I’ve been feeling rather helpless lately. The world seems like a dark and dangerous place and there doesn’t appear to be a lot I can do about it. Terrorists highjack planes and fly them into buildings. Now when I get on a plane it is with the recognition that there is not a lot about the experience that is within my control. Our government makes decisions and takes actions that I don’t agree with and causes me more than a little concern. Now when I listen to the news I do so with a sense that things are going to play out according to someone else’s agenda, regardless of how I feel about it. There is fighting around the world and hunger close to home. Circumstances seem to pile up until helplessness and hopelessness seem the only reasonable responses. Something has to be done and I’m pretty sure it needs to be someone else who does it. I don’t think I have what it takes to make a difference.

Then I read passages like those from Isaiah -- “Here is my servant . . . I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1) And I think to myself, “Yes! Something needs to be done and God has promised to send someone to do it. God’s servant will bring the kind of justice the world needs so desperately.” That is good news. And the even better news is that we are Christians and we know who that servant is. At his baptism, God’s Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirms the message that this is God’s beloved. Chosen by God! Empowered by God’s Spirit! Surely he will do what needs to be done to set the world right.

Except that the world still hasn’t been set right. It remains a dark and dangerous place. Something still needs to be done, and neither God or Jesus seems to be doing much about it. What is wrong with this picture?

The story is told of a black man travelling alone by train in the south in the 50s. One day, as it was getting on towards evening, he got off the train at a remote platform to get a drink. He had to walk quite a distance to the nearest water pump, and when he returned the train was pulling away from the platform. He ran to catch it, but it was very quickly out of sight. He found himself standing in the middle of the tracks, when he became aware that he was not alone. Moving to surround him were six young white men, in their 20s. They began to taunt him, and curse him. Soon the hateful words were joined by fists and boots until he was left bleeding and half dead beside the tracks. Slipping in and out of consciousness, he cried out to God. “God, where were you? Why didn’t you do something to stop this from happening?” And to his surprise, God answered. He knew that it was God’s voice and not simply his own imagination, because it was nothing like the message he was expecting or looking for. “I was there with you the whole time. I sent my Spirit to intervene, but I couldn’t find anyone willing to let me in.”

Isaiah tells of the servant who will come in God’s name to bring justice to the weak, the abused and the disenfranchised among us. In Jesus we see the living embodiment of the servant whom Isaiah describes. But that is not the end of the story. If that is all there is, then we will forever be asking, “Where is God? Why doesn’t someone do something?” We are called to play a part. The Spirit is searching for someone willing to open themselves to the presence and the power of God in their life. The servant is us! Or at least it can be, if we are willing. It is not an accident that one of the earliest terms which came to be associated with the Church was “the Body of Christ.” In the hymn we will be singing in a few moments, the words are addressed to us as the Church. “Community of Christ, who makes the cross your own, live out your creed and risk your life for God alone; the God who wears your face, to whom all worlds belong, whose children are of every race and every song.” (words by Shirley Erena Murray) It is our face that God wears in the world. It is our hands that God uses to bring justice. It is our voice that God uses to speak good news. When we refuse, for whatever reason, to allow God’s Spirit into our lives, that may well mean that there will not be anyone there to make a difference. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

Of course the problems of the world are overwhelming. Of course they are beyond our ability to do much about. But we are not called to change the whole world at once. And we are certainly not called to change it by ourselves. Whatever justice is going to come must be Spirit powered justice. But the Spirit needs our cooperation. We can hide in fear. We can run away feeling inadequate. Or we can trust God to lead us and empower us.

It was a Wednesday night at the church and a meeting was just about to begin. Everyone who was coming to the meeting was there. Then I heard someone else coming in the front doors. I went to see who it was and met a young woman in her early 20s who was obviously in distress. The decision took no time at all to make -- the meeting would get along fine without me. For the next two hours I sat with this young woman, listening to her pain-filled story, doing what I could to help her sort out the choices she was facing. It was an extraordinary experience of being fully present in the moment and open to God’s Spirit at work through me. Scripture verses were coming out of my mouth that I could not have quoted under other circumstances. Helpful insights were occurring to me that were beyond my wisdom. God was at work in those moments because I got out of the way long enough to risk letting it happen.

In the midst of these dark days in which we find ourselves living, when we are tempted to cry out to God, “Where are you and why aren’t you doing something to make this better?”, we might pause long enough to ask God a different question. “How is your Spirit trying to work through me and what can I do to assist with the process?” Spirit powered justice can make a difference in our world, if we will dare to take the risk.