Isaiah 49:1-7, and Laboring in Vain

Observation: in this "servant song" from Isaiah, God's servant--the prophet, or maybe Israel as a whole--despairs and feels as though "I have labored in vain, and spent my strength for nothing and vanity." But rather than decreasing the responsibilities of the servant, God responds by increasing them, to be "a light to the nations." 

Application: When this verse came up in the Sunday lectionary a few months back, it hit me like a ton of bricks. And now, in this Holy Week, as I mourn Christian martyrs in Egypt, victims of gas attacks in Syria, and regular elementary school kids--kids exactly my daughter's age--in San Bernardino, where I was born, it hits me again. We work hard. We pray hard. We tell the story of God's love. We preach and teach peace. And yet the world still hurts so, so badly. What have I been doing? What have we been doing, for 2000 years? It's hard not to feel like the frustrated servant: "I have labored in vain." 

And God says: "Okay. Let's try this again...

"It's still not about you."

"You have literally devoted your life to this story, and you still forget what it means. Did I miss something, that now it's your job to take the world's sins into your own body? Are you handling the redemption business now? Are you the one called to make peace and reconciliation through your death, and make all things new?

Because I thought that was my job."

Our "thoughts and prayers", and even our life's work of loving our neighbor as ourself, will not move the needle in terms of bringing peace and reconciliation to humankind. Only God can do that. Our job is to tell the story, and show it to all who will look: 

"Behold the life-giving cross,

On which was hung

the Savior of the world."

Of course we still work for peace. Of course we still stand for justice. But we do so because it's the right thing to do, not because we believe we're alone in the task. Peace is God's job. God makes it, we tell about it in word and deed. 

Prayer: Lord, have mercy on your world. Draw us to your cross, and remind us that our work is never in vain, as long as we point to your work in Jesus. Amen.