“Answering the Call”
Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 5:1-11
God really went to town in creating this vision for Isaiah! The whole scene can be truly overwhelming to our modern ears. When we hear it though in Isaiah’s context it makes a lot more sense.
This vision from Isaiah is no different than many of the older biblical encounters with God. God came to the prophet in a vision when King Uzziah died. King Uzziah ruled for over 50 years****** and brought the kingdom to greater economic security and greatness than his predecessors. In addition to the anxiety that might be caused by his death, people surrounding a transition of power generally were filled with anxiety in the ancient world. Treaties and understandings that had been wrought through the work of this king may or may not be honored both by the heir and by those who originally garnered the agreements. Several commentators noted that this is the kind of turmoil we would understand when the bombs dropped on pearl harbor, or after the assassination of JFK, or September 11th. Or now…during a pandemic.
The year king Uzziah died wouldn’t have been a cakewalk of a year. It would be filled with individual and societal turmoil, anxiety, and grief. For Isaiah, the world was a landscape that operated in a monarchy. The language of Kings and temples, attendants and angels, covered faces and heads all made sense, because well why wouldn’t the Creator and Ruler of all things have all the power, majesty, and honor that would be due a king? In most stories in the bible when God appears to followers – God meets them in a way they can comprehend. God meets them in a context that makes sense to their understanding of the world. So for Isaiah the vision of God’s visit and calling to him was all oriented around the language of kings and temples. For Isaiah – God’s grandeur is magnified and understood best in this context.
All of the visions and images of God or God’s angels speaking directly to us may still seem a little strange. Most of us don’t have visions of God that look like this. I’d guess that many of us don’t think we know of anyone who has experienced a vision like this one. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened, but we don’t tend to talk too much about those experiences because they seem so foreign to us. Yet in the right space and the right times in our lives God still speaks to us in powerful ways. Through this text though we are reminded that God comes to us – right where we are and speaks to us in a way that we can understand.
The purpose of Isaiah’s vision was to call Isaiah to a new relationship with God – a relationship that would be incredibly difficult and painful for Isaiah. Isaiah, so moved by God’s presence and splendor, agreed to answer God’s call – without even knowing what he was agreeing to do. To be really honest – the task that Isaiah agreed to do – wasn’t one that I think any of us would want to take on because his words would fall on ears that would refuse to listen and be seen by eyes that would refuse to see God’s presence.
Isaiah wasn’t ready for the task – IMAGINE being called to proclaim doom and gloom! God enabled him to undertake the task anyway. We may think of these doom and gloom proclamations as a condemnation, that the people thought God was going to zap some people with a divine lightning bolt as punishment but in truth, we only electrocute ourselves…Isaiah’s words are like the warning signs outside of high voltage areas, depicted in pictures, words, and bright colors…everyone should get the consequences of them, and yet here we sit.
In some ways the landscape of Isaiah’s world and our own are eerily similar.
Our world needs to hear the truth of the divine’s love, and we need to act and live out this truth. Our story has been co-opted, twisted, and skewed by people who want to make political, personal, and financial gains on the backs of other people, at their expense, and to cause their downfall…and yet we proceed into the high voltage areas again and again….
Yet we know that all people are inherently children of God, and we are called, at our core to LOVE.
The world we live in, is the empire. Wherever we are in life, the simple reality that we live in the US, means we are part of the empire. Put another way by a commentary, we want to see ourselves as Jedi knights, but in reality, at best we are sketchy rebels, and at worst we are Sith Lords.
The task in front of us, it’s pretty daunting, it may fall on ears that are unwilling to hear and eyes unwilling to see, on people unwilling to acknowledge their own destructive behaviors…but we are called to go and share this witness…even in the face of overwhelming odds. And we wonder how in the world do we do this…how do we get one another to back away from the high voltage area, how do we help the ones who have been hurt and maimed by these choices, what can we do?
I read an article from a minister recently about answering God’s call to ministry. She made the powerful assertion in it that when we say yes to God – sometimes we’re under the impression that the task will be something we are ready to undertake. Yet many times the exact opposite is true. She asserted that God doesn’t always call the equipped, but that God indeed equips the called. God’s call to us is not often an easy task.
So, in the face of terrible odds, in the face of unwilling hearts, in the face of danger and peril, we must remember a few things. ALL PEOPLE ARE GIVEN THE DIVINE IMAGE AND IMPRINT OF GOD, AND ALL PEOPLE DESERVE LOVE INCLUDING OURSELVES. Even when they cannot hear it, or see it, or believe it, even when they do not give back the love that is offered. And in this empire…where the lines are constantly changing, and the risk is often growing, I can’t tell you exactly what your call looks like or how it will happen, or what you will do, but I promise you that remaining silent, inactive and on the sidelines is not how it will look….
God is calling you -just as you are – and God is ready to give you exactly what you will need to go on this journey. You’ll never be more ready than you are right now.
So, when are you going to say – Here I am God – Send me!!!??? Amen.