Called by God to Serve
Scripture: Psalm 40:1-11 read responsively and Isaiah 49: 1-7
Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ January 16, 2011
Installation of Officers (Martin Luther King Sunday)
INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Here is a song of thanksgiving after a time of great trail. The writer has learned through this experience that God prefers people to listen and obey God’s will rather than make offerings of an unwilling heart.
1I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
4Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
6Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
9I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
10I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
Isaiah 49: 1-7
Last week we considered baptism as our first call to serve by proclaiming the Good News. Jesus’ own baptism fulfilled a call to be the servant leadership. Today we ordain and install leaders of our church to that same leadership of service. Here in Isaiah we hear not only the personal nature of being called by God but the communal nature. For we are a people of God called to serve as well as individuals called into service.
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. 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. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 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.” 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— 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.”
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.”
SERMON
In the corporate business world Robert Greenleaf is said to have coined the term servant leadership. But God has been calling a people/a community to service leadership for thousands of years.
Thomas H. Greco consolidated Greenleaf’s work into 10 characteristics that need to be cultivated by anyone who would aspire to lead in any realm. He sees them as especially important in the development of a new paradigm of social justice, global harmony, and sustainability. The characteristics are:
1. Servant leaders are servants first, and consciously choose to lead as a way to serve the development of others.
2. Servant leaders respond to any problem by listening first. Their attitude emulates St Francis: “Lord, grant that I may not seek so much to be understood as to understand.”
3. Servant leaders maintain empathy for the essential humanity of other people, even when they cannot accept the other person’s acts.
4. Servant leaders utilize both analysis and intuition to develop foresight (Greenleaf considered foresight to be the Central ethic of leadership.) Believers would call it prophetic vision.
5. Servant leaders cultivate awareness and hone their powers of perception.
6. Servant leaders create change by inspiration and persuasion, not coercion.
7. Servant leaders are highly creative, drawing from their unique strengths to create fresh responses to new situations.
8. Servant leaders remember that healing means “to make whole.” They know that to be wholly human, one must joyfully accept both the goodness and the bitterness of life” while contributing to the good.
9. Servant leaders recognize that healing actions take place in the context of community.
10. Servant leaders change the world by first changing themselves.
God’s call is to Israel is to be instruments of restoration and to bring light to all people. When Isaiah first challenged the leadership of Israel it was to call them to account for their neglect of the poor. He warns of their impending exile, but always God says they have a role to play in the world which requires them to take real risks in order to truly lead people to God. As much as they want to be heard they need to listen, be empathic, have foresight, use their powers of perception and inspiration to create and heal a broken and lost world.
Greco writes: “Servant leaders change the world by first changing themselves.” To me this is the most significant characteristic of servant leaders.
During the life of Isaiah, Israel had become a comfortable and wealthy nation especially for the royal court, because it had prime real estate where it could play one aggressor against another such as the rivalry between the Egypt and Assyria. They were not interested in rocking the boat, in changing. Isaiah was part of that elet group but changed himself to answer God’s call. He challenged the leader to trust in God instead of their treaties. Eventually their unwillingness to change led to their ruin.
The officers we ordain and install today may ask us to make changes that they believe will serve God first. Because they are servant leaders, they will listen and pray, be open to God’s direction, they will inspire us and work creatively to inspire change. Our job is to listen to them, pray for them and work creatively with them to make ourselves better witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ. It is not easy to be a leader in the church because you have no power to make anyone do anything, except the power of the Holy Spirit that can change hearts, renew broken spirits and binds us together in love. What would this world be like if leaders of industry and governments alike chose to be servant leaders? What if we chose to be servant leaders in our families, neighborhoods, nation and world? What if we lead with inspiration and persuasion, not coercion? I think things would be very good. This is God’s design for leadership wherever we are called to serve. Amen.
Resources:
Paul D. Hanson, Interpretation Series “Isaiah 40 – 66,” John Knox Press,
See: http://www.relationship-economy.com/?p=7437
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Isaiah; see: answers.com
