Half Right--Matthew 5:13-20. Sermon preached on February 8, 2026

            As we think about the power and depth of Jesus’ words of the Sermon on the Mount, I was reading a book that I want to share with you that commented on this very section of Jesus’ words. The ideas that the author talked about sound familiar in today’s world. He wrote:

“We can all analyze [and think], but the vital question we want answered is, ‘what is the ultimate source of trouble? What can be done about it. . .You can turn to the greatest philosophers and thinkers and again and again you will find [that] they never take you beyond analysis. They are very good at laying out the problem and showing various factors which operate. But when you ask them what is ultimately responsible for this, [or what is wrong with this world], and [further] what they propose to do, they just leave you unanswered. Clearly, they have nothing to say.”[1] They have no solution to the problems that we face and that they talk about. 

            And those comments that I just read for you, which I suspect that you agree with, they were first written in 1959. Things have not changed much in 66 years. 

For Jesus’ words in this passage about salt and light and about how you stand before the world are still just as applicable today as they were when Jesus taught them to the crowds who gathered on the hillside to hear from Him. 

So, when you read and think on something like this, and when you too could be tempted to think and behave as others do when they considered the Sermon on the Mount do, I wonder if you can stop and think differently? For just thinking along the correct path is half of the equation. You are half right in doing that, but we have a response that is called forth. We must continue our practice of ministry and faith. 

The Sermon on the Mount is not just a fancy collection of the teachings of Jesus that we aspire to. For Israel the challenge was, can they remain: Israel. For us, can we remain the Church. 

Move 1- who do we exist for?

            To hold onto our identity of the Church, Jesus offers us two strong images: salt and light. These two images work together to help illustrate for the hearer how to continue to be who Jesus calls us to be and how Jesus calls us to live. 

With that in mind, I wonder who does Jesus say that we exist for? 

            In the context of Israel, and during the time in which the scriptures were written and canonized, the Hebrew people have lived as part of either the Roman or Babylonian Empires. They were conquered. Their ancestral homes may have been accessible at times, but not always. So, as they sought to Be the Church, and to liv as the people who God called them to be, they wrestled with God’s placement in their lives and their involvement in the daily work of their community. 

            The prophetic promises that they shared with the following generations were still be taught and preached, and at the same time the divine kinship was upheld. 

Life may not have been the way they wanted it to be daily, but God was still with them even if the substance of their day, and how they ordered their steps did not look the way they thought it should look. Again, God was still there. This is something in our days that we might also be familiar with.  

            These folks learned to work and to live among people that they did not always support; people whose choices they did not always agree with. They learned to, using our words now here at Bethesda to Be the Church, when the practice of the faith of their fathers called them to be different and to take a personal stock in the lives of others. 

            As they rose each day, the would be confronted a similar struggle that you might face. The question of ministry in a conflicted context. 

            We exist for the people of this community to guide them back to the Lord and back to a right relationship with Him. Preserving the identity of being “Israel” was not enough in itself. That identity called them to live differently. If they were going to live among these people, these Roman and Babylonian people, and if God placed them in this moment, then they knew that they had work to do in His name. 

            And so Jesus offered them the calling in Matthew 5 as a way to express this.

We do this through the two primary images that Jesus uses in this text. Salt and Light. 

Move 2- the images.

            Trying to hold onto their identity and maintain faithfulness to their calling as well, the Hebrews realize that God called to be salt and light even if those terms were not familiar to them in a way that they are to us. 

God calls each of us, regardless of our location or situation, to ministries that helps us individually live in this manner. The ideas of ‘salt’ and ‘light’ invite us into a participatory union with Christ. Let’s consider those terms one at a time. . .  

            Salt. Our first understanding of salt is that it is a seasoning. Adding salt to your food can bring out a richness of flavor. Salt enhances/augments what it touches. Yet salt also prevents decay. For instance, when salt is applied to meat, it preserves it allowing the meat to be cured and to exist long after we might think it could. Meat left alone without salt would rot. But salt preserves it. 

