Hunger Calls!

Holy Trinity, June 7, 2009 (Isaiah 6:1-11) with John 3:1-17 b.g.

 

I will never forget the miracle of birth for each of our children. As the days just prior to their actual birth passed, the concern, the expectation, the excitement GREW. As each child was born, the respective nurse took that wee baby, gently and skillfully cared for her and then passed her to Martha. After Martha held that baby ever so close to her, nurturing her and sometimes even after the doctor checked that wee one over, then I, that baby's father was allowed to hold her.

 

And uniquely each time that I first held our new daughter, I was overwhelmed by the reality of the call upon my life to be her earthly father. No one else has this call upon their life for this child in the way that I do. As I thought and continue to reflect on that, I continue to be confronted by my own inadequacies. Initially there was my lack of experience as a father. But now over 20 years later my shortcomings are evident: my lack of patience, my capacity when frustrated to use cutting words, my lack of love at times for others and for God. As I first held those new born babies I realized that world view would deeply influence them. That has proved to be true. My perceptions and treatment of others has deeply impacted our daughters' lives. In addition my treatment of their mother and my interactions with them have impacted in untold ways their views of marriage and men. The call upon my life to be their father continues at times to be overwhelming. That call comes anew each day. Now each time that I hear the word, "Dad", or "Papa" I am reminded of it. Sometimes as I pick up the phone or sit across the table in a coffee shop from any of them to listen to their joys and struggles I am reminded of the great privilege and responsibility of that call. And whenever I pray "Our Father", I am reminded of my call as their earthly father to be an example for them of trusting God in all the realities of daily life.

 

Do you experience calls like this in your life? I wonder about this not only for you who are already fathers or mothers to specific children or who have been or who might be, but for all of us. What are the reasons for and the purpose of your life, individually and collectively?

 

When we experience such calls, they extend deeply into every area of our life. Such calls can permeate our jobs, our families, our friends, even lead us to interact with people we have never met, nearby or far away. As we receive such calls, they come personally, addressing us by name. We must know that it is a serious thing to refuse such a call! In fact, refusing such a call may put ourselves and/or others at risk. Such calls upon our lives are rarely ever only private.

 

Isaiah experiences such a call from God. Isaiah's call apparently is received in both visual and audible ways. He views the hem of God's robe. Near God, both Isaiah and the temple, one of the grandest buildings of that time, are dwarfed. Awe and fear wash over Isaiah. As he listens to the chant of the heavenly beings speaking of God, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY", Isaiah begins to profoundly realize just how different he and God are. Isaiah is not holy. God is holy. Now Isaiah begins to sense the deep chasm that exists between himself and God. Now Isaiah is aware of broken relationships with others. He sees how his own nation, chosen by God, has specifically disobeyed God in so much of its treatment of others, particularly the most vulnerable and oppressed. He and his people have not trusted God! To be sure Isaiah is also guilty. We can never totally separate ourselves from our nation, our culture. It is then, in this presence of the Holy One, with the dawning realization of his separation from God, that Isaiah cries out, "WOE IS ME, I AM LOST!"

 

It is then that the heavenly beings act towards Isaiah. One of them while holding a tong takes a burning coal from the altar of sacrifice and touches Isaiah's lips, declaring that Isaiah is forgiven! We don't hear of the pain this may have caused Isaiah. What we do behold is the reality of a new person arising within Isaiah. For now Isaiah hears God speaking in the heavenly realm. God asks the heavenly court, "Who will go for us to these people?" It is then that Isaiah is enabled to respond in faith, "Here am I, send me!"

 

So, I ask specifically, "Do we, individually and collectively, hear God calling us?"

 

Some people claim to have directly seen God. Amazing, maybe even wonderful. But most of us have not had that kind of direct experience. Still, I wonder, do we see God in Jesus of Nazareth? Do we hear God in the words that have come to us through those who have gone before us and shared their experience through the Scriptures? This morning we can listen to them: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Do we hear God speaking to us in these words, placing a call or perhaps even calls upon our lives?

 

Are we in any way like Isaiah, beginning to see ourselves as being encountered by God? Do we behold our brokenness with others, with God and with creation? Does this brokenness extend into this our congregation and even between our Church and other Churches? May God open our eyes to behold the brokenness that extends within our country between the "haves" and the "have-nots", between east and west, and sometimes between rural and urban, Anglophone and francophone, and other different ethic and religious groups in the Greater Vancouver Area. We do live in a broken world. We, like Isaiah are part of that brokenness, making our own contributions to it.

 

But God comes! God comes to our fractured world, not even just as an angelic being or beings. God comes daring to take on our human flesh. In Jesus God enters fully into our human fabric. He listens to, He feeds, He heals, He suffers, He, Himself, is betrayed and executed. Through all of this Jesus seeks to obey God the Creator's calls upon His life. To be sure there are consequences. Some of them are horrific. But there are also results!

 

Examining history we see that the consequences and blessings of obeying God's call upon our lives have continued. Being present in this place of worship gives testimony to that reality. At its best the Christian Church continues to strive to hear and to obey the call of Christ: to love God with all that we are and have and to love others from the reality of our own brokenness in the midst of the  brokenness of the world.

 

Do we hear that call emanating from God?

 

We can hear God's call upon our lives, today on Holy Trinity Sunday. In fact we can hear God's call upon our lives, each day. Sometimes that call is quite specific, individual. At other times it is definitively corporate. 

 

Our world is hungry, even starving. Many desperately need to know and experience the love of God in Jesus Christ manifested in physical, emotional and spiritual ways. We are called in our uniqueness to be the vehicles of this love of God in Christ. Our offerings, our gifts may not always be understood, nor received joyfully. But our call stands in the midst of the ongoing hunger. 

 

I am convinced that God continues to issue the call because God loves the world and even us. May we by listening and by the very grace of this wonderful, holy and loving God be empowered to respond with, "Here we are, here I am! Send us! Amen.