Epiphany Sunday: January 8, 2006

TEXT: Isaiah 42:1-9

“Hope Agents”

I have a dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley will be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made a plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope.

And if America is to become a great nation this must be true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke those words on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. You must admit he had a compelling vision of the future. His dream has captured the imagination of countless Americans ever since that historic day. First, because as Martin Luther King, Jr. says, his dream has its foundations in the American dream. Our constitution promises equality and justice to all people, regardless of nation, skin color, or creed. More importantly, however, Dr. King’s dream grips us because its foundations go deeper than the American dream. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew the prophet, Isaiah, well. His dream did now grow out of a mere piece of paper signed by the founding Fathers. His dream flowed out of the dreaming of God, as found in Isaiah.

You see, God has a dream. Listen to the dreaming of God found in Isaiah 42:1-9:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.
This is what God the Lord says – he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.

God has a dream. Martin Luther King, Jr. is not history’s primary dreamer. He is secondary. The vision of the future that made Dr. King such a powerful leader in the civil rights movement four decades ago was grounded in the dreaming of God. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not the first to ever foresee justice for a nation. Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had a similar dream for justice, as he spoke for the Lord God. He saw a future where justice was brought forth to the nations (v. 1), and established on the face of the earth (v. 4). The island peoples would find hope in this faithful bringing forth of justice (v. 4). They would invest their hope because in Isaiah’s vision, a vision reflecting the dreaming of God, right would prevail and God’s way would be established.

God has a dream, and it is a dream of justice covering the earth. A dream in which the weak, the broken, and the helpless are not crushed in the machinery of oppression. A vision in which those downtrodden, living with a deck of unfair social and economic practices stacked against them, would be lifted up. Life may typically murder its wounded, but in the future God speaks into existence, He heals the wounded, puts them back on their feet, and makes a way for them. God dreams of bringing about what is “right” in this world, not by might, but through His law. God dreams a new world into existence, one made whole again through the bringing forth of justice. God has a dream, and it is a dream for justice.

Now, because God has a dream, there is a different sense of expectation, than if you or I had a dream. We dream, and what we dream may or may not happen. When God dreams, however, His dreams always come to fruition. God’s dream will take place. God’s dream is not the result of eating anchovies or green peppers before He went to bed. God’s dream is a picture of the reality He is creating even now. So if God has a dream, the world might try to frustrate God’s vision, but nothing can prevent God from dreaming His will into existence. So in God’s dream, all of creation can find hope.

God’s dream is not only about justice. It is also one of freedom. Did you hear the words of Isaiah in verse 7? “To open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” We often spiritualize a verse like this. We sing in “Amazing Grace” how our blind spiritual eyes were opened. We speak of our captivity to sin, which the Lord broke. We testify how our darkness—the hopelessness, the oppression, the guilt, the shame, the helplessness, the failure, the emptiness, the meaninglessness—was pierced by God’s light, releasing us from a dungeon of despair. Before we take the spiritualized pathway, however, we need to hear Isaiah proclaiming a message of release from earthly realities of brokenness in our world. Real blind eyes healed. Real dungeon doors opened. Real victims, caught up in the oppressive cycles of our world, set free! Real prisoners released into new beginnings and new life. The Lord dreams freedom into existence not only in the spiritual realm, but in all of creation.

Was it not our Lord himself that brought this reality to the fore when He talked about the coming Day of Judgment in Matthew 25? There will be a separation that takes place, not in terms of those whose blind spiritual eyes got opened versus those who didn’t; but in terms of whether one saw somebody hungry and thirsty and gave them something to eat and drink; or whether one saw somebody who was in prison and went to visit them; or whether one saw somebody who was naked and put clothes on them; or whether one saw a stranger wandering in the street and said, “Come in and have dinner.” The freedom God dreams into existence finds the least of these—people with real physical needs—and delivers them.

God’s dream for freedom is the hope of the world. God’s dream for spiritual freedom, and for freedom from the broken realities of our earthly living, is light in a dark world. For when God dreams, He shapes history, He transforms life, and newness springs into being. God’s dream is not just a whim or a fancy. God‘s dream is saving activity becoming world reality. Therefore in the dreaming of God, there is hope.

