God Calling...Who Me?
God Calling…Who Me? by Rev. L. John Gable
January 10, 2021
If you have had the opportunity to read the January edition of the Chimes, or were able to join us in worship last week, you may recall that we are on the front end of what will essentially be a year-long sermon series based on 50 Great Passages of Scripture which I have gleaned and compiled through the years. I started with over 160, so you can be thankful that we’ve narrowed it down to just 50! This morning we are going to look at two of the great “call” passages in Scripture which remind us that the God who “comes to us” in the birth of His Son and in the continued indwelling of His Holy Spirit, is also the God who “calls us”, even us, into relationship with Him and service in His Kingdom purposes.
We could spend nearly a year looking just at the ways God has spoken and called out the great heroes and heroines of our faith as the writer of Hebrews beautifully does in chapter 11, the so called “faith chapter.” We could speak:
Of Abraham and Sarah, with whom God established a covenant, calling them to parent a great nation, promising that they would be “blessed to be a blessing.” That covenantal promise and call was then extended to their off-spring, the so-called Patriarchs: Isaac and Jacob and Joseph.
Of Moses to whom God spoke out of a burning bush, calling him to lead that nation out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt to the freedom of a Promised Land. It was to Moses that God first gave His name: “I AM WHO I AM.”
Of King David who led this nation to its high water mark and was called a man after God’s own heart.
Of the prophets: the well-known men who spoke God’s word of truth to a wayward people, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the lesser known prophets like Obadiah and Nahum and others who were also faithful to God’s calling.
We could tell the familiar stories of the call of the disciples who dropped their nets and followed at the simple invitation of our Lord, and of the dramatic conversion of the Pharisee Saul on the road to Damascus.
Scripture is filled with wonderful “call” stories, so I will continue to encourage you to participate in our year-long discipline of Read Through the Bible and it’s not too late to start (you can create a list of your own 50 great passages), because ours is a God who “calls” us still, the likes even of you and me, to Himself and His purposes.
This passage telling of the call of the prophet Isaiah was read at my ordination service 38 years ago. It is a remarkable scene, both worldly (In the year King Uzziah died) and heavenly (I saw the Lord, sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of His robe filled the Temple). Isaiah was given a vision of the throne room of God which is very reminiscent of something we might read in Revelation. The Lord seated on His throne, with seraphs (heavenly beings) in attendance above Him, each with six wings; using two to cover their faces (unable even to look at the Holy One they serve); two to cover their feet and two used for flying. These heavenly beings called to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” What a remarkable glimpse Isaiah is given, and gives us, in to the glories of Heaven, the glories of being in the very presence of God.
Have you ever wondered what you would do, what one day you will do, as you stand in the presence of God? Isaiah gives us a very good response –pure awe! I envision him falling to his knees or even laying prone on the floor at His feet, fully aware of his unworthiness of being in the presence of the Holy. Before a Holy God a sinful person cannot stand.
Years ago I remember a conversation our family had as to what we thought we might do if/when we found ourselves in the presence of the Lord. Most of us said we would do what Isaiah did, fall flat on our faces in worship, but I vividly remember my father saying, “I would shake His hand and say, ‘Thank you, Lord!’” Another good response.
But Isaiah’s first realization is the recognition of his own sin and brokenness. Rather than thinking, “This is great! I can’t wait to tell my friends about this”, he knows that he does not deserve to be there! He cries out “Woe is me! 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!” In the brightness of the light we see the darkness and stains of our lives. This is why we open our worship services with a prayer of confession. As we come in to the presence of a Holy God we confess our sin, our fallenness, our uncleanness; not in order to beat ourselves up, but in order to be cleansed by the gracious forgiveness of God.
Listen again to Isaiah’s telling: just as he was confessing his unworthiness of being in the presence of the Holy God, he says, “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.” Acting on God’s behest, this heavenly being burned away Isaiah’s sin, cauterized his wound. Friends, in a very similar way, in response to our honest prayer of confession, we hear the glorious good news: In Jesus Christ you are forgiven! Not because of who we are or anything that we have done, but because of who God is and all that He has done for us. Not because Oscar or I have spoken a rote liturgical response over you, but because together we are claiming the promise of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!
