I’ll Take. . .YOU!
Isaiah 6: 1-2a, 3-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 5: 1-11
"I'll take ... Bruce."
As a kid growing up, those were some of my favorite words. I can remember so many afternoons on the open field behind our church when 15 or 20 of us boys would gather to play some sport or another. In the fall, it was football. Monday through Friday rain or shine ... 3:30pm ... we were there. On Sundays, we'd go to church in the morning, go home for a quick lunch and be back at 2:00 in time for kickoff. In the spring we'd switch to baseball, but the schedule remained the same - Monday through Friday after school, 2pm on Sunday.
And my favorite words on those afternoons were "I'll take Bruce." You know how it goes. In order to play the game, you have to choose up teams. The two captains stand off to one side while everyone else waits for their name to be called. And it's a nice feeling when you finally do hear your name. Out of all the players that are left to be chosen, for some reason, the leader of the team has decided that he wants ... YOU!
Scripture tells us that there is a Leader of another sort who is also in the business of selecting people to be on His team. But unlike the captains of the after-school warriors, he's not very picky about who he drafts. He invites anyone and everyone to join up with Him, to leave behind their old way of life, and to begin a new adventure with Him as the captain.
The name of this Leader ... is Jesus. And He's a pretty aggressive recruiter. By my count, there are 20 verses in the four gospels that report an occasion where Jesus directly says to someone : "Follow Me." But following Jesus isn't quite the same as playing on a sandlot baseball team for an afternoon. There's a whole lot more involved ... like your entire life.
All three of our readings today have a similar theme. They all recount individuals being called to the service of God. In the first reading, when the Lord said to Isaiah, who lived some 700 years prior to Christ’s birth, “Whom shall I send? He replied, “Here I am, send me.” Likewise, in the second reading, St. Paul recounts that after Jesus had appeared to many other individuals, he appeared to Paul himself. And finally, in the gospel, Peter is convinced Jesus is the Messiah after his boat is overwhelmed and his nets are splitting because of the number of fish he caught.
Each of these men was called in a dramatic fashion. A burning ember on the lips of Isaiah, Paul being knocked from his horse, and Peter having his boat almost sink under the weight of the fish he caught. These were dramatic moments. And if we look again at these very different experiences, separated by centuries, we will find two common elements:
First, there is repentance. You cannot experience something of God's holiness without knowing your own unworthiness. And so, Isaiah cries out that he is a man of unclean lips, Paul confesses that he is unworthy, for he has persecuted the Christians, and Peter falls to his knees before Jesus saying, 'Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man' (5.8).
Second, there is dedication to service. Isaiah accepts the challenge to be a prophet. Paul overcomes his sense of unworthiness to become an apostle and Peter accepts Jesus invitation to be a 'fisher of men'.
These are the hallmarks of true religious experience.
Calling, vocation, being a true prophet or a faithful disciple—that’s the challenge our three readings set before us today. The truth is, God has called each one of us. Maybe we didn’t hear his voice or experience some miraculous conversion, but let’s face it, neither did most other people. I don’t recall Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul ever revealing they had a miraculous calling from God. True, we may not consider ourselves in that league, but everyone has a call from God. Sometimes we don’t remember or don’t even recognize the call.
When I was called to the Diaconate, I didn’t experience any miraculous occurrence. I thought about the possibility, I prayed, and then decided this is what God wanted me to do. Those of you who are married had a call from God. And the young people here this morning, you too, just simply by virtue of you being born and baptized, have a call from God. You might not yet have realized it, or discerned what God is calling you to do, but I guarantee you, God has called you, has personally chosen you, to come follow him and to do great things in his name.
Being a disciple is not a matter of holy people searching for God, seeking out their assignment; it is about God looking for us, coming to us in the ordinary, everyday stuff of life, right where we live and love and work and worry and make ends meet. God may jump into our boat, or join us on our walk, or show up at work, or sit by us in class, or join us in singing a hymn, or speak to us as we read the morning paper. Few of us have such dramatic experiences as did Isaiah, Peter, and Paul, but we do have glimpses of God in the Eucharist, in quiet moments of prayer, and in the love, patience and sheer goodness of people around us. And it can be in these blessed moments that we too are invited to bring our hearts and our hands into the service of God.
The important fact is that it’s not the call the counts. It’s how each person, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, me, you, react to the individual calling we receive. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the good news that the kingdom of God was at hand. He asks us to go out into our world and do exactly the same thing. Jesus calls us to a life of conviction, to a life of urgency, to a life of reaching out with his message of love and forgiveness to all the people we encounter in life. He calls us to reach out to the lonely, to the hungry, to the sick, to the ones in prison, to the disabled, to the forsaken, to the needy, to all of those people who need to hear that someone indeed does loves them and that someone is Jesus Christ. Discipleship will not always mean leaving everything and taking off to follow Jesus. It might mean staying right where we are. It might mean casting out the same old nets, but in a new way, or for a new reason. It might mean doing something different with the fish we catch, or it might mean reorganizing the whole fishing business so that the priorities and goals aren’t focused on us, but centered Christ and on others.
Today, as always, Jesus continues to ask: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” The Lord still needs messengers, men and women who, like Isaiah, will proclaim the Good News of God's love in the temple, or who, like Paul, will announce it in foreign lands to the ends of the earth, or who, like Peter, will speak up for God in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces and bring family, or friends, or coworkers and business partners to know and follow the Lord. Today, as always, Jesus continues to ask: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And today, like the voice I heard on the playgrounds, and football fields and baseball diamonds of my youth, let us hear His voice say: I’ll take . . . YOU!
Today, as always, Jesus continues to ask: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” The Lord still needs messengers, men and women who, like Isaiah, will proclaim the Good News of God's love in the temple, or who, like Paul, will announce it in foreign lands to the ends of the earth, or who, like Peter, will speak up for God in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces and bring family, or friends, or coworkers and business partners to know and follow the Lord. Today, as always, Jesus continues to ask: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And today, like the voice I heard on the playgrounds, and football fields and baseball diamonds of my youth, let us hear His voice say: I’ll take . . . YOU!
