Sermon: "Being Available"

3rd in the "Meeting God in Change" series.
Delivered June 17, 2007 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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Well, this is our third week on the issue of change and today we are talking about being available to God and that should be a no-brainer. You know, we are Christians. We talk about relationships with God, and so it should be an issue almost beyond discussion that we are to be people that are available to God. But as I live it out I find that it's not that simple. About two months ago I heard a speaker from Uganda; a guy named John Malenda and he was challenging some pastors and church leaders from the Maryland and Pennsylvania area to be more available to God, that there was a call of God upon our lives that most of us probably weren't even wrestling with yet. And so I went home and thought about that and prayed about that and I sat down and wrote out all of the things that I do when I get home. You know I was thinking that maybe there is something wrong with the way I use my free time and so I started listing out how much I watch television and when I go on the computer to look for new songs on Itunes and you know... and as I worked through that I realized that my struggle with being available to God didn't have to do with my free time.

I started to realize that my biggest struggle with being available to God was the kinds of things that I had chosen to do as a pastor. In other words, my job was one of the things that was getting in the way of being available to God. And if I had that struggle as a pastor and I am paid to be spiritual and focused on God things and be available; if this is a struggle for me I can't image how terrible a struggle it is for you. It's got to be enormous. And so, we need help. So what we are going to do this morning is we are going to take a look at someone who was available to God and then we are going to think about that a little bit together. So we are going to go back almost exactly 2,747 years ago to take a look at someone who made himself available to God. So we are going to go to the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 6 and we are going to read Verses 1 to 8 in Isaiah, Chapter 6.

Let's pray: Lord as we go into your word help us to understand, help us to be available, help us to have faith to move forward in our lives. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Isaiah, Chapter 6 beginning at Verse 1:

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!""

Now, I said we were going back 2,747 years ago and the reason why we know almost to the year when this has happened is because this passage begins by saying in the year that King Uzziah died, and we know that was probably around 739 or 740 BC and so in that particular year the landmark experience for Isaiah was that he had a vision of God that changed his life forever and we are talking about change. Isaiah's life totally changed because of this experience with God. He has a vision. The first four verses of this vision just give us a sense of a magnificence of what he's looking at. He sees the Lord seated on a throne. He is high and exalted. The train of his robe fills the temple. The fact that Isaiah has this picture of the temple as being part of his vision leads a lot of commentators to believe that maybe he is having this vision in the temple; that this is part of his regular experience to go to the temple as part of worship, that would be normal for any devout Hebrew and one of these times perhaps he is in the temple and he has a vision as he is in prayer and he sees these creatures called seraphs. It's the only time that this word is used and it comes from the root that means burning and so these creatures; they are similar to creatures that we also see in the Book of Revelation, chapter 4, verses 6 to 9. But these creatures are involved in worship and they are crying out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty". They are coming before God. They are recognizing the absolute difference between God and between everything else in creation.

That is what holiness means; the absolute purity of God, the absolute power of God, the absolute difference of God between God and anything else in all of creation. He is utterly different and utterly better and that's encapsulated in this worship. And so, Isaiah's response to seeing this and seeing the worship and seeing God there all of a sudden, the place, the actual doorposts and thresholds are shaking. It's like an earthquake. The temple fills with smoke and Isaiah's personal response comes in Verse 5, "Woe to me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips." This vision of God, this sense of being drawn close to God brings a response in Isaiah where he recognizes that he is utterly unprepared for that sort of experience. It's easy for us to believe that somehow everything is kind of alright in our lives and that if we only just add God in everything will be great. So things are pretty cool about us.

What's wrong with us is that we need to add a little bit of God and then we will be a complete package. That's not what is presented here. That is not what is presented anywhere in the scripture. We have a problem of separation from God. We have an internal problem that is so significant that when God approaches it means our destruction. "Woe to me. I am ruined." Strong words. And so, one of the things that this reminds us is that the first problem, the most significant problem of being available to God is sin in our lives; the sin that separates us from God. This is a significant problem; our God complex, our desire to be the center of everything. It's a huge obstacle between us and God. It cannot be trivialized. It is so significant that the only way God could deal with that was to send Jesus Christ to die in our place. It's not a small issue. And so, even though Isaiah was born a Hebrew, even though he was probably raised in the best traditions within his culture, no matter how good that was when he is actually confronted with the presence of God, he knows that he is in danger of being totally destroyed. And so, what happens?

