Called

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller

Date: January 19, 2020

Text: Isaiah 49:1-7

It seems like we just recovered from a big round of holidays, and here we are again in the midst of another holiday weekend. Just like the last round contained a multitude of holidays, so does this weekend. Of course we all know that tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr Day. But do you know what today is?
Today is National Quitters Day. It is the day that, according to someone official somewhere, you are most likely to give up on your New Year’s Resolution. If you vowed to be vegan this year and you’re craving a beefy burger, happy National Quitters Day. If you vowed to be a more patient parent and you yelled at your kids to hurry up this morning, happy National Quitters Day. If you vowed to spend less and save more money but you plan on stopping by Playmaker’s huge winter sale this afternoon, happy National Quitters Day.
In the spirit of transparency I know this because my fitness tracking app, my nutrition app, and my mindfulness app have all been sending me daily notifications that say something like, “It’s almost January 19th! Don’t be a quitter like every else! Hit those goals!” And in the spirit of even more transparency, I had already forgotten that I made meditation one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I didn’t even make it to January 19th.
I wonder if part of the reason so many New Year’s Resolutions fail is that they are based on the premise that something is wrong and needs fixing. Specifically, something about us and who we are or how we live is wrong and needs fixing. It’s not just New Year’s resolutions – this is a common story that we repeat to ourselves. If we change enough, wait long enough, persevere enough, we’ll have the wisdom, the strength, the skills, the fortitude to become the person we believe we are supposed to be, the person we believe God calls us to be.
This same message feels like the plotline of every movie I’ve ever watched. The hero has an okay life but something is missing – true love, the perfect job, a big adventure. For 90 minutes you watch the hero conquer bad dates and mixed signals to find Mister Perfect, overcome bad bosses and cranky clients to land the promotion, and make their way across the country on a once in a lifetime road trip. The end of the movie always comes about 60 seconds after the hero
achieves their goal and that’s it. There is no “what’s next?” There is no next chapter where the hero has more to learn or more to change or reverts back to the way things have always been despite the dream guy and dream job and memory of the adventure.
We watch these stories so much that we become convinced that is how it should work in our lives. We make the one magic change and everything will change.
This passage from Isaiah tells a different kind of story, one that is repeated throughout scripture as over and over again we hear God affirm individuals and their gifts exactly as they are, no improvement necessary.
In Isaiah, the Israelites are the underdog, having been defeated in war and exiled from their homeland. They are waiting for the one change that will be the ultimate change – reversing their circumstances, sending them home, rebuilding their lives. They think once this happens, their struggles will be over and all will be well for the rest of time. So Isaiah tells them this story of someone whose identity was unknown and remains unknown to us, but who could very well be any of the Israelites, all of the Israelites, even all of us.
This story is about someone, we’ll call them the hero, whom God knew before they were born. This meant that God knew every little part of them: their quirks, skills, scars, gifts, shortcomings, hopes, fears, the whole shebang. God knew this person and said “Yes, this is the one. I need this person’s service and leadership in the world.”
Isaiah says that the hero takes stock of their life to see if they measure up to their own expectations about what a blessed or Godly person should be like, and instead of feeling confident in who they are they, they say, “I don’t know. I’ve been laboring in vain! I’ve wasted my strengths on nothing and done nothing important in my life. sigh But still I believe, if I just
change a little and whip myself into shape, I will be of service to God.”
God hears these thoughts and replies, “What are you talking about?! Don’t you see that you are already what I’m looking for? Don’t you see that you’re not only equipped to help your siblings restore their lives and bring them hope, but that you will be a shining light to all the nations – one who shines so bright they reach the end of the earth?!” God doesn’t breathe a word about them needing to accomplish something first, or grow into their skills, or become a better
person. God already knows them. And they are what the world needs.
This story that Isaiah tells of the mysterious hero subverts the message we’ve always received that we need to constantly be improving ourselves or changing. Instead it invites us to imagine that God knows us and made us ready to serve, which includes the pieces of us we rather wish no one knew or saw at all. Even those are part of what it takes for me to be “me.”
We like to think of ourselves as perpetually facing a larger challenge or waiting for the big thing that will be The Thing we do or overcome or achieve. We believe that if we can just do that, the rest will fall into place, the story will be over.
The story Isaiah tells to the Israelites is a reminder that even when the challenges have been overcome, the story will just be beginning. Even when the Israelites return home or are triumphant against their enemies, there will still be struggles, there will still be heartache, and there will still be seasons of doubt or despair. But even those seasons don’t mean the Israelites need to be something they aren’t – they are called to keep being who they are in the world and keep navigating life’s ups and downs together. Being faithful to God means being faithful to their authentic selves. Only by being themselves will their light will shine.
The message from God is that there is more to come, more ways your life will be used and more ways you will impact the world around you. It is not about a single moment in time or a single obstacle to face, but it is about a lifetime of living out who you are and witnessing the ways in which your life weaves and travels, the ways in which the moments you thought would be The Big One are small in the larger scheme of things, and the opportunities you never
expected are the ones that lead you down a whole new path.
I think about conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks and I see how so many of us are wondering what’s going to be the next big thing or the experience we need in order to figure it all out. I don’t know what “it” is, but we’re all waiting for it: The friend in the top of her field but working 80 stressful hours a week who quit her job to take a year off and see if she feels called in a different direction or can return to the same field with different work patterns and boundaries around her time. A friend who has a job that is the right kind of work to best support their family, but doesn’t have the excitement or passion they long for in their vocation and wonders what the next thing will be, where this seemingly random, unconnected job will lead. A friend recovering from an injury and is realizing that the older they get, the more recovery means not returning to the previous state, but accepting a new normal.
They wonder if they are just missing something that will help them turn back the clock or if they have to adapt to a new way of living with more limitations in the coming years.
Different people at different points in their life, each one asking the same question, “What’s next?” My hope for each of these friends is that they see the gifts they bring to this moment – the in-between times, instead of pouring everything in waiting for the answer they seek. I hope that the year off from work will be a year spent enjoying the privilege of time and space and not just ruminating on what needs to change. I hope that the okay job will be a
blessing for family time now, no matter where it leads or doesn’t lead in the future. I hope that in life’s changing stages, they will connect with others who have made this sojourn and find they have all they need to navigate into a new normal.
Each of us has been called by God, but it’s not a future call or a far off destination or something we have already achieved and surpassed. It’s the ever present, persistent call that follows us through every situation. When we talk about being called, it’s not something outside of ourselves to achieve, but it’s something that is already within, already at work, waiting for us to notice it, waiting for us to nurture it. It doesn’t take the right circumstance or opportunity for us to live into our call. It doesn’t take us learning how to be someone else or perfecting the best version of us possible. God knows us. God has seen us. And God has made us such that when we are true to ourselves, our light will shine far beyond what we can imagine.
There was a meme going around this week that says, “When God put a calling on your life, she already factored in your stupidity.” It’s a little crass but also a helpful reminder that God isn’t expecting perfection. God isn’t expecting you to be someone else – you are tasked with living into the fullness of your life exactly as you are. As my friend Rev. Jen Munroe-Nathans interpreted when I asked her how to make the meme sound more pastoral, “God figured out you aren’t God long before you did.”