Arise | "Our Spiritual Beacon Call" - Fr. Aaron Damiani

A reading from the prophet Isaiah.

Thus says the Lord keep justice and do righteousness, for soon

my salvation will come, and my righteousness will be revealed.

Blessed is the man who does this, and the Son of Man who

holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and

keeps his hand from doing any evil.

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,

The Lord will surely separate me from his people.

Let not the eunuchs say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me, who hold fast to my

covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a

monument and a name better than sons and daughters.

I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to

minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and be His

servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath

and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant.

These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful

in My House of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their

sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be

called a House of prayer for all peoples.

The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares I

will gather yet others to Him besides those already gathered

the word of the. Lord, would you pray with me?

Lord, in order to bring ourselves to you, we need your

power, your forgiveness, your grace.

We need your vision and your heart.

Lord, everything that we need as a church comes from you.

So we pray now, Lord, that the living God would dwell in our

midst. As we open the words of the

prophet Isaiah, to whom you spoke so many years ago, let

them be words for us, for Emmanuel Anglican for Chicago in

2026. We pray this in the name of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Please be seated and good morning.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Father Aaron Damiani and

I'm just glad to be journeying through this season with you.

In Lent, the 40 days plus preceding Easter, we're in a

five week series called Shine our Spiritual Beacon Call, Shine

our Spiritual Beacon Call. And we're going to be looking at

the chapters of Isaiah, Isaiah chapters 56 all the way through

Isaiah 56 · chapter mention

chapter 60. And this particular series marks

the midpoint of what we've called Arise.

And Arise is like a two year journey that we're on as a

church to really prepare for and begin to commit ourselves to

this calling we have in Chicago to be a spiritual beacon.

We want to make sure that the message of Christ and the and

the beauty and the glory of Christ is known to as many

people in Chicago as possible through and beyond our church.

And that's why we're in this two year series, this two year

commitment. There is going to be a

culmination of this particular sermon series.

It's going to culminate after five weeks on March 22nd, I

guess the 5th Sunday from now, but one month from now where we

commit ourselves financially to this vision.

And some of us have been here from the start of Arise and it's

an opportunity for us to recommit for the next 10 months

to being a part of this for praying, giving to and

participating in this vision. Some of us have joined Emanuel

since we started Arise at the end of 2024.

And, and you might feel called, you'll be invited to, to join in

and make a new commitment for the next 10 months.

And then some of us since starting have seen God do

something in our lives or we, there's an increase of faith.

We have more faith, potentially more finances to commit to this

vision. And there will be an opportunity

to increase our vision and see God provide for us.

And even now, my invitation to you is just to open your hearts

up to the Lord and say, Lord, how do you want me to

participate in a rise? What are you asking of me?

And what would be a joy to give and to commit to?

Well, here in the next few weeks, in the Sundays of Lent,

just about this calling and about this vision.

And so you can even begin to pray like, is this a vision that

I feel to be a part of? Well, I don't know if you've

been watching the Winter Olympics.

I, I hope you've been able to catch some of the games.

I've been enjoying them. One of the most inspiring parts

of the Olympic Games is the beginning of the Olympics.

And this is when the runner carrying the Olympic torch,

carrying one of the torches, runs in to the Coliseum, to the

central Coliseum where all of the nations have gathered to

mark the beginning of the Olympics.

And as they enter into the the Coliseum, the crowd cheers and

they run to to the center of the of the Coliseum and light what's

called the cauldron, The Olympic cauldron, which is the central

flame, which tells the world the games are on and you're welcome

to come and join. What's interesting about that

flame, if you trace the the origin of that flame all the way

back, like, where does it come from?

It actually doesn't come from the runners themselves.

What happens is that the original torch of the flame is

actually lit in Greece, in Olympia, Greece.

And what they've done is they've created a, a mirror, a compact

mirror that actually sort of channels the rays of the sun.

