"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations."

"I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

From Isaiah 49: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

         During the season of Epiphany we focus on the manifestation of Christ to the peoples of the world. Jesus Christ is the light for the Gentiles, the one who brings healing justice to the nations.

         Specifically, the nations or peoples I am thinking about today are . . .

• Sierra Leone, where Davidson and Isata Scott will be involved in discipleship through Inter Varsity;
• St. Petersberg, Russia, where Leonid and Leanna Regheta will be serving, working with the evangelical churches;
• Soldatna, Alaska, where Keith Hamilton is director of Alaska Christian College, making disciples of the village native youth. Keith will visit here in a few weeks; and
• Cuernavaca, Mexico, where we will send a team of adults and youth this summer to encourage and share in their ministry.

Jesus is the light for the nations, for all the peoples of the world.

All of those places I just mentioned in the world have significant Christian roots. Any ministry there would not be a pioneering missions presence. Yet all are in need of ministries of discipleship, healing, reconciliation and evangelism. They are in need of Christ, the light for the Gentiles. All the places in that list have experienced severe injustice, oppression from the world, and even from people who took the word "Christian."

In Isaiah we read that the Servant of the Lord is to bring justice and light to the nations, to open eyes that are blind, to free the captives, to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. This is the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the ministry we participate in when we follow him.

There are two words or concepts that need some further explanation. They are "Justice" and "Gentile." The servant of the Lord brings justice to the nations. The biblical concept of justice was much broader than ours. It was not strictly a legal term having to do with punishment of wrongs or repayment for loss. According to Paul Hanson, "Justice is the order that God has created and upon which the wholeness of the universe depends."

Justice is the opposite of chaos. The Old Testament teaches that God created the world out of the swirling chaos and darkness. This chaos can still threaten the world. The order of creation allows life to go on, allows us to plant crops, to see them watered and grow in the light. Chaos destroys the natural ordering of God: for example, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, and drought. God's justice upholds life, brings healing, and restores the earth. We wait for a new creation. The order of creation is God's justice.

Justice is also the order that God brings to human society. It is righteousness. Nations often practice injustice and oppression. Powerful rulers bring great suffering upon people. God's justice establishes his reign as king. We pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

God's justice is moral; it rests on the Torah, the law. There is a lifestyle that leads to peace and order, that allows for prosperity.

"Do not kill."

"Do not commit adultery."

"Do not steal."

"Honor your father and your mother."

This moral justice of God includes time for rest; it includes mercy and forgiveness of sin.

When we neglect the justice of God in the moral area, our lives and our society moves towards disorder, poverty, collapse. People suffer. The servant of the Lord brings justice to the nations: a new creation, a new government, a new commandment of loving God and neighbor. The ministry of justice includes healing, it includes setting people free from the oppression of sin, and it includes the reform of oppressive political structures. This is done not through holy war, a crusade or jihad, but Isaiah says, "In faithfulness, he will bring forth justice."

This brings us to the word "Gentile." Jesus, the servant, is a light to the Gentiles." "Gentile" is not a kind word. My son David lives in Utah, in a historic Mormon town. He is called a "gentile." He laughs at it, but it has a bit of a sting to it. "You are not one of the chosen ones." Nobody likes to be called a Gentile. Every group tends to think of itself as the chosen people.

The ancient Greeks used the word ethne to speak of foreigners, the nations of the world. By it they meant any group which is held together by customs. And all of the ethne were held in contrast to the "Hellenes," the Greeks. There was a derogatory undertone to the word, it came almost to mean "barbarian."

We think of "ethnic diversity" as being a good thing, especially if we are having a cultural exchange or a potluck dinner. But if you are constantly referred to as an "ethnic" it does not sound so good. My father grew up with the term "dumb Swede." That was one of the milder labels put on ethnic, immigrant groups.

The Hebrews used the word "goyim" to describe the nations, in contrast to the "chosen people." The word "Gentile" comes from the word for "Nation." The book of Genesis does not speak of the "brotherhood of mankind" but rather of groups of people divided by language and culture. Out of one of these groups God calls Abraham to begin a new people, a chosen people, who are to bless all the nations of the world.

But the blessing of the nations did not happen. The Gentiles were Israel's first neighbors. They were the ones who enticed Israel into idolatry and immorality. It took Israel a long time to stop following their ways, and it cost Israel their land. So in their later history, they came to see Gentiles as 'far from God' and counting for nothing, as 'unclean.' After the destruction of the temple by the Romans, they no longer wanted to befriend these Gentiles who were so violent, so depraved in their drunkenness and sexual sin, so addicted to the worship of idols.

This is where the church often finds itself. At times imitating the ways of the world and entering into its behaviors and adopting its values, and at times lashing out and rejecting people not like ourselves, and not really caring too much about evangelism.

In contrast is the words of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who picks up the call of God to Abraham. To be chosen by God is to bless all the peoples of the world. To obey God is to follow the way of the servant of the Lord, who is a light for the Gentiles, who brings justice to the nations. This is how Jesus lived, and it is who he died for; he died for the sins of the world. This is what Paul comes to understand as a mystery revealed by God. That the division between Jews and the ethne, between Chosen and Gentile, has been overcome by God's own act in Christ. In Revelation we read that Christ has ransomed a church for himself of people from every nation.

Jesus loves Gentiles. People do not like to be called Gentiles. That word has been used too much by those who think of themselves as Chosen, and have ignored, oppressed or dominated others who are not like them. But Jesus does not call people "Gentile," he does not impose a dominant culture, or even religion on them; he dies for them. He brings light to them.

I think we need to think of ourselves more as Gentiles than as chosen, in the temptations we face and the behaviors that attract us. Gentiles are not this particular ethnic group, or that racial group; they are all of us in the sense that we do love darkness rather than light, and we do choose immorality over holiness, and we do pick up the diseases of the soul: greed and pride and lust. We are quite capable of falling into the patterns and habits offered to us as light, but which are in truth very much part of oppression and darkness. We need to humbly and seriously consider what it means to come into the light of the servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We also need to think of ourselves more as participants in the way of the servant who brings light to the Gentiles. Chosen people have a habit of focusing entirely upon themselves, polishing their chosenness. The Servant of the Lord leads us to be bearers of his light. I cannot today tell you why I am going with this team to Russia. I do not know just what we will do or what my part in it will be. I do know that this is not for the purpose of giving me a cultural experience, or an interesting trip or even because I have some specific skill that is needed. I think it is because there are people in that nation who are sitting in darkness, and the light of Christ is shining, and we as a Covenant Church, and we as Libertyville Covenant Church, want to discern how we might participate in that light. What I hope to discover is some insight into how we can become more involved in bearing witness to the light of Christ; reflecting it, and bearing it in the re-building healing ministry in Congo, in the discipleship of maturing believers in Sierra Leone, in the vibrant and courageous witness of the Cuernavaca church we will visit this summer, in the healing and renewing ministry among young native people in Alaska, and in the evangelism and disciple-making in the neighborhoods of Lake County.

"Shine, Jesus, shine. Fill the world with the Father's glory, flood the nations with grace and mercy; send forth your word, and let there be light."

Amen.