ISAIAH  6:1-8
1  CORINTHIANS  1:26-31
MARK  1:16-20

Do you ever think about how FRUSTRATING it must be to be GOD?  I mean, we learn from JESUS that God’s PRIMARY concerns are LOVE, compassion, JUSTICE and PEACE.  Isn’t that right?  AND, we learn that God is CONSTANTLY at work to MAKE those qualities a REALITY in our lives and world.  And yet, EVERYWHERE we look, BECAUSE God gave us the gift of FREE-WILL, we see HATRED and prejudice, VIOLENCE and strife, BITTERNESS and hurt, INJUSTICE, INEQUITY and WARFARE.  And I think that THAT must be SO frustrating for God, ESPECIALLY since God is trying to do ALL this WORK in the world with a bunch of VOLUNTEERS!  I mean, NO one FORCED!  So DOESN’T it seem as if one of the PRIMARY functions of God is to be a COSMIC director of VOLUNTEERS?  Let me SHOW you what I mean.  EACH time I raise my hand, I’d like YOU to play GOD for a minute.  When I raise my hand, SHOUT out (nice and loud): WHOM shall I SEND?

FIRST, let’s look at our WORKPLACES.  SOME might think that our workplaces are UNLIKELY places for a DIVINE mission.  YET quite often, injustice ABOUNDS in the workplace!  Someone TAMPERS with FINANCIAL accounts!  Someone ELSE is subjected to CRUEL and hurtful JOKES!  A SECRETARY is sexually-HARASSED by her BOSS!  There are pay-offs, promotions and LAY-OFFS, OFTEN for reasons that are LESS than ethical.  Sometimes UNPOPULAR, often MINORITY, workers are ISOLATED.  And the LIST goes ON!

HOME is often the LAST place that we think of as a MISSION field!  And yet SOMETIMES, it resembles a BATTLEFIELD!  SIBLINGS are jealous and fighting!  PARENTS argue with children, and children with parents!  HUSBANDS and wives go to sleep ANGRY, or maybe ALONE, because they fought ONE too many times!  And in SOME homes, it’s even WORSE!  Maybe a CHILD is SECRETLY being ABUSED by a PARENT or SIBLING, or maybe a BABY or TODDLER is being NEGLECTED.  Yes, very OFTEN our homes are not the SAFE places they are SUPPOSED to be.

And, what about SCHOOL?  School is OFTEN viewed as a HOLDING ground, or a place of preparation for the REAL life to COME.  But school, TOO, can be a MISSION field, because it’s all TOO real!  After all, how MUCH that happens to us at school STAYS with us for the REST of our lives?  What about the youngster who is OSTRACIZED by his peers?  What about the child who has a PROBLEM one year, so he acts OUT for attention, but the teacher LABELS him a PROBLEM child -- and the label STICKS?  What about the sexual HARRASSMENT, and WORSE than that, that happens to kids at school?  What about the prevalence of DRUGS?  And what about the GROWING number of WEAPONS in our schools and the FEAR of violence that kids often feel?

An ELDERLY woman living ALONE would love a VISIT, or even just a PHONE call.  She is SO lonely!  And she WORRIES about WHO will shovel her WALK the next SNOWSTORM.

A depressed TEENAGER tells her friends that she’s going to run AWAY, OR, maybe that she’ll just END it all NOW, because WHO would really CARE anyway? 

(WHOM SHALL I SEND?)

A person caring for a sick and dying relative YEARNS for a chance to get away ALONE, EVEN for just a couple of HOURS?

(WHOM SHALL I SEND?)

A grieving WIDOW still HURTS, even though it’s been over a YEAR since her husband died, and people THINK she OUGHT to be FINE now!

(WHOM SHALL I SEND?)

Our RIVERS and streams, the AIR we breath, and even the very EARTH beneath our feet, ALL cry out!  MISUSE and ABUSE are choking the LIFE out of them!

(WHOM SHALL I SEND?)

The GAP between the RICH and POOR -- in AMERICA and around the WORLD -- continues to grow WIDER and wider!  The LEGIONS of homeless and poverty-stricken people grow DAILY!  And the RAGE of the POOR is ever-intensifying, transforming cities into VOLCANOES waiting to ERUPT!

Yes, WHOM shall I send?  THAT must be the BIG question that God STRUGGLES with at EVERY moment of EVERY day: WHOM shall I send?  Who will GO for me?