Salt is also an antiseptic inhibiting bacterial growth. Salt helps to cleanse the wound identifying the places where infection has taken up residence. And while applying salt to a wound will be quite painful, and I do not want to do that to myself, when cleansing happens in our lives, healing can happen. 

            When Jesus tells his followers in this sermon that we are to be salt, he is telling them that this is an act, or choice, that we do on an individual level. The church cannot be salt for each other corporately as easily as they can be salt for each other personally. When we think of how we have cared for one another, and served one another, often that is done in a one-on-one way. Salting each other to make sure we help one another stay away from sin and when sin begins to take root, we help them root it out gently. 

            But then there is a second term. . . 

            Light—a guide. This one is also familiar to us.  

            If salt is something that is done by and for the individual, then light is something that is accomplished corporately or communally. This is the image where we come together, often in the context of worship, to Be the Church in service. Here in this church community, we do this through the many facets of corporate ministry that we engage in. Be it evangelism directly or acts of care intentionally (and there are many of those we practice as a church), we are light for this community. And we seek to be light in more places together.

            Why are we light, because as we know we live in a world of thick, or consistent, darkness. Everyone has their own definition of darkness. And that darkness is also very personal. Not so much relating to sin in general. 

            So when our Savior tells us to be the light, the guide, and to make sure that our light is not placed under a basket so that the whole house is able to see the light, he is telling us to make sure that everyone in the community is able to see the light being shown from us out for this place. 

Move 3- the house

            Israel, and the church who follows Jesus’ message, was called to go forth taking their light out into the world. They were called to carrying their light from the house and into the world being salt and light. This is how they maintained their identity in a world that sought to crush them and marginalize them. 

The consistent proclamation of the gospel and the testimony that God’s word was with them and that they were living out their calling faithfully and fully, was their purpose. 

Living not to abolish the law, as Jesus said, but to fulfill it—all of it. And in fulfilling the law, in being the Church this way as Salt and Light, the Hebrews, and you and I, maintain our sense of ministry. Just by being the church, just by living as salt and light, in the way that Jesus taught it to us, we are demonstrating the faith that Jesus taught that church to emulate. This becomes evangelism, in a way, without having to even say a word for our actions, our postures, our choices, our very attitudes demonstrate that we have taken the very lessons Jesus in Matthew 5 to heart and are applying them in our daily walk. 

Conclusion

            In these two images we find such depth and such reach given us to by Jesus. And so as the Savior moves from this topic to the next in the rest of his work and message, he challenges each of us to see our daily context not as a burden but as a place where we can help heal, help testify, and help grow the faith of others. 

            And as we do this, we maintain again practice Being the Chruch. 

 

DM

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[1] Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1971), 141.

 

What did you do when it snowed?

Yes, it snowed in South Carolina. Reports say that we got 12 inches of snow last weekend. The snow brought back memories for me. . . memories of my childhood and memories of the cold. As you can see it was beautiful to look at.  

The snow was so quiet.  No cars travelled down the normally busy McConnells Highway. We heard no dogs barking in the distance. No one was out. I worried that I might hear the loud roar of generators keeping houses running at a minimal level. But no one around us lost power either. It was so quiet. 

You can see Bethesda sitting quietly in the back of this picture. We were unable to meet for worship with a foot's worth of snow making the roads not safe for travel. Yet the church was still the church. 

Together we recorded a virtual service on Saturday morning as the flurries turned into big flakes of dry snow. 

By the time this picture was taken two things had happened. 

1- The dogs went out and ran through the snow like maniacs. Nala and Flynn loving the time outside. Flynn rolling around on his back with his feet in the air. He enjoyed something that he had never seen before (he is only 2 years old). Coco, Jennifer's tiny Shih Tzu would hop through the snow as it is too deep for her to walk around. But she too was having fun covered in snow. Yet everyone loved to play and run. 

