When It Becomes Too Much (Isaiah 49:1-7)

Isaiah has a testimony to share, a powerful story of hope and encouragement. 

He was God’s prophet to the nation of Israel.  A nation that had been all but destroyed, carried away into captivity.  A nation that once was, but which now existed only in the memories and dreams of its people.

“I have labored in vain!” Isaiah cried out.  “I have spent my strength for nothing.  For vanity!”  All his hard work, preaching to God’s people, loving God’s people… only to have it all fall apart.  Only to have the nation fall apart.

“I’ve preached the message of love.  I’ve preached the message of justice.  And what good did it do?”

What good, indeed?  Why bother following God’s call, devoting one’s life to God, if everything is going to fall apart anyway? 

People say that God never gives you more than you can handle.  Well, the nation of Israel had been given more than it could handle.  Isaiah had been given more than he could handle.  People DO get more than they can handle, and whether that comes from God or not, I don’t know, but it happens.

And then they say, “What’s the use?  Why bother?

A couple months ago an uncle of mine committed suicide.  I have a lot of aunts and uncles, but I had a special appreciation for this uncle.  He was quiet, like me.  At family gatherings of 50 or 60 or 80 people, when I’d get exhausted from all the conversation, I could sit by him, and we could sit in each other’s presence, and not feel like we had to talk.  We could just enjoy each other’s company, and let our energy levels come back up.

But he had more than he could handle in life.  Finally he said to himself, “What’s the use?  Why bother?”  It was too much.

I have known quite a few people over the years who felt that way about their churches.  And a good number of them were pastors.  People who loved God and loved the church, but then lost patience when the church got bogged down in some controversy or church politics.  And they left the church.  “What’s the use?  Why bother? I’ve preached the message of love, I’ve preached the message of justice, and we’re still arguing and bickering like before.  It’s destroying me, it’s destroying the church… it’s too much.  I’m out.”

This week I read a story about a 13 year-old boy named Jaylen Arnold.  Jaylen suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, Aspergers Syndrome and severe OCD. 

Jaylen says: “I have vocal ‘tics’ and motor ‘tics’ pretty severely. They interrupt my daily living and are quite troubling. If you don't know what ‘tics’ are just hang around and you'll soon find out. I also often yell out the word BAM! or squeal for no apparent reason.

“There is no cure. Doctor's don't really know too much about this disorder. There are very few medicines available and they come with very bad side effects. I'm a little guy so my parents don't want to take a chance on me taking these medicines that can give me a heart problem...so they protect me naturally, the best they can. I just want the "tics" to stop. You control your body, my body controls me (and boy does it ever). BAM!

“I decided I wanted to go to regular school. Boy, that was a mistake! My disorders got way worse with the stress. The doctors say my disorders cause me to have a lot of anxiety. I witnessed a lot of fighting and meanness. I don't like fighting. I was really scared for the other kids to see my ‘tics’ and know that I was different. I was trying so hard to hold them in. I would go to the hall and try to get them out. Eventually, I couldn't hold them in. It's like a big sneeze...you can hold it for a few seconds, but then it just blows out really hard. BAM! I was soon ‘ticcing’ all day long. The other kids were mocking and copying my tics.”

Eventually, all the bullying got to be too much for Jaylen.  Finally, Jaylen and his parents gave up.  They had had enough.  Jaylen had to leave his school.  It was too much, more than they could handle. 

That was Isaiah.  Being a prophet turned out to be too much.  More than he could handle.  And, it was pointless!  Nothing good seemed to be coming of it.  What’s the use?  Why bother?

But Isaiah didn’t see a way out.  “This is who I am.  This is who I was called to be, even before I was born.  Just as my name is Isaiah, I am a prophet of God, in whom I trust.  I can no more quit being a prophet than I can quit being Isaiah.  I’d like to, but this is who I am, and this is who I’m called to be, and this is what I’m called to do.  I wish there was something else, but there just isn’t.”

And God heard Isaiah.  God heard Isaiah say that it was all too much.  God could tell that Isaiah was depressed.  At the very least, God could tell that Isaiah was ready for retirement, or at least a transfer to a desk job.  I mean, he was getting too old for this! 

So what did God do?

God said to Isaiah, “I understand.  Being a prophet to Israel is hard work.  The people of Israel can be stubborn, they can give up hope too easily, they can focus on the petty things while ignoring the big issues, and yes, they can be hard on the prophets I send to them, inflicting terrible abuse.  I know that it’s hard work being a prophet to Israel.

