Do Better

“Do Better” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on Sunday, January 15, 2017. Themes found in this sermon include Scripture, call narratives, titles & names, exegetical research, and relational topics.

—————————————

Isaiah 49:1-7

1 Listen 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 labored 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 honored 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.”

—————————————

John 1:29-42

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I 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.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When 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?” 39 He 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. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He 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).

—————————————

Titles matter to me. Not just a little bit; they really matter to me. As in, they probably matter too much, but still, it’s my thing; they matter to me. You know that old piece of advice, “Never judge a book by its cover.” I’m sure the saying is also true about titles. “Never judge a book by its title.” But I’m going to let you in on a secret. I do. I always judge a book by its title. Okay, maybe not the entire thing, but based on the title alone, I form a preconceived idea on what that that book about. Because I do this, a title must be good enough to make me want to pick up a book and read it. Personally, I believe a title must be three things. One, it must draw people in by being catchy or creative. Two, it must spark a curiosity that makes people question what the book might be about. And three, it must somehow feature the underlying theme of the entire book without revealing too much. Take for example, J.K. Rowling’s second book “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” One of our first questions would be, “What’s this secret in the chamber? I want to read this book and find out!” Now spoiler alert: you find out this secret is a giant snake in the basement. Can you imagine if Rowling would have titled the book, “Harry Potter and the Giant Snake in the Basement?” I don’t think any of us would have wanted to read it; a snake in the basement is a real fear for some of us! So instead, she titled it “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” It’s catchy; it’s curious; it has a message. It made me want to read the book. As I’ve been saying, titles matter to me.

Now titles of books aren’t the only thing that matter to me; as a pastor, I also care about the titles of sermons. This week; figuring out the title for my sermon was the hardest thing I had to do. Friday morning; bulletins are about to be printed, and I still don’t have a sermon title. The entire week I was throwing around ideas: “Called by Name,” “Lamb of God,” “Too Light of Thing,” “We will, we will rock you” (That’s a Peter joke), and I just couldn’t think of one that met the three requirements that I believe a title must have. Finally, after telling myself, “C’mon, Taylor! You can do better!” I thought of one, “Do Better.” Now if any of you think I’m going to get up here and raise my fist and shout at you all to do better, I promise you I won’t. Mostly because as Christians, we already know that we all could do a little better. But no, that’s not what this sermon is. This sermon is about how God continues to do better than what we could have ever imagined or expected. A way that God does this is by forming each and every individual fearfully, wonderfully, purposefully and giving them a set of gifts that they are called to bring into this world. Yes, I am talking about you. Each of you. And our neighbors. And our enemies. Everyone. And because everyone was purposely brought into the world by God and because everyone was given their own gifts and strengths by God, God continues to do better than what we have ever imagined God would even do. So there’s the title, “Do Better.” We’ll come back to this explanation later.

But first, I want to entertain the idea that titles of sermons and books are similar to the names of people. Names, like titles, seem to encompass who a person is. The first thing we do when a meet someone new is exchange names so we have a foundation on which we can get a better understanding of one another. The meaning of a name may not particularly describe a person, but it still makes sense for one reason or another that that is their name. For example, my name: Taylor comes from the English root word “tailor” which means “cutter of cloth.” Yes, I’m not making this up, my name comes from the profession tailor. And although I can’t make or fix clothing or even sew for that matter, it somehow makes sense that I’m Taylor. You don’t know me as anything else but Taylor. I don’t know myself as anything else but Taylor. I’m a Taylor. I’m Taylor.  Think to yourself a second, does your name describe you? If it does or doesn’t, it just makes sense that your name is your name. I mean really, can you imagine having your name be something else? The name you go by today, would you ever just change it?  Or better yet, what if someone changed it for you? Because that happens in Scripture all the time, both in the Old and New Testament. In Scripture, we can refer to some of these namings as call narratives. God who knows everything and everyone calls servants by name…. and sometimes changes their name… or calls them by name without even saying their name. It might not make the most sense initially, but through call narratives we get a greater understanding about who a person is and who they are called to be. It’s the building of a foundation that destined from the very beginning, even before the person was born.

In the Gospel of John, we see an example of being called by name by Christ himself. If you look at the last six verses of our Gospel reading today, verses 37-42. Things have already happened. John has just testified that Jesus is the Light of the World and the Lamb of God; Jesus has been baptized by John; the Spirit like a dove descended upon Jesus; and now Jesus is ready to begin his ministry. The first thing Jesus does when about to start his ministry is to find disciples and call them to come and follow him. The first disciple according to the Gospel of John is Andrew, who we don’t really hear much from in the rest of Jesus’ ministry, but here Andrew plays a significant role by being the brother of Simon. Andrew then brings Simon to Jesus, and Jesus says to Simon, “You are Simon son of John. You are called to be Cephas.” Cephas which means Peter. Peter which means rock. I get it; there’s a lot of names that were just thrown out there; it’s confusing. One more time. Jesus calls Andrew. Andrews finds his brother Simon. Jesus gives Simon the new name of Peter. Andrew and Peter become the first two disciples.