2- But more importantly--the Church continued to be the Church. As I sat on the couch reading my book, my iPhone buzzed with the same basis message: "Is everyone at your house okay? Do you need anything?" We were fine. With Jennifer sitting in her chair crocheting and me reading, we were happy (albeit a bit anxious that the power might cut off at any second). Yet the Church continued to be the Church. They continued to love and care for us even though they could not be present with us physically. 

I asked someone last night what would have happened if someone needed them to come out during the storm because the roads were impassable. The reply was simple: I would have found a way to be there. 

When we witness someone Being the Church it is a profound moment of testimony but that action does not have to wait until the snow covers the ground. I wonder is there a step that you could take today, an action, a call, that you could take that might help someone else? It might just remind them of your practice of Being the Church . . . 

All Rise--Micah 6. Sermon preached on February 1, 2026

NOTE: Because of a second winter storm that affected York County, Bethesda's worship service was canceled this week. So, this message was preached as part of a virtual morning worship service that was broadcast on YouTube. For the whole service, please visit our YouTube channel and consider supporting Bethesda's ongoing work in the this community. 

 

            The Book of Micah is only seven chapters in length, and it usually takes up about 5 pages in your Bible. That makes it a quick read for most people. But the substance of Micah, his message, is anything but simple or easy. Micah contains some of the strongest themes in the Old Testament for the Church. In Micah we read expressions of hope alongside of announcements of doom.[1]  

            This is all setup as part of a courtroom exchange between three parties. God. The prophet. And the audience (Israel). Back and forth this dialogue goes until it reaches our text today, and the famous words of 6:8 that everyone recalls where we are asked, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Move 1- tenderness

            In the midst of a courtroom drama, in a place where tensions could be high, the Lord expresses, tenderness towards his people. Not anger. 

            Although our text begins with a harsh opening: “Stand up and state your case…” the poet, the prophet has the Lord quickly begin expressing a different tone when speaking of his people.

            Verse 3: “O my people.” When the Lord calls the Hebrews, “my people” He is indicating several things. First, God is claiming a covenantal relationship with them similar to what He created on Sinai. This is a term that reminds Israel that they are God’s treasured possession. We are God’s treasured possession. It stresses kinship and not political unity. 

            These people are together with God in a tender way that the Lord is protecting as the Lord has established with them. As such there is an ethical mandate in this tender relationship that God does not have directly speak about. It is just there. . . For instance, Moses might just know that he stands on Holy Ground because God is there. 

            So right when God plans to present His case against the people, a case that we know would feel right and just, for God is right and just, He begins with words that are tender, kind, and warm. He begins by reminding them of their treasured place in the Lord’s heart.

Move 2- Core memory

            And further God’s response to the complaint filed by the Israelites, is THE core memory of his people. Not judgment or rebuke which we might think that a righteous God who is angered by our sin might this is right and proper. No, God remembers how He heard them and how he came. 

When God presents a rebuttal to their argument, He reminds them of THE core memory of Israel: Egypt. 

Still in verse 3, God remembers hearing His people in their most desperate hour cry out. Their most isolated hour they prayed to him. The hour when, as a people, that they needed God to come to their aid. If there was ever a time in Israel’s life that God needed to step in, it was when they cried out to Him in Egypt, and God heard and God came. “O my people, I came…” The Lord says. 

            This is not just their core memory, but perhaps it is a beloved memory of God’s as well that the Lord holds onto also. Perhaps stories like this have a special place in God’s heart as well. Perhaps it is a time when God and His people walked very closely together, tenderly.

            And as such, God wants to remind these people of the dearness of this story. . .

 

            Yet notice the charge that the people bring against God. Notice what God just said in this verse. Right in the middle of all this tender affirmation and core memory sharing, God says: “What have I done to make you. . . tired of me?” 

            And as Micah was read to the people, and reread over the years, a gentle pause fills the room. And silence fills the air. . . tired of God? Tired of this relationship? Tired of being cared for in this manner? 

I wonder when was the last time you were ‘tired of God?’

Now no one, then and no one now, says that they are ‘tired of God,’ but are we? Do we live like that? Truly, are we? And while the church who stands in the divine courtroom that Micah is setting up might seek to escape the reflection by stating that this is just a rhetorical device the prophet is using, that it is just a word play, I wonder, if in practice, could it be true? 

