Isaiah 6: 1-8; Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-16; John 10: 11-18
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord—high and
lifted up. His train filled the Temple.”
Critical times open up to great opportunities. King Uzziah
was one of those few Kings of Judah who received a favorable judgment in
Scripture. His death was a profound loss. It put the future of the Kingdom at
risk and in the balance. Isaiah’s response was an appropriate one—he was found
in the Temple. He offered his nation’s future to the One who had chosen them as
the People of God. And God did not fail him.
Isaiah saw the Lord. He sensed his own unworthiness—even
perhaps his emptiness or the smallness of his prayers and his religious duty.
He was not looking, however, for what came next. “Who shall I send?” the
Almighty asked. And I believe Isaiah was shocked at what he heard coming out of
his mouth in response: “Here am I, Lord. Send me.”
In this short account are all the intricacies of call—circumstances
of change and transition; a heightened sense of the Holy presence of God; a
realization that God is addressing the situation; the surprising and rash
courage to say “yes.” And then comes the
daunting awareness that says, “What have I gotten myself into?” This seems to
linger even as God gives us assurance that our lips are clean and our words and
actions of service will come from God.
There is, in fact, no priesthood but one—the reconciling
ministry of Jesus Christ. This is something we all participate in—as
beneficiaries who are made one with God and one another through the Cross of Christ
made effective in baptism. It is also something we all proclaim as ambassadors
of God’s new nation and people. We also practice it in our relations one with
another. As an ordained priest, your very life invites us to bring this reality
to mind in our daily lives and interactions. Your call is to gather us at the
altar; to preside at the place of our reconciliation which we all celebrate; to
claim God’s forgiveness when we fail at all of this; to strengthen and
inspire—give direction and vision—to the mission God asks of us and works
through us; and above all to be a consistent presence in all of these things.
Recognize that to be present as priest is probably your greatest gift—which is
why the traveling is so important in this particular arrangement of yoked
parishes; and why, perhaps, it is in this constant showing up that you fulfil
the duty of the good shepherd more than in any other way.
Fred, you have come to this holy place in the year that our
beloved Susanne died. Like Isaiah you had nowhere else to bring your grief. I
know that you said: “Here I am Lord” the moment you stepped foot back in
Chariton from Wyoming. That has always been clear and for that we give thanks
to God. But now you know God’s call was upon you. It came into focus that
dreadful Saturday. And how great is its significance today.
So, here we are. I know that you will not be a hireling—taking
the easy way out of difficult struggles, or running at the first sign of danger
or resistance to the Gospel you preach or the Spirit life you seek to
encourage. God touches your lips; God guides your mission. God is the Good
Shepherd to whom you have offered your incarnate being. And so to all of you, I
say, if Fred is not to be a hireling, don’t behave as someone who has hired a
priest! This priest is no hireling; nor are you hirers even if you do
compensate his ministry. Employer/employee is not the arrangement; nor is
ministry to be done for anyone. We minister together as one.
The priest, just like a shepherd, nourishes from God’s word
and sacraments. That nourishment is not for us to move at ease from cradle to
the grave with the assurance of faith. But it is ordained for us to know how we,
as Christ’s Body, equipped with the gifts of the Spirit that are uniquely ours,
are all called to develop our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, ready to
share in God’s desire to turn our communities from self-centeredness to lives
of self-offering.
Jesus said that He had other sheep that did not belong to
this fold—this group of disciples and this people of Israel. But how are we to
reach them? He reaches them through the engagement of His Body— the Church—in
calling others across the globe and the centuries. In that tradition we are now
standing. In fact, we all can see the Lord—present in glorious majesty. Our
future seems precarious. But God has not given up on us. Once more God asks, “Who
can I send?” This time we are all invited to say, “Here I am Lord; send me.”
One of us is a priest—the rest of us include teachers and pastors, and prophets
and evangelists, and whatever other creative call God may place upon us. It is
how the good news of Jesus has been spread down the ages. Only now it is our
turn as we respond to the birth of a new ministry which we witness this day.
Amen
