What an extraordinary day…
Elizabeth 2nd has been our Queen for 70 years – so long that it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else in her place – yet today is the one on which we remember that moment of transition, when even as she received the news of her beloved father’s death, she was at the same moment handed all the weight of the crown.
No opportunity to consider whether she wanted the job
No chance to say “Thank you, but I’m not sure I’m quite what you need”
On that day, the young princess responded the call of her country because she heard God’s voice too
Whom shall I send and who will go for me
And she responded wholeheartedly, even amid her grief
“Here I am, send me”
5 years before, on her 21st birthday, the Princess had proclaimed
I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
The Empire may have gone, but that promise of devoted service has been lived out every single day since then and we know, though she would never shout about it, that our Queen has depended on God at every twist and turn of the way.
Vocation lived out in the service of others.
Whatever your views on the monarchy, that’s inspiring I think…
But what does it say to us?
Thankfully, I don’t imagine that anybody is ever going to call you, or me, to take up a weight like that. So can we just sit tight and ignore all this grandiose talk about vocation?
When God asks “Whom shall I send?” surely God has something in mind altogether more exalted or demanding than we could possibly aspire to…
After all, the whole of our reading emphasises the huge contrast between the glory of God seated on God’s throne– the Christ on our tapestry in the Cathedral, if you like – and the tiny, insignificant human figure of the prophet – as diminutive as the human figure between Christ’s feet.
When God asks “Who will go for me?” it can be very tempting to look at those around us, intent on spotting someone more obviously qualified, someone with spectacular gifts, - honestly, someone ELSE. Isaiah feels pretty inadequate
“Woe is me...”
I’m not up to the job, whatever that job might be…
It’s just not going to work
You need someone special, Lord…
But that’s never been the way God works. Our NT reading confirms this..
As Jesus gathers his team around him, that group who would listen and learn and in the fulness of time and the power of the Spirit ultimately set out to change the world, he doesn’t hold out for powerful orators or learned rabbis. He calls those who are available, in all their run of the mill ordinariness.
Fishermen were ten a penny on the shores of Galilee – and THEY were those whom Christ called.
Over the last few days the Cathedral has been hosting performances of the “Symphony of Us” a new work for orchestra and six speakers (the “people” section, as they were dubbed)...Each of them would class themselves as really ordinary – one, indeed, made much of her self image as “utterly boring”- but each of them has responded to a call to live as the best version of themselves. So we met Nor, who cultivates her garden and brings people together to welcome the stranger; Duncan, a gay teacher who uses his free time to offer young people the support he himself needed growing up; Sam, a bereavement midwife, who offers love and care to families dealing with the deep grief of baby loss;...and I could go on. Each ordinary, extraordinary person is changing the world by singing the unique song that God has put in their hearts and on their lips.
One of my favourite vocation stories turns up in several different contexts in slightly different forms. It concerns Rabbi Zusya, a Chasidic master who lived in the 1700s who clearly had a clear understanding of the heart of vocation.“When I get to the heavenly court,” he said “God will not ask me, Why weren’t you Moses?, Why weren’t you Elijah?” Rather he will ask me, “Why were you not Zusya?”
Responding to that call to be fully ourselves for God, and to allow God to do with us whatever God might choose, if pretty much the work of a lifetime...but it’s never too late to begin.
It may not be a call to do anything that seems extraordinary, but to do the ordinary with as much love as you can muster.
So, today, give thanks that God has made you YOU
Give thanks for the tangle of gifts and struggles, of lived experience, joy and pain that has shaped you
And listen...listen with open mind and heart, asking for the grace that you need to respond “Here I am, send me” when God calls.
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