February 07, 2010

Isaiah 6:1-8,

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

Dear friends, this morning our lectionary presents us with a unified theme, a clear truth demonstrated through three lessons written across our great faith history.  This morning we see God’s consistent purpose worked out in the life of our best remembered ancient prophet, in the life of our most fully developed apostle and in the life of our church’s greatest organizer.  When the Almighty Creator establishes the same dynamic with Isaiah, Peter and Paul, we had best pay attention.  The lesson our Lord wants us to understand in his relationship with these three is that each of his beloved, faithful people have been set apart.  All people, every man, woman and child who trust in the Lord, who believe in the one God, who consider themselves the product and beneficiary of a powerful, caring, engaged creator carry within themselves – a special destiny.  They have a unique charge, a holy, righteous mission.  Each believer has been touched and anointed.  Each believer has been equipped with powerful tools and persuasive gifts.  We have been set apart for mighty work and we typically react to this news with skepticism and unease.  Set apart, anointed by God, sent on a divine quest, given a holy destiny does not immediately fill us with joy and confidence.  Instead, we question and doubt.  We offer alternative plans.  We cite our unworthiness and sometimes when that fails to release us from God’s service, we resolutely refuse the call.  We allow initial fear to keep us separated from a glorious future.  But then again, sometimes, sometimes we come around.  Sometimes we recognize and trust God’s faith in us.  Sometimes we sense and accept his charge.  On those occasions, we understand God more clearly and we see ourselves differently.  In those moments, we remember Isaiah.  We recall Peter.  We reconnect with Paul. 

This morning’s appointed passage from the Old Testament is known as “The Call of Isaiah.”  In its lines, we witness the internal struggle of a faithful man.  Isaiah is a good person living a modest, productive life.  He prays in the temple.  He follows the law.  He orders his life as moral man and a good citizen.  Isaiah is one of the world’s legion.  He is average and ordinary.  He is content in his life and at peace with his role.  Then he encounters his God in an unexpected way.  One night he goes to sleep and a dream rich in details, overtakes his mind.  He sees himself in the presence of God.  The spectacle is dazzling and unnerving.  Isaiah is stunned by the scope and magnitude of God’s physicality.  The images, the brightness, the smells, the sounds are too much to take in.  His human senses are assaulted and he is terrified.  Terrified.  He is instantly aware of his human limitations.  He is instantly aware of God’s omnipotence.  And the truth of their disparity is unavoidable and unsettling.  In that moment, Isaiah sees himself and all humanity in unprecedented clarity. 

“Woe is me!  Woe is me!  I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and yet, and yet, I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”  Isaiah sees his personal frailty and the frailty of all humankind and sees that despite their weakness and nonsense, God figures a way to overcome and compensate for Isaiah’s shortcomings.  The Almighty Father gives the good, yet broken human what is necessary.  In the vision, God sends an angel to blot out and eradicate Isaiah’s weakness.  Then readied to begin his mission, Isaiah is set apart.  He is anointed.  He is made ready and all is accomplished before he even knows the details.  “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’  And I said, “Here I am; send me!”

Isaiah was living a modest, productive, pedestrian life.  God came to him unexpected, uninvited.  Isaiah reacts with fear and doubt.  God removes the impediments.  God creates confidence and provides the necessary tools.  God initiates the commission.  “Go for us.”  Isaiah responds “Here I am.  Send me.”  I go.  I am yours.  Your will be done.

2,748 years ago, an ordinary, modest man recognized God’s call and responded.  He trusted his senses and he trusted his intuition.  He trusted his God.  He accepted the Lord’s anointing.  He took in the gifts and empowerment provided.  He stood for the commissioning and allowed himself to be set apart and on that day, a prophet was created.  On that day, a voice of truth and vision emerged.  On that day, the world was made better.  People in Isaiah’s lifetime heard God’s beautiful truth pronounced.  Generations and generations since have been guided by the prophet’s clear and compelling message. 