And there we have it. The first two disciples called by name to serve God and follow Christ. They would both serve a purpose greater themselves, and God would use them in ways I’m sure they never saw coming. Part of this includes Peter being the rock on which the church would be built, but that would come later.

But what is even more interesting is right before Jesus gives Simon the name Peter, John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God. Let’s look at verse 29 again: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Jesus himself is given a name; a metaphorical nickname; but still a name. And this name holds complete truth, divinity, and wonder in it. The “of God” means Jesus is the Son of God, belongs to God, comes from God, and he himself is God. And the “lamb” refers to sacrificial offerings and Passover meals and Jesus being part of the flock…which is exciting because Jesus is not only the lamb but also the shepherd…which means Jesus is both part of the flock and ruler of the flock…fully human; fully God. I’m kind of geeking out here! This name is given to show us the significance, identity, and ultimacy of Jesus. This is especially true in the Gospel of John as Jesus is given name after name, title after title, so that Jesus can fully and ultimately and divinely fulfill the calling set by God, set by himself. The “Lamb of God” is only the first name and it was given to Jesus by John, so even John the Baptist had a calling to fulfill something that was greater than himself. He would be the one to prepare the way of the Lord, and this was the calling set for him before he was even born; when he was still in Elizabeth’s womb. God gave John the Baptist a purpose.

We see it here. John was called to serve. Andrew was called to serve. Peter was called to serve. Many others would be called to serve. They were all given a plan and a purpose and a calling to serve God and to follow Christ and to be a light in the world. Yes, and I mean world because God did better than what any of them expected. The Lamb of God wouldn’t just take away sin from the Jewish people or take away sin from just the believers; the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. That is why God calls people to serve, so that God would do better than what we thought could even be done at all.

This is evident in Isaiah. Isaiah 49:1-7 is the second of five calls for a “suffering servant” in the book of Isaiah. This is because the Israelites are experiencing a moment of being down and out. They feel that as God’s people, they have been defeated. Their temple has been destroyed. They were put into chains and forced in submission to serve in Babylon. They are now alienated from both their land and their God. This exile more than anything is the epitome of an identity crisis and a faith crisis. I imagine the Israelites asking themselves, “How can we worship God in this foreign land? Are we still God’s chosen people? Is there even a God at all?”

This leads Isaiah the prophet to put out a message from God. This messages calls for a person that was chosen long before birth to come and save the Israelites from their current destruction and alienation. And as we’ve been saying, God would do better than expected, so this person wouldn’t just save the Israelites but would save all nations.  This person would be a servant of God who would be called to be a light to the nations, a source of salvation, a bringer of justice, and an ally to the oppressed, the poor, the needy, and the imprisoned. And although this passage alludes to the eventual coming of Jesus of Nazareth who would emerge as the ultimate Suffering Servant, whose suffering and sacrifice on the cross would bring healing and salvation for all; this passage should also be recognized that there is a purposeful call for an anonymous savior.

God would raise up a servant, but it would be one hidden and unknown to the people. It would be a nobody. This isn’t a new concept in Scripture. God often calls unlikely servants for great purposes: Abraham, David, Mary, Paul just to name a few. And this servant—this nobody—would be called while still invisible to the world, while still in the womb. This servant would be chosen to fulfill greatness. This person would play a significant part in God’s mission for the world.

There is a reason why this person was never called specifically by name in Isaiah. Sure, it makes the connection to Christ, but if we believe Christ works through us today, then this passage is a call from God for all of us. This passage is God calling us all by name. We may be the most unlikely people called into God’s service, but that’s what God does; God calls unlikely people to become servants. Our neighbors may be the most unlikely; our enemies may be the most unlikely, but again, that’s what God does. We may ask how can we serve; we may question our purpose; we may say that we have nothing to offer the world, but that is not true. We don’t have to initially recognize ourselves or each other as servants of God. God will use all of us anyway; God will give us all a plan and a purpose and a way to use our gifts that best serve God and all of God’s people. We just have to be open to what God is calling us to do.

Our country is on the precipice of change. For so many of us, this can be a turbulent time. All of us in our own way are crying out to God wondering what will happen next: where will the leaders of the world take us. We are facing our own version of an identity crisis. But if remember that God will do better than what we expect of God; maybe we’ll be okay. And if we remember that God calls out to all people and that all people have something they can use to better humanity, maybe we’ll be better than okay. God called to you and your neighbor and your enemy long before any of us were born. God still calls to you by name to serve.

Let’s go back to the title: “Do Better.”  This was God’s plan for Godself. Christ would do better than what we thought was possible. Christ wouldn’t just save the Israelites; that wouldn’t be enough. Christ would save the entire world. Christ wouldn’t just call the best of the best to serve; that wouldn’t be enough. Christ would call all to serve; the likely and the unlikely. God would bestow all people with gifts that could be used to better this world.  God would call each of us by name. This was the plan. This IS the plan. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

—————————————