In the year that King Uzziah died. Or in the year that Diana died. Or Queen Elizabeth II. Or JFK. Or Elvis. Or in the year that someone you loved died…
Uzziah had been king for a long time: 52 years – and, for Isaiah, all the old certainties were suddenly gone. The same can happen to you and me. Something stops us in our tracks and, in the shock, we take stock of what we’re doing with our lives. We ask questions about the future and our part in it. Perhaps like Isaiah, we’re in a temple or in a church. Or maybe we’re clearing a home of someone else’s possessions. Or we’re on the shoreline looking into the distance out to sea.
And a voice says: ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’
And, despite ourselves, we may just hear ourselves say: ‘Send me’. And then we may just hear a voice in reply saying: ‘What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for you. Now go.’
A summons
The word ‘vocation’, or ‘calling’, is often used when we talk about those who yearn to be teachers or doctors or priests. It’s a summons to spend our lives doing a particular something. And often those who feel led to do that ‘something’ feel as much that the vocation has chosen them as the other way round.
Most of our lives are full of all sorts of voices calling us in all manner of directions and we have to figure out which to respond to.
I once went to a school re-union. The years had been kind to some and less generous to others! Most looked like their parents, including me. Some were doing exactly what I thought they would be doing. Their future seemingly inextricably mapped from birth. There were surprises too, though. People that you’d have least expected, doing the most extraordinary things. But others had lost their way and were doing work that was unfulfilling or making poor use of their gifts. And I wondered if they’d heard a voice but ignored it.
To Isaiah, the voice said ‘Go’. And for each of us we may hear many voices throughout our lifetime saying that word. And the question is: which do we follow, which do we obey with the way that we spend our lives?
No flying beasts
I can confidently say that most of us have not had the same dramatic experience as Isaiah. No flying beasts or smoke or earthquakes. A distinct lack of seraphs and burning coals.
Many of those that I know who preach on a Sunday got here from the quiet persistence of family and friends repeatedly tapping us on the shoulder. So, more of a ‘nudging’ than a ‘calling’. But there is a common thread with Isaiah. At some point in time, God’s plans intersected with our own particular sense of being and purpose.
And I believe that’s true of every single one of us here too. At some stage, God’s plans will intersect with our own sense of being and purpose. We just need to listen and to hear and to respond. For as Christians, we each have a vocation or ministry – and that might be at work, or at home as well as at church.
Passions and talents
Our vocation is where our passions and talents coincide with the world’s need. Going somewhere with our lives where we most need to go and where we are most needed. That’s the voice that we should listen to.
Maybe it’s something creative like baking cakes or painting pictures. Or perhaps it’s preaching, or caring for the sick, the hungry, the dying…
Or it could be getting on a bus and visiting the housebound. If you struggle getting out, then it might be sitting at home and praying for people. As John Milton said: ‘They also serve, who only stand and wait.’
Getting nudged
Yesterday I was helping at the Diocesan Vocation Day. There were people there who were absolutely certain about what they wanted to do next and looking for confirmation that it was the right thing to do. Others who just thought that maybe/perhaps they were on some sort of journey to somewhere – but after that the details got hazy…
Do you hear a call? Are you getting nudged? We each have a ministry: to be the hands and feet, the heart and the voice of Christ. He needs us. Because there are words of truth and healing that will never be spoken unless we speak them. There are deeds of compassion and courage that will never be done unless we do them.
A question of timing
Perhaps, like the disciples in our Gospel reading, following our call, our nudge, is all a question of timing. God’s timing.
Our passage in Luke is the exception that proves the rule to that famous quote that: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
They had fished all night and caught nothing. Dropping their nets again and again. Now they try one more time at Jesus’s request – and there are so many fish that they need help from another boat.
Maybe you’ve tried something before that you’ve always wanted to do, and it didn’t quite work out. Well, it might just be time to try all over again.
But whatever you do, ‘be Christ’ with whatever joy and gladness that you have, in whatever place that you’re placed, among whomever you are called to be with. For that is our destiny, our vocation, our calling, our nudging.
‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
What will you say, in response? Amen
‘Send me’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St Margaret’s, Heywood on 9th February 2025. It was based on Isaiah 6:1-8 and Luke 5:1-11.
References:
- Buechner, F. (2006). Secrets in the dark. HarperOne
- A shorter version of this by Ian appears in the current edition of The Preacher Magazine. Issue 196.