Friday, January 2, 2009
Isaiah 42:5-7

Who let “those people” in here? It was a Wednesday night weekly church dinner that we had at that downtown church I was serving. It was usually a time of great community, good natured picking, excellent food and program. “Those people” were some homeless folks who had smelled the food from on the street and had come in to ask if they could eat. Now the price was $2 per plate and some good but misguided soul said “if you’ve got $2 you’re welcome to eat.” It was an awkward moment.

It was an awkward moment when Isaiah said it hundreds of years ago. In Isaiah 42:6 he says on behalf of the Holy One, “…I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.”

The One Isaiah is talking about is the “the servant of the Lord.” The early church saw this passage as pointing to the Messiah who would come and did come in Jesus. In fact when Jesus taught the first time in the synagogue at Nazareth he used a similar text from Isaiah 61:1-2. What’s really radical about the Isaiah 42:5-7 text is that Gentiles are included! Gentiles are “those people.” In Jewish culture anyone not Jewish was Gentile and therefore outside the covenant with no hope. The Isaiah text blows that tight circle of construct apart.

“Those people”…you mean “those people” have a place? Yes and what’s more disturbing is that “those people” will be welcomed, treated as members of the family with respect, honor, and love.

There are a lot of “those people” in our world today. More than ever we seem drawn toward having our own little “tribes” with hard to cross boundaries, hard to climb walls. I not only see those boundaries and walls, I’m too often guilty of drawing and building them.

Prayer: How hard can it be, God, to turn a boundary drawer and wall builder like me into a “light bearer” for “those people”? It took a cross for you…what will it take for me?

Blessings,
Pastor Ken