Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Howard W. Roberts
January 13, 2008
           
The biblical material is replete with passages about service and servanthood.  One of the best known passages on this subject is our lesson from Isaiah read earlier.  Whoever the servant is in this passage is identified as being chosen by God before he was born to be a servant.  The value of this passage is that it describes and identifies each of us as chosen servants of God.  Before any of us was born God was choosing us to be servants. The concept of chosen simply means invited.  It does not mean set aside as special, exempt from the normal experiences and expectations of life, or protected by some type of invisible shield.  

Jesus chose disciples to be servants with him.  James and John were ambitious and desired greatness.  There was nothing wrong with their ambitious desires.  Jesus clearly pointed out to them that the road to greatness was paved with service.  

The text in Isaiah today speaks about being chosen to be God’s servants.  This is the invitation that comes to all people who find themselves in relationship with God.  We either accept the invitation or reject it.  God wants us to be servants but we are not forced to be servants.    
           
In the passage from Isaiah, no one knows for sure who this “servant” was about whom Isaiah is speaking.  Isaiah seems to have gotten so wrapped up in what God was giving him to say that he all but lost track of who he was.  Isaiah is like an actor who loves the play so much that he is in that he knows every part and can move from part to part with ease.  Sometimes when Isaiah says “I” he is speaking for himself.  Sometimes he is speaking for God.  And on several occasions Isaiah speaks for an unidentified servant of God, someone who was chosen by God and who suffered for it. 
           
Those who know Jesus think this passage sounds for all the world like him-a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief-but Isaiah also calls himself Israel, without telling us whether he means one person named Israel or the whole nation. 
          
When we come upon the servant in the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, he is in deep despair.  Nothing is working out for him.  Everything he touches breaks.  He knows that God has called him from his mother’s womb; he knows that he is God’s child, but that only intensifies his grief because he is convinced he has wasted his gifts.  God has made his mouth like a sharp sword, but his words do not seem to be able to cut through anything.  God has made him like a polished arrow, but he cannot seem to hit the target, let alone the mark.  “I have labored in vain,” he says, “I used up my strength but accomplished nothing.”

It really doesn’t matter if we can identify a specific person that Isaiah describes because essentially who he is portraying is “God’s Servant.”  This is God’s Chosen Servant and the words speak to all of us who are God’s servants.  Everyone of us is called by God to be God’s servant in the world.  The fact we are still hanging around means we haven’t turned in our letters of resignation yet.  Albert Schweitzer made this observation, "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know:  The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."  (Albert Schweitzer, p. 145 Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work)
           
Some of us come to church because we have faith and this is part of the way to express it and deepen it.  Some of us come to church because we want to have faith and we know that God has the power to change our lives. Maybe by placing ourselves in this environment, faith will develop. 
           
We are God’s people and God’s people are called to be extraordinary: extra thoughtful, extra friendly, extra involved.  We volunteer and join, serve and listen.  We give and do and do and do.  We put other people first, often take on their problems.  Sometimes they take advantage of us. 
           
We know the truth that if you want to get something done, give the task to a busy person.  We’ve discovered that the reward for a job well done often is not less work but more work.  None of the work we do stays done.  We often have to repeat most of it.  We start getting tired earlier and earlier in the day.  We notice that there is a tone in our voice that has bitterness in it.  It seems we’re going in a vicious circle and we conclude as Isaiah did, “I used up my strength but accomplished nothing.”
           
Isaiah’s servant felt something like that when he confessed his failure to God.  Anticipating that he would be fired or at least retired and replaced by someone better suited for the task, he tells God that he has accomplished nothing, is nothing, and deserves nothing.  To his surprise, God does not accept the resignation.  God’s ideas of success and failure never coincide with ours.  God says, “I’ll give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
           
That’s God’s logic for you.  Fail at a large task and you are given a even larger one.  You’re barely able to produce a spark in your corner of the world and you are promoted to bring light to the whole planet.  God knows something that we servants do not know.  Our success does not depend on those who are chosen but on the one who chooses them. 
           
Apparently the only way we really fail is by removing ourselves from God’s hands.  To quit our relationship with God who has chosen us, to disqualify ourselves from God’s service on the basis that our efforts aren’t good enough, our talents aren’t valuable enough, and our efforts aren’t strong enough. 
           
Actually, only after we have exhausted our views of servanthood, is there a chance, is there room for God to give us a new vision of who we are and who we can be.  This is what happened to the servant that Isaiah describes whether that servant was Isaiah himself or someone else.  Isaiah’s servant thought it was enough to stay busy at the tasks before him, to do his duty which he did until he had no strength left.  He admitted defeat and then it was possible for God to show him a new vision.  Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.  (p. 115 Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work)
           
God said, “Stop doing a job and start being a light.  Stop doing your duty.  Stop worrying about whether or not you have done a good job.”  God says, “Leave that up to me.  Just let your light shine and let me take care of the rest.  I chose you.  I know what I’m doing.  I’ve got good taste.  I made you and I can be trusted.”
           
