The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
—ISAIAH 50:4-7
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A response to fill the silence:
What does it mean to look at ourselves honestly? What will we see there? What will we discover?
In the silence of prayer, I discover the sounds of a starling building its nest in the eaves of the church sanctuary, of a neighbor's leaf blower, or the roofers tearing off shingles on a nearby structure, of the snap-crackle-pop! of my ankle as I walk out of the room to cough and to blow my nose so as not to disturb the others who have gathered.
There is life outside these walls and it is noisy. It is filled with roosters crying out and car engines revving as they pass by. Babies bawling. Dogs barking. The scratching of my pencil's lead against the pulpy fiber of a yellow pad. All glorious and all utterly mundane!
And yet I have avoided my own mortality, my own failings, my own sinfulness because it is easier to notice "the other" rather than confront myself. The stark reality of my creatureliness. My nothingness to come.
God, grant me the gift of a metaphorical surgeon's scalpel, and a healthy dose of courage, that I might truly examine who I am, all the while remembering whose I am.
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After the readings, after the prayers, after the silence, I head home to rest. The interior of my head fills at least twice the size of the volume my skull should contain. Massive head cold layered over allergies, followed by a set of readings, leaves my head pounding, my voice raspy and fleeting, yet I would do it again.
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The set list. Readings from (Deutero-)Isaiah and contemporary responses.
Servant Song #1
- Isaiah 42:1-4.
- "Comes Now My Servant, Gentle and Faithful." Excerpts, pages 115 and 116, from Isaiah: Spirit of Courage, Gift of Tears by Daniel Berrigan.
Servant Song #2
- Isaiah 49:1-6.
- "A Servant-Leader." Excerpts from "Martin Luther King Weekend Sermon, January 17, 2017" by Shannon Vance-Campo.
Servant Song #3
- Isaiah 50:4-7.
- "Living Lent" by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, as found in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter.
Servant Song #4
- Isaiah 52:13—53:12.
- "Break." Excerpts, pages 209-210, 211, from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology by Eugene H. Peterson.
Servant Song #5
- Isaiah 61:1-3.
- "Witnesses." Excerpt, page 175, from Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross by Richard John Neuhaus.
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