And that when the first runner dips their torch, as it were,

into that mirror, the heat it captured from the sun's rays

sets the torch ablaze. And that torch is carried from 1

runner to the next over land and sea, until finally it makes its

way into the central cauldron of the Olympic Games.

The runner does not create the flame.

The runner carries the flame. What does it mean to be a

spiritual beacon, Church friends?

It means that we carry and display the light of Jesus

Christ for all of Chicago to see.

It means that we're making the gospel, the gospel of Jesus,

personal and tangible and visible to the people of

Chicago. We're not claiming friends to be

the source of the light that we're carrying.

That's so much the mistake that people can make is they think

that they are the light rather than that they are stewards of

the light who display it for the good of the city.

What could this look like? Well, it could look like a team

of liturgical artists from our church walking into a cinder

block prison Chapel and making it beautiful so that the inmates

who feel forgotten and unseen can encounter beauty and light

when they pray. It could look like a family in

our parish saying yes to fostering, yes to adopting

because they believe that in Jesus they were chosen and they

were adopted before the foundations of the world.

Could look like 2 Emmanuel Co workers offering to pray for one

of their colleagues who is suffering from a bout of an

anxiety attack and seeing the peace of Christ wash over their

colleague right in the midst of their crisis.

Could look like a living room filled with friends and and

neighbors who are spiritual but not religious.

The coffee is brewing and the Gospel of John is opened and

people from all walks of life discovering that Jesus Christ is

more compelling than they ever imagined or expected could look

like a special needs teacher from Emmanuel who treat treats

each student with incredible dignity and care because he sees

that the image of God is born by each individual student.

It could look like a business owner who refuses to cut corners

because she values the Father's name and the Father's

righteousness more than profits. And then it could look like all

of these gifts. Imagine all of these gifts being

brought together in praise and worship to the One who sent them

out in the first place, right here, gathering for praise and

worship in a way that draws people from our city who want to

know more about the hope that we carry.

Those are just a few of the ways that it could look like for us

to carry the light that does not originate with us.

But where do we begin? Let's consider in Isaiah 56 the

original blueprint for a spiritual beacon.

You can turn to Isaiah 56 in your bulletins or Bibles.

You know, Isaiah 56 was was written to to a very particular

people and God was calling them. God was calling them to be a

light for the nations. They had failed over and over

again. These people were called to be a

light for the nations and they had laid down their mandate.

And yet God had not given up on them.

He was, He was re upping on God's call to Abraham when God

said to Abraham, I'm going to bless you and through you all

the nations of the world would be blessed.

And it's a fresh articulation of that call.

The first thing that we're going to see in Isaiah 56 is that a

spiritual beacon welcomes the presence of God.

This by a spiritual beacon church welcomes, anticipates,

joyfully receives the presence of God.

Verse one begins this way. This is what the Lord says.

So Isaiah is listening to God and he's speaking what he hears

and the Lord says this preserve justice and do what is right.

Preserve justice and do what is right.

And the implication is they weren't doing either one of

those things. They were not acting justly, nor

were they doing what was right. They were not shining the light

that they had been given. For instance, some of them were

oppressing their workers. They were after prophets.

Some were worshipping what's called false gods.

They had turned that they their hearts were trusting nation

States and kings and false like Pagan gods rather than the one

true God. What's worse, they were smug.

They had this sort of like self-righteous attitude that

they were it that they had what it they know they had what they

needed and all the while they were ignoring God and they were

unprepared for what was just around the corner.

In the second-half of verse one, we see God say this.

My salvation is coming soon and my righteousness will be

revealed. God was on the cusp of revealing

His salvation, which is His saving acts that brought His

people through the Red Sea, and He was on the cusp of revealing

His righteousness, His Holiness. Now when God reveals Himself,

it's not a one. It's not like watching a movie.

It's a conversation where when God reveals Himself, He's going

to reveal us too. Something's going to come out of

us that maybe we don't even know.

We don't even see. Have you ever been in a

conversation like that? Someone's opening up their

heart. You all of a sudden you realize

that there's things inside your heart that you need to share

with them that you're seeing for the first time.

