Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
January 12, 2003

"Called and Sent"
Preached by The Rev. Dr. Mark Smutny

 

Scripture:  Isaiah 6:1-13; Mark 1:14-20

(1) 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. (2) 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. (3) And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."  (4) The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.   (5) 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!" (6) Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. (7) 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."   (8) 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!"   (9) And he said, "Go and say to this people:  'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.'' (10) 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." (11) 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; (12) until the LORD sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. (13) 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.

- Isaiah 6: 1-13

(14) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, (15) and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (16) As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. (17) And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people.' (18) And immediately they left their nets and followed him. (19) As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. (20) Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

- Mark 1: 14-20

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?  And I said, "Here I am; send me."

As we do every year this time of year, in a few moments we will ordain and install church officers.  As we begin another calendar year, the 2003rd of the Christian era, the 128th year of PPC's journey of faith, the 46th decade of the Presbyterian/Reformed movement in Protestant Christianity, we will say vows, pray prayers and entrust the care of our church and  spiritual well being to people who we have elected to lead us. 

More importantly, we believe they will lead us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit in ministries: of care and compassion, of finance and facilities, of governance, teaching, and mission, and ministries of justice and vision.

In a few moments through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will lay our hands on a dozen people, because we are going to do again what has been done here at PPC for 128 years, what has been done through time even back to the calling of the first disciples; what has been done even before that . . .

• way back, more than 27 centuries, to the time of the calling of the prophet Isaiah in the seventh century before Jesus;

• way back, before the baby Jesus was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes;

• way back, to the time when Isaiah in the face of the world's deep need heard a voice calling "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  And he said, "Here I am; send me."

In a few moments, like every time since the dawn of human consciousness,  when humans first apprehended the presence, majesty and power of the Almighty, we are going to ordain and install leaders, servant leaders, servants of our Lord, to care, manage and lead.  That's what we will do because we believe in some way God has tapped those whom we elected on the shoulder, whispered in their ears and thundered from the mountaintop.  "Whom shall I send and whom shall go for us?"

We will do so because we believe God has called.   And they, and we, have said, "Here I am send me."   For those of you who are to be ordained and installed that may sound awesome, imposing and frightening.  Join the company.  To stand in the presence of the Holy and to know one is called is a humbling, terrifying, and purifying event.  "Woe is me.  For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Everyone has a call - everyone, whether they are conscious of it or not.  Everyone has a call, and maybe several throughout life and through the end of life. Everyone.  The challenge is always first to discern it and then to act on it.  Discerning call for many is the hard part.

If Frederick Buechner has it right and call is "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need," then the first challenge is to figure out what gives you deep gladness, since the world needs everything.  What gives you deep gladness?  For some, that's an easy question.  For other's it's hard.  What gives you joy, the deep joy of knowing that your gifts are being fully expressed?  What gives you energy so that your intelligence, imagination and love are fully engaged? 

My older brother Greg, I am convinced, was destined to be a junior high school sports coach.  He was called to coach basketball, football, and baseball, and almost anything that involves hitting, kicking, shooting, and running with a ball, and organizing small armies of kids into partial coherence, running around in multiple directions and competing.  Competing - that's the key to understanding my brother.  I know this because as a kid he had the whole neighborhood from miles around organized into one form of pick up game or another all the time.  He dreamed it, wrote about it, talked about and drove me crazy with it because I wanted to read when I was the only team member for miles around.  "Leave me alone, I want to read," I would say to him.   "I want to walk through nature and contemplate great truths."  I would oblige him occasionally.  I'm competitive, very competitive. 

Greg was destined to coach sports, but that's not what he does.  He produces marketing and promotions brochures.  He's fairly good at it, but it doesn't bring him joy.  It's a little sad.  I don't believe he has yet found the place where his deep joy and the world's deep need intersect.

On the other hand, yesterday, forty of us celebrated Bettie Pfaff's 75th Birthday.  The thing that brings Bettie Pfaff joy, deep joy, in addition to family, friends and church, is beauty.  Her artistic hands and eyes can take simple things and turn them into a delight for our eyes.  Twigs and leaves, petals and ribbon are miraculously transformed into art so that we can see God's beauty in a table decoration or a bouquet delivered bedside to one of us recovering from surgery, stroke or loss.  

The world's deep need is for beauty.  God knows we need more beauty.  Bettie's deep gladness comes through the good gifts of her artistic touch and her artist's eye.  The place of her deep gladness and the world's deep need is her call.  What is yours?  How shall God send you?

