The Call

 

God is calling. What are we going to do?

I remember one Sunday when I was an acolyte at my Episcopal church in New Hampshire, I was probably about sixteen years old. Our curate, Roger Senechal, was standing with me outside of the vesting room with still probably about 15 minutes before the service. He was a youngish man…I imagine he was probably in his early 30s, a nice guy who was starting off life in ordained ministry in our parish. And I was…well…I was a teenager. And as a teenager in the church, I loved to play a game I called, “Stump the Priest!” And Roger, being the newest priest on the premises, was a perfect victim. So I said to him,

“Father Senechal, how do you know you’re supposed to be a priest?”

I was being playful. And at the same time, I really did want to know what would motivate somebody to want to be a priest. The question was both a riddle and a real inquiry.

I think he was a little surprised by the question because it seemed to catch him off guard.

“Well”…he said…”you’re called by God.”

I smiled. “Oh, Is it a collect call?”

By this time, Roger…realizing he’d just walked into that one, laughed. “Yeah, it kinda is! You have to decide if you’re going to accept the charges.”

And I’ll just say: standing on this side of ordination, yeah, I learned the hard way.  

When God calls…we can either answer or not. And in our readings this morning, we see how God initiates the call with Isaiah.

The Reverend Billy Alford who was the preacher at my ordination service noted how the image of God before Isaiah was so huge, so grand, so incredible that there’s no way a person witnessing this scene could look away or ignore it. The Lord is on his throne…the hem of his robe…just the hem of the robe…fills the entire space. There is smoke billowing up and the heavenly chorus sings loud and proud:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts

If we imagine this…the loudness and the awesomeness of God in the Temple…it must have been just overwhelming. And just like last week’s prophet…Jeremiah…who was hesitating about his call because “Ah, Lord God I am just a boy…”, here we have Isaiah basically saying, “Oh, my Lord God…I’m stunned…this is incredible…and who am I to be here? Me, this one with unclean lips…coming from a people of unclean lips.”

It's interesting how we can put up such resistance to God when God comes calling. We can stammer like Jeremiah and say that we’re not ready to take a leap of faith, to take an action. Or we might be like Isaiah, quick to see our faults, our failings, our weaknesses. God can’t possibly be looking for us. We’re too awkward, we’re too short, too tall, too imperfect in our own imagination.

But it’s not like God is ignorant to all those things!

In fact, it seems to me that it’s when we acknowledge our shortcomings and our vulnerability that Jesus has a way of showing up.

That’s what happened to Simon Peter and the other disciples who had failed to catch any fish. Notice how Jesus starts by asking Simon Peter to take him out into the water so he could do his teaching to the crowd that was gathering. The fisherman obliges…and Jesus does his teaching and then asks Peter to lower his net into the sea…just as he had likely done hundreds of times before. Now, Peter has been at this all night before with no luck, and he’s dog tired and he knows there’s no fish to be caught. Still, almost as if to humor Jesus, he goes ahead and puts the net down in the water. And then there are so many fish that it practically capsizes the boat with weight of all that catch!

You would think Simon Peter would be ecstatic at this happy haul. But just like Isaiah, Peter’s first reaction is…”Oh, no. No, no, no. I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.”  He’s like Isaiah: this is too much!

But Jesus, sensing Peter’s self-doubt and worry, says to him that oft-repeated phrase in the Bible, “Do not be afraid, from now on you’re going to be catching people…not fish.”

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a curious thing that “fear” is the response to something God does that is truly remarkable and amazing. A prayer gets answered…an opportunity comes along in our lives to maybe do something different in our careers or pursue some interest at school…and suddenly we become like cats at an open door: do we go out and explore the back yard…chasing squirrels and butterflies, experiencing new things? Or do we retreat inside and hide under the bed afraid of those new adventures and wait until the next time the door gets opened when we think we’re more ready?

Having faith means taking risks and, in our case as Christians, trusting that Jesus is going to be there when we trip and fall. And it is a “when” and not an “if.” Human nature being what it is, we’re gonna make some mistakes as we venture out.

God seeks us out in our perfect imperfection, in those places where we don’t feel adequate to a task. And God calls us to meet others in their vulnerability and fears to be that Jesus-like figure who says, “Don’t be afraid. It’s OK. I’m here with you. Let’s walk together.”

Our faith calls us to take chances and risk to do things like help the kid who is struggling in school because of problems at home or the grandparent who can’t drive anymore. Or walking into that public meeting to speak truth to power when things are not right in the community and injustice persists.

God is calling us to respond with a “Here I am. Send me.” And Jesus is promising us “Do not be afraid. By helping others, standing for others…we are fishing for people.”