Imagine that, electrified all the way to its NTH degree.

And you realize that as God reveals Himself and His

Holiness, one thing that happens is that I reveal myself and my

sinfulness. And it can be a terrifying

moment that you don't want to be unprepared for.

Now, Isaiah experienced this as a young man early on in his

prophetic career. Isaiah had a vision.

Now, this is kind of weird. This might not make even make

sense. But imagine a young man having a

vision, whether in the body or maybe it was a dream, but he

finds himself in what's called the heavenly throne room where

God exists in his purity. And he describes God as being on

a throne high and lifted up. So God's beauty is revealed.

And he says the train of his robe filled the temple.

And and what happened was that as Isaiah, as God revealed his

salvation and righteousness to Isaiah, what did Isaiah see?

He said, woe to me for I'm a sinful man and I dwell among a

sinful people. He realized that he was not

ready for God's salvation and righteousness to be revealed.

And he, he described his lips, his lips felt unclean.

And I don't know why. Maybe it was because Isaiah was

a verbal person. You know, he's a really good

writer. But maybe he realized that he

had not been honoring God with his words.

But anyway, he felt that his lips were unclean.

His, his very lips were unworthy to stand in the presence of God.

But what happened was this, he didn't just see God's holiness,

he actually experienced first hand God's saving power.

And it came in the form of, and again, this is maybe a strange

image for some of us, but it was like a, you know, those charcoal

briquettes when they're hot, they're kind of glowing.

All right. So he saw an angelic figure take

something like that, a a burning coal straight from from the

throne room of God and fly down with it all the way to Isaiah

and it touched his lips and it burned his lips and it purified

him Something and I something in Isaiah felt that he had he had

been made right because the, because this creature said,

behold, I touched your lips, you, you know, he had been

forgiven, that he had been cleansed and that the that God

didn't come to destroy him. God had come to heal him.

So Isaiah knew what he experienced, the whole nation

was going to experience, and one day the whole world was going to

experience. And what happened was that

beyond Isaiah, God didn't just send a burning coal to touch the

lips of humankind. God sent his Son Jesus Christ,

who is absolutely pure, absolutely sinless, from God's

throne room, and He would take on the sins of the world as He

hung on the cross. But in so doing he would reveal

how sinful we actually are and how loving God actually is.

God's holiness and God's mercy, His salvation and His

righteousness meet at the cross. And when anyone comes into the

presence of the cross and the Holy Spirit reveals the heart of

God, they too can be cleansed. They too can be made right.

And it is a moment that we want to prepare ourselves for.

And that is why we are in a season of repentance.

The season of Lent is a time where we welcome the presence of

God by confessing our sins, confessing all of the ways that

we are not ready for the presence of God, where we are

looking at our lives like do we actually love God?

In fact, verse 2, you know, talks about preparing by doing.

It's not just in our heads. Verse 2, happy is the person who

does this, who does this, the Son of man who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath. Isaiah says speaking on God's

behalf without desecrating it and keeps his or her hand from

doing any evil. You know, love at some point has

go needs to go beyond words. If you want to prepare for the

presence of someone in your life, you're going to change

your life to make room for them and make space for them.

And the same is true for God. Jesus said at one point, I've

called you friends. Friends are do my commandments

and not to say I'll only be friends with you if you do what

I want, but like if you're my friend, you'll know what I love

and you'll want to do that. You know, God's people at the

time were like carrying the torch, but there was no flame in

it. But they were like proudly

walking around being like, look at this bejeweled, awesome, cool

torch. I'm so religious.

I'm so good. I do all the right things.

I say all the say all the right things.

I give off a religious vibe. You know, I wear perfume that

smells like godliness, but there's no flame in the torch.

There's no spirit, there's no life.

You don't actually love God. You just love the religious

life. When you actually looked at

like, when you drill down into like, all right, how are you

spending your time? OK, How are you spending your

money? OK, How are you treating people

when you drill down and be like, let's talk about like the

tangible ways that you're preparing for the presence of a

God. Like, well, I carry around the

torch, but I basically do what I want.

