Listen, Hear, Speak
A sermon based on Isaiah 50:4-9a
Rev. Randy L Quinn

There is something about the drama of this week that is moving.  You can’t read the passion story without being moved.  I don’t care if you read the story in the King James Version or the Revised Standard Version or the New International Version.  I don’t care if you read it from a children’ bible.  This story is one that will move you.  It doesn’t matter which of the gospels you read, either – they all tell the story in a way that stirs our emotions.

Jesus entered into Jerusalem and walked the journey to the cross as a human being.  He was fully divine, but he was also fully human.  He set his face toward the cross as a man, and he never turned back.

The week began with the cheers of the crowd encouraging him on.  The week began with Jesus teaching people who gladly listened to his preaching.  By Friday, however, no one was left.  They had all abandoned him.  And by sunset on Friday, his tongue was silent as his lifeless body was placed in a cold, dark cave.

And while we know the truth is God turned that cave into a tunnel, a tunnel that leads to our eternal life, it’s hard to read this story without an overwhelming sense of awe and remorse, without wondering how in the world Jesus found the strength to give his life for me, for you, for all the people of the world.

Certainly some of his strength came from the love of God that filled him and was lived out through him.  But another source of his strength came from the witness of the scriptures.

Jesus knew – and often quoted – the scriptures he had learned while growing up.  He was steeped in the traditions of his people.  He attended the synagogue every week and made regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem.  He had celebrated Passover every year during the 30 some years he walked this earth – just as Jews gathered all over the world earlier this week to celebrate Passover.

He probably had come to recognize a series of passages in Isaiah that scholars now refer to as “the Servant Songs.”  They are four pieces of poetry that speak about someone anointed by God to serve.

There is some debate about whether Isaiah was referring to himself or to Israel as a nation or to someone who would later fulfill these words, but I am convinced Jesus read them and drew strength from them as he saw his life being reflected in the scripture and the scripture being reflected in his life.

So tonight, I want to read one of those servant songs.  The one I will read is really the third in the series, and it can be found in the 50^th chapter of Isaiah.

While you’re turning to it, let me tell you that when Isaiah was writing these words, the people of Israel were in exile.  They were removed geographically from the place they traditionally thought God dwelt.  They longed for the day when they could return, they longed for the day when the world would see that God had not abandoned them.

In many ways, they felt as though they were in a tomb, in a cave; and they were hoping for a way out of the darkness, yearning for God to carve out more of the cave to create a tunnel.

Hear now, what the servant says to them – and to us.  Listen to what Jesus heard as he was looking for strength during the final days of his life on earth.

Read the Isaiah text:

“Morning by morning,” Isaiah says, “[God] wakens me – wakens my ear to listen” (Is. 50:4)

I can’t remember when I first started using an alarm clock.  I know that in various seasons of my life, the first sound I heard in the morning has varied.  Some alarm clocks had bells on them.  Others were buzzers.  Sometimes it was music that came across a radio.

Ø      When I was a kid, the first sound I heard in the morning was not an alarm clock at all, but the voice of my mother.

Ø      When I was in the Navy, the first sound I heard was reveille.  (I still hear that sound every once in a while.)

Ø      One of the foster children we had, Nichole, was not quite two years old.  She slept in a crib in our bedroom, and I remember being awakened by the sound of the springs in her bed as she stood up in the crib.  I would peak one eye open and see her staring at us.  As soon as we moved, she would scream.  But until we moved, she would stand silently and watch.  So sometimes I would pretend to be asleep for a few minutes longer.

Isaiah says he was awakened by the voice of God.

For two years in college, I worked as an emergency phone receptionist.  The phone rang in my apartment when someone had an emergency and it was up to me to determine both the need and who to call in response.

Many mornings I woke up befuddled by the sound of the phone, took notes about the call, and promptly fell back asleep.  Once I even called a service man out – and in the morning I had no recollection of what I’d said or done.  What was worse, my notes were completely illegible because I had written them in the dark while I was still asleep.

Now, I consider myself a “morning person.”  I mean, I do my best work in the mornings – and especially in the summer you can find me in the office before 6:00 getting work done when I know no one will interrupt me.

But if God were to wake me in the morning, I’m not sure what I would do.  If it was at my regular wake up time, I’d probably be fine.  But I’m not so sure I could decipher any messages if it came at an unexpected time.

Isaiah’s response was to listen intently.  He says it was as if God had opened his ears to hear and so he was going to listen (Is. 50:5). 

One morning this week, I was standing outside listening to the birds chirp.  It wasn’t easy, though, because of the traffic on the streets – even in the quiet town of McLouth!  In fact, what I heard was a confusing message:  “Chirp, chirp.  Vroom, rumble, rumble, rumble. Chirp.”

As I tried to listen to the birds, I realized that Isaiah had to listen for God’s voice in between all of the sounds he was already hearing.  Not only were there the sounds of the birds in the trees and the sounds of dishes clattering as breakfast was being made; there were also the voices of yesterday telling him what he should have done, where he should have gone, what he should have said.  And there were also the voices of tomorrow that hounded him by reminding him of the commitments he’d already made, how his calendar was overbooked.

Fortunately for him, he didn’t have to deal with the phone calls and the door bells that interrupted his prayer times!  He had enough distractions without those.

