May 26, 2024
“Send Me”
Isaiah 6: 1-8
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Isaiah 6: 1-8
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. 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. And one called to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 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!”
Then 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[b] touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 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!”
Send Me Isaiah 6: 1-8
This week, I realized I have never preached upon this text which is surprising because it is one of my favorites. I love the description of the Holy, which is the author’s attempt to describe the mystery of God. I love the humble stature of Isaiah as he approaches the throne, knowing that after this moment, he will never be the same. I love the passion of call and the certainty of call which Isaiah shares as he embraces the person God calls him to be.
Knowing all these things, I can’t imagine why I have never preached upon this text. Maybe that is because I never took advantage of it when it pops up in the lectionary. Like me, for so many, this text is a favorite and most preachers gravitate to it when it rolls around in the lectionary. Or maybe the real reason I never preached on this text is that it was never the right time.
What I mean by this is that one of the lessons of faith which I am still learning is that there is our time and then there is God’s time. We can’t hurry along the process. We can’t force it to go any faster. What I have discovered after multiple attempts of trying to make God work on my schedule is that when the time is right, the calling becomes clear.
For that is exactly what happens for Isaiah. The nation of Israel was in a time of transition. Their king had died. There were more questions than answers. And in the midst of all that transition, in the midst of all that time of wondering what’s next, God calls forth a prophet. God calls Isaiah to go to the people and remind them of God’s justice, to remind them of their connection as community. God calls Isaiah forward and sends Isaiah out among the people of God to remind them of their calling to be the people of love and grace that God created them to be.
I know that I am not saying anything new about this particular passage whether I preached on it here at Midway Christian Church or not. Most of us are familiar with the call story of the prophet Isaiah. Most of us feel inspired by this text. And I think it is safe to say that for most of us, we are grateful Isaiah embraced his call because some of the passages from his book in the Bible are our favorite. Because they speak to our desire for justice in the world. Because they speak to the promise of God reminding us that this world will not have the last word. We like the fact that Isaiah embrace his call because what he wrote inspires us to dream and vision of a different world, a world where peace and justice reign, a world where the lion will lay down with the lamb, a world where the Beloved Community of God is embodied and available to one and all.
Yet, I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we also like the fact that that call went to Isaiah and not us. That we can read his call, we can read his words, we can read how he called for justice and peace, be inspired on Sunday mornings but then go back to our daily lives the rest of the week. We like the fact that Isaiah is God’s prophet and not us. Because this way, when we look at our world, when we see the brokenness and hurt which fills our world, when we see the oppressive systems doing their job by constantly dividing and separating, we have an out. We can simply say, that’s just the way the world is. There’s not much I can do to change it.
Now before we all get mad and start making plans to tar and feather the preacher after service, let me say this … .one of the reasons we love the call of Isaiah so much as people of faith is because he was just an ordinary person. We don’t know much about his background. We aren’t told that he was wealthy. We aren’t told that he came from a powerful family. We aren’t really told anything about him. All we know is that he had an experience with the Holy which changed him, which transformed. All we know is that he experienced the Divine in his life and that experience shaped his identity, shaped his mission, shaped his calling. Sound familiar?
Or let me put it this way…The word of the week for me was “pivot”. The commentators mentioned that this text describes a “pivot” moment for Isaiah. I have been working on a grant in which I had to describe why this is a “pivot” moment for Midway Christian Church…more on that at a different time. This week, the word “pivot” was in the water around me. And if anyone who knows me well, knows that I immediately equate that word with change. And I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t do change well. Yet there I was in prayer, in sermon preparation, in conversations with colleagues, talking about “pivot” moments, growing more and more anxious with each passing comment. Thankfully someone way more wiser than me, invited me to think about this as transition, to see that as an institution, as a person, as a community, as a nation, as a world, we are in a time transition and if there is one thing our faith constantly teaches us is that in times of transitions, God always calls forth leaders. God always calls forth prophets. God always brings forth the people to speak to the vision of God’s Beloved Community in their midst.
And this time is no different. We as Midway Christian Church are in a time of transition. We know who we are. We know where we are being called to go and be but we aren’t sure how we are going to get there. We know that all we have been doing over the last few years, things like participating in the Thriving Congregations initiatives through LTS, things like changing how we tell our story as people of faith, things like embracing our call to lean into the light as we work to strengthen relationships in our community and our world, all these things have laid the groundwork for this “pivot” moment for Midway Christian Church.
And in this pivot moment, God is calling forth the prophets who will speak to our community about God’s justice and mercy, prophets who will speak to our community about God’s love and grace, prophets who will speak to our community about God’s peace, reminding everyone that this world will not have the last word. God is calling forth prophets, and they are the people sitting next to you in the pews. God is calling forth prophets in this pivot moment for our community, for our nation and our world, and that person is the face you see in the mirror each morning. God is calling for the prophets for a time such as this. And it is our turn to respond and say… “Send me”. May it be so.
Amen.
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