A Bruised Reed He Shall Not Break

By Drew Gilliland
Program & Research Associate, G.LO.B.A.L. Justice

 
 

In the midst of a recently challenging time in my life, I found a wonderful passage in Isaiah 42 that has given me great hope and continues to encourage today. I recommend reading 42:1-9 before continuing — verse 3 is particularly encouraging:

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench...
— Isaiah 42:3

If you’re anything like me, you’ve felt at times felt bruised and about to break, or like your wick is about to burn out. I love this picture of God presented in Isaiah -- in order to keep a bruised reed from breaking, or to keep a wick from burning out, one must be extraordinarily gentle. God cradles us as he straightens us out to stand tall. He hunches down around us and cups his hand around us to protect our flame from outside wind. He becomes intimately involved with us as we suffer, gingerly and lovingly holding as precious children. He offers us respite from trouble and presence in the midst of it. As he himself said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

Isaiah 42 embodies the one who gives us rest. Many sermons and articles talk about a passage and then extract an application. Not so Isaiah 42.  It’s all about Christ. It all points to him as the doer of justice. As we work for justice, we can rest because he will “faithfully bring forth justice” (v. 3).  If we are weary and disheartened, we can take heart because, “He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth…” (v. 4).  God has “put (his) Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” He will “open the eyes of the blind” and “bring out the prisoners from the dungeon.” 

These are signs of a new covenant in which God will make all things new. And this is all we must do: endure patiently in Christ as he brings forth new things in and among us. He will sustain us and bring us into his glorious light. He is with us now as we suffer and will see us through to the end as the author and perfecter of our faith. The New Earth is coming, where he will consummate his kingdom once and for all. Remember this, and remember to rest in Christ most of all, as we go about the things he has given us to do – because he has already done them. Take heart, sisters and brothers. He will not break you or snuff you out, but hold you and protect you.

A New Song for a New Year

By Drew Gilliland
Program & Research Associate, G.L.O.B.A.L. Justice

 
 

As I was reflecting on what to write for this post, a line that is repeated throughout the Bible (but especially in the Psalms, in Isaiah, and in Revelation) came to mind: “Sing to the Lord a new song!”

The first time this phrase is written is in Psalm 33, a psalm very fitting for us who are involved in doing justice as part of loving God and loving other people. Before continuing, please take a minute to read it. 

I don’t know about you, but I often find it difficult to shout for joy in the Lord and sing a new song to Him. The burdens of this world and my own inadequacies can feel overwhelming to me. But that is often because I am forgetting who God is – and this psalm is an excellent reminder. Why should we shout and sing? Because his word is true and faithful. It will not fail, and the true Word – Jesus himself – is ever-faithful. God loves justice and proved it through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He loves it when we work for the good of others, because it’s what he himself did and does. When we do justice, we join in the work of God. What a humbling thought.

We are blessed because we are given the ability to partake of his great vision to renew all things, and to be part of his restorative work.

And why do we work for justice? It comes from knowledge of what God has always wanted for his creation, which he himself made. He placed the stars where they are, breathing into existence their fiery plasma and gases. He controls the raw power of the oceans. When I look at the stars and hear the crashing of the waves of the sea, I am indeed in awe, as the psalmist says in verse 8. But he didn’t stop there. He created the plants, the animals, and us. And He wanted us to live in perfect relationship with himself, with ourselves, with each other, and with his creation. It was all “very good” as we lived to work alongside Him to shape his raw world into something even better. But, as you know, we fell because we were deceived by Satan. But God has always had a plan, and his creative power has never ceased working in our world to bring about the reconciliation of all things to Him.

As our Father is this grand Creator, we can surely trust him to frustrate the plans of the nations – plans to conquer and to oppress, to harm and to destroy. In contrast, it is His eternal plan, as shown in the entirety of Scripture that is sure. It alone is true, like an arrow flying straight towards its target. It is a plan of restoration and judgment. And we are his people, his nation, and his heritage. We are blessed because we are given the ability to partake of his great vision to renew all things, and to be part of his restorative work. 