Seven hundred seventy or so years later, we have a record of the same dynamic repeated.  Our appointed gospel passage from Luke is designated, “Jesus calls the first disciples.”  Like Isaiah, Peter, James and John suddenly find themselves in the presence of the divine.  Instead of a heavenly overwhelming vision, the three mortals are caught up in an unexpected, unexplainable incident.  As professional fishermen, they know if you’re fishing a reliable area hours on end and you’ve caught nothing, then the fish aren’t there.  The currents, the temperature, the moon, the plankton aren’t conducive and the fish have moved on.  Throwing the nets six feet over isn’t going to change the results.  Yet, on this early morning, the illogical occurred.  The nets suddenly filled.  Peter, James and John were stunned and conflicted.  They realized they were in the presence of the Holy One and they were aware of their inadequacies. 

Just like Isaiah, Peter speaks of his vulnerability, falling at Jesus’ knees, he says “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  Then Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be a fisher of men.  You will catch people.”  Peter, James and John are modest men living productive lives.  They have an unexpected encounter with the living God.  They worry about their limitations.  They are given the tools they need for the mission they’re assigned.  They accept.  “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”  “Here we are. Send us,” they said.  And so, they became the first disciples of Christ.  In their lifetimes, they engendered belief.  They told the story of the risen Lord.  Because they said “Yes,” the world changed.  Three fishermen on an inconsequential lake in Galilee joined by nine others, insured that God’s ultimate message and messenger was never forgotten.

Twenty years later, the dynamic was again repeated.  We heard from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians that he was living a modest, productive, if somewhat misguided life.  He was a faithful man, a prayerful man.  According to his discernment of God’s will, he was dedicated to protecting the Jewish religion.  He was acting as a safeguard to the Law of Moses and the Covenant of Abraham.  The teachings of Jesus and the acts of his apostles were a threat, an abomination to the holy wishes of God.  Paul, armed with faith and fervor, dedicated himself to putting down the followers of Jesus Christ.  He hunted them down.  He persecuted them at every turn and then…one day, on an ordinary journey, he had an unexpected, unprecedented encounter.  Like Isaiah, he had a vision.  He met the Risen Christ in his full glory and he was both transfixed and convicted.  In the encounter, he immediately recognized both the holy identity of Christ and his own sin.  He owned his pride and then saw his unworthiness dismissed.  In that moment, Paul was given new powerful, necessary gifts for his new ministry.  He was set apart.  He was commissioned as an agent of God.  Paul assented.  Paul accepted his new charge.  Paul the persecutor became Paul the great church organizer.

Isaiah, Peter and Paul, three men, three very ordinary human beings, three folk destined to live reasonably forgettable lives and then they said “yes.”  One day, each of them saw something new.  One day, each of them experienced God in a different way.  They woke up.  They did what they always did.  They began a routine day, but something happened to them on that day.  Somehow they allowed themselves to receive God and his direction in an unguarded, accepting manner.  Isaiah, Peter and Paul experienced the awesome personal power of God.  They were scared and humbled and, in that unique experience, God blessed them well.  He gave them skills and a particular mission.  They said “yes” and “here I am” and “send me.”  And when they made that answer, they were changed forever.  In saying “yes,” they were transformed.  No longer were they ordinary mortals.  They became agents of God.  They were set apart and their work, the effects of their work, live on forever. 

Now dear friends, here is the truth and the test for us.  The dynamic is set.  God was, God is, God will be forever.  God acts as he has always acted.  This is the central characteristic of God – eternal changelessness.  What God did with Isaiah, Peter and Paul, God does with us.  God has a destiny for us.  He has a mission, a mighty assignment for every one of us.  He sets each of us apart.  He has given each one of us special, singular gifts to use in his service.  He has made us ready, fully prepared to say “yes.” 

So…here ends today’s sermon.  I’ve built the scriptural case for God’s design.  Next week, on the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, the season for carrying light into the world, for dispelling darkness and overcoming gloom, we’ll consider our personal commissions.  What has God built each one of us to do in his name?  How does he reveal his assignment to us?  How does he equip us for the work?  What is the big work he has for you and you and you and what are the daily tasks he sets before us?

Through the week, think about how and why you have been set apart.  Think about your resistance.  Consider what you need to do your special work and how your life might look if you said “yes.”              

Here I am, Lord. Send me.  Amen.