Let's go to Verses 6 to 7. God deals with the problems. One of the seraphs picks up a live coal from the alter, cut with tongs, brings it to Isaiah and touches his lips. "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." This problem with the separation between Isaiah and God and all of the accumulated rebellion and distance and sin; the only way that that problem could be dealt with is if some initiative comes from God's side. And so, here is a picture where from God's side the initiative comes and this hot, burning coal is placed upon Isaiah's lips and he is cleansed and this deals with the very part of this relationship that would have destroyed him. He is forgiven and it says your sins are atoned for. It means that they are covered over.

Our problem with God is so significant that to be available to God, God has to do something first. God has to deal with the problem of our sin. So when you take those two things together, the first reason why we are not available to God is because we are playing like we are Christians. Just being a Hebrew didn't mean that Isaiah's problem with God was dealt with; just being in a Christian community and raised as a Christian doesn't mean that that problem is dealt with. There has to be a personal experience where God cleanses you individually and you individually deal with the fact that unless God does something, you are ruined. That's a huge barrier and it's the most fundamental barrier between any human being and God and God reaches out to deal with that here and we know that God has dealt with that in Jesus Christ. That's why we gather as Christians to worship.

Following that there comes a call from God in Verse 8. The Lord says, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Growing out of this relationship with God, after God has reached out and cleansed Isaiah there comes a call where God expects that in this new relationship there is going to be a responsiveness to his will on the part of people and Isaiah in particular. I've got a plan. There is something that I want to do in the world. Who can I send? Who is willing to go? And so God presents a choice and Isaiah raises his hand and says, "Here I am, send me." Now in the Bible here it says, "Here am I, send me." I have no idea why they put the words in that order. There is no need for that. "Here I am" its not as poetic, but it's the way we talk. Here I am, send me. Send me. Isaiah responds to God's challenge and his whole life changes. Isaiah makes himself available to God. As soon as this division between him and God is dealt with he responds with faith.

What's keeping us from being available? Isaiah dealt with that in his vision. For us it might be that issue of not being forgiven and cleansed. Maybe we have to deal with the issue of are we just playing Christian or have we really dealt with God? That's got to be the first step because that is the most significant issue. And then maybe secondarily what might be standing between us and responding to God is a trust in God. Once Isaiah's problem was dealt with and his sin was forgiven, when God said I want to send somebody else, somebody out to do my will in the world, Isaiah said, "I am willing to go". What information did he have at that point about his service? Very little. Maybe none. Now immediately following that God gives him all kinds of news and some of it isn't really great news. It talks about how hard this call is going to be. But Isaiah because he trusted God was willing to be available. He didn't have to have all of the details.

Sometimes we need the whole itinerary. You know, we go on a trip and we want to know what our flights are, our flight times, what hotels we are going to stay in, what kind of rental car we are going to get, we want all of the details. And so, when God puts a call in our life we say okay God let's talk about it for a moment. Tell me how much of me is this going to demand of me. Where am I going to end up? Who is it going to involve? Is this going to be too hard? Is this going to be easy? We want all of the details. We don't get all of the details and so the issue for Isaiah and for us, a big one, is do we trust God? But then there is another one that is not in the text. If we wrestle with the issue of being really serious about our relationship wth God, and the issue of sin in our lives, and if we are really struggling with the issue of trusting God and believing that God has the right to put a call in our lives and to show us a direction to go, there is still a barrier that comes up in my life that I was thinking about two months ago and that's probably in your life as well, and that is being too busy to hear the call of God or to respond to it. Too busy to listen.