With your own core memory of how God touched your life, delivered a miracle around you, are there times in your faith walk that you could say your practices of faith, and your devotion to the Lord demonstrate that you are tired of God? 

            Do our practices demonstrate that we are wearied of the Lord? 

            Are we frustrated reading the scriptures? 

            What about how we care for one another? 

            Go back into Micah 6 with me? As God asks this question and as it homes for them. The Lord shows in verses 4-5 He continually stepped in to provide care and guidance in the form of others to support a people who would continue to fall short of the relationship of “O my people.” 

            Moses. Aaron. Miriam. Baalam. God sent them to protect His people knowing that the Hebrews would continually undermine the relationship that God seeks to build with us. The Lord goes with His people to Gilgal and every place that they travel. For God wishes to ‘teach us about His faithfulness’ if we are willing to learn. 

Move 3- What is required?

            This leads us to the end of our text and to the memorial ending of Micah 6: What does the Lord require of us? 

            Well, leading up to this moment, the people have consistently misunderstood what a right relationship with God looks like. As they have misunderstood, they have asked the respond incorrectly. Does the Lord truly want thousands of rams offered or tens of thousands of rivers of olive oil or even the sacrifice of the firstborn? 

            None of those actions were stipulated in the law of Moses that the Hebrews cherish and uphold. And while the sacrifice of the firstborn occurred once, it was not something to be repeated. 

These laws were never taught the Israelites by Moses, and again, if you said, ‘well this is just a rhetorical tool for this courtroom scene,' I am not sure that the people felt this way. Rather I think they misunderstood what God wants from His people. And that is something that feels familiar to us as well. This is another question that we could wonder about also. A misunderstanding of what God wants from us each day.

            So, what is required if we as a church and as Christians are going to live faithfully? What does it look like live like you understand what the Lord means when he calls you ‘O my people’ and sends you from this place to be among others who may not understand what is necessary or asked of you? 

            We find the answers in verse 8. 

            To know loving kindness is to know God’s loving kindness first. And more than just to be able to academically speak about what this text means, to know what this loving kindness is all about is to share that loving kindness with the people of this community that you come into contact with and not to keep it for yourself or for people who deem worthy of it.

            We are to walk humbly with God by listening to God’s voice in every encounter that we have both here in the church and outside of here. Something we can do at times, but do we do it always and often? 

We are to learn how to make sense of the varying voice that we hear and to help others discern the voice of God that they hear. For each of us know that God is speaking to us, at times, but we must extend that learning and helps others with it. We must have the courage to hear God’s voice whether it is whispered quietly or written on the pages of His word. For both instances are right and proper. 

            We are to be faithful to what it means to be the Body of Christ by sharing who Jesus is and what Jesus calls us to be and become as a church and as persons who have learned what it feels like and what it means to be ‘God’s people.’       

Conclusion 

Having the right answer is a matter of perspective, but for Micah, we remember the places that God created a core memory with us. And you each have those memories in your days.

            And so as the courtroom scene ends, God leaves his people not in judgment but in reflection asking each person who finds this text to take stock of their lives, and as they take stock of their faith, they also are asked to remember how calls us to respond. 

            What does the Lord require of you? 

DM

       

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[1] James Limburg. Interpretations: Micah, p. 159.

Sharing Memories

Today our son JonMark turns 24. Shocking but true. Jennifer and I are so proud of the man that he has become. He is a great man and a great husband. One day he will be a great father as well. 

Last night he and Autumn had us over for supper to celebrate his birthday. It was a nice evening but the highlight for me was after the meal. As the table was cleared, Jennifer returned to her crocheting and we sat back to chat and to visit. It was not long before JonMark began telling stories and asking questions. 

One after another they came. 

