Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17
January 13, 2008

“Chosen”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

We learn at a pretty early age that being chosen is pretty cool. A little child in Sunday school or preschool or kindergarten learns that when the teacher asks a question and you put your hand up, it’s pretty cool when the teacher looks right at you and calls your name. It feels good to have your name called. Haven’t you noticed that little children will put their hand up to answer a question even if they have no idea what they’re going to say? “What’s the capital of Pennsylvania?” “Oo-Oo!” Hands are up everywhere. “Janie.” Janie smiles. She’s been chosen. She has no idea what the capital of Pennsylvania is. She’s just happy to be picked.
As we get older, we realize that sometimes it is good to be chosen and sometimes it is not so good. I don’t know too many people who were chosen for jury duty that were happy about it. At the Chambersburg Hospital in the Catheterization Lab, if the pictures show that you need further treatment, you have a one in three chance of being chosen to have to go to Harrisburg for that treatment because of some survey being done. Most people would rather not be chosen to have to go all the way to Harrisburg for their own sake and for the sake of their family.
It’s awesome to be chosen for the team. It’s awesome to be chosen for a new job or promotion. It’s awesome to be chosen by another person to get married. It’s awesome to be chosen for a scholarship; for a special award. It’s awesome to be chosen to be the prayer person of the week here at church!
But, perhaps you’re driving the turnpike and you’re traveling above the speed limit. Perhaps you’re in a string of 5 cars traveling together at 75 mph instead of the posted 65 mph. Perhaps an officer of the law chooses your car (not the other four) to pull over so he can have a chat with you. As we get older and get more of life under our belt, we realize that sometimes it is good to be chosen and sometimes it is not so good.
Let’s turn now to the words of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament, and begin to learn what God says about being chosen by Him.