Well friends, who DOES God send?   RECENTLY we celebrated CHRISTMAS.  And what is CHRISTMAS but the celebration of a CHILD born in POVERTY and OBSCURITY, who grows up UNRECOGNIZED and lives a HOMELESS life; who ENTERS an ancient city on a DONKEY and becomes a death row PRISONER with a CAULIFLOWER ear and a SPLIT lip, REFUSING to answer the FALSE accusations of a JUDGE!  What is CHRISTMAS but the celebration of the BIRTH of One who was ADORED by some, but MISUNDERSTOOD, silenced, and finally EXECUTED by the MAJORITY?  Is THAT whom God SENDS?  WHY?  Is there NO one ELSE?

And BEFORE Jesus, God sent AMOS, a SHEPHERD and a dresser of SYCAMORE trees; and JEREMIAH, who was just a CHILD; and HOSEA, who was KNOWN for having MARITAL problems; and MOSES, who had a SPEECH impediment!  Are THESE the ones whom God CHOOSES to carry out important, divine MISSIONS, these ORDINARY people with ORDINARY lives and ORDINARY problems?  WHY?  Is there NO one ELSE?

OR, could it be that God DOES this because ALL saving ideas are born SMALL like a MUSTARD seed?  OR, could it BE, as William Sloane Coffin has said, that WE want GOD to be STRONG so that WE can be WEAK, while GOD wants to be WEAK so that WE can be STRONG?  OR, could it be that GOD came to Earth as a CHILD so that WE might finally grow UP -- and so that WE might stop BLAMING God for being ABSENT when we OURSELVES are not fully PRESENT; and so that WE might stop blaming GOD for all the ILLS of the world, as if WE ourselves had been laboring ENDLESSLY in order to FIX them; and so that WE might STOP making GOD responsible for all of the THINKING and DOING that WE should have been THINKING and DOING on our OWN?  Yes, did GOD come as a CHILD so that WE would finally grow UP?

OR, could it be that at Christmastime, God became like US so that ever AFTER, WE might become more like GOD?  Well, personally I think THAT’S the answer!  AS we watch JESUS healing the SICK, empowering the POOR, and scorning the POWERFUL, WE are watching GOD at work!  When we see ZACCHAEUS climb up that tree a CROOK, and climb back down a SAINT, WE are seeing GOD at work!  When we see PAUL set out as a HATCHET man for the Pharisees to PERSECUTE Christians, and return a FOOL for Christ, WE are seeing GOD at work!  And THEREFORE, we know that OUR lives, TOO, as ORDINARY and as MESSED up as they usually ARE, can become CHANNELS, through which God’s LOVE and mercy can flow FORTH into this world to SAVE the lost and HEAL the suffering!  Yes, OUR lives TOO, as full of WEAKNESSES and LIMITATIONS as they usually ARE, can be USED in fulfilling of God’s divine PLAN of salvation!  Yes, I believe that GOD became like US so that ever AFTER, WE might become more like GOD!  And we CAN, IF we would just STOP calling upon God to do it all FOR us and START calling upon God to USE us -- however GOD sees FIT!

You know, it’s INTERESTING that we INSIST upon making GOD into a COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, when GOD just wants to BE is a DIRECTOR of VOLUNTEERS!  Of COURSE God could WAVE a strong ARM and immediately SAVE this world from ITSELF!  But God is LOVE, and THAT is not LOVE!  GOD wants us to be LOVERS, NOT puppets!  God wants us to be VOLUNTEERS, NOT slaves!  And so, IN the face of hatred and hurt, oppression and prejudice, war and environmental abuse, God REFUSES to wave a strong ARM and MAKE things all BETTER for us!  INSTEAD, God simply cries out: WHOM shall I SEND?  WHO will GO for me?  And, IF we were more FAITHFUL as disciples of JESUS, we would stop COMPLAINING about how BAD things are and start ANSWERING God’s CALL by saying: HERE am I, Lord!  Send ME!

You know: maybe we UNDERESTIMATE who we ARE; or WHO God WANTS us to be.  AND, maybe we underestimate the DIFFERENCE that each ONE of us can MAKE in our WORKPLACES, our HOMES, our SCHOOLS, our COMMUNITY, our NATION, and our WORLD.  Maybe we’ve learned too WELL, to MIND our own business and NOT get INVOLVED.  After all: it DOES cost us something when we get involved, DOESN’T it?  Usually it means INCONVENIENCE!  OFTEN it means a FINANCIAL outlay!  And it ALWAYS means some kind of CHANGE in our LIFESTYLE.  And of course, CHANGE is NEVER easy!  And therefore, when we HEAR God’s voice ECHOING in our HEARTS – WHOM shall I SEND? – ALL too OFTEN, we PRETEND not to HEAR!

