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Text: Isaiah 42:1-9

Children often ask the most difficult questions. For example, it is not unusual for a child to ask a question like, "Why is the sky blue?" Some of us have to go to the encyclopedia or the Internet to find the answers.

The correct answer, of course, is that nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air scatter the sunlight. The blue colors have short wavelengths and scatter more than the red colors which have long wavelengths. The scattered light waves are reflected off the particles of dust and water vapor, creating the appearance of the sky as blue. (1)

One thing we do know in our modern age is that there are many forms of light. And the incredible thing is that most forms of light are invisible. Light includes the electromagnetic spectrum from radiation, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared radiation, microwaves, radio waves, to heat and electric currents.

Visible light is just a small slice of the total spectrum of light, and around it are various types of "invisible light" that have proved to be powerful in so many ways. X-rays enable doctors to peer beneath the surface of the skin, and see breaks in bones. Radio waves carry everything from Rush Limbaugh to reggae music, creating continent-wide communication networks. Microwaves do a great job of heating up last night's lasagna or making a fresh bag of popcorn, and electricity is the power source that drives our clocks and computers, stoves and stereos, lights and laborsaving devices.

What we say about the forms of light can also be said about God's power. God's power is at work in this world in many ways that are visible, but perhaps even more powerfully in ways that are invisible.

In John 1:5, the Bible says, "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." In John 8:12, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; those who follow me will not walk in darkness."

Our text for today is the first of a series of "Suffering Servant Songs." It says that the servant of God is filled with an unseen, divine light that gives strength to do the will of God. Verse six says that God's servant will be "a light to the nations."

The first four verses of this poem echo the words that were spoken when a new king was presented in Israel. It begins with the introduction, "Here is my servant…"

I find it very interesting that the king was described in terms of servanthood. I suspect that few kings manage to keep that kind of humility. Jesus, of course, was the ultimate fulfillment of this passage of Scripture. Jesus really was the "suffering servant." Jesus was the model of leading through service. But we are called to be servants too.

In the last few years, many scholars and business leaders are picking up on the importance of "servant leadership." Robert Greenleaf wrote a book entitled, Servant Leadership. He had spent four decades working as the Director of Leadership Development at AT&T. In his work, he noticed that the most successful managers led in a very different way - they led through service rather than through positional authority.

I remember going to work for a company once where the president's advice to me was, "Make me look good." He had no interest whatsoever in employees looking good. The employees were there to serve him. He had the position of authority and exercised it with old-school determination. This was not a servant kind of leadership. It is easy to tell when you are not a part of an organization that values servanthood.

I know the president of another company who worked to instill the model of servanthood to all of his employees, and he models it himself. But he met with resistance from certain racial segments of his work force. He found that those whose ancestors had quite literally been slaves did not readily accept this idea of servant leadership. They thought it would be demeaning and reminded them of slavery.

They misunderstood the idea of servanthood, thinking instead of servitude. Servanthood and servitude are often confused, but they are not the same.

One writer described the difference this way:

"Servitude is imposed; servanthood is embraced. Servitude enslaves; servanthood emancipates. Servitude denigrates; servanthood uplifts. Servitude crushes; servanthood fulfills. Servitude despairs; servanthood rejoices!" (2)

The best leaders lead by serving. They have power, but it seems to be invisible. The real power of leadership is like the power of invisible light. You don’t notice it, but it is there all the same.

In Hermann Hesse’s little book, Journey to the East, he tells the story of a band of men on a mythical journey to join a special Order. The central figure of the story is Leo, the servant who does the menial chores for the group. But Leo has an unusual presence about him. His spirit and his songs sustain the group. All goes well until one day Leo disappears. Before long, the group falls into disarray, and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo.

After some years of wandering, the narrator finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as a servant, was in fact the head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.

Leo clearly shows that the great leader is seen as servant first, and that simple fact is the key to his greatness. Leo was actually the leader all along, but he was servant first because that was what he was, deep down inside. Leadership was bestowed upon a man who was by nature a servant.