Stories from our past as a family. Stories that only the three of us experienced. His first bedroom in Savannah, Ohio with the trains stenciled at eye level for him. Stories of his bunkbed that Papa (my dad) made for him. We talked about how he and I moved to Wellsville, Ohio before Jennifer and Emma joined us so that he could go to kindergarten at East Liverpool Christian School. He and I did not have much to do in the evenings so the two of us played games together on my first Playstation (the very first one they ever released). Jet Moto--a Jet ski game. He loved that game. 

We talked how sick he got once and how we sat up all night with him in the hospital as we tried to move into our house in Ashland, Ohio, 

His remembered his loft bed in Wellsville that he loved and the game chair we got him for that room. The memories came fast and furious. His smile was broad and wide. Jennifer and I saw our 6 pound 6 ounce boy last night again.

We laughed and laughed. We talked about how he would always beat Emma playing Pretty, Pretty Princess (look it up on Amazon). Autumn saw the tender side of him yet again. 

I share these stories because, as you know, stories have the power to shift everything in our lives. They shift our perspective and they change our mindset. When I finish this post I will then return to my preparations for chapel with the children of our daycare. When I talk with them I always want to tell them a story because if the story is good, I know they will add something to it, and together, we will learn a lesson about God. 

So as you prepare for the weekend what story is God asking you to share with one another?

It might be an old story and it might be a familiar one. But you never know how deeply it will touch the life of someone else? 

Finding Each Other--Matthew 4:12-23. Sermon preached on January 25, 2026

*NOTE* This week because of a winter storm, Bethesda did not meet in person for worship. This message part of our abridged service that was only available on YouTube. For the whole service visit our YouTube page.

            Throughout the month of January, I have been thinking about our calling as a church. Last week I asked you how deep, and how wide, is your calling to follow the Lord. And I know that it is not something easy to consider because thinking about our calling necessitates a response from us. Today we will finish that conversation.  

            Today in the gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus begins his earthly ministry by calling disciples to follow him. 

            The call of Jesus on the beach that we read about together is not about future salvation—that is for a later text that we will read and consider. Today the call of Jesus is a call to action, and what I mean by that is: the call of Jesus is to fish for human beings. 

            In a metaphorical sense, the call to Jesus is to stand before the dark places, the dark moments that you face each day, with our community, and to live out your calling. You and I are called by God to participate in the work of Jesus… literally to “follow me, and I will make you fish for men.”

            And while that is easier to say from the pulpit on this chilly day, the hard work stands before us because while it is easy to read about the calling of these four individuals in Matthew 4, and think of them fondly, we read more than one text today—and in there was a challenge in that first reading. 

Move 1- Deep Darkness

            As I have been doing this month, I want to bring both the prophet and the gospel together in this reflection. 

            Normally we read Isaiah 9 in advent as you and I prepare for the birth of our Savior. When Isaiah 9 is read; we light candles. We acknowledge the joy that Jesus will bring around the Christmas season. The Isaiah 9 reading today is part of a larger lection (8:21-9:7) which would have been quite hard to process for the Israelites—I think. 

            Historically at this time in Israel’s life, Assyria was not threatening them, as we might like to think or consider. No, Assyria was in the land. Assyria occupied the region. So, when the prophet says things like, “There will be no gloom for those in anguish,” these people felt the anguish in their community, they lived the gloom. Each day the question of what is the future going to look like, and where is God, was first and foremost on their mind?

            They asked these questions… and they asked more: “where is the Lord that we confess and pray to in worship when we need Him?” 

            When the prophet offered these words of hope that I read with you and said that light was coming in the recesses of darkness (and I bet the Hebrews felt dark) I bet they felt like they were sitting in a land of ‘deep darkness’ as verse 2 states. I suspect that any sense of faith in Yahweh, any hope that Yahweh was listening, was hard to muster for them. 

            For hope is often hard to muster when the previous evidence that supported, and grew, and testified to, the hope has been taken away. Faith is easy to practice when we look out and see the fruit of our faith practice right before our eyes.

