Isaiah 6: 1-8 May 20, 2008

Bible Study Reflections—May 20, 2008

A number of folks have expressed regret to me that they are unable to attend the men’s bible study that happens on Tuesday mornings. So, I have decided to sit down immediately after the study and conversation to record some of my thoughts and some of what transpired for all the members of the congregation, and maybe even beyond.

We read Isaiah 6:1-8, which is Isaiah’s call to ministry as a prophet. First we looked at what I phrased the “anatomy of the call.” In this piece of scripture (I would recommend that you read it) we see Isaiah move from awe to a sense of unworthiness to being cleansed to being willing to serve. We see that his call came to him in the year that King Uzziah died, which was in the year 742 B.C. Isaiah is specific about the time period because he wants to locate God’s call, God’s work, in history. Next we read that Isaiah is given a vision of God’s presence, which fills him with awe. In God’s presence he cannot help but to feel the great gap between his life and God’s, which leads him to say, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…” In God’s presence there needs to be those moments when all we can do is drop to our knees, when all we can do is confess, when all we can feel is overwhelmed by the great gap between us and God. Of course, there also needs to be moments of great intimacy, great tenderness, great comfort, but let us never forget that our God is also an awesome God. How we hold onto this awe and this tenderness is one of the great paradoxes of being faithful people. Next we read that one of the Seraphs (these were God’s attendants) took a live coal and touched Isaiah’s lips, thereby purifying him, cleansing him. Think about that a moment. Where might you need the tongs of fire placed on your life or your relationships or your work to cleanse and purify you? If we are not at times “burned” by God’s cleansing fire we are not putting ourselves in front of God deeply and honestly enough. And then, finally, God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah said, “Here I am; send me!”

After going through the text I then said that one of the worst things that has happened in the last four thousand years of the Judeo-Christians tradition is that this notion of the “call” has been isolated to a particular group of folks, like the priests or clergy or the reverends. This isolation is never what God intended. In Exodus 19:6 God calls all of his people (the Jewish people has just been saved and rescued from the Egyptian army) to be a “priestly kingdom.” All of them. Not just some. All priests. Peter then recasts this vision is his first letter when he says, “…let yourselves be built into a spiritual home, to be a holy priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:5) When we—clergy and laity—allow the “call” to be garnered or gathered or given away to just us, the clergy, both clergy and laity suffer. So does God’s vision for the church. This notion, this reality, of the “call” must not be ghettoized, but universalized.

I then asked the gentlemen to name a “call” in their lives. One guy spoke about flying people who had cancer to M.D. Anderson. Another spoke about leading a bible study for the homeless. Another spoke about teaching school right in our basement with the Archway kids. Another talked about how he married a woman with two kids, both of whom needed some extra care and support. Another…and another…and another….

I then asked the guys what they heard and one said, “I heard ordinary guys being willing to say ‘yes’ and then show up. What other kind of people are we all but ordinary? Ordinary and yet extraordinary at the same time. This is another of the great paradoxes of our faith.

And then, finally, I asked the men “why” spreading out the call to all of Jesus’ disciples was so important, and one fellow said, “Because this is way the that we bring God’s kingdom to this earth.”

When we isolate the “call” to just one group of God’s children or Jesus’ disciples we will not be able to live into the great work that God has for the church, which is not to “do” church, but to change the world. Our job as clergy is not to please or entertain or placate you, but to inspire you, challenge you, compel you, to hear God’s call upon your life. And then together we can be God’s salt, light, and leaven to this world.

After the Bible study I had three guys ask to come see me to talk about God’s call upon their lives. I had earlier said that if you don’t have some sense, some glimpse, some inkling of God’s call upon your life, you will be missing something that is very important to you, to the church, and to God.


And so, what is God’s call upon your life? Are you listening? Heeding? What have been the moments when you have felt awe, felt humble, felt cleansed, and then raised your hand and lifted up your heart to say “yes?” JWN