1 Corinthians 1:1-3
John 1:29-34
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Isaiah had been called from birth, called from the womb, and he knew it. His job was to bring Israel back to God. It was a mighty commission: important and relevant work. It would call for his best gifts and deepest love, but God had formed him for this task. He could feel it in his bones. He was inspired and that inspiration made the mission possible.
I think most of us have some sense that we have a purpose on this earth is that is only ours. Much of the discernment we go through as young adults is searching for that mission, fine tuning it. We do it by pursuing our interests and talents, what we are good at and what we long to do. Maybe it’s a call to the healing arts of nursing or doctoring. Maybe it’s a call to the creative crafts of carpentry, plumbing, or mechanic. Maybe it’s a call to teaching or law or farming or ministry. Maybe we also have a call to parenting and married life. We discern our calling by finding those holy passions that keep at us even as obstacles arise.
Isaiah had that done that. He knew he had a life’s mission that was to be mouth piece of God, calling Israel back to God. At the end of the Babylonian exile, the people were ready to be called back. They were weary from being away and wanted to be close to their land and close to their God.
And then God changed things on Isaiah. The calling he had taken on and accepted was too little. Isaiah had it all figured out, but it was too little. He had thought through his calling, it would be difficult, but he’d wrapped his arms around it. But it was too little! God wanted more! Isaiah was to lead Israel to be a light to the nations! That’s completely different. It wasn’t enough for Israel to gather around God, they had to be an example. Their faith had to be so strong, so life-changing, so life-giving that they would be a witness and inspire every other nation! They were the ones who would spread God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.
After getting people all comfortable back on their own land with their own God, Isaiah had to send them back out! Isaiah didn’t have his arms around that.
Now think about the calling you’ve felt in your own life, that purpose for which you were made, that mission that calls for your best gifts and deepest love. But is it a mission that you’ve got your arms around, that you know will be difficult, but you think you can do it. Does God say to you, It’s too little! Does God say, that holy work you’ve been doing is not enough. I want more. I will make you a witness, a light to everybody. I will send you to reach my salvation to every corner of the earth.
God said that to Mother Teresa. She was doing good work in India teaching in a Catholic school, but God wanted more. It was like that for Archbishop Oscar Romero. He was doing good work caring for his church in war-torn El Salvador, but God wanted more. It was like that for the Virgin Mary. She was doing good work in her home in Israel, but God wanted more. It was like that for Pope John XXIII, he was doing good work leading his diocese, but God wanted more.
It seems that God gives us a calling, gets us all formed and educated until we feel comfortable and competent, and then God hands us a whole new job.
I’ve had God turn corners on me in my life. When I was in school I always got better grades in math than in English. As a young adult, I was asked to write articles now and then, but I figured it was because nobody else was around. I really wasn’t a writer. Then I went to a Called and Gifted Workshop and I was told, right to my face, “you might want to discern the charism of writing.” Well that wasn’t comfortable! I was good at math, not writing. Writing was a struggle, it was hard, it made me feel inferior. Frankly, it scared me. It still does. But those words about discerning writing grabbed a hold of me and didn’t let go. Like all things of God, those words were not for me. They were for my community, reaching all the way to the ends of the earth. And God started working through my writing. So I did some discerning, and I continue discerning, surprised every time when my writing touches people deeper than I capable of touching them, inspiring them more than I am capable of inspiring them.
You see, I had things figured out. I had decided how I would serve God. But God told me, it is too little, and then called on me for more. It has been uncomfortable, because it always is when you let God do the deciding, rather than the other way around.
There were other reasons that I resisted writing. It was the voices telling me that maybe I should have more reasonable goals. Lay women from Idaho really don’t become well known authors. The voices said, how much can you really have to say. Or the voices were just silent, that clanging, jarring silence where encouragement could be.
You know what I’m talking about. All of us at some point have been told that we are less than the calling we received from God. We’ve been told to be realistic, to be reasonable. It is a cold towel thrown on God’s fire. Sometimes I’ve even been those voices to others.
God uses the unworthy to do great things. God always has. God chooses the unworthy over and over because, in truth, they are worthy. Every one of us is worthy of our Creator and of the mission that our Creator gave us. We are the ones with the small minds who have to be reminded that the real power comes from God. Why did God choose Paul when there was Peter... If God choose Peter, people could say, “well sure Peter’s got faith but he heard and saw the Lord.” But Paul didn’t. Paul’s like us. And Paul had faith.
Why did God choose Mary Magdalene when there was James and John... If God choose James and John, people could say, “well sure they proclaimed the resurrection, they were the official disciples after all.” But Mary wasn’t. Mary’s like us. And Mary proclaimed the resurrection.
God consistently chooses the ones like us, but we are slow to accept them. Because we are slow to accept the messenger, we are slow to accept the message. And then we have to deal with our own lack of faith... but he was a Pharisee... but she was a woman... but he’s from Idaho... but she’s not qualified.
As long as we discount the messenger, ourselves included, we discount the message. In today’s reading we hear that God gives ordinary people extraordinary jobs, to prepare us, to be a light, to be gathered to God.
God is saving the whole world and using each of us to do it. God has given each of you an extraordinary job, maybe one even bigger than you’ve accepted yet.
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