09/15/2024 ~ Proper 19 ~ Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 116:1-9 or Wisdom of Solomon 7:26 – 8:1; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1010300431

The Tongue of a Teacher

“Yahweh, GOD, has given me / a skilled and well trained tongue, / the tongue of a teacher, / that I may know how to sustain / the weary with a word. / God awakens me morning by morning— / awakens, opens my ear / to listen as a student, / to listen as those who are taught.” — Isaiah 50:4.

As I have said and as many of you know I was at one point a theater professional, a writer of plays and lyrics. But that was not my exclusive activity.

Among other things, I collaborated with actors and singers who were developing club acts. I wrote special material for them— songs, parodies, patter. I acted as a combination director, wardrobe and lighting design consultant. (And yes, I even served as a therapist, when warranted.)

Once I went with a client to the see the act of another singer. My client and I did not do this to meet the entertainer but to meet the person playing the piano for this act. She wanted me to hear him, speak with him before she hired him.

This pianist, a distinguished looking older gentleman, at one point was well enough known as a jazz musician to record several albums. But this was the 1970s. The popularity of sophisticated jazz was at an acute low point. Disco was at its apogee. (I know— you’ve tried to forget Disco.)

My client wanted to meet with this pianist because she was worried he might be so good as to either take the spotlight off her or be difficult to work with. Just hearing him play told us he was a true accompanist, totally capable of serving the needs of any singer with whom he was working.

As we chatted we realized he was a gentle soul, easy going, easy to like, easy to get along with. Still, my client asked the obvious question: “Look,” she said, “you’ve recorded a couple albums. Why are you still playing for singers in clubs?”

He smiled and nodded. “Music is my life,” he said. “I’m good at Jazz but it’s out of favor.” Prophetically he said, “Jazz will be back.”

Sounding very much like a preacher he then said, “As for me, I am called to work with people, called to play music. I try to put those two callings, people and music, together. But people come first.”

He then said: “Jesus spoke about the vineyard. I guess I’m just called to work in the vineyard, day by day, one day at a time.” Using the words of the old spiritual he smiled again and said, “I just try to keep my eyes on the prize.” (Slight pause.)

This is what we hear in the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah: “Yahweh, GOD, has given me / a skilled and well trained tongue, / the tongue of a teacher, / that I may know how to sustain / the weary with a word. / God awakens me morning by morning— / awakens, opens my ear / to listen as a student, / to listen as those who are taught.” (Slight pause.)

Today’s passage from Isaiah is one of the well known Servant Songs. Christians take some of the verses in the passage as a prophecy about the crucifixion— rightly so.

But Biblical scholars also tell us the passage should not be considered as just a prophecy. We need to look at the context, the history of this writing.

You see, these words were probably written during the Babylonian Exile, five centuries before Christ. Hence for those who first heard this, the coming of the Messiah was not a consideration. The message was understood as more immediate.

So we need to ask what did it mean for those to whom this was written, who suffered the Exile? This much is clear: because of the Exile the passage is still a Servant Song. Therefore, with the Exile as a context, what can we learn? (Slight pause.)

The Servant acknowledges a particular ministry given by God. The ear of the servant must be receptive to a message from God, the tongue skillful in speaking that message.

In this particular ministry— hearing, speaking— there is a specific goal. The servant is called to sustain the weary, those who in exile have had their life shaped, crushed by the power of an empire, those who daily live life close to despair.

The word used here— “sustain”— does not mean this should be a time to offer a lesson about consolation. It means the servant is called to speak to a reality that says this to the weary: there is an alternative reality.

This alternative reality, a reality God would have the people see, is one which creates space, creates freedom, creates energy. This kind of speech, the message which can sustain the weary reads this way: the empire, whose oppressiveness rests on an ideology with a goal of debilitation… does not govern. Yahweh alone governs.

The message offered by the prophet to those who are weary is a bold theological assertion that reshapes the world. It says there are new possibilities outside the assumed realities of empire, an empire which dominates. It, thereby, is a word of consolation because it is a call to take actions to empower change. (Slight pause.)

The prophet is not naïve. These words understand the challenge, the pressure, the temptation for simply acquiescing. But these words are also an insistence that the future then and the future now depends on being honest, objective, meticulous about our relationship with God and our relationship with each other. (Slight pause.)

Let’s turn to the Messiah. Jesus is a teacher Who teaches the disciples about God. Jesus teaches hard things. Indeed, the Gospel reading today states (quote): “Then Jesus began to teach them that the Promised One must undergo great suffering…”

What Jesus teaches is honest, objective, meticulous. Why? Could it be that the future, our future, depends on honesty, objectivity, meticulousness? (Slight pause.)

I do not question that the Servant Songs are a Messianic prophecy. But given these two different contexts, it also presents an ongoing, connective message for us today, a message which, in a myriad of ways is beyond a prophecy simply about suffering, a message which does make a significant connection for us with Jesus Who is the Messiah.

If we Christians accept the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, clearly one of the callings for the church, a calling to each of us and the whole community, is to be honest, objective, meticulous about the reality of God, the truth of God. This truth calls on us, the church, to create space, create freedom, create energy for all people.

This truth calls on us, the church, to sustain the weary, to proclaim, as both the Prophet and Jesus did, that God governs, that the debilitating oppressiveness of ideology does not reign. This truth calls on us, the church, to be agents who reshape the world.

This truth calls on us, the church, to voice new possibilities outside of assumed realities, calls on us, the church, to simply keep working in the vineyard faithfully, one day at a time, no matter what the current circumstances might appear to be. In the words of the old Spiritual, these words call on us to keep our eyes on the prize. (Slight pause.)

Too often society sees issues of justice as nothing but a game where the object is not really to seek justice but to destroy perceived enemies. But games of that ilk are, by definition, not honest, not objective not meticulous. In short, the church must counter a world often awash in lies and falsehoods with the truth called love. (Slight pause.)

The Servant Songs are not just or simply or only a prophecy. The Servant Songs are a call— a call to us as church to action— a call to be honest, objective, meticulous. This is a call to preach the reality of justice as God would have us see justice— the kind of justice where all people are seen as both equal and seen as one.

Indeed, the Servant Songs are a call to us, a call to the church to simply work in the vineyard, day by day, one day at a time, a call to keep our eyes on the prize. Amen.

09/15/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Something I have found out over my life is the work of the vineyard is always there. To paraphrase that Servant Song in the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah, sometimes we cannot hide our face from insults and spitting even while we do that work. But we also need to remember Yahweh, GOD, is always there and present with us.”

BENEDICTION: We are called to love even when conventional wisdom says we should not. God is our helper. Christ is our teacher. The Holy spirit is our guide. Let us go forth knowing that the grace of God is deeper than our imagination, the strength of Christ is stronger than our need and the communion of the Holy Spirit is richer than our togetherness. May God guide and sustain us today and in all our tomorrows. Amen.