Some people want to see things change and trust in the wrong things – their war machines or their algorithms, their financial clout or their cultural & political capital. These cannot save. They are a false hope for salvation; in all their might, they “cannot rescue.” 

Sisters and brothers, let us fear the Lord, worshipping him in awe with a new song in our hearts, birthed by Christ and carried to fruition by the Holy Spirit. Let our souls wait upon the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. Because we can trust Him and be glad!

Advent: I Heard the Bells

By Drew Gilliland
Program & Research Associate, G.L.O.B.A.L. Justice

 
 

A couple of years ago, when I was in Ireland getting my Master’s degree in sociology, I remember December being very heavy. The content I was digesting was emotionally difficult; one cannot help but feel discouraged when analyzing the way our societies work. The pain, injustice, and the dark systemic forces of our world, whether human-made or spiritual, seem overwhelmingly powerful and deeply rooted.

It was in this state of mind that I came across a hymn while walking down the main village road in Blackrock, a quiet suburb south of Dublin. The sun was shining in the morning (a rare winter sight in Ireland) and I had my headphones in as I walked to the local coffee shop. The words struck me as I strode past the beautiful Catholic church across the street from my house. 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Peace on Earth, good-will to men.

The Advent season which we are entering is a time of hope, pointing our eyes to the hope we have in Christ – a wild and sweet hope, as the song says. But the presence of hope also indicates that there are dire conditions that make hope necessary. One only needs to scan news headlines to begin to feel overwhelmed by the problems in our world. Two stanzas later, that old familiar dread and pain resonated within me as these words played:

And in despair, I bowed my head
’There is no peace on Earth,’ I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good-will to men.

In the original poem, penned by an abolitionist whose son was a Union Army lieutenant wounded in the Civil War, two additional stanzas vividly describe the brutality of conflict and of the human condition. 

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

This section of the poems reminds me of the famous quote from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky: “God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the human heart.” Each of us, our societies, and our physical world bear the scars of this war. Just this week, there have been earthquakes and floods, bombings and protests, details of systematic Chinese brainwashing camps for Uighur Muslims, apocalyptic climate change warnings, a frighteningly high death rate for young Americans like myself, reports of wars and conflicts, and new details of housing segregation, racism, and hatred in our country. And this doesn’t mention the countless stories of difficulty and pain each individual bears on a daily basis. The barrage never seems to end. 

Indeed, there is no peace on Earth. I, too, bow my head in despair. Hate is strong and does seem to mock the song of peace on Earth, good-will to men. It is as one Yemeni man, whose daughter desperately needed medical care in a war zone, said: “We’re just waiting for doom or for a breakthrough from heaven.”

In this moment of being overwhelmed yet again by the weight of the world’s myriad problems, the song’s next stanzas pierced the darkness in my soul.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

I remembered the coming of Jesus and the overwhelmingly beautiful truth that God sees you. He sees me. He sees the troubles of this world. He is not dead – he is the living God. He is the God of the resurrection. He is the God who has come to restore all things. “Aslan is on the move.” The night will turn to day. The cosmic Wrong – the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world, sin and death – shall fail. The cosmic Right – the fiercely creative love of God, who has come to take away the sins of the world and give live abundantly – shall prevail. God is not the silent clockmaker envisioned by Enlightenment thinkers. He is present and active, moving even as we speak. And we, as the church, are participating in his work of justice in anticipation of his second coming. 

This is Advent: living in the reality of the already and the not-yet. We acknowledge the present reality of pain and brokenness in this world, and yet we know that the real reality is the New Earth and the New Jerusalem, when God will reside with his people and they with him. And he will wipe every tear from our eyes, and pain and sin and death will be no more. So, this is my Advent prayer:

O come, O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears.

Rejoice! Rejoice! 
Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel…

Thanks to the work of Fleming Rutledge in her book Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. It has been an invaluable resource to me.