SERMON: Not a Big Enough Job

 10:30 am, Sun, Jan 15, 2023 - J G White / FBCA

(Is 49:1-7; 1 Cor 1:1-9; Jn 1:35-42)

The morning sun was bright in the clear, thin sky of El Alto, Bolivia. High on the altiplano of the Andes mountains, a dozen Baptist minsters from across Canada had gathered on the rooftop of their hotel for their morning quiet time together. It was Mark’s turn to lead our devotions.

Mark Buchanan was not known to me – he was a pastor in British Columbia – but he was a well-known author to others in our group. The scripture text chosen for him on this day was from Isaiah 49. Mark spoke about this in a way that cut to the heart, the heart of each minister gathered in the circle that morning.

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 my reach to the end of the earth. 

Mark heard the call of God for more: “there is far more for me to do in this life!” More than the tiny bits of good work he had been doing. We had all had times we felt the same. AS in Isaiah 49, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity…

Then the word from the LORD shone out, like the bright Bolivian sunshine: It is too light a thing that you should be My servant to… well, do whatever we have been doing. Eugene Peterson put it Isaiah’s words this way: But that’s not a big enough job for my servant… I’m setting you up as a light for the nations…

 You may well know the feeling I know, that feeling of not being enough, not doing enough, not reaching your potential, or not being qualified or capable of what was needed. And the simple experience of failure is a common one. Even a ‘believer,’ a servant of God, says, “I’ve worked for nothing. I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.”

This goes for groups. The images in Isaiah 49 can be seen as telling the failings and successes of the Hebrews. “You are my servant, Israel,” said the LORD. This tiny, Middle-Eastern nation was blessed in order to be a blessing, to the world. And, if we read again the Hebrew Bible, we see over and over the stories of promises and potential and failures.

We Christians bring these ancient texts into our lives, and consider how we, the Churches, are fabulous, and a flop. Today we heard the opening lines of the New Testament letter we call First Corinthians. After the congregation is reminded they are rich in the things they do and empowered with gifts of the Holy Spirit, the next sixteen pages go on to deal with their serious troubles: the Church is divided, there is rather too much sexual immorality among the people, people are going to court to sue one another, they are confused about marriage in their day and age, what rules and patterns to have for worship services is mixed up, and they are even confused about just what to believe about Jesus who rose from the dead.

I am both comforted and confounded by the fact that these first Christians had such troubles. Two thousand years later, we have not been far worse than they, but we have not got much better, to speak of!

There were better and bigger things for the faithful Hebrews to do back in Isaiah’s age. There were bigger and better things for the faithful first Christians to do back in the Apostle Paul’s time. There are bigger and better things for first Baptist Amherst to do today.

And, yes, there might be bigger and better things for you to do this year, but it is for us as a group I want to seek and pray and find. Such things I wonder about, in my seventh month here.

I remember, in my first year at Windsor Baptist, hearing a certain Robin Mark song for the first time, at our Drive in Service, in the local mall parking lot. The song, Revival, was a bit epic, in its day, I think. A pretty good worship band from a local evangelical church was offering all the music that night. Revival started with a solo voice, an almost recitative beginning, using familiar biblical words that speak of John the Baptizer preaching of the Saviour:

I hear the voice of one crying…

Prepare ye the way of the Lord

Then the verses started, with the full band of instruments coming to life.

As sure as gold is precious and the honey sweet

So you love this city and you love these streets.

Every child out playing by their own front door

Every baby laying on the bedroom floor.

 

Every dreamer dreaming in her dead-end job

Every driver driving through the rush hour mob

I feel it in my spirit, feel it in my bones

You're going to send revival, bring them all back home

 

That’s how songs like that go; much like the Biblical visions of Isaiah, or Revelation, with all the lost and scattered coming back home again, one glorious day. I wondered about the people of the streets of Windsor – some I’d met, many I hadn’t.

Here we are, 2023. What’s the tag line on signs in this town? See why we love it!

As sure as gold is precious and the honey sweet

So you love this Amherst and you love these streets.

What about this place do we love? Who around here do you care about?

And how do we, First Baptist, touch our town? We have a creative streak: with music, visual arts, drama, even food as art has been big here. We cooperate with other groups in town to give a lot to people in need. Our teaching and spirituality here has a long tradition of diving deep and exploring far and wide. We also express the gift of hospitality, with our well-placed building, and our own activities here.

We may have moments of seeing and feeling our failures. Sometimes we measure this by counting up the people who have left our fellowship, for all sorts of reasons, through the years. Or we look back on missed opportunities for good projects.

Yet, there is also a moment for us to know there are bigger things for us to work for. It is too light a thing that you serve as you have… I will give you as a light to Chignecto, that My salvation may reach from Minas to Northumberland shore.

 Our calling is probably not geographic, like that. It might grow, locally, with opening a daytime warming centre once a week here, in the winter. Perhaps we’d even serve a simple lunch. Not to mention starting from scratch in youth ministry!

Our mission might grow beyond town in terms of what we offer to other congregations in the Cumberland Baptist Association, or the Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms.

There could be divine opportunities for First Baptist to step out into the online community more: in a few minutes I will read a gracious letter we received from folks who have been joining us online only. What web presence could develop that truly benefits people? Blogs, podcasts, videos, online meetings?

These three broad categories are but the tip of an iceberg, I’d say. I have not even mentioned creation care: joining the Green Church Network; or training ourselves to serve in mental wellness & trauma informed care.

When Jesus of Nazareth began his work, He invited people to join Him, become His apprentices. One fellow, named Andrew, went and fetched his brother, Simon Peter, saying, “We have found the Messiah.” Jesus kept saying to folks, “Follow me.”  

First Baptist… we have found the Messiah. Christ has brought us thus far. Where will he take us in 2023? And will Jesus say to us, ‘that’s not a big enough job for my servant… I’m setting you up as a light…’?