Perhaps the real test of our success as chosen servants is not what we do but how we do it.  Baha Allah, founder of the Baha’i faith noted, “Work done in the true spirit of service . . . is considered as worship.” (Baha Allah, founder of the Baha’i faith. (p. 89 Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work) What if the real measure of our extraordinariness as God’s servants is not our thoughtfulness or our friendliness or our busyness?  What if the real measure of extraordinariness is our spark?  Perhaps the real sign of our witness is our reflection of the bright God who has chosen us and lit up our lives with love, grace, and joy. 
           
It is not up to us to be successful.  It is up to us to be faithful.  To spend our time wondering and worrying if we have been a success or a failure is to spend our strength and energy and accomplish nothing.  God calls us to serve and in serving to stay as close as we know how to the one who has chosen us, to stay as close to the light as we possibly can so that our witness is not a matter of performing tasks or playing roles or meeting expectations but of remaining in white hot relationship with the one who is able to make epiphanies out of all our days.  Marian Wright Edelman has observed, “In sum, we learned that service is the rent we pay for living.  It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.”  (Marian Wright Edelman, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, Boston:  Beacon Press, 1992, p. 6.)
           
James Autry, former president of the magazine group for the Meredith Corporation and an active member of Pilgrim Congregational Church in Des Moines, Iowa has identified five characteristics of servant leaders.  I find these to be especially helpful to us regardless of the context of our service.  These characteristics are applicable in the market place and the worship place. 
           
First, be authentic.  This means we are to be who we are. Be the same person in every circumstance.  Being authentic is, first, knowing yourself, then being yourself.  Authenticity derives from our deepest, truest selves.  How do we come to know ourselves?  Only through what can be called spiritual disciplines: silence, meditation, prayer.  You’ve described someone as being real.  That’s what is meant by being authentic.   
           
Second, be vulnerable.  This means being honest with our feelings in the context of our work; being open with our doubts and fears and concerns about an idea, an employee’s performance, a colleague’s performance, a fellow church member’s performance or our own performance; and being able to admit mistakes openly, particularly with those with whom we work.  Being vulnerable takes a great deal of courage because it means letting go of the old notions of control, forgetting forever the illusion that we can be in control.
           
Third, be accepting.  Accept ideas as valid for discussion and review but not without critical analysis, discussion, and judgment.  Accept and embrace disagreements as human part of the process.  We must abandon any dualistic notion of winners and losers.  By being accepting we find ways for situations to be win-win and do not divide the group, the team, the community, the congregation, or the world up into winners and losers.   
           
Fourth, be present.  We need to strive to have our whole self available at all times-available to ourselves and to others.  Here is a way to learn to be present.  Think about something that makes you smile: a loved one, a child, an experience you had, a great vacation.  Just visualize what makes you smile.  Now close your eyes, take as deep a breath as you can, hold it for a couple of seconds, think about what makes you smile, then smile, and exhale slowly.  Open your eyes.  Try this a couple of times a day, perhaps once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  It’s a ten second investment in being present. 
           
Fifth, be useful.  If we will work to be authentic, vulnerable, accepting, and present, then, we will be able to be useful.  We are useful when we are a resource to others.  As resources to others, we become committed as a team working together toward common goals and objectives.
           
Here is a story that illustrates how someone on an individual basis became a servant leader and intuitively put these characteristics into practice. Peter Parker tells this story about a business trip he made to Texas. 
           
I had flown into Dallas for the sole purpose of calling on one client.  Time was of the essence, and my plan included a quick turnaround trip from and back to the airport.  A spotless cab pulled up.  The driver rushed to open the passenger door and made sure I was comfortably seated before he closed it.  As he got into the driver’s seat, he mentioned that the neatly folded Wall Street Journal next to me was for my use.  He then showed me several tapes and asked me what type of music I would enjoy.  Well!  I looked around to see if I was on Candid Camera.  Wouldn’t you?  I could not believe the service I was receiving.  “Obviously you take great pride in your work,” I said to the driver.  “You must have a story to tell.”
           
He did.  “I used to be in Corporate America,” he began.  “But I got tired of thinking my best would never be good enough, fast enough, or appreciated enough.  I decided to find my niche in life where I could feel proud of being the best I could be.  I knew I would never be a rocket scientist, but I love driving cars, being of service, and feeling like I have done a full day’s work and done it well.”
           
After evaluating his personal assets, he decided to become a cab drive. “Not just a regular taxi hack,” he continued, “but a professional cab driver.  One thing I know for sure, to be good in my business I could simply just meet the expectations of the passengers.  But to be great in my business, I’d have to exceed the customer’s expectations.  I like the sound of being ‘great’ better than just getting by on ‘average.’”   Did I tip him big time? You bet. Corporate America’s loss is the traveling folks’ gain! (p. 123-124 Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work)
           
Our text from Isaiah describes a servant in Isaiah’s time.  Isaiah may also have been identifying himself as the servant and thus what he writes is a self description.  Centuries later, many have read the passage as descriptive of Jesus.  We cannot, must not leave the description as a sixth century BCE description from Isaiah’s community or as a first century CE description of Jesus.  The passage also describes those of the current century who say yes to being chosen by God.  As chosen servants of God we have been called to ignite, enflame, combust, burn, shine with the glory and love of God.  God has chosen us to be bright lights to the world to the ends of the earth.  We are called to lead by serving or better stated, God calls us to be servant leaders, everyone of us.  And our success is measured by our faithfulness to God.