Call Is Not a One Time Thing!
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to model how a relational study is done and provide questions relating text to the FAW theme for individual or group use. |
Call is mysterious, varied
and often confusing. We sometimes try to escape its power by trying to define it
or by looking for an experience as dramatic as the familiar story of Isaiah's
call. On the road to renewal--this Journey to our Center that is God--we are
discovering God's movement in our lives whether in action, reflection or through
the things that nurture us.
Frederick Buechner says, "We are moved also by those precious moments when something holy seems to break through into our lives both to heal and summon us to pilgrimage." That is a good way to describe God's call.
I. Listen Isaiah 6:1-9.
Read this passage aloud. Use several different translations to get all the nuances of the scene. Now use your other senses and imagine the smell, the taste and the vision of God. Put yourself in the place of Isaiah and try to identify your feelings and responses.
II. Reflect.
Isaiah was a wealthy, well educated man and yet he recognized the great disparity between the rich and the poor. As a poet and a politician, he tried to make sense of the turbulence all around. Assyria was threatening Jerusalem. (Note that this call comes after Isaiah has already done some prophesying--Chapters 1-5) Did the death of King Uzziah cause Isaiah to pray at the temple? What made him now aware of his unworthiness? What was he being sent to do?
Now listen to the stories of some other calls in Genesis 15:1-8; Exodus 3:1-10 and 4:10-14; Jeremiah 1:4-9; Amos 7:14-15.
III. Connect.
None of these folk seem to have felt qualified. A personnel manager might have complied a list like this: Abraham was too old; Jeremiah--too young; Moses--too inarticulate and besides his temper might be a problem; Isaiah--too wounded; Amos-too uneducated. And from the New Testament we might add Mary--too young; Peter--too volatile; Paul--too rigid. None of the disciples would have fared much better.
Madeleine L'Engle makes this point. "The qualifications needed for God's work are very different from those of the world. ...None of us has to be qualified in order to employ lesson, meditation and orison, to read, think and pray over scripture. We do not need to have gone to a theological seminary or have taken courses in Bible in or out of college. We have to be willing to open ourselves to the power of the living Word. And sometimes that can be frightening."
Many, many people I have spoken with have told me of a call or a "knowing" which occurred around the age nine to twelve. Some have pursued it. Others can barely remember.
IV. Act. Isaiah 43:1-13, Isaiah 54:2
These four studies in Isaiah have called us to a Journey of Renewal:
To examine our actions. "Enlarge your tent" (54:2)
To reflect on our faith. "In stillness and staying quiet, there lies your strength" (30:15,21)
To seek the nourishment we need. "Those who trust in the Lord will find their strength renewed" (40:31)
To respond. "Whom will I send?" (6:8)
Some of us are experiencing a call to deepen our spiritual life, some to eliminate activity and some to move on the road to a different call. Some will need to make a path as we go and some will discover renewal in the work we are already doing. Where are you?
Wherever we find ourselves Isaiah presents the central component--a relationship with a God who cares. "I have called you by name! Do not be afraid."
This Advent season let us once again open ourselves to God's call.
Song for the Road. "Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in God and not be afraid." (12:1-6)
Suggested Readings:
Nancy Boyle is a workshop leader, teacher and Christian Education Consultant living in Columbia SC.