January 13, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Since I have been your pastor for a little over the past three years, I have observed that most of us, in our heart of hearts have a quarrel with God. Now I don’t mean that we are angry at God, although most of us from time to time do become angry at God. But we do quarrel with God.
What I really mean is that we are puzzled and perplexed by the way God is in the world, by what God chooses to do, and how God chooses to do it. Or putting this in another way. If we were God, if we had God’s power, if we had God’s majestic and comprehensive presence in the world, things would be different!
When I was growing up, I loved super heroes. The Justice League of America had Aquaman who can swim like a fish underwater and command all of the creatures of the sea to fight for justice. There was Green Lantern who was just powerful when he’s in green light. Wonder Woman with her lasso, wrist bracelets that ward off bullets and her phantom airplane. The dynamic duo of Batman and Robin who uses sophisticated detective abilities and gadgets to bring down the bad guys with “pows” and “bams.” And leading these super heroes fighting for justice and the American way, was none other than Superman who came from Krypton with super strength, x-ray vision, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Now these were truly guys who can bring peace and justice to a world filled with evil and chaos.
Why can’t God be like Superman? We want God to be a different kind of God than the God of the Scriptures. So we produce revised standard versions of the way we wish God to be. When we think this way, we end up committing the sin of idolatry. We end up praying and hoping that God, like one of the Justice League of America would just come into our world and into our lives and make everything just right again.
Here is My Servant
The Hebrew people have been in Babylonian captivity for a long time. Just as they are about to come home, the prophet Isaiah was convinced that they may have forgotten who God was. Isaiah reminds them that God has heard their cries and is now sending a servant who will lead the people back home.
Israel wants justice after the suffering and exile they have endured. They wanted a superhero to right the wrongs. But when the servant appears, the servant does not appear in the form that they had expected. We are always going after revenge, restitution, retaliation, punishment, a settlement in our favor, what belongs to us. Getting even may be our definition of justice. But it’s not God’s.
God’s definition of establishing justice on earth is to repair his creation by making humanity and the natural world the way God intended it to be at the beginning.
This sounds like a good thing of course, until we realize how much we have invested in the way things are now instead of the way God intended things to be in creation. Somebody is paying the price for how inexpensive our food costs. Somebody out there is working in terrible conditions so that I can have these clothes to wear. Somebody out there is suffering from polluted drinking water so that we can have lumber for the houses we live in.
That is why, as we read last Sunday’s gospel, King Herod and all of Jerusalem shook when they heard that the Christ Child had been born. Herod knew that this little child may usurp his power and he won’t be king anymore. So he goes and massacred the innocent babies.
It’s not that different for us today. Like Herod, we like the way things are. Being the only true superpower in the world, we can almost go any place we want to go until September 11th happened. But in spite of the slight inconveniences that we are experiencing, we are still muscling our way around the world. You see, if that baby Jesus is king, we can’t be king too. We can identify with Herod.
We like to identify with the Hebrews who were prisoners and exiles. We want justice to come to us in our favor. But we don’t realize that God’s justice applies to us as well. As Americans, God may see us as the Babylonians and wants justice to come about on us—making his creation the way he intends it to be. Although I want God to be my super hero, he may be someone else’s super hero.
Isaiah said that God is going to establish justice. Great! So why doesn’t God get on with it whether it’s toward our favor or someone else’s. What is God waiting for when terrorism is now a part of our everyday life. Israelis and Palestinians are still killing each other. And more US servicemen and women are dying.
But the prophets say, He comes not as a military conqueror but as a gentle gardener and a lamp lighter. A bruised reed…he will not break. A dimly burning wick…he will not extinguish.
Over the holidays, we burned many candles to brighten the long nights and to symbolize Jesus as the Light of the World. A dimly burning wick is like that charred end from which the smoke coils thinly upward. It’s that little ember that someone comes and snuffs it out because it smells. The world wants to snuff out the spark, trim the wick, and apply its own fire to it.
But the servant, unafraid of the evil in the world, finds the tinniest sparks in people’s hearts and adds his light to their lives and gives them grace. This servant is Jesus Christ who as a bruised reed will not break and a dimly burning wick will not be quenched will use his glimmering spark to set our lives ablaze.
Being Servants
If you and I had a choice of either being a servant or a super hero, we would all choose to be super heroes! Being a servant clashes with the world’s values.
My father was a very typical first generation Chinese laborer in America. He worked as a laundry man washing and ironing people’s shirts. When customers would come into the laundry, some of them were demanding of my father. But he always obliged. Even when the customer may have been mistaken on how much starch he asked for, my father and my uncles acted as servants. If they got angry, they only cried out to each other.
When laundrymats and permanent pressed shirts replaced Chinese laundries, my father was only able to find restaurant jobs. He became a waiter. In his starched white waiter shirt, he looked like a servant. Honestly, I never liked the image of my father as a laundry man or a waiter. He was too much a servant to satisfy my need for a strong male role model. Perhaps that’s the reason why I would always tell people that he served as a corporal in the US Army during World War II in Germany. He even received a pin for being a sharpshooter! I want my father to be my super hero.
We all look for heroes in life and when it comes to God, we want God to be a super hero. The world—and even Christians—delight in winning and exalting one self. But God delights in servanthood.