Happy is the person the Lord says, who does what God

commands. Now, if the presence of God were

as immediate to us as it was to Isaiah as a young man, would he

find us prepared? Would there be a flame of love

for God in the torch that we carry?

Do we love God with what is precious to us?

Do we actually love God with our time, which is very precious?

Do we actually love God with our money, which is usually tight?

Do we actually love God with our relationships, with our

priorities? Is there passion in our heart

for the presence of God? Do we love His presence?

Do we seek His presence? Would he find the flame in the

torch or would he find us kind of carrying it with a bit of a

smug self satisfied? We're on the right side of God.

We're on the right side of history.

We're the good guys, not the bad guys.

And we've all found ourselves there, haven't we?

We've all had the torch, but no flame.

And truth be told, you know, at the end of the day, if the

presence of God were to be manifest right here, right now,

I don't know if any of us would truly be prepared for what we

would encounter. Yet we can still welcome Him

with joyful, humble repentance. We can tell the truth about how

far we've fallen. We can ask for the flame of the

Holy Spirit, which was given on the day of Pentecost to be given

to us by grace and not by works. And we can confess our sins, not

just liturgically, but personally and together and

individually. We can confess our need for

grace and we can by our power, change our ways.

Friends, we can. That's part of repentance is

changing our ways. It's, it's, it's, it's the the

tangible ways that we show that there really is a flame of love

in our hearts. We're willing to make changes.

A spiritual beacon Church loves. Loves the presence of God, seeks

the presence of God. You know, he is our greatest

treasure. It's the name of our church,

Emmanuel, God with us and it if we didn't have the presence of

God, we wouldn't have a church. We would have nothing to gather

around. Eventually a a torch without a

flame would not be enough to gather us.

So let us ever devote ourselves to him with our whole heart, our

whole mind, our whole strength. But it doesn't stop there.

It doesn't stop with welcoming the presence of God, as

important and primary as that is.

Isaiah was sent outward with a message, and so we are sent

outward with a message as well. The, the, the, the torch is not

meant to stay hidden. A spiritual beacon not only

welcomes the presence of God, a spiritual beacon church welcomes

the presence of the stranger. There are people who would be

new to us, who would be unfamiliar to us, maybe

unexpected to us, that the Lord wants to include in our midst.

Here's who the Lord has in mind as He spoke to his people.

Verse 3, No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord

should say, the Lord will exclude me from his people.

And the eunuch should not say, look, I'm a dried up tree.

These are two types of strangers whom no one was expecting to

join God's covenant. The foreigner wasn't born into

God's family. They don't speak the language,

they don't get the inside jokes, they don't They kind of enjoy

different kinds of foods and they feel like everyone else is

in on the secret. The eunuch had a physical

liability keeping them from procreation and and and in their

day having a being married and having kids was what it meant to

be fully human and so the eunuch people saw them as like less

than human. Now notice how deeply the Lord

is aware of the painful story that they are telling

themselves. The Lord will exclude me from

his people. Or look, I am a dried up tree.

It's worth saying that the Lord knows them well enough to draw

out and speak hope into the painful story they're telling

themselves in their heads. You have to know someone really

well to know the painful story that's running, cycling through

their hearts and heads during the day.

Because the Lord knows it and he, he's like, it's not true.

Don't say that. This is how well friends the

Lord knows us. This is how well he knows our

friends, Co workers, neighbors, classmates that paint.

He knows the painful thoughts and they might go like this.

I don't belong here. These people are judging me.

I can tell I should leave or I stay busy.

I need to stay busy because I'm so lonely and depressed.

Or how about this one? I have to be perfect or my life

is an absolute failure. Or what about this?

What if my best days are behind me?

What if my kids are falling behind?

Am I doing enough? I'm probably failing everyone in

my life. The Lord doesn't just know those

thoughts, He speaks hope and healing directly into those

thoughts. He interrupts the cycle and

actually imagines a future for these outsiders and for us and

for the people out of our life where they become the major

stakeholders in His story, in His covenant.

