Commitment - "Gathering and Gospelling" Week 4

Numbers 6:22-26 

Isaiah 6:6-8

Have you ever been in a group where there’s a task to be assigned and no one volunteers? Silently each person is thinking, “Choose somebody else.”

In cartoons, everybody else takes a step back making it look like one person volunteered by stepping forward. Among friends, maybe you touch your finger to your nose, and the last one to catch on takes on the task. Maybe you draw straws. Rarely do we raise our hand and say, “Here I am, send me.

But in today’s text, when God asks aloud, “Who will I send?”, that is exactly how the prophet Isaiah responds.

Isaiah witnessed God’s glory and experienced God’s forgiveness. His sins were blotted out, and now he was ready to be dispatched on God’s behalf, to speak words of judgment and hope to God’s people.

 Often when we respond, “Choose somebody else.” we think we have good reasons:

I don’t have time.
I don’t know enough.
I don’t have experience.
I can’t do as good a job as Jack or Julie.

But when we are focused only on what we already know or already can do, we are making God small, forgetting that God is at work in and through us.

Isaiah wasn’t under any illusions that he was the perfect messenger, or that his words would always be welcomed. But he remained willing.

That is what God asks.

God creates each one of us, gives each of us unique gifts, and expects us to show God’s mercy and love to others. God knows us from the moment our inward parts were knit together in our mothers’ wombs to today, and God knows our sin but forgives us and loves us anyway. In relationship with God, we are asked to respond, “Yes, Lord, Here I am – send me!”

I never know exactly what saying “Yes” to God looks like, and I expect it looks different for each one of us.

Maybe God is placing a burden on you to reach out to neighbors here in our community. To care for children. To comfort the sick. Maybe you are being curious about vocation and listening for how you might serve God in your life. Maybe you are being called to a deeper commitment to prayer. Maybe you have gifts that are going unused or even undiscovered.

Isaiah invites us to listen and be alert for the moments in our lives where God is breaking into our routines. Pay attention to how God may be calling you to do something that challenge you.

Importantly, when we say, “Yes” to God, we are not alone.

First, God is present with us and goes with us. The Aaronic blessing from the Numbers text is one we often hear as our benediction before we are sent from worship into the world. The text provides a pattern for God’s movement, through us and into the world. As the psalmist writes, God keeps us from all evil, and keeps our going out and our coming in. (Ps. 121:7-8). God provides clarity and revelation as God shines God’s face upon us. (Ps. 67) and God graciously extends mercy to us. (Ps 123:2-3)

And, second, the community of faith surrounds us too. As we listen more closely for God’s calling on our lives, let’s be in conversation about what we are hearing from God. Let’s commit to thinking more about how God is moving here at Ascension and in our lives together. Where could God be calling us, beyond Sunday morning worship?

I don’t know what this “Yes” will look like either, but let’s discover where, together, you, and I, can say “Here I am, Lord; send me!”

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for keeping us near to you that we may know your light and love in our lives;

Thank you for you for not dealing with us according to our sin but with undeserved forgiveness;

Thank you for your abundant love and compassion.

Give us courage to respond to your presence in our lives and say, “Here am I, send me” trusting you will accompany us and equip us.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, your Son Jesus Christ.

Amen.