Epiphany 2, Sunday, January 16, 2010

“Hidden Arrow in the Quiver of God”, A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough, on Sunday, January 16, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. 2He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. (Isaiah 49:1-2)

Two contemporary films are garnering a lot of attention at the moment. One, Black Swan, described by Christian Century as a psychological thriller, nominated for four Golden Globe awards, and the other, The King’s Speech, nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, dramatizing the struggle of King George the VI of England to overcome a serious speech impediment when he ascended to the throne of England just before the start of World War 2. In Black Swan we watch as the main character disintegrates emotionally, psychologically and spiritually as she prepares to perform the lead role of the Swan Queen in the ballet Swan Lake in the New York City Ballet Company. The climax of the film is an eerie and disturbing portrayal of her debut performance in that acclaimed role, during which she completely unravels internally even as we are led to believe that she executes a stunning performance. In The King’s Speech, the climax of the film comes as we watch King George the VI give a national radio broadcast over the BBC to his subjects announcing that Britain is at war with Germany as World War 2 gets under way. The audience is on the edge of its seats as the King carefully and fluidly articulates his speech without a sign of the stammer that so humiliated him at the start of his reign as king.

Both of these films offer us some fodder for reflection about the gifts that God instills in human beings and the reason God creates us with those gifts. Our reading from the prophet Isaiah brings a Biblical perspective to this reflection. As we continue into the season of Epiphany, leaving behind the season of Christmas which was marked by a frenzy of gift giving and receiving, we are invited to reflect now upon how we use the gifts we have been given by God as we respond to the call to live out our baptismal covenant. The season of Epiphany is the time in the liturgical year when we hear a lot of the call stories in the Bible, like the call of Andrew and Peter in today’s reading from the gospel of John. Being called by God ordinarily involves using gifts God has given us to serve the world in God’s name. And much as we’d like to think that offering our gifts to the world will bring us happiness, or satisfaction, or a sense of accomplishment, Isaiah reminds us that often, responding to God’s call and offering our gifts to the world yields pain, loneliness, frustration and sometimes even results in conflict or rejection. And moreover, offering our gifts is hard work requiring tenacity and faithfulness, often in the face of opposition and hurdles.

The reading from Isaiah is one of three Suffering Servant Songs contained in the book of Isaiah, which scholars believe is actually a compilation of three different prophetic voices, dating from three different periods in Israel’s history. The Second Servant Song that we heard today, dates from just after the Babylonian exile, as the Israelites have returned to Jerusalem and are faced with the enormous task of rebuilding their lives and their culture in their ancient homeland, with the Temple that King Solomon built in ruins and their community scattered and greatly diminished in size. The prophet has been called by God to speak to the remnant of Israel and to call them back to their covenant life with Yahweh, to renew their commitment to their vocation to be a chosen people living according to the principles of justice and righteousness laid down in the Torah and the covenant from Sinai. They are also called to rebuild the Temple and the religious life that went with it. The prophet complains bitterly to God about the difficulties he has had getting his people to listen to him. Apparently, much that he has tried to say to them to get them back on the right path has fallen on deaf ears. “Listen to me” he cries, like a child in a schoolyard. Interestingly his plea “Listen to me” is addressed to the whole world, as if he is despairing of ever getting Israel to listen to him so he’s moving out to a larger potential audience. And sure enough God directs him to move his ministry of proclamation out to the whole world and not to direct it simply to the Israelite community. God calls Israel to become a light to the nations, to be a beacon to the entire world, and calls the prophet to focus his energy on that larger world rather than the small remnant of his own people. God declares that salvation is offered to everyone not just the remnant of the Israelite community.

We can tell from what the prophet writes that he’s had a very hard time living out his prophetic call. He has been ignored, despised, been the slave of rulers. “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity” he says to God. He’s exhausted, discouraged, fed up and yet he also affirms that he has felt God’s presence with him throughout his unsuccessful ministry and in the midst of his despair God has been his strength. He veers back and forth between praising and thanking God and professing his own faithfulness to the call he has from God, and venting his immense frustration and discouragement with how things have not gone well. And yet God assures him that he is called to be a light to the nations and to move out and do even more with the gifts God has given him, rather than focus in on his own little community.