            But for these Israelites, and perhaps for you and I as we think about our calling in the new year, light, and faith, and hope, might have been replaced by a sense of darkness… of deep darkness… perhaps at one point your faith was strong and sturdy and your sense of call was so strong that whatever God asked you to do was an easy step. You would do it in a heartbeat. No one even had to ask. It just happened. Your sense of call, and the understanding of it, what the Word said, was deep and wide.

            Yet at some point that became. . . well it became. . . what it became. And now deep darkness, a darkness that makes it hard to see a pathway forward is present before your eyes.

            But even in the darkest of places, when it seems that the invading forces, like Assyria, are controlling the future of your faith, and especially when you and I do not feel like Being the Church any longer, we must follow the Light. 

            This is the good news of advent; it is why we read this text during that season as we prepare for the Incarnation. And paired with Matthew 4 today, we find even better good news for those who are willing to admit that while deep darkness was once their companion, Jesus has a word for us in the gospel. And the word is: follow me.

Move 2- Follow me

            This is the place where the gospel’s message truly begins to take shape. For Jesus does not only call us out of the darkness as Isaiah prophesies, but Jesus invites us into the participatory practice of ministry that define the church that Jesus initiates. Follow me, he says. 

            Now in this text we learn that Jesus’ ministry builds off of John’s work at the River in verse 17. Let’s look at the actual steps that Jesus takes.

As soon as Jesus’ heard that John was arrested, things began to change. 

            First, we read that Jesus withdrew… isn’t that interesting! 

In verse 12, as the news reaches our Savior of John’s arrest, Jesus takes a divisive step, not a passive one. Again, he withdraws. In the moment where the church can seem to take a step back, its first teacher is arrested, Jesus acts in an act that we should emulate in our faith.

Every time this word occurs in Greek, it takes place at the direction of God. God initiated. And it always unfolds as part of God’s sovereign plan for redemption for humanity. This is not Jesus backing up or taking a minute to clear His head based on what he heard about happening in John’s life— shocking as it could have been to his heart. Jesus is not surprised here. He is not running away.  The withdrawal is not an action based on fear or even the darkness that we heard about in Isaiah. 

            Rather the withdrawing of Jesus indicates space is being created for meditation and prayer. Jesus is getting ready for what is to come spiritually by taking steps to spend time with His Father. As the world around Jesus feels a bit darker because John is arrested, Jesus withdraws so that he can pray and spend time with His Father in heaven. 

            And then, once the time of prayer and meditation is complete, Jesus begins the work that he was sent to do and he calls the church, he initiates the church’s work. . . “Follow me,” he says. 

Simon and Andrew, James and John. Immediately, Matthew says, they leave everything behind and they follow him. Matthew records no conversation taking place as these four people follow, they just go with Him. 

            Jesus knows the motivation of their heart. He knows them already, and not just because He is the Son of God, and he calls them to come with him. Jesus knows that He has found people who will respond to the high calling that God has placed upon their hearts.

            Now we know that James and John left the family business and their father Zebedee behind. That must have been a bit hard, but we do not hear a single word about that sacrifice. We also do not know the cost that Simon and Andrew would pay, but in both cases, it does not matter. They follow because Jesus calls and they follow because Jesus withdraws to spend time with His Father in heaven—this is a practice that we are called into as well. 

            Using Isaiah’s imagery, they followed the light out of the dark place where they were and it made all the difference for them, and ultimately, for us. They follow Jesus.

Move 3- We must follow also.

            You too, both as a church, and as families, must follow the light even if right now you think you are in the dark. You too must find the space in the darkness that we live and work to withdraw to be with the Lord who asks each of us to Follow Him. 

Even if the places where you go tomorrow feel dark—regardless of how ‘darkness’ is defined. If those places, and around those people, you wonder if God is present, God calls each of us to look toward him and follow the Light out. 

            There will always be the temptation to look at these moments and feel like the Assyrians in Isaiah are all around us, but the call of Jesus to follow him and fish for people leads us towards of God. 

Conclusion 

            Although we will move to a new topic soon, I hope that you will continue to consider your call from the Lord. I hope that as you encounter people, and notice how dark, hard, and… whatever the world get, you will also look out and hear the call of the Lord to follow me and I will make you fishers of men. 