God also dreams of restored relationships. Justice is good. Freedom is wonderful. The best part, however, is God dreams of hearing us call Him “Daddy”. God dreams of sons and daughters in His household. He dreams of people like you and me entering into the relationship called covenant, where God has chosen us to be His people.

Wow! This is an amazing dream God is revealing to Isaiah. Doesn’t it fill us with awe and wonder? Or have we ceased to be amazed? Have we become smug in who we are or who we think we’ve become, so a covenant-creating God ceases to astonish us? God looks at the worm—we don’t sing it that way anymore, but maybe we need to—God looks at the worm you and I are in relationship to who He is, and chooses us to be His. He chooses us to be a part of His forever family, His household. He makes us sons and daughters.

God’s dream is a dream about covenant. In verse 6 the Lord says, “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.” Gentiles are the outsiders, the pagans, the ones who don‘t belong, who are far away, who are distant, who aren’t the people of God, who have no God and no hope. Gentiles are the despicable people, the sinners, and the idolaters. Those are the people with whom God is seeking to make a covenant; people like you and me. This is the dream of God.

Because this is God’s dream, the world has hope. Remember, God’s dream is not just a disturbing thought that woke Him up at night. God’s dream isn’t an idea with which He has been toying to pass the time. God’s dream is the churning of His divine heart and spirit to birth a new heaven and earth into existence. God’s dream is the hope of the world, and it is a sure hope, for God will make it reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks his dream for a future of justice and freedom, but he never describes how that future will come to be. Isaiah, however, as he reports God’s dream, is preoccupied with the how. God will accomplish His dream through a servant. “Here is my servant . . . he will bring justice . . . the Lord will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison.” There is a servant who will be the instrument through which God accomplishes His dream, “a chosen one in whom I delight.” Through this servant God will accomplish this dream of justice. Through this servant He will bring about freedom. Through this servant He will restore relationships. This servant becomes the instrument of God’s work in making His dream a reality.

This servant is one called by God and anointed by God’s spirit. The identity of this servant does not find its roots or power in education or philosophy, in cleverness or personality, in position or accomplishments. This servant is the instrument of God’s hope because the servant’s identity flows from God’s choosing and empowering. The Spirit-anointed and driven nature of this life makes it the perfect vessel through which God can make His dream for creation move from His heart onto the stage of history.

Then we hear the scriptures tell us that as Jesus was baptized, and as Jesus was transfigured on the mountaintop, a voice from heaven declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5).

We read of Jesus teaching, and when confronted, saying, “I didn’t speak to you on my own accord, but the father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (John 12:49). I speak with the words my Father has given me to say. I don’t do anything on my own authority; I only do what the Father tells me to do.

And we begin to understand. Isaiah is foreseeing Jesus. Jesus fits the bill for this servant whose identity is in the calling of God, and whose source of power is in the spirit of God. Jesus is the servant by whom God accomplishes His dream. The servant is Jesus. Jesus is the hope of our world.

This servant doesn’t use the power tactics of our world. Throughout history, words of promise and world transformation have crossed human lips in various forms. Often hope for a new world took the shape of organizing a crusade and whipping everyone into shape; or forming a Nazi party and securing national interests against all others; or claiming Jihad and murdering infidels. That is not this servant’s style. This servant doesn’t cry out, doesn’t raise His voice in the streets (v. 2). It is not physical power or violence that brings about the dream of God through this servant.

Then we read about a man called Jesus who, though He was like God, emptied himself of everything that had to do with His divinity, and took on the form of a servant, and became a human being like you and I. Then as a member of humanity He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). Jesus did exactly the opposite of the power brokers of history. He never mounted a white horse, never led the troops of Israel into battle against the Romans, never forced His way into prominence or control. Instead, we see Jesus walking down the Via de la Rosa, stretching out His arms, and dying on the cross.

It is Him! It is Him! The servant is Jesus. God’s dream is the hope of the world. Jesus is the servant through whom God is bringing His dream to reality. Therefore, Jesus is the hope of the world.

