By the Rev’d Andrew Coyle

Season: Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13) | 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 | Luke 5:1-11

• Our first reading this morning, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, is the story of Isaiah’s call to the ministry of a prophet.
• And it’s a pretty dramatic and arresting story.

• Isaiah has a vision of God in the Temple;
  • God enthroned in grandeur.
• And so vast and awesome is the Divine Presence that the whole Temple is filled with the billowing skirts or hem of God’s robe.

• And God is attended by Seraphim.

• We don’t actually know what Seraphim are, but the hints we get from Scripture suggest that they have the apperance of fiery winged serpents.
• So that’s pretty impressive, right?

• And these Seraphim are calling to each other across the Temple which is filled with a dense haze of smoke from incense and offerings, and such is the  intensity of their voices that they shake the pillars of the doorways.

• And in the face of all of this Isaiah is undone.

• Facing the immensity of God, he is confronted by his own sense of unworthiness and also the apparent unworthiness and impurity of the whole nation of which he is a part:
  • “I am a man of unclean lips”, he says, “and I live among a people of unclean lips”.

• But then, Isaiah is purified by the touch of a burning coal to his lips, brought to him by one of the seraphim.
• In the waking world, this, undoubtedly, would have been excruciatingly painful, but within the dream-like setting of Isaiah’s vision it is a symbolic act, which removes from Isaiah his burden of guilt and sin and frees him to undertake his calling.

• And it is at this moment that Isaiah hears God’s words of call:
  • “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

• And Isaiah responds by saying,
  • “Here am I; send me!”

• And it is here, at verse 8 of chapter 6 of Isaiah, that our lectionary gives us the choice to stop reading.
• In the lectionary, the verses that follow, verses 9-13, are bracketed, meaning that reading them today is optional.

• And it’s a little bit like those “choose your own ending” adventure stories I read when I was younger because concluding our reading at this point, or going on to read what follows, shapes our imagination and our sense of the narrative in some very different ways.

• If we stop with Isaiah’s response – “Here am I; send me!” – we have a kind of “feel good” ending:
  • Isaiah has heard the word of God and despite his initial qualms he steps up for the task.
• There’s a sense of triumphant affirmation in his words.

• If we carry on, though, as we did this morning, and read the verses that follow Isaiah’s declaration of commitment, it may be that we get a slightly different vibe.

• Because what follows is actually a bit grim.

• It appears that the people to whom God is sending Isaiah will be unwilling to listen to Isaiah.
• They will not understand or comprehend his message because their ears are stopped and their eyes are shut and their minds remain obstinately closed.
• And the consequence of such obstinacy will be destruction, desolation and a sense of abandonment.

• God will send everyone away and the land will be empty and, according to the words that Isaiah hears,
  • “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.”

• It is a grim picture that actually reflects the political realities of the time.

• The kingdom of Judah lived constantly with the threat of Assyrian invasion.
• And, indeed, in years to come, the Assyrians will invade and destroy the northern kingdom of Israel.
• (Judah and Israel used to be one undivided kingdom but split into two separate kingdoms after the death of King Solomon, so with Israel destroyed, Judah must have felt like the Assyrians were pretty much camped on their doorstep.)

• Yet, God’s word to Isaiah offers a glimmer of hope to Judah after this vision of destruction.
• In the final words of our passage this morning, we hear how even though the nation shall be ravaged like terebinth or oak trees that are felled and burned, there will yet be a holy seed in those burned stumps.

• This passage from Isaiah is a story of call and it contains elements that are common to other stories of call in the our Scriptures, like those of Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and also of Simon Peter and those first disciples of Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning.

• It may even reflect back to us our own experiences of God’s call.
  • Isaiah says, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips..”
  • And Simon Peter says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

• And we might express a similar sentiment:
  • “Who am I to do this thing that I sense God is calling me to do?”
• And it is only by the grace of God that we, like the prophet, can say,
  • “Here am I; send me!”.
• That’s certainly been the case for me throughout my ministry.

• “Who am I to be doing this thing that God seems to be calling me toward?” is always a question that arises out of my uncertainty, or my concern that I may lack the necessary capacity to respond to God’s call.

• It was the case prior to my ordination, and it has been a repeated experience as I have moved from one setting of ministry to another.

• And here I should say that I am leaving this community not because of any unhappiness or because I have somehow been driven to leave by any other cause, but because I believe I have been called towards ministry in the parish of Onehunga.

• And while I have been called in this way, it is also the case that you who will remain have also been called into a new future.

• It may feel more like something that has been imposed upon you by circumstances rather than something that you might have been chosen(!), but our circumstances always offer us an invitation to discern God’s presence and the direction of God’s purpose in our lives.

• And it is true for us, you and me both, as it was for Isaiah, that the path ahead may come with some real challenges and uncertainties.
• Change always presents us with both opportunity and challenge and our personalities may predispose us more towards either anxiety or optimism in the face of those things.

• Yet, what is a constant for us as people of faith, as much now as it was for the people of Judah several millennia ago, is God’s gift of hope.
• This may have appeared as a tiny seed in the stump of a burnt tree in Isaiah’s time, but it comes to us now in the full flower of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

• The resurrection of Jesus makes known to us God’s power for life over death.
•  It is the promise that there is always hope and possibility and opportunity emerging from whatever circumstances we may find ourselves in, as desperate and dangerous, or as ordinary, as those circumstances may seem.

• Our experience, both as individuals and as a community, has taught us that our faith is not in vain.
• And although the work to come, for you and me both, may be uncertain and challenging, the gift of faith and hope that we have received will make it possible for us to say, with the disciples,
  •  “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, we will let down the nets again”.

• So, my prayer for us all in the time ahead is that we will find our faith and hope renewed and that God’s faithfulness to us will continue to embolden us in our ministries as we seek to proclaim the good news of God’s love in our communities.