The Calling -- 2-6-22
The Calling
Luke 5:1-11; Is 6:1-13
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Is 6:1-13
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.
Prayer – Still speaking Lord, you call all of us to different things – some to cast nets for people, some to proclaim our prophetic words, some to speak words of truth, all to follow. Grant us the everyday courage to walk as faithful followers, bearing witness to the good news of your grace, your mercy and your peace. Embolden us to say yes to our calling this day and each – amen.
I was in the 7th grade and spent a great deal of time with my paternal grandmother who kept my sister and me until our mom got home from school. She was an amazing women, widowed when my aunt was 6 and my dad was 2, never remarried, raised both of her children through the depression. She was in a horrendous car accident the year after I was born, her sister died and she nearly did as well. And through it all, she had an indomitable faith. She was so grounded in her faith it just oozed out of her; her faith was the core of her life, of how she lived and of what she talked with a young teenager about all the time. Every Christmas, Easter and birthday meant some book or gift related to living out one’s faith. And I can remember to this day, sitting out on her sun porch, talking as we did so frequently while my sister drew or colored in a coloring book, and that day she looked calmly and lovingly into my eyes and said, “You will be a minister one day.” My 13 yo mind responded reflectively, though not out loud, “Yeah, right.” It was the first time I felt, heard, imagined a call to ministry.
It was not too long after that I experienced a ‘mountaintop experience’ during a youth retreat in the mountains of NC and truly understood, perhaps for the first time, what it means to be a beloved child of God when I accepted Christ into my heart and not just my head. I spent the next several years very active in our youth group and actually was selected as youth elder in our church. Could my grandmother’s words bear some sense of reality? Was God actually calling me into some type of ministry? Nah.
The year before my daughter was born I started volunteering as a youth advisor at our large downtown church. I loved working with the young people, I felt, maybe, a yearning for ministry but had a great job, was making good money and enjoyed volunteering at the church but wasn’t interested in working in the church. That went on for a few years until I really began to contemplate going to seminary and becoming a youth minister.
In the fall of 1990 I began thinking even more deeply about this sense of ‘call.’ My wife and I traveled to Richmond, VA, to talk with the folks about my coming there for school. There were lots of conversations and finally in the spring of 1991, I applied, trusting that if this was what I was supposed to do, that God would pave the path. And God did, I was accepted and began my journey through seminary and ordination. There were plenty of bumps, obstacles, and hurdles along the way; and, trusting that God knew what God was doing I said, “Here, I am, Lord.”
That calling I felt has been a life changing event across the last 30+ years. Questions, doubts, hopes, challenges, good times, and not so good times, and a meaning and purpose came out of that sense of calling. I have had the privilege to serve churches, serve in hospitals, serve with hospices, and help start a grief camp for kids over the last 30 years. A few regrets, a treasure chest of memories of people encountered and lives shared has resulted in my life in ministry and call to walk with folks through life and it’s messiness. I wouldn’t change a thing, well maybe one or two.
Our dual call stories this morning from both the Gospel of Luke and from the book of Isaiah reflect the truth of God’s calling upon lives. It frequently comes out of nowhere and you don’t have to have a theological degree, or knowledge, even, to be called to serve, to care, to walk with others in faith. God has a way of coming to us and inviting us to faithfully follow, even if we are seemingly ill-equipped to do God’s work. Isaiah had no clue what to say to God’s people, and God provided a metaphorical angel to provide Isaiah the pure lips to preach God’s word and it didn’t matter if the people listened to Isaiah’s prophetic voice, what mattered is that Isaiah said yes to God’s call. Isaiah didn’t think he had what it took to obey that call and God provided him with what Isaiah needed. I didn’t have a clue about how I was going to pay for seminary, to get through Greek and Hebrew, and to pass 5 ordination exams. But God did.
There is a huge risk in responding to a call from God. Isaiah preached and no one listened. Isaiah preached and no one listened. He said, “here I am, Lord,” and ended up in prison and eventually killed. Paul said yes on the Damascus Road, he preached all over the region, ended up being imprisoned as well. Taking the risk and saying yes to God doesn’t mean an easy path and rose-tinted glasses. More often than not it brings hardship and disappointments; it brings challenges and missteps; and, and at the end of the day, God walks beside the risk takers every day. So it isn’t a lonely walk.
As I have reflected in recent days about my call one of the things that has bubbled up is that we all have a purpose in life. Bonhoefferr once said, that the intersection between our gifts and the world’s needs are what we are called to be and do. It doesn’t matter if we are young and starting out, at midlife, or in our later years, the need for purpose and meaning always lurks beneath the surface of our lives. In an affluent culture as we have today, it is easy to focus on salary, status, and material goods to the neglect of the deeper questions of meaning and significance in our lives. Why are we here? What difference does my life make? What’s the meaning of what I’m doing today, no matter my age or status in life? What can I do about the suffering in the world today?
In the year that King Uzziah died, Judah as a nation was in a time of national crisis. The Assyrians were poised to invade Israel after the 52 year reign of Uzziah and with the king gone, the nation was grieving, uncertain and Isaiah felt the weight of a nation on his soul. I can honestly say that the uncertain times we are currently living in within the US weighs heavy on many souls, mine included. I wonder if I have the courage to speak with conviction about what I see as Isaiah did years ago. For 40 years Isaiah lived out his call, his purpose, even though it brought misunderstandings, resistance and even rejection.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote the book, The Cost of Discipleship, and eight years later he was martyred in Germany during Hitler’s reign. In his book, he asked the question, What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does Jesus call us to do with our lives? For Bonhoeffer, the answer was that a life of discipleship involved dying to self, to our own will and desires, and becoming alive to God’s purpose and calling upon our lives. Bonhoeffer’s story is so compelling because he lived what he spoke, and for him the call eventually led to his death.
It’s not easy to live out one’s calling. The message and choices we make in living out our call may bring more challenges than it is worth at times. Yet, the calling isn’t about transforming the lives of others or even a nation, it is about the transformation that occurs in our lives when we say, “Here I am Lord.” For most of us God’s call is not some dramatic new life or extraordinary sacrifice. Rather, God’s call is to live out our faith in our daily work, families and community. We are called to serve God through the ordinary lives we live each day. Our calling is to see what we do each day as God’s work – whatever the work whether it is running a company, knitting a scarf, handing out bags of food, serving communion, being a grandparent, or working in a hospital – it’s important to see our work as an expression of our faith. In our work, we serve God by serving others. That awareness changes the way we do our work, the way we live our lives, and the way God is experienced in our world every day.
God is calling each of us to serve and to do so with purpose. Bonhoeffer said, “I’m here for a purpose, and I only hope I may fulfill it.” What’s your purpose? Where and what does God want to send you or have you do? To whom and to what tasks will God send you this week to give yourself to others in love. The Voice of God is calling, you, me, all of us, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go?” Can we say, “Here I am, Lord, send me? And will we go? With God’s help we can and we do – thanks be to God – amen.