Episode 17: 1/19/09

Readings:

Psalm 25
Isaiah 44:6-8, 21-23
Ephesians 4:1-16
Mark 3:7-19

Sermon:

“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.”
Isaiah 50:4-9

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

It was perhaps a message that he knew all to well…

In a world where the hearts and minds of men are turned from the image of God and His righteousness, there is so much suffering for those who seek to offer the truth, those who seek to preach the word of the Lord. The picture offered by the Prophet of the suffering servant who was to come is a grim, dark picture of the life that he would lead. Stricken and afflicted, abused and tormented, he would come into a world of sin and pain, and amidst it all it would cause him great distress as those he was sent to offer a message of God’s great mercy to turned their angry eyes and hands to him.

Of a portion of that he had to understand.

A prophet sent by the Lord into a world where the land of promise had fallen to foreign enemies, where the chosen children had knelt before foreign gods, where corruption of the body, mind and spirit seemed to reign, Isaiah would feel the anguish of the soul for the sins of his brothers and sisters, and know their anger turned to him.

Yet it would be nothing compared to the pain and suffering that would be delivered against that Messiah, that Suffering Servant that was to be sent into this world for the sake of man and their sins. It perhaps even seemed a bit strange and yet a bit familiar as he wrote the words. One sent to preach and teach the word of the living God, and yet to be so cast aside by those he was sent to deliver, to be treated with such contempt and hatred by those he was sent to save. The words had to sear in his mind as he sat back to read them later, to imagine the torment this Messiah, this Staff of David, this King of kings, would have to endure in the name of the Lord, the persecution he would face, to even imagine it had to seem overwhelming.

And yet, even amidst that there was a ringing truth to be held in them. That even when times are at their hardest, even when the voices are loudest trying to shout down the words taught, even when the hands are raised against, God, the Lord God Almighty, gives strength to endure. As is taught in the first song of the Suffering Servant a few chapters prior, though his enemies may find their courage in their numbers, rising up to strike him down, “A bruised reed shall he not break. (Isaiah 42:3). Through the power of the Lord and His righteousness His Suffering Servant is and always shall be justified. His vindication shall come shine through, regardless of the trials and the tribulations that he faces in this world. The promise God would make to Joshua would ring through his life, “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (Joshua 1:5)

As we find ourselves now mediating on the words of Isaiah and the life of Christ Jesus, we too have to be struck by not just the knowledge of the suffering that he endured for us and our sake, coming forth not just to preach that Gospel message for us and our salvation, but to live it perfectly, but also by the understanding that even before he entered into this world, seated at the right hand of God, the Father, he knew fully of that which was in store for him as he entered into this world. There would be no surprises or mysteries to him about all that he was to endure, it had been revealed to him even at the moment of man’s first sin.

There, we have to ask ourselves, what will we do, what are we willing to endure, for the name of Christ and the Word of the Lord. In the Great Commission, as Christ prepared for his ascension on high, we are admonished by him to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:19 and 20). Each of us, each and every one of us, as children of the Heavenly Father, bought and redeemed in the precious blood of the lamb, are called by the Lord to preach and teach His word and His love at all times and in all places.

Often times though the world seems like a dark place, so prone to sin, purchased by the power of the Prince of this world, with hearts turned from the Lord. There, faced, with the challenges of preaching that Gospel message, we worry or we fear, we think we cannot do it or we should not do it because we will face ridicule and possible hardships for it. And so we waver.

What has to be remembered is not the troubles we may face, or the challenges that are out there, they have been there in each age as the saints were called to spread the Word, in some these troubles were much more than we could have ever imagined and those who loved the Lord and abided in His command to us, paid the ultimate price for it, dying that martyrs death as St. Stephen had, at the hands of those whose hearts were hardened by the Lord. Even as we consider this though we must remember that we have a loving and caring God who will not leave or forsake us, who will give us strength to endure and the courage to carry on if we humble ourselves before Him and give ourselves to him.

Yes, perhaps at times, it could and does seem like there is more than we can take or more than we can deal with, but there we have to remember God never gives us more than we can handle if we trust in Him and His promises to us. In those moments of hardship God’s love and mercy, His grace and wisdom, has to be seen rightly for what it is, that which transcends this world and our understanding of it, to strength and preserve the saints from age to age, in all times and in all places.

Ours must be to give ourselves to Christian service to our neighbor and to our fellow man, that all may hear the promises of the Lord and be called to the salvation that He offers. Ours must be to give ourselves to Christian duty, as Christ had before us, seeking to be imitators of him, living that gospel message and preaching it, teaching it throughout the world, in the love, compassion, and understanding that God has first shown unto us. Come whatever may, come whatever must, through God we shall be guided and protected as we do His will, we too shall be bruised reeds that shall never break, finding our vindication as we stand before His throne.

Lord, Grant this unto us all.

Now the peace of the Lord that transcends all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting. Amen.