 

 

DM

The place we find the Lord matters

Since 2026 began things have been different at Bethesda. And while I know that you were tempted to read that as a statement of judgment, it is instead simply a statement of fact. For God has been with us in a very personal way--a way that we have needed. I have been greatly blessed by the ministry of the church and I am thankful for how God has moved in this body of believers. 

As I think about how things have changed in 2026, I am impacted by the very location that I am sitting in right now: the sanctuary.

I’m sitting here waiting for the children of the daycare to come and visit with me as we have our weekly chapel session. It is one of the highlights of my week. We will laugh together, they will challenge me, and together we will find the Lord, in this place. I have a lesson planned (a series of questions that will lead them to the Tower of Babel). But just because I have planned something to talk about with these children, does not mean that this is where the Lord will lead our conversation. I have learned that when God shows up you let God take the wheel.

But back to place.

As I said, I am in the sanctuary. It is the place where I have witnessed the church Being the Church. We have mourned together in here. We’ve celebrated in this space. We have encouraged one another in the sanctuary. And together we have wondered where is God calling us forward in the New Year. This is sacred work and work that I take very seriously. 

And so today as I write to you, I wonder about your placement with the Lord today? I wonder where you are right now as you think about how God is with you because the place matters where you encounter the Lord. The place where you find the Lord is important. 

As I sit here in silence, looking out into the worship space, waiting for the children who will arrive momentarily, I wonder…. Well, that’s something that God and I will talk together alone… 

But I wonder what do you and God talk about in the places that God takes you each day? I hope that as you spend time with the Lord tomorrow, or perhaps later today, you could answer the question as I have. For the place that you encounter the Lord is important as well. 

  

Building Together--Isaiah 49:1-7. Sermon preached on January 18, 2026

            As we continue using multiple texts, I wonder, how high, or how deep, is your calling from the Lord? 

            We have been thinking about call language for a few weeks now. 

            The Magi were called to follow and their calling was deep. It is wide and it required great faith on their part to listen to the voice of the Lord when others who encountered them might doubt their story. God’s voice lead them through the desert, to King Herod, and to Jesus where they presented their gifts him. Their calling required a depth that allowed them to hear God’s voice in a dream and go home via a different route. 

Last week we learned that God’s call to us to repent can only be lived out as we experience the One who discloses the divine name, takes us by the hand, and simultaneously reassures us as we take bold steps in our faith. For we cannot resist sin on our own. It is not possible. We fail when we attempt to do this alone. 

As you can see, we are building upon each text. 

Now this week we uncover and we consider the Servant Song of Isaiah 49. And I wonder, how far does the Lord God take us when He calls us? For as I read this week, “We are destined for more than what we [initially think].”[1] God’s call in your life is deep and wide. 

God places us in situations, around people, and in moments, that we do not have to understand. Yet in those moments, the steadfastness of the Lord is present; it can be felt in all three of the scriptural readings that we read, and said, today. 

I want to begin with the words of the Prophet Isaiah.

Move 1- servant song

            While sounding like words from Psalm 139, Isaiah 49’s language is also found in Isaiah 44. In all three places, we hear that God forms us. God knits us together before we were born. And in this moment of creation, and attention, according to Isaiah, God performed the intimate act of naming us. Such attention to detail by the Creator. Such. . . individual attention to each of us by our Lord. 

            Isaiah 49 begins with words that feel like they were addressed only to you… only to me. As if the exiles hearing these words were not the intended audience so many years ago. Instead, God wanted to hand them, pen them perhaps, personally, to one single person. In this case: YOU. 

            “I formed you. . . I knit you together. . . I named you.” The Lord says. These are all Singular verbs from a singular God who cares for us in a remarkably personal way which we can see and experience in our calling. 

            Yet the understanding of our calling takes times to understand and unpack. And as we spend the time with the Lord and as we serve the Lord and are faithful to the Lord, verse 4 comes into focus for us and it becomes another aspect for us. 

