We Are Never Diminished by Our Servitude, 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

In the 1st reading the Lord God says to his chosen people who had been brought low “You are my servant through whom I will show my Glory”. For such a forgotten and exiled people this was shocking news and quite unexpected. But, counter to the world where masters who wield power and wealth are glorified it will be the faithful servant, lowly and powerless, who will reveal the Glory of God.

 We see from our history that excessive and disordered power of the masters, wither political, economic, or technological, gives rise to arrogance and pride as they forget God. And it spills out as oppression and tyranny because they forget others. For masters only serve themselves and their power only reveals human madness.

But, through the powerless, the faithful servant, comes the revelation God’s Glory for it is God alone that the powerless turn to for all things. Power enslaves the powerful, while the servant of God is not diminished by servitude. The servant of God is not bought and sold. God’s servant is formed, made whole and complete, not at some convenient time of need but from the womb itself.

 From the beginning the good and faithful servant is formed (and by God’s Grace formed again and again), cherished, and called by God to do his will in service of his kingdom. From the beginning we are formed in love and it is in our love, asking nothing in return, that we truly reveal, in that selfless love, the Glory of God.

 But, sadly time has shown that we prefer to rule (no matter the cost) rather than be ruled, (no matter how right and just that rule is). We delude ourselves that we can do all things, cure all ills, make all things right, create our own happiness.  We think of ourselves as masters of our own destiny and look where that has gotten us.

 But, amidst the madness and delusion God calls out, reminds us of who we are. He invites us back to a better way of being. He calls time and time again us and if we finally hear his call and accept his gracious invitation we are set free from the tyranny of the world and the self. And free we can rightly say “God alone is my strength”.

 In that strength and in that strong light of truth, the servant (those who hear and accept Gods call) reveals and reflects God’s Glory as a light, perhaps reflected imperfectley and flickering, but light none the less, fearlessly showing itself in the face of darkness.  

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, was formed in Mary’s womb. He heard and embraced his father’s call. And we too can hear and respond to that call and say as the Psalmist did “Here I am Lord, I have come to do your will”.

St Paul’s calls our willingness to do God’s Will as being “sanctified”. And if sanctified then holy. And our holiness is nothing less than our fellowship with Jesus, the Word made flesh, the Lamb of God.

The Church has always understood that Jesus is the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. Yet, it is the visible servant Jesus who reveals, through signs and wonders, the Glory of the invisible God. It is Jesus who is the light that cannot be overcome that shines upon all nations.

There was a man named John, called the Baptist because he was known to baptize for the repentance of sin. John was pointing out the way home. A way unknown until that day when John, the voice in the wilderness pointed out the Word who came into our wilderness and said “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.

 The Lamb of God is title that first and foremost declares with the tiny preposition “of” that Jesus is God. Of means both “coming from” such as the tributary Atbara is of the Nile River or it could mean the essence of something, such as the I-beam was of steel. So the simple word “of “means Jesus comes from God and is God.

 The Lamb that-is-of God captures many complex ideas at once; the triumphant Lamb who sits on the Throne of God in Revelations. The Lamb, as the unblemished offering for the life of the world, The Lamb who leads the flock of Israel to freedom, and most revealing, the Passover Lamb, the saving sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.  But, Jesus is not just an offering. He is for whom the offering is made. He is not just a victim, but how God enters our human story.

The Lamb of God takes away, not only personal sins, but he takes away the sin of the world. That underlying, all-encompassing, deception that this is all there is. The world and how it does business is the only way, the only truth, the only life.

 We hear John himself testifying to his experience of seeing the Spirit of God, who in the shape of a dove (that is the promise of God), comes down upon Jesus and remained with him. John give witness to those around him, I have seen that this Lamb of God is God.

 Jesus, the Lamb of God, who comes from God and who is God. Whose light the darkness cannot overcome. Whose light we find shelter in. Whose light lights our way. Who from the womb was our savior.

 And from the womb we too were formed and cherished. Through our baptism we were sanctified, in Jesus’ name. And sanctified we have every possibility to grow in holiness. And of course, we too are called to be servants. Not bound, but free. And the freedom, that is Faith, Hope and Love, we reveal not our petty short lived glories or the world’s tarnished passing glory, but we reveal the Glory that only comes from God.