1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Please keep your Bibles open, and let’s go back and take it one verse at a time:
First of all, notice that the one chosen by God is given the title, ‘servant.’ Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
This is the title and the calling given to those who are sincerely chosen by God: Servant. A servant is one who serves another; one who serves God first; one who serves others before serving themselves. Being chosen by God means you are chosen to serve. Maybe that doesn’t seem like good news. Maybe you’d rather not be chosen by God if you have to become a servant. But there are benefits to being a chosen servant of God as we learn as we continue in the verse: The chosen servant is upheld and delighted in by God.
In just a couple of weeks, our new little granddaughter is going to be born. Her name is Taylor Marie Daynard. Already we delight in her. But when she arrives and we get to hold her in our arms and look at her little face that will be a perfect and unique combination of Molly and Randy’s faces, we will be upholding her and delighting in her.
The chosen servant is upheld by God; the chosen servant is delighted in by God; and the chosen servant is given the gift of the Holy Spirit (that’s really good news) in order to bring justice to the people. That’s the purpose of being a servant: in order to bring justice to the people. Therefore, justice must be very important to God.
Justice means, ‘fairness or reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are made; the legal system or the act of applying or upholding the law.’ The ultimate justice then from a biblical standpoint would be the act of applying or upholding the laws of God – treating one another with complete equity, showing no partiality, making decisions not based on what we want, or what we think is fair, but making decisions based on what God says is right and best to do.
Kenya is in turmoil right now because something went terribly wrong with their elections on December 27th. Though voting for their new president was predominantly peaceful that day, as the returns began to come in, it seemed that voting results from entire areas were being ignored. All of a sudden one candidate was being sworn in as president in a basically private ceremony. Something unjust was going on. A Presbyterian missionary from Kenya wrote this, “I think almost all would agree that the issue that set Kenya on fire was the rigging, and the terrible unjust and wrongful acts being done by powerful ‘someones’ behind the scenes. This is such an act of injustice, laced with irregularities. We really hoped we would prove that Kenya had taken a major step towards democracy with this election. But instead, we have been set back years, and fanned the flames of ethnic hatred among neighbors who up till now had lived side by side peacefully.”
Proverbs 29:4 tells us, “By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down.” In verse 7, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” The prophet Micah tells us as recorded in Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
God calls the chosen servant, with whom the Holy Spirit dwells, to bring justice to the nations. He calls us to live according to His law without compromising.
In Isaiah 42:2 we read, “He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.” A chosen-upheld-delighted-in-Holy Spirit-filled servant, will endure quietly the suffering that comes as a result of his/her pursuit of justice, and in verse 3 we read, “a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” This chosen one will not give the final push to those who are on their last leg, on their last gallon of gas, on their last dollar, on their last grasp at the truth. A chosen-upheld-delighted-in-Holy Spirit-filled servant of God will be gentle and compassionate.
In verse 4 (He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching) we learn that this chosen one won’t give up in working to bring God’s justice to the people. Ever.
Verses 5-7, “Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” God is reminding us that He is the one who gives us a place to serve, the breath to live, and the Holy Spirit to inspire and strengthen us. We don’t have to try to muster all this up on our own. God, as the one who chooses, takes our hand and gives us all we need to serve and do amazing things for the sake of true justice. His justice. The kind of justice that cares about the blind (spiritually & physically blind), that cares about getting people free from the schemes of the devil and the demons that bind them in darkness, the kind of justice that cares that babies (some would call them only embryos), are being killed every day because of eyes that are blind and minds and spirits caught in darkness.
In verse 8, “I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols,” God reminds the chosen-upheld-delighted-in-Holy Spirit-filled servant that the work he/she is called to do is to be done for the glory of God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. And in this passage we have verse 9, “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” God tells us that whatever has passed is gone. Whether we knew it or not, God has been at work in the lives of his chosen servants. But now we must look to the future. God is telling us that if we will choose to listen to him, he will tell us what’s coming, how to prepare for it, and how to remain faithful in the midst of it.
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote that prophecy about THE chosen servant, the promised Messiah and King. (Reader, go back and read this passage again on the first page with Jesus in mind.)
It’s a perfect fit for Jesus isn’t it? Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, God chose Isaiah to write about the servant ministry of His son. But let’s remember, in choosing human form for Jesus’ coming to this world (let’s face it, God could have chosen a variety of ways to make himself known to us), in choosing human form, God was making a statement about his desire to be in relationship with us – a relationship of a perfectly loving Father to a son, and to a daughter. Therefore, Isaiah isn’t just talking about Jesus way back then. He’s talking about anyone who is called by his name. Listen with me to these words from the Scots Confession, written in 1560, “That same eternal God and Father, who by grace alone chose us in his son Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world was laid, appointed him to be our head, our brother, our pastor, and the great bishop of our souls. But since the opposition between the justice of God and our sins was such that no flesh by itself could or might have attained unto God, it behooved the Son of God to descend unto us and take himself a body of our body, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, and so become the Mediator between God and humanity, giving power to as many as believe in him to be the sons [and daughters] of God.”
In Matthew 3, we have the telling of the baptism of Jesus which teaches us a bit more about what it means to be a chosen servant of God:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him – This chosen-upheld-delighted-in-Holy Spirit-filled servant makes the effort to do what God told him to do. Though John, also a chosen servant, didn’t understand at first (and maybe not for quite a long time), he listened to what Jesus said and let go of his gut reaction and opinion. “Hey, you’re so much more than I am. You need to baptize me, not the other way around!” “No,” Jesus said. “I need to become one of the multitude here in the waters of the Jordan. I need to identify with those I have come to save.” John stopped pressing his own agenda, and listened to Jesus. I think this is really important to learn, because sometimes we read God’s word, and think we’ve got it all figured out because it makes human sense to us. But often, God’s instructions are upside down and inside out compared to the ways we think. But, as chosen servants, if we are willing to really listen with an open heart, drawing closer to the Lord, like John the Baptist did, the result will be an amazing opportunity to be part of God’s eternal plan, to see a great vision, and hear the very voice of God alongside Jesus.
So, what does it mean to be a chosen servant of God? It means you are upheld by God, delighted in by God. It means your name is being called to go and work for justice in the world. It means you’ve got the Holy Spirit within you, and it means you’re not going to draw a bunch of attention to yourself when things are or aren’t going your way. Being a chosen servant of God means you must be committed to caring for the weak, the lost, and the lonely, and it means you won’t quit no matter what. Being a chosen servant of God means God is your strength, and God has you covered. Being a chosen servant of God means you get to be a freedom rider for those in bondage to the works of the devil, and it means you work for his glory, not your own. A chosen servant is not afraid of the future, for God has promised to prepare us for whatever is coming, and a chosen servant is always more ready to listen to God than to utter a useless phrase. The chosen servant of God is called to obedience to God’s plan. Only in obedience can we fully hear the voice of God so that we can know what’s next in the battle for justice in the world.
Last week I shared the story of those football players from San Francisco University who turned down the offer to play in a bowl game in 1951, because their African-American brothers would not have been allowed to play alongside them in that coveted bowl game. Those men were fighting for justice. It was plain, it was simple, sort of plain and simple like the words, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.” A chosen servant, just like Jesus, the model for servanthood, will never forget the “for all” part of that pledge (liberty and justice for all). “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son.” (John 3:16). Jesus died once, for all. Jesus was a global servant, but he also died individually for us. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” (John 15:16)
Paul challenges us, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters; not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:26-31)
Paul continues in Ephesians 1:4, “Just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
“This is my Son, the Beloved, the chosen, upheld, delighted in, Holy Spirit filled servant, in whom I am well pleased,” says the Father.
We move quickly from Christmas to Lent this year. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent is February 6th, only 3 1/2 weeks away. On Sunday, February 3rd, we will begin a new Sunday school focus for youth and adults, and a new sermon series based on Scriptures brought together in the study series by Anne Graham Lotz (the daughter of Billy Graham) entitled, “I Saw the Lord.” In Sunday school we will gather together to be part of a video discussion based on the studied Scriptures, and then we will break into smaller groupings to talk through the passages and what they meant to each of us. In worship, I will be preaching on the same Scriptures used in Sunday school, taking us on a group journey of learning to truly hear from God and see His glory.
Being chosen by God comes with great responsibility to continue growing in our love for God and others. Being chosen by God also comes with the great privilege of knowing our lives count for something bigger than ourselves. It is my prayer that we will all choose to step forward, to lean in to hear him call our names, so that together, we can bring about true justice for the sake of those who still walk in darkness. Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

1-13-08