Christ Jesus himself was crushed in the clash between the two worlds—the world that wants the mighty and strong to prevail over evil and the world according to God. Jesus the servant will only behave like a servant. He will not cry out. He will not lift his voice. He will not make it heard out in the streets. A crushed reed he will not break. A dimly burning wick he shall not extinguish. Like my father, Jesus the servant will not cry out at his customers.
So how in the world is such a frail, vulnerable servant going to do any good in this mean world in which we live?
Jesus is the Bruised Reed and Dimly Burning Wick
The prophet Isaiah speaks of this mighty justice worker from God as a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick. While the servant shall not extinguish a dim wick, he will himself not be dimmed. While the servant shall not shatter a crushed reed, he will himself not be crushed until he has established justice on the earth.
This servant will bring forth justice not by the violent displays of super hero strength but in a new way, by passive displays of strength through suffering. This servant God of Christ Jesus climbs up on a cross and takes the wrath upon himself. Because a bruised reed…he will not break, and a dimly burning wick, God will not quench.
I just don’t know why God doesn’t come as a Superman and make everything turn out to be perfect. The reasons are God’s thoughts are not my thoughts; God’s ways are not our ways. I just don’t know.
What I do know is this: when we call down God’s justice on the world, we assume that it is justice for us and punishment for others. But the truth of the matter is, we too, all of us, are bruised reeds from our disobedience and dimly burning wicks from our unfaithfulness and God chooses not to rain down wrath on us. We have created idols— revised standard versions of the kind of God we wish we had—Super heroes. But God chooses not to break our bruised reed or put out our dimly burning wick.
Our lives are also like a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick because at various points along the path of life, we have been hurt and damaged. Since September 11th, we are bruised and afraid for our safety especially when we travel away from home. The light in our lives burned brightly but when we discover that we are sick and suffering and pain are in stored for us, our once brightly lit candle is now a feeble flickering ember. And when we confront the most difficult to comprehend event of life— to walk through the shadow of death, we feel that our lives are broken and the little hope we have for tomorrow looks awfully dark.
But God declares that in Jesus the Servant, he will act in a totally different way. It’s not our way. It’s not the super heroes’ way. But God’s way is that Jesus is the Suffering Servant who even on the cross, as a bruised reed will not break and a dimly burning wick will not be extinguished.
The faithful Servant will not fail or be discouraged until justice has been established throughout the earth. The timing of the victory may not be as fast as a speeding bullet, but if God’s own chosen servant does not break or extinguished, then neither should we. We should not be discouraged too.
We are Bruised Reeds and Dimly Burning Wicks
The preacher Tom Long tells a story about God’s ways with us.
Late one spring a former student came by Tom’s office for a cup of coffee. They chatted about this and that and then she said, “I have a secret to tell you.”
“What is it,” Tom said.
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
He was overjoyed. She and her husband had a seven-year-old daughter, and they had been trying since their daughter had been born to have another child, but had been unsuccessful and had finally given up. Now she was pregnant.
“That’s wonderful news,” Tom said.
“We just got the test results and we know two things about our child. Our child will be a boy, and will have Down’s syndrome.”
Tom said that he knew she must be a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick.
“I don’t know how we are going to handle it,” she said, “but we are trusting in God to help us.”
A few weeks ago, Tom received their Christmas letter and in it she wrote, “After nine long months of unmitigated discomfort, at four in the morning on August 18, I knew the magic moment had come. At last at 10:55 AM, Timothy Andrew took his first breath and let out a hearty yell, he was whisked off to neo-natal intensive care where he spent the next three days before coming home. He is strong, alert, and beautiful. He has the sweetest disposition. He shatters daily our images of handicapped and special needs. He may need special help, but already he is no slouch in giving special love. We are blessed.
Kate, our eight-year daughter is Tim’s champion. Hearing our concerns about how well Tim might be accepted by other kids, Kate informed the kids on our block, “My brother has Down’s Syndrome and everybody’s going to play with him or else!”
One evening we overheard her talking to Tim. “I’m so glad you’re here, Timothy, I will always love you, I’ll never leave you, I’ll always be nearby.”
Christ the Servant came to identify with us especially those most in need.
We might think we want the Justice League of America but we actually need Jesus the Servant Superhero. We might think that we want super powers and the strength of a locomotive but we actually need a bruised reed that won’t break and a dimly burning wick that won’t be extinguished.
No one on the Justice League of America can ever identify with our bruised and dimly burning lives. Only the one who himself was bruised and suffered even at death can identify with us and for us to identify with him.
I am no longer embarrassed over the fact that my father was a laundry man and a waiter. I’m glad that he was a servant for he taught me that as a bruised reed he didn’t break and as a dimly burning wick, he wasn’t put out.
The world can do anything it wants on us. It will try to hurt us and destroy us.
Dear friends, Isaiah reminds us today that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, God’s ways are not our ways. But we can thank God for this. For a bruised reed—God will not break, and a dimly burning wick—God will not extinguish.
Let us pray.
Lord God, we find on our journey through life many struggles and challenges. Sometimes they are so difficult that we want instant answers and quick justice. Teach us, Lord to trust in your divine design for the world. Lead us to follow Jesus as he showed us that discipleship and servanthood are your ways to peace and justice. We pray in the name of the Suffering Servant, Amen.