I mentioned a moment ago that there is a very great likelihood that this vision came to Isaiah as he was in the temple doing something he normally did. It's not in the text. You can view it other ways, but when you look at life of Daniel, when we look at the life of the Apostle John, the life of Paul, the life of Jesus, we see that in all cases there was a regular pattern of making themselves available to God, of seeking God, of praying and then in those moments there were times that God would punctuate that especially with his presence. And so, when we look at that broader scriptural pattern, we have to ask ourselves, do we have that pattern in our lives of regularly approaching God so that God could speak, could say to us I have this mission, who can I send? And we could like Isaiah say, "Okay, here I am. Send me." And then, even if we hear that call from God, do we have time to respond? Do we have the extra time in our minds to make that phone call to someone in our small group when they need it? To call a relative that might be in need and make actual commitments to help them? To be available to that neighbor who wants to talk about spiritual things or are we always running in to the house from our car and then running from our house to the car because we have such a full life.

I sometimes feel like the only way God could give some of us a vision is if he gave it to us on the expressway, because there is no other time when we are sitting still. It's a real issue, this issue of availability to God. To busy to listen, too busy to respond. It's important to be available, to be ready to change. Now we have this picture of Isaiah a major moment in his life, a vision from God, what does this whole dynamic of being available to God look like in normal life? I would like to ask Walt Mills to come up and share with us for a few minutes. We need to know not just what this looks like in a life changing moment with a vision, but what it looks like when it is just one week out of 52 in our years. So why don't you just come on up.

Walt Mills speaking:

Good morning. I never get nervous with a microphone in my hand because for 14 years I have been asking 300 adolescents to get quiet at lunch time as part of my assistant principal duties and it seems a lot harder than speaking to you this morning. So it's good to be among friends and people that are already quiet. When I was initially asked to share this testimony about six weeks ago as part of a sermon series it was one of the busiest weeks of my life. I was preparing a five page summary of why I should be promoted to a new job within the county and later that week I was scheduled to be interviewed for that promotion, but the Spirit of God led me to say yes anyhow in the midst of that busyness and so I did and I carved out some time to get ready to testify among the congregation here.

But later that week the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech occurred and led by the Spirit of God John decided to change the sermon series to meet the needs of that week among the congregation and so my testimony was no longer needed in that sermon series. But let me assure you that the time I spent preparing was not wasted, because each moment that I prepared I was in the conscious presence of God and I believe that that was the heart of God from my life that week in the midst of my busyness to carve out time to prepare for that testimony that was never delivered. That was his will.

Last week John cited Psalm 142 in his sermon and Verse 7 was my favorite part and it says that I may praise your name. It's great to live in the liberty of calling on the name of God in the midst of the changes in our lives and in the midst of the fears that those changes can bring. And I want to share with you some of the changes that Debbie and I have had in our lives over the last couple years and some of the fears that you might be able to relate to amidst those changes. In the last two years, these things have been a part of our lives. In July of 2005 our son married a wonderful and loving woman and 14 months later our daughter married a wonderful young man. Two marriages in the family in 14 months. That left Debbie and I without anyone at home except our basset hound for the first time in many many years and about two months ago after 14 years with our family, Maggie also passed away. And so we come home now to an empty house. It is quiet different than the way it has been for decades at our home. In November of 2005 after 16 years in Perry Hall, Debbie and I moved to Towson; so another change in our lives. In the summer of 2005, God led us to prepare a series of college age Bible studies for this congregation here at Central. We also got invited to participate in the natural church growth process and I was asked to serve a one-year term as a deacon.

In the winter of 2006, we began hosting and leading a small group Bible study for young adults at our home every other Monday night and that Bible study continues to this day and its really been a meaningful and changed atmosphere in our home as we prepare for the young adults and our relationships with them have grown deeper and more meaningful. So we have had changes in ministry roles as well. But these changes didn't produce any fear at all, but what followed did. Last fall Debbie was diagnosed with breast cancer and I was diagnosed pretty much ten days later with diabetes. Many of you who have faced life-threatening illness or disease know the fear that can be associated with illness and we both had those fears. My dad died from a complication of diabetes after being blind, losing limbs and being on kidney dialysis. So knowing that I had a hereditary and genetic disorder with diabetes was pretty scary. In the week that I wanted to be available to meet Debbie's fears with her breast cancer, that's the week that I got that news.

