Servant of the Most High

The Director of Protocol would consult with the Chief of Staff, get clearance from the Director of Security, and inform the head speech writer, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, etc.

But that is not Jesus' procedure.

Jesus shows us the way through Baptism, and then Matthew lets us in on a private part of the scene.

Only Jesus sees the Spirit and hears the heavenly voice announce “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him”

These are words that refer to Psalm 2, which was used at kings' coronations and their annual festivals, and also to the servant passages in Isaiah, one of which we heard this morning.

And then he slips away as quietly as he approached, and is off into the wilderness for a time of preparation and testing before anything else happens.

He was there, and then he is gone.

What a quiet and strange inauguration; not at all like our political leaders tend to favor.

This is the way in which God chooses to work, quietly, without fanfare.

This Jesus is as much of God as we are ever going to see in this life.

He is firm and decisive, but most of the time low-key, making steady movement toward his goal.

At the time of his arrest, he told his disciple to put away the sword.

[Mt.26:52ff]

“Don't you know that I could ask and have 12 legions of angels from the Father instantly?” he says.

But he does not often work that way.

Perhaps you have been to an event where the host is very much present, but is not making himself the center of attention.

The host is now here, then there, making sure that things are going well, that things happen in the order and manner that they should;

encouraging the reluctant guest, taking special care where things are not in good shape, urging those with good things to say and do to speak and act.

It is a comfort and a joy to be in event with a host like that; even when there are problems, we have confidence that the host will handle it.

That is one way in which we can understand Jesus as servant of God, as this kind of host of the event of our lives.

In some significant ways we are to imitate the servant-hood of Jesus:

persistent, low-key, hosting, with our eye always on the Father and hoping to discern his purpose and goals for us.

Let's see how this works out in four different situations:

(1) There is a town in the southern US where there have been more than 20 young persons killed in recent years.

Each time it happens there are a group of people who go and stand vigil for several hours at the spot where the shooting took place, praying quietly.

That's it.

What good does it do?

Maybe nothing; maybe more than anyone knows.

Maybe this persistence will be the vigil that brings an end to this kind of violence in their town.

But they are doing it not necessarily to be successful, but in order to be faithful to the Servant of God, and they leave it in God's hands to take care of the rest.

(2) 25 years ago Christians and others gathered in St. Nikolai Church in Leipzig, old East Germany. They prayed and then they walked the Ring, the street that runs where the city walls once stood all around the central core of the city. Week after week for months and months they gathered and did exactly the same things.

They prayed and they walked.

And more and more persons joined in the event that began at St. Nikolai Church each week.

And the soldiers stood by waiting for a provocation to fire or the crowd, but the provocation never came.

Eventually the old communist government fell, in part because faithful people prayed and walked.

(3) Each week one of our thirteen congregations in the Family Promise network hosts whomever are our current guests.

It is not particularly glamorous work: cooking and conversing, moving furnishings and transporting folks from church to the Day Center and back again.

Week after week the tasks are done, prayers are said and people are fed.

The ultimate effect of this? We don't know.

But we do know that we are trying to be faithful servants in the tasks before us.

As our Stephen Ministers say,

we give care and God gives the cure.

(4) Most every weekday for nearly seven years now a few have been gathering at 9 AM for Morning Prayer in the chapel.

We sing, read scripture, name those in great need, and pray.

We work our way through great portions of the Bible paragraph by paragraph.

We name everyone in the parish, household by household.

We sing the hymns, the ones we learned as children, and the ones we have never learned...yet.

We don't even bother with the question of what good it does.

We know that we are joining with people all around the world and people across the centuries of the church's history in this discipline of Morning Prayer.

We'll wait and see what God wants to make of it and what he wants to make of us.

Our job is to be faithful witnesses to the truth of the Gospel and the tradition, and God will take care of the rest.

In each of these four situations, the activities are done not just because of utility, but in order to be faithful to the Servant “God with us” Emmanuel,

who came among us as one whom the world regarded as impotent and ineffective.

And yet what does the world know?

Sometimes what passes for effective in the world is ultimately ineffective.

Perhaps the world, since it is a creation of God, will not turn out to be a place where the fittest survive and whoever manages to aggregate enough power to himself ultimately wins.

Perhaps the world will finally turn out to be the true place for someone who looks and acts ...like Jesus.

Behold, my servant, whom I uphold. Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.