Verse 4 is what He says. The Lord says this for the

eunuchs who keep my Sabbath and who choose what pleases me and

hold firmly to my covenant. I will give them in my house and

within my walls a memorial and a name better than sons and

daughters. I will give each of them an

everlasting name that will never be cut off.

And the Lord can see a future where these eunuchs are first

class citizens of his Kingdom and notice that like they're not

holding on to some watered down version of the faith.

They're not second class citizens.

They're described as like grasping the covenant firmly in

their hands, like it's the most precious treasures they've ever

received and they're never going to let it go.

And God makes them stakeholders. He gives them a legacy and a

future in his house. A memorial is set up in their

honor. An eternal name is given to

them, a legacy and an impact that goes on forever in God's

Kingdom. Now let me for a moment speak to

those of you who call Emmanuel Anglican your home.

You think of this as our church, my church.

So I want to ask you this, can we imagine strangers, people who

we don't know yet, being celebrated here at Emanuel,

platformed here at Emanuel, having a stake in the future of

Emanuel, People that are not currently here?

If we can begin to imagine people who are currently stuck

in pain loops actually that getting interrupted and they

join us here and walk forward and hope and become stakeholders

here. That's how we know we're

starting to become a spiritual beacon church.

Can we see Chicago neighbors with no church connections

currently loving the gospel, loving the word of God, love it,

clutching the Book of Common Prayer like it's the best gift

they've ever been given? Can we imagine them kneeling

next to us next Lent? Can we imagine them dancing next

to us in Easter? Can we imagine them serving the

poor with us during Ordinary Time?

Can we imagine them becoming the next prayer ministers?

The next parish council members, the next missionaries, The next

Sunday school teachers? The Lord can see this.

He says I will bring them to my holy mountain.

He promises that. He says they're burnt Offerings

and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar and this

is very intimate language. There's no there's no

limitations being set against them.

If they love God, he will love them in response and they will

have a future in his Kingdom. The most unlikely will not only

belong that but be part of the leadership.

In fact, this inclusion of outsider of outsiders is tied to

the very name of the house. He says my house will be called

a House of prayer for all nations.

You could translate this. All peoples, it's, it's global

now. Friends, listen, when we lose

this identity, we lose our purpose for existing.

We exist for the glory of God. We exist for people that aren't

here yet. Israel was called to be God's

holy people for that purpose, to shine for the nations.

God gave them a torch and said run with this.

Let it be seen. Let it draw the eunuchs and the

foreigners and all who would honor my name.

Now, something interesting happens when when that Olympic

cauldron is lit, because it does send a message to all the

nations, to all the peoples, anyone who could like, you know,

watch it on the Internet or watch it on TV.

This these games are open and they're open to you.

If you want to compete, you can try now.

No matter what your background, no matter what station in life,

no matter what country, people can see that flame and start

taking a journey. It might be a long journey and

find their way inside that Coliseum now.

In the early 1980s, a young girl named Kathy Freeman caught sight

of the Olympic signal. She was from a working class

Aboriginal family in Queensland, Australia, and this was at a

time when people from Indigenous peoples in Australia faced

systemic racism and marginalization.

And so there was a, you know, enormous, like, limits on her

life glass ceiling on many different levels.

But Kathy could run fast. And so as a as a young girl, she

wrote, she wrote down her dream Olympic gold.

And she's like, I want to win the gold, not only for my nation

of Australia, but for my people. And so 16 years later, she found

herself running inside the Australian Coliseum, carrying

the Olympic torch, lighting the cauldron to start the games.

And she didn't just run with that torch, she actually ran in

the 400 meter women's race. There was enormous pressure on

Kathy from her people and her country and herself and her

family. She wanted so badly to answer

the call of that beacon. And so she took off.

She ran a conservative race, sprinted at the end and won the

gold and she couldn't even celebrate.

