"Send Me" Isaiah 6:1-8
June 7, 2009
Metairie, LA.
The flamboyant story of Isaiah's call is to ordinations what 1 Corinthians 13 is to weddings. "And now faith, hope and love abide but the greatest of these is ......"
Isaiah's call to be a prophet of Israel is a fantasmagoria of sight and sound. The Lord seated high and lofty on his throne- the hem of his robe, only the hem mind you, fills the temple. Then the creatures, can you imagine, scriptures do not say how many, but lots I'd guess. And each has 6 wings- 2 wings to shade their faces from God's glory, 2 wings to modestly cover their feet, 2 wings to hold them aloft. What a grand vision- the seraphs circling around the Lord? I wonder, what size were they? I've always thought human size, but of course, they might be tiny as hummingbirds.
The sounds: holy! holy! holy! A grand chorus of magnificent flying seraphs. Then the sounds of the shaking of the foundations of the temple- terrifying if you have ever lived in earthquake territory. No wonder Isaiah shrank before the scene, declaring his sense of unworthiness. And thus begins the confirmation of Isaiah to be a prophet of God to the people of Israel.
He will bring the word of God for 66 much quoted by Jesus chapters...woes and blessings both. Remember, his lips literally burn with God's words.
For centuries this text has been used at ordinations of priests and the format of
*praise
*confession*
*announcement of forgiveness
*sending forth to one's call
determine the shape of Christian worship even today.
This week I was asked by a visiting work camper from Ohio- a librarian who spent hours in our gym sorting through donated books to be distributed to our schools, she asked me about my call to ministry. People do ask ministers frequently about the experience of being called. And the question does prompt me to remember my initial understanding of God's call to me. I am just as glad that my own call was not so glamorous as was Isaiah's and that the ordination ceremony of the U.C.C. is not so grandiose as the Episcopalians- bishop all decked out with fancy props. Not really my style.
I can also say that my call has felt like a series of calls, a journey with many surprises. I can promise you that when hands were laid on my head in a colonial Congregational Church in Connecticut, I had no idea what I was in for- and that is just as well. I assure you that I had no plans to pastor a new church in the mountains of Gunnison or a hurricane recovery church in Louisiana.
How Isaiah got called does seem glamorous, but the glamour does not last for long because right away God tell Isaiah to condemn the government for it's failure to take care for the needy, for it's exploitation of widows and orphans, and immigrants.
Isaiah is not the only prophet to condemn the government of the nation. Rev. Jeremiah Wright did much the same and it was a harsh response that followed. But if we judge prophets by Isaiah's standards, most of God's Christian ministers do not measure up. We are more inclined to inhabit the other roles of ministry- sacramental work like communion and baptism, leading worship and pastoral counseling. Much safer than getting into prophetic announcements of God's anger with government officials for their self-serving ways.
Although the Isaiah text does shpe the notion of ministry, it is not to ordainded ministry that most Christians are called. As a Re-formation church we claim the priesthood of all believers. Any minister worth their salt that you'd want to have around for awhile ought to be turning the tables on the question- how did you receive your call? All of us who have been ordained need to resist any grandiosity about our own call and rather ask each of our congregants- "What is your call? Right here, right now? Not as a way to manipulate people into volunteering for church duties, but rather as a true conversation about the identification and employment of the spiritual gifts of the congregation.
A theologian has said that a calling is when the world's great need is met by a person's great desire to share their gifts. Some lay ministers are obvious, like Pam and the Health Ministry Team, like Jordy and his merry band of musicians, like Janet and the bellchoir. Some ministries happen outside the walls of the church buildings- like our gathering and distributions of books to be shared with school children. Some ministries are almost invisible- the ministries of Edwina and Muriel and Sharon who prepare our communion table. Some ministries the pastor never even knows about- actions of kindness and mercy prompted by Christian hearts, extended all over our city at homes, at schools, at the shop, on the streets.
Ordained ministers come and go. But the ministries of the church, thank God, are not dependent upons the pastor. The ministries of the church, rather, are performed by the members. The role of the pastor in all this is really to proclaim and equip and encourage the members to recognise their calls.
So I ask- what worthy ministries are we performing right now? To what ministries does God call us as we recover and thrvie in this recovering city? Part of our preparation for callling a permanent pastor to Good Shepherd will include asking these questions. To what ministries is Good Shepherd called and what sort of pastor shall we call to support these ministries?
Think on that, dearly beloved. And let the conversation be blessed by God, our Creator, Jesus our Liberator, and the Holy Spirit, our Sustainer, God in three persons, blessed Trintiy.
Amen.