But we find ourselves today facing the same distractions, don’t we?  Anyone who has ever made room in their lives for a quiet time knows how hard it is to start.  It’s amazing what we remember to do when we sit still and listen for the voice of God.

Part of the task is to listen long enough and often enough to discern which of the sounds are from God and which are merely distractions.  Some of the things that flash through our minds are simply noise.  And the noises of the day make it hard to hear what God is saying.

In between those noises, God was speaking to Isaiah, just as God is speaking to us today.  God is willing to open our ears if we are willing to provide the time and the place during which we will use them to listen.  Our task is to find a quiet point in the day to practice listening.

With the beginning of baseball season, I watched my favorite baseball movie, The Rookie.  How many of you know that story?  It’s based on the true story of Jimmy Morris, played by Dennis Quaid in the movie, whose life’s dream was to play professional ball; but other things got in the way of his dream.  He gets a rare second chance though, and he quits teaching High School science to play minor league baseball.

Early in the movie, as his character is being developed, there are a series of scenes in which a young Jimmy practices throwing pitches.  In one scene, he is knee deep in snow throwing fast balls into his friend’s glove.  In another, he is drenched in rain as he throws into a fence.  He never stops practicing.

And when he is given the chance, the practice pays off.

If we never practice listening to God’s voice, we’ll never recognize it.  There are too many other sounds that mask it.  There are too many other noises that keep us from hearing the voice of God.

I heard the birds chirping because I was working at it.  I have a friend whose primary hobby is bird watching.  He can hear a bird and tell you what kind of bird it is.  Sometimes he can tell you if it’s a male or a female “chirp”.  With practice, he has even learned to tell what some of those “chirps” mean.

Jesus, like Isaiah before him, listens for the voice of God.  And it’s that voice that awakens him in the morning.  It’s a voice that brings encouragement in difficult times.  It’s a voice that gives him strength to face the day ahead.  It’s the voice of God that sustains Jesus on his journey through Jerusalem in that first Holy Week.  He ‘set his face like flint,’ it says, and faced his adversaries with confidence (Is. 50:7).

Jesus knew what God had called him to do.  He knew what his task was because he had heard God’s voice speaking clearly and directly.  It was the strength of his commitment, the strength of his love, the strength of his character that allowed him to calmly give his life for you and for me.

On Sunday, at our first Holy Week service, Pastor Lyle Lewis reminded us that we can have that kind of strength, too, if we have a committed faith rather than a casual one.  I guess I’m saying the same thing.

We’ll never learn to hear the voice of God if we don’t find time to practice listening.  And if we don’t find time to practice all through our lives, when we need to hear it most clearly, we may not even recognize it as God’s voice.

In our text from Isaiah, the Servant – whether it is Isaiah himself, or Israel, or Jesus, or you, or me – the Servant listens for the voice of God.  But the message God gives isn’t just for the Servant.  The word is to be shared with those who are weary:

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word” (Is. 50:4).

Remember, the people were in exile.  They felt abandoned by God.

Ø      Do you know anyone who has ever felt abandoned by God?

Ø      Do you know anyone who has ever felt alone in the world?

Ø      Do you know anyone who has ever felt weary of doing good and never being thanked?

Ø      Do you know anyone who has ever felt like they were on a treadmill, running as fast and as hard as they could but never getting anywhere?

Then maybe you are the servant that Isaiah is speaking about.  Maybe you are the one who is being called to listen for a word of encouragement, so you may “know how to sustain the weary with a word.”

Some of you already know it, but I don’t like to run.  I run twice a year because the Navy makes me run a physical fitness test.

Last month, I was talking to some runners, Marathon runners.  They were making plans to participate in yet another marathon.  Have any of you ever run a marathon?

For those who don’t know, a marathon is a 26.2 mile race.  The original marathon was run in 490 BC.  2,500 years ago runners left the city of Marathon to tell the people in Athens, a city 26.2 miles away, that the Persians had been defeated.  It was a race of joy.  It was a race of celebration.

Marathons are supposed to be run with excitement and enthusiasm.  I’ve never run a marathon, so I wouldn’t know.  In fact, the longest distance I’ve ever run was 10K – or 6.1 miles.  And I only did it once.  They called it a “fun run,” but I didn’t think it was very fun.  Unlike the original marathon runners, I confess that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it, either.

But I learned something that day about people who like to run.  The people who had set up the “fun run” were runners.  But they didn’t run in the 10K.

Instead, they were at the various stage points along the route, encouraging others.  They offered small cups of water.  They offered smiles and cheers.

Only runners know how best to encourage others to run.

Only those who have been weary know how to give a word to the weary.

Only by facing his own death could Jesus offer us hope in our lives.

Only someone who had been in a cold, dark cave could offer the promise of a tunnel – a tunnel that leads to eternal life.

I believe this passage from Isaiah is meant to be a message for the church today – for you and for me.  I believe God wants us to become the servant who awakens to the voice of God so we can offer words of hope to those who are weary.

For that to happen, we need to begin by practicing listening for God’s voice.  In our points of weariness, in our points of despair, we will hear the message that God has not abandoned us.  Among other things, God’s voice will tell us that the caves have become tunnels.  There is hope, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

If we listen, God will speak.

And then when we hear God speaking, we are being called to find ways to share what we have heard with those we know, people who are as weary as we have been, people who are as desperate as we have been.

The good news is that their caves can become tunnels, too.

Jesus has made that possible.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.