She was so relieved. She just doubled over to let all

of the all of the hopes just sort and all of the pressure

just sort of like fall off of her shoulders before she

ascended to that top platform receive the gold.

But it didn't stop there. She spent the rest of her life

with Indigenous kids from Australia, mentoring them,

speaking to them, lifting them up, using her platform to get

where she got and beyond. Kathy Freeman, kind of.

You could say she embodies the Olympic spirit.

But there was a time when all she could see was the flame.

All she, she was an outsider, completely looking in all 'cause

she could. She was the flame and she just

went toward it. Now a spiritual beacon church by

its very nature is going to welcome the presence of a

stranger and give them a place and give them a stake in the

mission. Yet there's one final feature we

can't miss. Even as we welcome the presence

of God and welcome the presence of a stranger, there's like this

take away. There's a So what?

There's a way that we can walk this forward even this week.

And it's, it's encouraging because it's very doable and God

is setting the example and it's a challenge for everyone here.

In verse 8, Isaiah ends with a solemn declaration from the

Lord, verse 8. This is the declaration of the

Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel.

I will gather to them still others besides those already

gathered. I will gather still others to

them still others besides those already gathered.

So the Lord doesn't just sit around and wait for the people

to come to him. He goes out like a Good Shepherd

looking for them, and he gathers them.

Now gathering is a gentle image, isn't it?

It's a Shepardly image. It's even a motherly image.

It's not coercive. There's no high pressured sales

tactics. It's not obnoxious.

It's lots of small steps. It's lots of Invitational

openness. It's not a big service or a big

program. As great as those are.

It's personal. Our God is in the work of

gathering, and the question is, will we join Him?

All of us can join Him, and this is what it means to be your

Spiritual Beacon Church. It's 7:00 AM on a Tuesday

morning and we've got about 6 minutes before the bus arrives.

Do we scroll on our phones or do we pray?

Spend those 6 minutes praying for the presence of God and for

God to send us to the people that He is gathering that He

would like to employ us to partner with us to gather it.

It's dinner time on a Thursday evening.

Will we spend our dinner with Netflix or neighbors?

Kind of comes down to choices like that.

It's Saturday afternoon, we got some free time.

Will we spend that free time catching up on the sports scores

or will we reach out to people, friends of ours from within a

manual and beyond a manual who don't have a, you know, church

connection and actually go to the park and play sports with

them? A Spiritual Beacon Church is a

whole congregation of people carrying the gospel torch,

joining God in the gathering process, engaging people in

loving ways about life and the gospel, befriending people who

have no church home, praying for them regularly, knowing their

pain points, and gathering welcome.

Welcome to our home. Welcome to our Citigroup.

Welcome to our service. Welcome to Saturday afternoon

sports. Remember, Emmanuel, Remember

this. In a city that is filled with a

lot of people who are very, very anxious and hurting, The Lord

has gifted our church with a gift of of healing and

compassion. And in a city longing for

beauty, we are a community filled with artistic vision and

hope. And in a city longing for

authentic spiritual connection, we are a people rich in prayer

and spiritual formation and liturgy.

And in a city skeptical and cynical about truth claims, we

have the deep resources of the Gospel that speak to those

pressing questions. God has planted us here for a

really beautiful purpose, and that is to make the gospel

personal, tangible, and visible for the people of Chicago.

Now, once that final runner lights the cauldron, you know

they don't just put the cauldron out 15 minutes later.

It stays lit and serves as a beacon to the world that the

games are underway and that everyone is invited to come and

see. So, friends, we are carrying a

light that does not originate with us.

It's the light of Jesus, the light of the Son of God.

It's intended to shine, not glare with love and truth to

every foreigner, every eunuch, every friend, every neighbor,

every companion of our city. And Chicago is like looking and

watching to see. Is that light real and is it for

me? So let's run with hope and

courage and grit, and let's not put down our torch until the

people are gathered and the beacon is lit and the Son of God

is lifted high in the city of Chicago, and that all are drawn

to Him in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit. Amen.