            Verse 4. This verse is a prayer. Since the author, and by extension, the audience, has come to trust in God and their faith has developed, they offer God an honest prayer.

            “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;” 

Then the prayer shifts tonally. . . 

            “yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.”

            In the first half of the verse, we read an affirmation that many of us make. It is a confessional statement if you like. 

Isaiah has the church, the people, stand before God and confess the feeling that we have done our best and it seems that our best is not enough in that moment. The work we have done feels like it was done for nothing. And while we all know that we are nothing that we do in the Lord’s name is done for nothing, there are times when our heads hang a bit lower than we would like, and we. . . wonder. 

            To be able to stand before God and confess this is cathartic. It is cleansing. It can be healing. For God knows this and I wonder if God is the one who helped us to discover it. Like Paul the scales fell off, and we saw how we truly felt. Not sugar-coating it; we were honest with God. 

            Then the power of the verse hits: “our reward is with God.” And what Isaiah is saying here relates directly to the very character of God. It would be like saying, “and the very character of God is with me and that is my reward.” This is a word of union both of belief and of practice. 
            And in all of this, from the knowledge that God formed, knit, and named us, to the confession of our reward is with God, even when we feel like the work we have done has felt like it was for naught, the servant is both faithful and obedient in the community and to their high calling from God.

Move 2- Psalm 40

            This is no small feat to consider. 

            For as we go all the way back to the very first text we read together in worship, the Psalm of the Day, we hear that God drew each of us up out of the pit, the clay, to bog. Regardless of what that looks like in your individual life, God was there to pull you out of that place of separation and set you on a new place. God places us on a new path because, again using Isaiah’s language, you were knit, formed, and named by God. You were given a reward that is so personal and it is the very character of God that is with you. 

            And the blessing, the reward, is not just to pull you out of the struggles of your day, but as God reached down, God has taken the very person who he named by the hand, and the Lord then helped you confess that His character is with you, a new song was placed in your heart. 

            I wonder what that song sounds like? What does it resemble? 

            This takes us back up again to the Isaiah text. This takes us back again to of the idea of a reward. 

For when any of us hear that “our reward is with God” we immediately begin thinking of victory. We start thinking in terms of wins and losses—to use a sports analogy. If my reward is with God, and if God is drawing me out of where I suffer, then my extension those who do not… whatever do not “looks” like or resembles… well they do not get what I get do they? 

            That is not what this says.  

            Instead, today, God invites us to see how deeply our calling for the Lord runs

Move 3- 1 Corinthians

            This takes us finally into the church at Corinth. 

            Paul had a very special relationship with the church at Corinth—and it was not always positive. As we know Corinth was a church in conflict, a church in strife. It was a body of who could not agree on anything worship. 

            So much of Paul’s first words to them attempt to help them find a path toward unity and harmony as a church. Here at the beginning of his letter, Paul gently steers them away from their faults and towards their faith. 

            Notice verse 7, “so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If you consider why would Paul write these words in this way, then it becomes clear. They were lacking. They did not have the revelation of Jesus Christ in their midst. 

            So, they need to patience. Gentleness. “When Paul admonishes them for their faults (as he will do often in this book) and (their) failures, he does so because he is calling them to be who God has called them to be.”[2] Paul is inviting them to remember that they are called by God and even if they are weak, flawed, divided, sinful, they are still knit together by God. 

            They are still named by God. God has still drawn them up out of the miry clay and set their feet on the solid ground. Even if yesterday, or even this morning, they were quite sinful, their high calling is deep. . . it is wide. It calls them onward to greater things than they realize. 

            They church must just trust in the Lord who began that good work in them. 

Conclusion

            As must we. God has done so many great things in our midst. Things that we did not think God could do. That statement invites reflection and consideration. In what remains of our time together today, and as our ministry time begins again this week, I hope you will take these three texts with you and consider them and consider your calling. 

            For we are building together. 

 

DM

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[1] Jennifer Powell McNutt.

 

[2] Harry B. Adams.