“So here’s what I’m going to do.  You are no longer a prophet to Israel.  That job is done.  It’s over.  You don’t have to worry about it anymore.

“Instead, I’m now appointing you to be a prophet to the whole world!  I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Does God really expect his prophet, his servant, to take on an even greater task?  It’s crazy!  Just absolutely insane!

But then, as I mentioned at the end of the service last week, love makes us do crazy things.

A closer look at these verses from Isaiah 49 reveals that there is some ambiguity.  We start out assuming that the “prophet” here is Isaiah, but then we read a little further and it seems that the prophet is Israel itself.  And then it says that the prophet’s mission is to Israel, and how can Israel have a prophetic mission to itself?

It’s very vague, very ambiguous.

Scholars have connected this passage with three other passages in Isaiah, and have labeled all four of them the Servant Songs.  And the others are even more vague than this one.  In later centuries, many have seen in these Servant Songs Christ himself.  This is particularly true in the fourth and final servant song, found in Isaiah 52 and 53, which includes the verses that read, “He was despised and rejected, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;…he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;… he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.”

There is no clear answer as to who the suffering servant is.  Is it Isaiah?  Is it Israel?  Is it Jesus? 

Just as the servant’s task gets greater and greater, so too, it seems does the servant’s identity. 

Perhaps even little Jaylen Arnold is the servant described by Isaiah.

Once Jaylen was in a special school where students and teachers understood him better and could help him rather than pick on him and bully him, Jaylen decided that finding a place where he was loved for who he was wasn’t enough.  Despite all that he had endured, he felt God calling him to something bigger.  Despite all the challenges he had faced, and the many times he had felt that it was just all too much, he felt God calling him to something more.

Jaylen asked himself:  “What about all the other kids whose moms and dads can’t or don't know their kids are being bullied? What about those kids I left behind? They are still getting bullied.  My next thought became what we have called my challenge. Jaylens Challenge ~ to end childhood bullying, especially those with disabilities like myself.”

At the age of 9, Jaylen began making in-school presentations. He founded the organization, Jaylen’s Challenge, and he continues to educate thousands of children each year with the help of donations and grant funding from the public.  Jaylen says, “God made me really special and I know that if I try super hard, I can do anything.”

At last week’s regional event celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., our preacher, Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray, said that in order for a dream to become a reality, we have to wake up.  We have to wake up, and get to work doing what we have been called to do.

We can say we’re Open and Affirming.  We can say we love everyone.  But those things are just a dream.

I don’t mean to downplay the importance of those statements.  Martin Luther King had a dream, and it was a dream that changed the world.  Dreams are important.

But for the dream to become a reality, we have to wake up.  We have to act.

We need to find new ways to love everyone.  We need to find ways to express our love to our community.  We need to find ways to serve our community, to show love in action. 

We can’t just sit around and say we love everyone.

We have to be active in letting everyone know that they are loved.

We have to be active in showing love through our actions.

We have to serve those around us.

We do a lot of this already.  We feed the homeless.  We clean up litter from our streets.  We take up collections:  food collections, sock collections, shoe collections… We partner with a number of different organizations and charities in the community, and many of us volunteer at an individual level.

It’s a lot.  And we go to God and we say, “Look at all we’re doing, God.  And is it accomplishing anything?  Is it making a difference in our community?  Is it helping our church at all?

“To be quite honest, God, we’re getting kind of worn out here.  And it’s not just the work we’re doing, but it’s also all the distractions along the way.  And when the setbacks come, sometimes it seems that we have labored in vain, that we have spent our strength for nothing and vanity…”

And in such times, I can hear God saying to us, “You’re right.  It’s not easy….

“So all those things that have got you worried and worn out: I don’t want you to worry about them anymore.  Because, I’ve got something much bigger in mind for you now.  Something crazy.  I want you to find ways to show love that are grander, more radical than anything you’ve done before.  I want you to go all out in showing love to your neighbor. 

“Think big.  Go crazy!  Be extravagant!  I have called you for this purpose long before you were even aware of your calling.  And I have given you power!  You underestimate what you’re capable of.  Your words are as mighty as a sword, and your actions are as powerful as an entire quiver of arrows.  I have made you a light to the nations, that my healing, my wholeness and my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

And the leaders of the nations will notice you; governors and mayors will show you respect and honor, on account of the Lord, and what God is doing through you; because God, who is always faithful, has chosen you.