In a few moments we will ordain and install church officers.  When we do so, during the liturgy we will hear the words of the Apostle Paul: 

"There are different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives them.  There are different ways of serving God, but it is the same Lord who is served.  God works through different people in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves God's purpose through them all.  Each one is given a gift by the Spirit to use it for the common good."

We hope that the people you have elected will be able to identify their gifts for the common good.  We'll help them.  We'll align the right people for the right tasks so that the work of our common ministry at PPC will be more effective and those doing the ministry will receive great joy.  Our hope is that they will find the very thing they were gifted for.  That is our hope.  We want your church officers to discover joy not drudgery in their Christian ministry through PPC.  We want them to discover the place where their deep gladness meets the world's deep need.  PPC is part of the world and we have deep needs.  God knows we have deep needs.

Of course, there won't always be joy.  Sometimes there will be joy and sometimes there won't be.  Sometimes the world needs us to do those things that do not necessarily bring joy but are, nonetheless, the right thing to do.  Sometimes a parent is called to set aside work that brings joy and fulfillment and instead comfort a frightened child whose heart is breaking.  Sometimes a co-worker needs to be confronted when he is abusive or when she is unethical.  Sometimes a church must embrace conflict in order to seek justice and find peace, sometimes our call is to do what is right, not what is popular. 

Sometimes God calls us to do those things we are afraid to do and we run. God has a way of snatching us back.   Sometimes when we are most scared God can use us even more powerfully. 

The prophet Isaiah certainly knew this.  Called and sent,  Isaiah needed some marching orders.  What we call a commission.  When he found out what his commission was and how hard it would be, his instinct was to run the other direction.  His commission was not pretty.  He was told by God that he would need to go and tell his people about some hard realities.  His nation would soon be obliterated by the Assyrian empire and only a few of them would survive the impending Holocaust.  Only a burning, smoking stump would be left.  To add insult to injury he would need to tell them that it was their fault.  God told Isaiah that to tell this grim message to the people would be for their own good.  They were being purified. 

Isaiah had a pretty good idea this message wouldn't go over all that well.  It would not bring him great gladness.  I imagine as he lay awake at night, praying that it wouldn't be so, he probably thought about slipping away in the dark.  But the world's deep need, needed him. God needed him.  So he went to judge and tear down.

There was not all judgment in his prophesy.  There was a glimmer of hope.  Once Israel was purified in the fiery furnace of war, a small green shoot would emerge from the blackened stump.  The survivors could then build a nation based upon a new relationship with God and neighbor, rooted in justice, mercy and integrity.  Isaiah's calling was not all joy, but it was the right thing to do.

Some callings are not all joy, but they are calls nonetheless.  They are the right thing to do.  The world needs prophets who say to their boss, "I'm staying home to love my child.  She needs me."  Or who say to their pastor, "No I won't chair that committee, I need to find some balance in my life."  Or who say to their denominational governing bodies "No, I won't stop agitating, I disagree with a denominational policy that fosters hate, exclusion and fear.  'Here I stand, I can do no other'."

In this era of leading by poll taking, it is sometimes hard to imagine that leaders would ever tell us what we don't want to hear, but occasionally they do.  Yesterday, the Republican Governor of Illinois told his people and his legislature what they couldn't bear to hear when he commuted every death row inmate to life in prison without the possibility of parole because, in his best judgment,  the Illinois justice system was unjust.  Sometimes courage happens and when it does, in time, we call such people prophets.  When they are prophesying, we usually call them traitors or turncoats or worse. 

Being called and sent sometimes leads to crosses.  Maybe every authentic call leads to the cross.  Jesus' call did.  Fortunately, we gather at his cross and his death and resurrection give us new life and a commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."  His commission to us undergirds every one of our calls.

We are his disciples, disciples of his cross.  Some are ordained, some are not, all are called whether we  perceive our call or have yet to perceive it.  Whether we are a student trying to figure out what happens after graduation, or a widow or widower trying to figure out what do after the death of our mate; whether we are four or 104, or whether we are a community of disciples called Pasadena Presbyterian Church, all of us have a call.

Here is our call:

• to pray for a world dreamed of in the mind of God;

• to work for justice and compassion;

• to bring healing from hurt, and integrity from falsehood;

• to bind up what is broken, and loose the bonds of oppression;

• to proclaim and practice the Gospel of love, the hospitality of Jesus and the Apostles' faith that in both life and death and life beyond death, we belong to God.

In a few moments, we will ordain and install.  Let it be a time of renewal and re-commitment for all of who hear the shoulder tap, the still, small voice, the thunderclap from on high, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?"  And all of us together called and sent say with courage , "Here I am send me."  Amen.

(c) Copyright 2003 by Mark K. Smutny.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.