Responding to God’s call is never easy, whether it’s the call each of us apprehends in our own individual journeys or the call that we understand ourselves to have as a religious community or parish church. Today as Ascension conducts its Annual Meeting you will be looking at how you have lived out your call in the past year and look ahead to how and where God is calling you to use your gifts in the upcoming year. I’m sure there are a number of you who can relate to the prophet’s frustration and discouragement, as you face the reality of tight financial resources and dwindling membership. The Search Committee will be spending a lot of time in the next weeks and months thinking about what a call from God means and trying to evaluate which of the candidates who are offering themselves as potential leaders of this congregation has the gifts and experience to meet the challenges that lie ahead for Ascension. Both the candidates and the Committee are discerning call and evaluating gifts and how they are to be used to further the mission of God in this part of the world.

And there’s the rub. The mission that all our God given gifts support is the mission of God. Each of us is given different gifts, as St. Paul reminds us, but all the gifts pooled in a community are there to further the mission of God in the world. And the mission of God, we are to understand from Scripture, is a mission of justice, righteousness, and making the kingdom or reign of God a reality in our world. Loving God and loving neighbor are the basic fundamentals of that mission, but how each of us individually and each congregation communally is called to contribute to the larger mission of God is the work of discernment and prayer.

The prophet affirms that God instilled certain gifts in him in his mother’s womb, before he was born, so that when he arrived on the scene he would be equipped to carry out some portion of God’s mission in the world. He uses the vivid image of being a polished arrow hidden in the quiver of the Almighty. Imagine the divine archer pulling that hidden arrow from the quiver and shooting it out across the landscape where it lands with precision in the divine bull’s eye at just the moment that God wants it to be present and visible in some part of the world. Ascension was called into being 125 years ago, an arrow in the quiver of God in the Maplewood section of Rochester. What did the divine target look like then and what might it look like now? When you’re shot from the divine bow this time, where will you land?

In the Black Swan story the ballerina possesses a divine gift to dance. What destroys her is that she develops and uses that gift for her own narcissistic purposes, to achieve some idea of perfection to satisfy her own need for approval, love, admiration and fame. She does not dance to delight others with the beauty of her art. She dances to prove something to the world about her and her alone. And in the process of focusing in on herself and her own fame and success, she destroys herself. In The King’s Speech, the character Lionel Logue is a gifted speech therapist. He does not seek fame, or fortune or recognition; he exercises his gift of teaching to help the king overcome a disability thereby serving his country as he heals the king. Logue helps the king find his voice so he can lead his people. Gifts given to us by God are not given so that we might become famous, rich, powerful, respected, or successful. They are given so that we might serve the larger community by offering our gifts for the good of those God shoots us into the world to serve.

We are each of us polished arrows hidden in the quiver of God. Sometimes, when God reaches into the quiver and sends us soaring out into the air, we don’t land where we thought we might, or where we’d prefer to be. Sometimes we fall into brambles, or a bog, or get stuck in a sticky tree trunk. Wherever we land we’re challenged to use the gifts with which we are imbued in such a way as to serve the world in God’s name. And God is clear with the prophet Isaiah that the call is to be a light to the nations, to offer gifts to everyone in the world, not just his own small group. When we’re pulled from the divine quiver and shot from the divine bow, we must be ready to face challenges we didn’t expect and criticism we might not deserve. As our nation observes Martin Luther King Jr. day tomorrow we are reminded that serving God in prophetic witness can be very dangerous business. Some people, some forces in the world are out to break the polished arrows in God’s quiver so they can’t soar to their destination particularly if the success of that divine shot would mean change in the world, or a shift in the balance of earthly power. As King himself said, quoting Theodore Parker, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” The arc of the hidden arrows in God’s quiver bend toward justice as they are sent forth from the divine bow. As you evaluate your ministries and your call in the months and years ahead, consider how your gifts may be offered to this city and neighborhood to further the divine mission of justice and righteousness. When your ministry is challenging and you can’t see clearly how it is all working out, remember the words of the prophet Isiash, “my God has become my strength” and “the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel…has chosen you.” Amen.