Now, all of this is prelude to the call which Isaiah received. He hears the Lord, saying “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” That’s the call, that is the invitation of Lord, and Isaiah, now cleansed and empowered, responds, “Here am I, send me!”, not because he was now able but because he was available, not because he thought he could do whatever it was the Lord was asking of him on his own power and ability, but because he knew the Lord could and would work through people like him who were willing, and the Lord said, “Go!” Cleansed by God’s forgiving act, Isaiah was now able to speak for God to His people. I pray to be like Isaiah, not just for myself, but for us, His Church.
This morning, in any normal year, any non-pandemic year, we would be ordaining and installing new elders and deacons. That service will take place, still virtually, at our regularly stated Session meeting on January 19th. Please pray for our new church leaders.
I think I can speak for each of them as they assume these new offices in saying that not a one of them feels up to the task. I can almost hear them saying, and actually have heard some say through the years, “Who am I to do the work I am being asked to do, by the church, by God? If only they knew me as I really am they never would have asked me to serve in this way.” And yet, called they have been.
The call process in the Presbyterian Church for pastors, elders and deacons is very clearly defined. It is a two-dimensional call, both vertical and horizontal. One must feel both called by God and that call must then be affirmed by the people, the congregation. Either one of those without the other is insufficient. So in our call process our nominating committee prayerfully seeks to discern who we believe is both gifted to serve in these respective offices and who God might be calling to serve in these particular ways. In extending the invitation to serve we ask those being asked not just to consider their own willingness and ability but also to pray for God’s sense of calling. Our invitation sounds something like this: “You have been called and nominated, are you willing to serve?” And their response is, “Yes, with God’s help!” This is the response of a humble and willing heart. This is our response to God’s calling, not just as pastors and church officers, but as followers of Jesus.
For some, God’s call in their lives is very specific. At an early age, middle school to be exact, I felt God’s call to be a pastor and I thank God that that call has been confirmed for me over and over again through the years. However, I have known many through the years who have had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and the first thing they think they have to do is become a pastor. Not so! Perhaps for some, yes, and they have, but not all. Perhaps what God is calling you to do today is the very same thing you were doing yesterday, the only difference being today you are doing it with an awareness of His presence and for His purposes. Recall Brother Lawrence who as he washed dishes in a monastery wrote, “What I did previously for myself, now I do for the Lord.” We can say the same.
We read in Matthew’s telling that Jesus’ call to the disciples was remarkably open-ended, simply “Come, follow Me!” and with that they dropped their nets and followed. Did no one stop to ask, “Where are we going? What will we be doing? What should I bring with me? When should I tell them I’ll be back?” All important questions to be sure, but not the most important. In response to God’s call our only essential response is “Yes, with God’s help.”
Friends, the question I ask with you today is, “What do we need to do to ready ourselves to hear God’s call?” He is still in the calling business, you know. We see evidence of that every day, not just to missionaries who feel called to go to far-away places or to would be pastors who enroll in seminary classes, but in faithful followers who commit themselves to “doing for the Lord today what they previously would have done for themselves.” Faithful followers who seek to live as Christ’s representatives in everything they do, serving His purposes right here, in very particular, at times, very mundane and uninspiring ways: speaking truth, showing love, doing justice, caring for the least, the lost and the lonely, all in the name of Jesus.
So, consider this question with me, what do we need to do (individually and collectively) to ready ourselves to hear God’s call? What sin do we need to confess, personally and corporately? What encumbrance do we need to lay down or let go of? What brokenness needs to be bound or wound needs to be cauterized to better enable us to hear and respond to God’s call?
Because they heard and responded to God’s call:
An aged Abraham and a barren Sarah parented a great nation which came to be called the people of God.
Moses, despite his inabilities and uncertainty, led that nation out of the bondage of slavery to the freedom of the Promised Land.
Isaiah spoke words of challenge and comfort to that same people in exile and more clearly than any other spoke of the promised coming of the Messiah.
The disciples, that meager band of 12, one of whom would fall away, were charged with the task of evangelizing the entire world, and they set out to do it.
The now converted Paul was instrumental in that effort as he preached the Gospel throughout Asia Minor, into Europe, and eventually to our hearing today.
So, what of you and me? What is God asking of us? Nothing more and nothing less than to be His witnesses. To be Jesus’ followers. To be Kingdom seekers; Kingdom workers; Kingdom builders, Kingdom leaders; in every word we speak, every thought we think and action we take, not just in here, but out there, in our places of influence at home and work and school, in this community, across the nation and around the world.
God is calling. Who me? Yes, you!