Readings:
Isaiah 6: 1-8, (9-end);
Psalm 138;
1 Cor 15: 1-11;
Luke 5: 1-11 

Collect:
Lord of the hosts of heaven,
our salvation and strength,
without you we are lost:
guard us from all that harms or hurts and raise us when we fall;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection

Last week as we gathered for our partnership Covenant Service I was struck again by what a powerful prayer the covenant prayer is. Even from its opening words, “I am no longer my own but yours”, it’s clear this is serious stuff. We are making some big commitments as we pray this prayer. By praying it again year after year, we remind ourselves that this commitment to God, to following Jesus and living in the power of the Holy Spirit, is not only a once-and-for-all commitment, but something we need to keep coming back to year by year, and day by day. 

In this week’s reading from Isaiah, we hear those well-known words: “here am I; send me.” It’s a passage often used at ordination services, but perhaps it ought more properly to be used at baptism services, because the task of being send, of being Christ’s body in the world, is the task of the whole church, the whole people of God.   

The way we live out our calling as people sent by God will inevitably change over the course of our lives, as we ourselves change and our circumstances change. Over the last couple of years, we have all experienced a great deal of upheaval as the world around us has been reshaped by the pandemic. Now, as we consider once again what it means for us – for each of us, now, in our present circumstances and stage of life – to say to God “I am no longer my own but yours”, this may be a good time to take stock of how God is calling and sending us, individually and as a church, in this season of life.

These are big questions to consider, and it is all too easy to feel inadequate to the task. What can God possibly want with someone like me? There are plenty of good biblical examples of that feeling of inadequacy – including Isaiah. Thankfully God doesn’t require us to have all the answers worked out before we too say “here am I; send me”.  

A prayer by Thomas Merton:  

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Ruth Harley