God calls us! Usually when we least expect it
and almost always when we least want to hear it. Certainly this was true for
Isaiah, the eighth century B.C. Prophet, and the fisherman, Peter and our
sometimes friend, Saul of Tarsus, later to become Saint Paul.
Isaiah was worshiping in the temple and not
contemplating becoming a prophet, when he saw a vision of the Lord and heard
the angels proclaim: "Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of
hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." His response, "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!" When he heard the Lord ask, "Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?" he replied, "Here am I; send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8)
Peter, James and John were at work
cleaning their nets after fishing all night will little success, when Jesus
showed up on the shore to preach. The crowds were so large that Jesus asked to
borrow Peter’s boat to use as a pulpit. After the sermon, he sent Simon out,
reluctantly, to fish some more. The catch was so large, that Simon, awed by the
power of God, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord,
for I am a sinful man!" To which Jesus responded, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching people. When they had brought their boats to
shore, they left everything and followed him.” (Luke 5:1-11)
St. Paul puts God’s call to all of
us in perspective by reminding us that he persecuted the people of God and was
unfit to be an apostle, “but by Grace God called him.” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10)
Yes, by Grace God called Isaiah, Peter, Paul, you and me to respond to the
question, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" with the
answer, "Here am I; send me!"
With the help of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 3:5-11), I
want to shift metaphors from fishing to planting and finally to building. In
responding to the Corinthians who were arguing over whose baptism was more
important, Paul responds: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through
whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the growth. . . The one who plants and the one who
waters have a common purpose. For we are God’s servants, working together;
you are God’s field, God’s building.
According to the grace of God given to me,
like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building
on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one
can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation
is Jesus Christ.”
At different times in our lives we all plant and
water and harvest, and we all build on that one foundation that is Jesus
Christ. I leave you with two verses from a seventh century Latin hymn,
translated into English in the Nineteenth Century, which, I believe, will guide
us, the church, as by grace we are all called to water what someone else has
planted and to harvest what others have watered, and to build the church on
that one sure foundation.
“Christ
is made the sure foundation, Christ the head and cornerstone. Chosen of the
Lord, and precious, binding all the church in one; holy Zion’s help forever,
and her confidence alone
To
this temple where we call thee, come, O Lord of Hosts, today; with thy wonted
loving kindness hear thy servants as they pray, and thy fullest benediction
shed within its walls always”
We
are all God’s Children building on that sure foundation of Jesus Christ. As we
are called and blessed through Grace, may God use us to be a blessing to others
and to share God’s Grace with
God’s people everywhere.
God’s people everywhere.
