participate in his ministry…of justice, of setting things right?

The call of God in our lives is not just for our own spiritual growth, nor our own happiness. When God saves us, he invites us to work with him for justice in our world.

Where is he calling you to this work? Maybe it’s a ministry of reconciliation, as simple as going to repair a broken friendship. Maybe it’s a ministry of companionship with someone you know who is lonely and needs to be invited into community? Or working against poverty? The gap in our country between rich and poor is growing sickeningly wider. Where would God point you and say, “That’s not right?”

Maybe it’s economic, just noticing and paying when someone doesn’t have bus fare. Maybe it’s bigger, helping someone else to buy a house who never could on their own or helping them through school. Maybe being a foster parent. Everywhere we go we bump against injustice. What is one place God would call you to help set things right?

So we move from being stuck…to being saved…to joining in God’s ministry. From Bad News to Good News.

On Wednesday night, we had our Ash Wednesday service here. We invited people to come first to receive a cross of ashes on their foreheads, and Linda and I said to each person, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Those words from Genesis were a reminder that we are mortal people, that we are stuck in sin, that we will die. They were hard words for me to repeat a couple of hundred times. They were hardest, in fact, when four of the first five people coming to me had small children with them. Such a statement of bad news.

Thank God we didn’t stop there! The ashes went on the forehead in the sign of the cross, the cross of Christ who came to break through to us, the cross Christ went to so that we might receive forgiveness. And then people were invited to the sides, to the Lord’s Supper…to the table of the Living Christ who is present and active here and now.

And so God moves us to his Good News in Jesus.