One more description leaps off the page of Isaiah’s prophecy about God’s servant. God’s servant is faithful.

The incredible dream of God in which the world might dare to hope isn’t without its obstacles. The realist in us is fully aware that this is true. Even as we have listened to the description of the dream of God this morning, part of us has said, “Wow, could it be true? I don’t really see how; at least, not short of heaven.” Oppressors will continue to oppress. Darkness will continue to threaten. Bruised reeds will continue to be broken. Sin and evil oppose the dream of God at such magnitude that we ask, “Can there ever be a difference?” Can peace ever come to the Middle East? Can my past ever be redeemed?

Road blocks of sin and brokenness are a reality. The reality of God’s dream, however, is greater; where sin increased, grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20). Therefore the servant is faithful to the dream. “In faithfulness,” verse 3 says, “He will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged.” This servant will stick with God’s dream until its fulfillment. He will keep working. He won’t give up. He will stay in the thick of the battle. He will be faithful. Everyone else may be faithless, but He will continue to be faithful to bring about the dream of God in our world.

There we see Jesus, kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane. A cross looms before Him. He knows it, too; no one else seems to know, but He knows. So He prays. He could have said in that prayer, “Lord, send ten thousand angels. I want out. Deliver me from the Romans and priestly guards who come now to take me prisoner.” He could have prayed, “Father, I don’t care what your dream is. It is too hard. I am not doing the cross.” Instead He prays, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Even as the cross hangs over Him, Jesus is faithful to bring about the reality of God’s dream.

The servant of Isaiah is Jesus. Jesus is the bringer of God’s saving dream into our reality. God’s dream is the hope of the world, the only promise of wholeness adequate to bear the immensity of human need. Therefore, Jesus is our hope, and the hope of the world.
Anyone need to hear that today? Does anyone identify with the bruised reed or the smoldering wick? Does anyone know what it is like to live in darkness or to hear the clank of the cell door lock into place? Does anyone need to know God is dreaming a dream for our healing and wholeness, our saving and deliverance, our new beginnings and abundant life; and that God’s dreaming is even now penetrating our reality in Jesus? For anyone like that, Isaiah 42 comes as an agent of hope with good news. Jesus is our hope.

That’s not the end of the story, however. Isaiah’s prophecy comes seeking to do more than communicate to us good news.

Yes, the passage is one with messianic overtones. No doubt that throughout Christian history this passage has been interpreted as pointing to the Messiah, the Deliverer, the Savior, whom God sent in the person of Jesus.

Yet, is that all Isaiah intended? Here is a messianic prophesy. You guessed right if you guessed Jesus. Now we can move on.

If you were to read with me through the book of Isaiah beginning with chapter 41, there are several times in the following chapters of Isaiah where we find this phrase, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one whom I delight.” Those words, “servant and chosen,” show up as a frequent pairing in Isaiah, not as references to a messianic figure, nor to a messianic group, but as synonyms for the people of God as a whole. When God says, “Here is my servant,” in Isaiah 42:1, there is no doubt the reference applies to Jesus. But in the perspective we encounter in the latter third of Isaiah, there is no doubt it applies to all who call themselves the people of God as well.

This shouldn’t totally catch us off guard. Didn’t Jesus say to us as His disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21)? In essence, Jesus is saying to us, “As the Father sent me to be the hope of the world, the agent through which His dream becomes reality, I am sending you. I’m not the hope of the world alone. You are the hope of the world. I’m not the light of the world alone. You are the light of the world. If there are going to be people set free from prison, it is not going to be because I make it happen alone. It is going to be because we make it happen, because I make it happen through you. If there are people whose blinded eyes are opened, they won’t be opened because I make it happen alone. They will be opened because we make it happen, because I make it happen through you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you!” You are an agent of hope.

God has a dream! That dream is the hope of the world. Jesus is the servant by whom God brings His dream to fruition. Jesus is the hope of the world. You and I, brother and sister, as Christians—as little Christs—are agents of that hope as well. We are God’s hope agents.

