5th Sunday after Epiphany Isaiah 6:1-8 Year C
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!'”
This is one of my favorite old testament passages to read with children and youth. The imagery is crazy, God on a throne with a huge flowing robe, seraphs with 6 wings, hot coals, all the things. Its such a cool passage and as visions go, its a pretty crazy one.
But the really important part comes at the end, when God asks “whom shall I send” and Isaiah says “Here am I; send me!” But I’ve always wondered, if it weren’t for that crazy vision, with the Seraphs blotting out Isaiah’s sins with that hot coal on his lips, would he have been so quick to jump into the role God had planned for him?
Or would he have had the million reasons we often present for why we can’t do what God intends for us? His family needed him. He has to earn a living. He needs a little more time to pray about it. Maybe in a few years, but now he has student loans to pay off… (ok maybe that one isn’t an Isaiah reason, but how real is debt today???)
We’ve all got reasons we can’t stand up and say “Send Me”, and often those reasons are valid, or at least the appear valid in the moment. But God’s calls on our lives are rarely convenient and rarely care about our excuses. While we might not receive extreme visions, we know there are those nagging calls out there. Those calls begging us to do something new, something scary, something that expresses the radical love of Jesus Christ to the hurting people in the world.
So don’t be afraid, or maybe go ahead, be afraid, but stand up anyway and say “Here am I lord, Send me!” The good news is you’ll never be alone, the God that sends you out always goes with you.
Sister Sara Says 
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