The Spirit of God whispers to us the perfect love cast out fear, but it doesn't say that we won't have fear. It says that his love will cast out the fear and we had fear. Let me tell you about the kind of fear that I felt with Debbie's diagnosis. I was fearful enough to cry. I was fearful enough to plead with God in many different physical positions including flat on my face and when she would think some nights I was asleep I would be laying there praying for her and asking God for good health, maybe hours after she thought I had already slept. But I had sense of this perfect love amidst this. Now Debbie has completed her surgery and radiation and its has been successful and I am managing my diabetes with insulin injections and so we are quite fine.

In a couple of weeks on July 1st I am going to begin a promotion that I was preparing for months ago. I am going to manage a budget at work, 100 employees and 850 children and I have lots of inner fears, but none too great for Jesus. So we have had a lot of changes over the last two years, changes in our health, our address, our living situation with our children gone and then our dog, and now major changes in my job, and perhaps some of you can relate to some of these changes in your lives and some of the fears that we have had. And yet, I have to tell you that amidst all of these changes God and our relationship with him through Jesus Christ has remained the focus of our lives. And in some ways it seems like very little has changed, because he is so absolute. The personal daily disciplines that come from me being a disciple of Jesus have a lot to do with how Debbie and I have handled these changes. For instance, we intentionally build margin into our lives. We talk about it. We talk about how busy we are and where we can add margin and time to be available.

How does this work for us in practicality? Well, for one thing, we start our day with daily devotions, in our Bibles, in the time of prayer for our world, and our personal needs and for one another. Pretty much every day no matter how busy the day looks. At night the last thing we do usually is fall asleep hand in hand praying and thanking God for that day and giving him our surrender again so that we are ready and refreshed to face another day in his presence. Most importantly to me, the one gift God has given me personally is a conscious awareness of his presence, minute-by-minute, day by day in the midst of busyness. So I don't see the times of busyness as separate from times of presence of God. They intermingle. He is with me in the midst of the busyness. There are days really that I feel his presence so strong that I feel like he could just lift me up to heaven and take me right now, because to live as Christ but to die is gain, despite the responsibilities that would leave behind. And I carry a fear that people, even people like you that love Jesus Christ might not understand the depth of the presence of God in a life of a disciple like that and I hope you experience a touch of that as well.

I have been given that gift and know his presence minute to minute and he is more real to me than anything I see here right now. This is all passing away. Change can equal chaos, but for Debbie and I with God at the center of our lives it is equal to serendipity and discovery and newness and a deepening of our roots in Jesus. The friendships and loving support that we have here at Central have meant a lot during these last two years as we recall a verse from James, 1:17 that says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above and comes down from our father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow change." And so by his grace various changes have unified us more closely to a changeless God and you have been part of that dear friends. Thanks so much. Happy Father's Day.

Well, George pointed out a few weeks ago that we are sort of a red church, you know that when it comes to action and activity we are real strong. When it comes to seeking God's wisdom and the bigger picture we are pretty strong. When it comes to waiting upon God and being available, we are not as strong. So here is where we are right now. In the pews, on the inside of the aisle there is a sheet of paper that I would like you to pass it across. If you don't get one I would appreciate it if you would raise your hand because we have some ushers that would be glad to give you a sheet if there isn't one available for you already. It's a page from a planner. And this is the only question that I think we need to be asking right now, how are we making room, creating margin in our lives to respond to God? To hear from God and then to do what he tells us to do? There might be a specific thing that you do just once that you might want to write on that sheet of paper. It might be a weekly habit or a daily habit that you put down that you want to establish in your life. Maybe you are at that moment right now where the balance is good and then praise God you can just thank God for that right now in your life. But the call is to be available. So I would like you to just take a few moments now, we are just going to have a few moments of music and silence and I am going to open us in prayer and then I will close us in prayer in a moment and when we are done we are going to have a time of offering where we can come forward and give our normal tithes and offerings but also if you like, you can also throw that sheet of paper in. You don't need your name on it or anything, either you keep it and don't need the name on it, because its yours or you hand it in and God knows whose it is. This is an offering that we are making to be more available to God.

So let's pray. God, in these few moments now we pray that we might trust you and that you will show us how to be more available to you, both to hear and listen, but also to have room in our lives to add something new on a one time basis or a regular basis to just be available, like Isaiah was, like Walt has been, like others around us who are mentors and who have walked before us how they have been in their lives. Help us now to walk in this way. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org