Isaiah 42:3
A bent reed He will not break off
And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
Isaiah 53:1-3
1. Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.
3 He was despised and abandoned by men,
A man of great pain and familiar with sickness;
And like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.
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Two Sundays ago we were blessed by Jess Ray, her husband Kyle, and Taylor Leonhardt as they shared their love for the Lord through their musical talents.
During one of Taylor’s introductions, she spoke about her muse for the song being Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant: “a bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not put out (Isaiah 43:2).” She told of how her faith in singing praises, even (or especially) when faith is only an ember. The song spoke of this deep longing to worship when we go through a dark night of the soul of uncertainty, anxiety and fear. With these lyrics and musings, I began to ponder how this suffering in others is met with the sufferings of Christ.
The sufferings of Christ are front and center to Christian Theology. The death of Jesus, and the subsequent resurrection, are the atoning works of God in the world. The Nicene Creed places an emphasis on this reality as well by telling us that he “suffered under Pontius Pilot.” The apostle Paul tells the church in Philippi that he longs to know the power of Christ and his resurrection by coupling this power to fellowshipping with Christ in his sufferings (Philippians 3:10). What is often missed is the congruency of Christ’s sufferings and his passion. The early church understood that it was Christ’s compassion (pathos) for the world that brought him to and through the crucifixion. In fact, words for suffering (pathema or pathetos) are derived from the same root word for passion (pathos). The retelling of Christ’s crucifixion is even called ‘The Passion of Christ.’ The early church, likewise, linked the sufferings they endured to the passion to be like Christ and therefore linked their sufferings to the Passion of Christ (see Ignatius and Origen on the sufferings of the saints).
The question then is how does this understanding of suffering and passion help us understand patience, or more importantly the patience of Christ as he deals with broken reeds and smoldering wicks? Scripture tells us in many places to be patient with one another. The greek word used in explaining the type of patience necessary is understood by the imagery of “slow burning” or having a “long wick.” The Greek word used here is makrothumia. It is often translated as long suffering, but it has a broader connotation than that. Makrothumia is a compound word from two others: macro and thumia. Macro is a common word in the English language meaning large, big, or long. Thumia is a more broad word that deals with passion, or spiritedness, wrath, anger, or fire. In fact the word thumiama is used in Luke 1:10 and Revelation 5:8 to mean incense (the burning of a fragrance). With this background, it brings to light the idea that the word that we often translate as patience or long suffering, has a meaning that conveys a large or long duration of burning or dealing with compassion over an extended swath of time.
This type of patience is only possible when we realize that this ideal patience is other worldly, ie. outside of ourselves and how the world around us usually operates. This type of patience is of God, shown and given through Jesus Christ, enabled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
I can’t help but see the juxtaposition in these two phrases: a smoldering wick (linon tuphomenon) and long suffering (makrothumia). Christ sees the smoke being emitted by a dying ember, barely holding on with just enough spark to give off a few whips of smoke. But Christ meets that with his long suffering, his patient and deep compassion.
Christ has a deep passion within him to love us and bring us back to life, no matter the circumstances, no matter how beat down we feel, no matter how far we have traveled from him and his purpose for our lives. He meets it with patience- a smoldering wick he will not put out. And he meets it with his own large wealth of compassion to breathe new life into the dying and smoldering coals -slowly, patiently, breathing new life into his beautiful world and into us.
A dying fire, he will never extinguish, but will instead meet it with his own passionate love- a reservoir of love that will never run dry and will never cease to give love and compassion to the broken world, to those that are barely holding on. In this way, Jesus is the long suffering servant.
Announcements:
This Saturday we will be having our CBC Work Day from 9-12
A list of projects has been provided (see below)
sandwiches will be served at 12
We are planning another Community Art Night for November 21. More Information will be provided as we approach that time
We will be partnering with Salvation Army, KBM, and other church organizations to provide a Fall Festival event. More information will be provided in the near future.
Weekly Church Schedule
Sunday School has resumed
Worship at 11pm
Prayer Posse at 12pm on Wednesdays
Pastor Steven will be in his office from 8-4 (Monday -
Thursday), unless I am meeting with a church member or a community member outside of the church buildingIf the “Open” sign is on, I am in the office. Come on in to say hi and sit and talk for a while. I would love to see you
If you need me for anything, you can call or text me at 972-921-2516