And THAT’S why, when we HEAR God’s voice WITHIN us, it might HELP if we remember that God does not EXPECT us to be SAVIORS, or to have all the ANSWERS!  God simply EXPECTS us to be FAITHFUL and to live our ORDINARY lives as Jesus TAUGHT us to live them: CARING for the needs of OTHERS; standing UP for what is GOOD and RIGHT and JUST; and working HARD to promote PEACE, LOVE, and COMPASSION at EVERY moment!  Yes, that’s ALL God asks of ANY of us: SIMPLY that we live our ORDINARY lives FAITHFULLY and LOVINGLY!

And, God REALIZES that that is NOT easy in a world like OURS.  After all, as Bill Coffin SAID: Jesus was not REWARDED for being JESUS.  And neither shall WE be rewarded for being His FOLLOWERS!  AND, just as JESUS had to bleed for US; WE may sometimes have to BLEED for JESUS, either EMOTIONALLY or PHYSICALLY!  And because God KNOWS how DIFFICULT that can BE, God GAVE us a RESURRECTION faith, so that, IN and THROUGH the resurrection of CHRIST, and IN and through the many resurrections that we witness AROUND us, WE might be REMINDED that EVEN in our PAIN, and EVEN as we BLEED, God is at WORK, doing immeasurably MORE than we could ever ASK or IMAGINE, creating resurrections and NEWNESS of life.  And it is this RESURRECTION faith that EMPOWERS us to live our ORDINARY lives in FAITHFUL and LOVING ways!

This past WEEK, we REMEMBERED and honored an ORDINARY man like ourselves, a young MINISTER from Alabama, who had WEAKNESSES and LIMITATIONS just as WE do.  But DEEP in his heart, he HEARD God asking: WHOM shall I SEND?  WHO will GO for me?  And he DARED to stand up and say: HERE am I, Lord!  Send ME!  And so HE became a PROPHET, AMERICA’S prophet, NOT unlike the prophets of OLD!  And like Jesus, he was ADORED by SOME, but MISUNDERSTOOD, silenced, and finally EXECUTED by the MAJORITY.  Well, HIS life REMINDS us that what JESUS and the prophets TEACH us to BELIEVE, and WHAT this world REWARDS as belief, are RARELY the SAME.  In GOOD Christian FASHION, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached that GENTLENESS takes MORE courage than VIOLENCE!  How MANY in this world are READY to be THAT courageous?  AND, he preached that COMPASSION is more VALUABLE than ANY ideology; AND that we should be GOVERNED by our DREAMS, instead of our FEARS!  Now, you MIGHT say that ALL that PREACHING only got him EXECUTED!  And on the ONE hand, that’s TRUE!  But on the OTHER hand, this man CHANGED the course of a NATION, and ALL these years LATER, his DREAM lives ON, stronger than EVER!  AND, you might ALSO say that HIS life MATTERED, and that HE will be remembered LONG after most of his CONTEMPORARIES have been FORGOTTEN.  And FINALLY, you MIGHT say that, IN the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., THIS world had an opportunity to see GOD at WORK.  And I ASK you: can ANYTHING more beautiful that that EVER be said about ANYONE’S life?  I don’t THINK so!  And, it’s BECAUSE Martin loved God so MUCH that when God asked: WHOM shall I SEND?  WHO will GO for me?, Martin not only HEARD it, but he DARED to RESPOND: HERE am I, Lord!  Send ME!

Well, I hope that EACH and every ONE of us DARE to do the SAME, because our ORDINARY lives, lived in a faithful and loving WAY, have the POWER to become CONDUITS, THROUGH which the LOVE, the PEACE, the COMPASSION and the GRACE of God can FLOW forth into this world, bringing HOPE and healing, HARMONY and NEW life, to people EVERYWHERE.  We JUST need to LISTEN for the voice of GOD, our cosmic Director of Volunteers, calling out to us: WHOM shall I SEND?, and DARE to respond: HERE am I, LORD!  Send ME!  AMEN.

(With thanks to my teacher & mentor, Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.)