SERMONS
AND REFLECTIONS
Follow Through
By The Rev. Dr. Steven Blackburn
January 30, 2006
Isaiah 6:1-8; I Corinthians 1:26-31; al-Qur’an 96:1-5
My sainted father, who died 13 months ago this very day, had a favorite expression: “Don’t just stand there with your teeth hanging out; DO something!”
I would hope that that is why most of us are here this morning, because we feel compelled to DO something. We feel that things as they are, are not good enough. There is Good News to give to a world filled with a lack of concern, with a lack of caring, and we don’t want to live our lives in such a world.
But how do we go about such a thing, telling Good News that we have found a way to foster community, a way to care fore each other, a way to serve and to hope for a better world – not only in our own lifetime, but in a world to come? The task is not always an easy one, because if we go about it the wrong way, we might actually turn people off, in the end doing more harm than good.
Indeed, the attitude of a lot of people to religion is not unlike that of Lord Melbourne, a prime minister of Great Britain during the 1800’s. Having been forced to sit through a rather evangelical sermon on the consequences of sin, the politician was overheard to have grumbled, “Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to interfere with one’s private life.”
Given that religion in public life, as well as private life, is under fire, you might feel a bit squeezed. If you can’t discuss religion in polite society, and if separation of church and state removes it from the public arena, where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us in the same situation as the early Church. Do things quietly – they will still get done. Make things happen without much of a fuss – things will still happen. But how do we go about this task in a world that wishes to hear little except the answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?”
Well, my grandmother, who made something of herself long before women’s liberation told her she could do just that, put it this way: “My favorite animal is the turtle. Why? Because to get anywhere, it has to stick its neck out.” And, I will always remember the delight she took one year in giving me a very simple gift for my birthday. It now sits on my desk in the Library. It’s just a wooden box with the words “The Secret of Success” printed on the top. When you open the box, it’s empty – except for the word “WORK.”
The Prophet Isaiah gives us the ultimate example of someone who really stuck his neck out. Here he is, on his own, nothing really to recommend him. Just as bad – or as good – as the next guy. And then, all of a sudden, comes a vision.
Now, most people would shake their heads to help them see straight, and, if that didn’t work, they would run to their nearest shrink if they thought they saw the kind of things Isaiah saw. But when Isaiah found himself confronted by the extraordinary, he was transformed in an extraordinary way. He stood his ground; he met the challenge; he spoke his mind. And he stuck his neck out, saying, “Here am I, send me.”
Remember, when God spoke in the vision, Isaiah was not addressed directly. Or personally. Or specifically. Instead, a general call went out from the heavenly throne. And Isaiah knew (or rather, he thought he knew) that he didn’t have the credentials to answer God. Remember what he said? “Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah knew (or rather, he thought he knew) that he did not have the training, or the education, to speak God’s word. But still, it was somehow clear to him that he had to act. He knew that first he had to decide, then he had to know what to do, before he could adequately prepare for what his actions might lead him into. And then he followed through.
The rest, of course, as they say, is history. Isaiah, the man of unclean lips, the one who didn’t have a clue as to what to say to whom, ends up as one of the greatest poets in the history of humanity. The one who saw himself as unworthy ends up as a singer of praises and joy to his Creator. The man who saw his nation as being unclean finally has the vision to realize that one of this nation will come God’s blessing – all because Isaiah was willing to follow through.
For you see, Isaiah had gifts he didn’t ever dream of until he followed through. The question is, what gifts might we have, if we would only apply ourselves? What can God make of us, have you ever wondered? Have you ever been tempted to find out? What is the price of never knowing what talents we can bring to the lives of others?
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth: “Consider your calling,” he says. God doesn’t depend on what we consider to be the important people of the world. God doesn’t look to those who are street-wise or the intelligentsia, or to the military-industrial complex, or to the princes of the church who hold high authority over many congregations and persons. Chances are, these kinds of people are too busy with the kingdoms of this world to concern themselves with what God sees as the more basic issues at hand.
“Consider your calling,” says Paul. God needs us, or we would not have been brought here in the first place. God needs us, or God wouldn’t have bothered to prepare a place for us. God needs each and ever one of us, or God would not have sent dramatic and compelling messengers hundreds and thousands of years ago, and preserved their message so that even here, thousands of miles away from the lands the Prophets, that message might find a hearing in our very own presence here today.
“Consider your calling,” says the Apostle. And then seek it out, as did Isaiah. Pursue it, as did the Prophet Muhammad. Follow through on it, as have many others in many places at many times in our world’s history. For who knows what role you may have to play in the life of another human being? Who knows how you might be led to touch another? Who knows what unspeakable gift you might have, that can only come from you?
Let us not underrate ourselves, as individuals, as students, as members of God’s people. Let us now undervalue ourselves, either as family members or as workers in the economic sphere. Let us not underestimate ourselves: let us simply offer ourselves when we hear God’s word. And once we have followed through with our response of willingness to do our part, God will see to the rest. .
The Rev. Dr. Steven Blackburn is Library Director at Hartford Seminary and Faculty Associate in Semitic Scriptures. He delivered this sermon at Hartford Seminary's Monday morning Chapel Service on January 30, 2006.