The underlying principles of servant leadership were practiced by Jesus. One example is found in John 13 when Christ bent down to wash his apostles' feet over their objections. "The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him." (John 13:16)

We need to ask ourselves if we are servants. Are we servants like Jesus was a servant?

The second line of Isaiah's poem begins, "My chosen…" It reminds us that God does choose his servant leaders.

From the very beginning of recorded history, God had a chosen people to carry out his work of love upon earth. God chose the people of Israel to reveal God's redemption to the world. One of the clever sayings I remember from my seminary days is, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." God did choose the Jews. He chose them to be servant leaders.

This same terminology is used in the baptism of Jesus. When Jesus came up out of the water, there was the spirit in the form of a dove descending, and a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

I believe God still sends that message, "This is my son or my daughter in whom I am well pleased." We are God's chosen ones in whom he delights when we walk after his way.

Next, we find the purpose of the ministry of the servant, "He will bring forth justice to the nations." Justice is a word we don't hear often enough these days, but that word "justice" is mentioned three times in the first four verses. The Bible is filled with God's concern for justice. God sends his servant "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness."

Micah 6:8 asks, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God?"

Jesus was so impressed with these words that he used them in his very first sermon as recorded in Luke 4, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

A friend pointed me toward the Belief.net web site this week to read the graduation remarks by the U2 rock star Bono at the University of Pennsylvania in May of this year. Bono has become an outspoken leader in the cause of Aids relief in Africa. He said:

"Because at that moment I became the worst scourge on God's green earth, a rock star with a cause… Except it isn't a cause. Seven thousand Africans dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease like AIDS? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when the disease gets out of control because most of the population live on less than one dollar a day? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when resentment builds because of unfair trade rules and the burden of unfair debt, that are debts by the way that keep Africans poor? That's not a cause, that's an emergency… I'm not that interested in charity. I'm interested in justice. There's a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity. (3)

Here we find a rock star appealing for justice! I fear that Christians have ignored God's call to justice to such an extent that it is left to rock stars to proclaim the need for justice in our world. In the Bible, God takes the side of the poor, weak, needy, and oppressed. If Jesus was concerned about justice, then surely his followers should be concerned about justice as well.

In verses 3 and 4, I find that the servant has an incredible quality of patience, "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."

When we take on the cause of justice, we need patience. Some things don't happen overnight. It takes miles and miles for a large ship to turn around; the same is true of public attitudes. It took a hundred years for Americans to change their attitudes about slavery, but today you won't find many in favor of it. It took many years for Americans to change their attitudes about civil rights, but today it is clear we are not going back to the segregated ways of the fifties. We may change our attitudes about other justice issues, but we can count on it taking a long time.

The Bible tells us that the servant "will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth…" Isaiah 42 gives us a wonderful description of God's desire for his followers to be servant leaders who do justice with patience. This model was best fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus declares that it is only in service that one may become great. By his example and by his direct teaching, Jesus showed the way to real leadership for us today. The authority of the Christian leader is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion.

This spirit of servant leadership is captured in the words of an old folksong recorded in the 1970s by a group called "The Fisherfolk."

The Servant Song

Brother/Sister let me be your servant.

Let me be as Christ to you.

Pray that I may have the grace to let you

be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.

We are traveling on the road.

We are here to help each other

Walk a mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ Light for you

In the night time of your fear.

I will hold my hand out to you;

Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping.

When you laugh, I'll laugh with you.

I will share your joy and sorrow

Til we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,

We shall find such harmony

Born of all we've known together

Of Christ's love and agony.

Won't you let me be your servant.

Let me be as Christ to you.

Pray that I may have the grace to let

you be my servant, too. (4)

Endnotes:

1) Learning 4 Fun Curriculum, University of Colorado, 1991, 47.)

2) A. Roy Medley, “As One Who serves,” American Baptists in Mission, Winter 2002, Abc-usa.org.

3) http://www.beliefnet.com/story/146/story_14683_1.html. Retrieved 7/23/2004.

4) This song comes from the Community of Celebration, which recorded under the name "The Fisherfolk" in the late 1970's and early 1980's. They were an intentional community growing out of the charismatic ministry of Graham Pulkingham, an English Epsicopalian whose rebirth began in Houston.