From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-9
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.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
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.
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.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
This passage is from “second Isaiah,” the time while a substantial segment of the Judean population were exiled in Babylon. In 586 B.C.E. the southern kingdom, Judea, fell to the Babylonians, and the leadership, the ruling classes, many members of the military, and others, were deported to Babylon…. But not the entire population. Many stayed. The same was true for the people of Israel fleeing the Pharaoh in Egypt. Some stayed there and kept on with their lives. Throughout biblical history the quest of the people of Israel was to establish a unified nation, one that would “be a light to the nations;” one that would bring justice to all people whom they encountered. But the truth of the matter is that unity is never accomplished. The people of Israel have always been scattered. So the over-arching expectation in the life of the people of Israel is a final and consummating gathering of their people, all of the disparate tribes, into a unified whole, so that God’s project with these beloved wanderers might be accomplished, that is, God’s justice and peace and well-being might be given to the world.
Judaism is a religion about a people, not a person… Salvation is about people, not a person. When Isaiah speaks of the “suffering servant,” he is speaking of the scattered nation, a nation looking for wholeness, unity, so that there will be critical mass, as it were, to do God’s work in the world, to bring about God’s reign. Isaiah speaks eloquently about this unified people who take on the role of a servant, and specifically he speaks of taking care of the most fragile among us: “a bruised reed he will not crush, a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” It seems that for unity, for the gathering to begin, it must start with the most vulnerable of us…. The shamed, and the outcasts, the poor, the prisoner… the people Jesus taught us to love first.
If history has taught us anything, we should know by now, that unity is not an end that we will ever be privileged to see. Unity, wholeness, is a process, a process humming with mystery. Our vocation as people of the Way is to be about the process of gathering into the bonds of Love the people scattered by the random iterations of fate, as well as those subject to the oppressive weight of self-interested power. The great Mahatma Gandhi’s words seem so very timely now: “Our means are our ends in the making.”
In this time of crisis, and in the crises to come, as they surely will, we, good people, are to be about the means of Love; gathering the scattered into the embrace of well-being and dignity. We know how to do this. It is our nature. We know the Way. We are the means. The ends are God’s.
Collect for Monday in Holy Week (BCP p. 220)
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy before first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
