The Rev’d Jonathan Gale
Isaiah 49: 1 – 7
The Servant’s Mission
49Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.’
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
6 he says,
‘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.’
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’
1 Corinthians 1: 1 – 9
Salutation
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord* and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to my* God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of* Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 1: 29 – 42
The Lamb of God
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” 31I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ 32And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” 34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’*
The First Disciples of Jesus
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ 39He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed*). 42He brought Simon* to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter*).
When Moses was commissioned by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he made every excuse under the sun as to why he was not qualified for the job. But God never takes ‘no’ for an answer as God, of course, knows best.
We’re all like that of course. Our first response when we feel God prompting us to do something is to doubt that God is in fact doing so, and then secondly to make excuses as to our suitability for the task.
Israel was given the task to be a light to the Gentiles – essentially to be God’s instrument in leading the world back to God. They ducked and dived as much as any individual would.
Consequently God makes it clear that he has even more for them. ‘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.’
You’ve been my people for a while, Israel. Now this is your real purpose.
That is quite an ask. Had they responded with “We’re not worthy!” we may well have agreed. But is it about our worth? I’ll leave that question there for the moment.
One of the real questions we might have when considering taking a step towards God, whether it is personal commitment or service to our fellows in the church, is whether we are acting in faith or in presumption.
When I was twelve years old (and my one year old brother had just abandoned his pram) my friend Neil and I pressed it down flat and decided to sit on it back to back with our knees tucked up under our chins and ride it down the precipitously steep “Compound Hill”.
The Compound Hill was the most dangerous bit of road on the farm and, with years of water rushing down it, the right hand track had worn into a great concave wave shape.
We took the pram to the top and set off. I was facing backward and hoping like anything that we would soon veer off into the adjoining field to the left, but the pram was stuck in this great smooth rut and gathered a horrendous speed before it surfed up the side of the rut and turned us upside down onto the dirt road. We got up very slowly indeed. What we had done was a perfect example of presumption.
My father took pity on us and constructed a platform with two leather seats from an old Albion lorry, and to which he attached the axles from the pram. The pram handle was narrowed and attached as a steering mechanism for the cart. We were all set.
Now I need to say that the hill was still a fearsome adversary, steering or not. It took courage to tackle it, but we braced ourselves and set off again until we reached the bottom where we were able to negotiate a tight bend and come to a halt. What we did there a number of times was a good example of faith. It took some courage but it was not altogether foolhardy as our previous adventure had been.
If you’re ever concerned as to whether what you are considering may be presumptuous or not, I say to you, Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. A more Christian way of stating that would be, Better to have misheard God and acted in good faith, than to sit paralysed with uncertainty and make no progress in the faith at all.
They say that one of the most encouraging things one can do for other Christians is to take a step of faith. It leaves an indelible and encouraging mark on others.
When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ two disciples act in immediate faith. The verse goes on with the words, ’37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. That’s a pretty instant step of faith on their part.
But you see, even though they were humble Galilean fishermen, and would normally never dream that they should be the companions of God’s Messiah, they simply followed.
Our Epistle this morning is addressed to the church in Corinth, an immature and chaotic church if ever there was one. And yet Paul says this to them:
(1 Corinthians 1: 4 – 7) I give thanks to my* God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of* Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two phrases in that that are crucial:
- of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus
and
- 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
Grace is a gift. It’s not something we have because we are worthy. In fact it’s the reverse. We have the gift of grace because we are unworthy. Both phrases refer to the gift of God.
Whether the two disciples who followed Jesus knew that consciously or not, we don’t know.
But when Jesus says to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ they are not put off. That question was the equivalent of “What do you want?”
They don’t answer Jesus but give him the message that they are right in there with him. They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ Where are you staying, Lord, because there’s no question about what we want? We’re keen to move in!
They don’t immediately but they do eventually. In fact Andrew calls his brother Peter to come and see Jesus and introduces them.
There was no false humility about these disciples. False humility is a slap in the face to God because it’s saying, “Yes, God, you may be trying to give me this gift of grace but I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Andrew says to his brother Peter, ‘We have found the Messiah’
42He brought Simon* to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter*).
And I’m going to end with this. Do you notice what Jesus did? Peter’s name was actually Simon (which means a reed) but Jesus changes it to Peter (a rock.) When you or I respond to God’s call, God changes us no matter how inadequate we might think we are, into the kinds of people who can do the job.
From a reed to a rock. That is what Peter needed to be an apostle. When we take a step of faith towards him, Jesus will change us into the people he needs us to be in order that we can do the job he has for us to do.
It’s got little to do with ability, everything to do with availability. It’s all about grace – the gift of God – because where he guides, he provides.
I’m encouraged by that. I hope you are too.
Let us pray:
As we bow our heads, let’s quieten our minds and ask God to speak to us… What steps of faith might God be asking us to take this year? In the silence, we listen to God …
Amen.