I’m glad no one said, “Amen,” at that pause. That is not a place to say “Amen.” That is a place to say, “Whoa! Me? Me? I’m supposed to be one of those who never breaks a bruised reed or snuffs out a smoldering wick? I’m supposed to be the person who runs the gauntlet in order to see the ‘right’ happen, no matter how much I have to pay for it? I’m supposed to be the one who never gets discouraged from doing good? I’m supposed to be the person who sets people free and is a light to the world? I’m the one God will make a covenant to the nations so they can enter into a restored relationship with Him? Me? Little ’ole me?”

Yes, you and me. All of us who have been called by God are His agents of hope. We are called by Him, delighted in by Him, chosen by Him, empowered by His Spirit, and sent by His Son to be His agents of hope.

In his book, The Holy Wild (Multnomah Publishers), Mark Buchanan shares an insight that comes from his understanding of Isaiah 6:3. Isaiah has a vision while worshipping in the temple, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord” (Isaiah 6:1). The Lord is high and exalted. The train of his robe fills the temple. Six-winged seraphs fly around the throne calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Buchanan writes:

The first time I read this in Isaiah . . . it puzzled me. It disappointed me. The whole earth is full of God’s glory? Where? How?

I’ve seen glimmers of it. I’ve heard rumors of it . . . I can accept that all of heaven is filled with God’s glory. I can accept that the whole earth has shards of that glory . . . I can accept that upon the earth, here and there, in corners, in crevices, in this church, in that home, God’s glory shines with a clear, pure brightness.

But the whole earth full of it? (p. 229).

This is the conclusion Mark Buchanan reaches about the seraphs’ song:

We’ve been asking, “How is the whole earth filled with God’s glory?” And we’ve answered, “Wherever His name is proclaimed, wherever His goodness is shown, there His glory shines through.”

Which means we’re it. You and me. We’re the ones that either display or eclipse the glory of God (p. 236).

How is the whole earth full of God’s glory? How does the world know God’s name, His nature, see His mercy, taste His justice? They see it in you and me, or not at all. They see it in our ordinariness transformed, in the way Jesus unveils himself suddenly in our grief and our joy, our hardship and our windfall, when something of God’s goodness breaks out from our plain lives (pp. 239-240).

The world is filled with God’s glory in us and through us. The world sees the glory of God in us. We’re the agents of God’s hope in this world. God has a dream. He’s working that dream to fulfillment, and He has chosen to bring that dream to reality in our world through you and me as His servants.

We might have thought our lives were just about going to work 40 to 60 hours a week, making enough money to secure retirement, taking care of our families, watching a little TV in the evening, and complaining about government and politics, day in and day out. But that is not why we were called, and that is not why God gave His spirit to you or to me. We are called and empowered to be His agents, agents of hope in the midst of our working, family, day-by-day, ordinary lives. We are called to carry the hope of God—the glory of God—to places where people can catch a glimpse of the mercy, love, grace, beauty, and holiness of who He is. Where they can catch a glimpse of justice, catch a glimpse of freedom, catch a glimpse of faithfulness, catch a glimpse of transformation; so much so, that it infects their lives and changes who they are.

I wonder, if God was here this morning—and I believe He is—but if the Lord was here in visible form in this pulpit, telling us He has a dream the way Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of his dream in 1963, would we be willing to sign up for that dream today?

I don’t mean “sign up” in terms of enlistment: “I’ve got to get my life together, pull up the boot straps, work harder, and be more Christian.” I mean “sign up” in terms of, “Am I willing to give myself to the dream of God? Am I willing to wait in His presence until His spirit so fills me that I can’t help but be this kind of servant?” I don’t determine to make myself the kind of servant God describes in Isaiah. I allow the Holy Spirit to make me the servant God desires for me to be: an agent of hope. Are we willing? If God is here today saying, “I have a dream,” will we embrace the dream of God until it becomes our dreaming and our living?

How will we answer that question as individuals? What would we desire the answer to be for our church family? Will our answer transform the way we see ourselves and how we live this afternoon, and tomorrow, and next week? Will the God of Glory shine through you and me? Will we embrace the dream of God, and become His hope agents?