Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Readings

The Circle of Life

Today, even more than most Sundays, we are aware of the presence of changing seasons in our lives and in the life of our congregation and even of the world.

Baptism is a celebration and remembrance of beginnings in faith, while in the same breath, we acknowledge the closing of Ashley’s time here as our ministry intern.

This is the time of year during which we celebrate the newness of life in the bright flowers and greenery all around us, while acknowledging that in our culture, this is also a time to say goodbye to another school year.

Even those who aren’t teachers or students feel the shift in this season.

In the church, we move from the meat of the liturgical year: Advent, Lent, Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, and we move on to a more relaxed pace, liturgically speaking.

We enter into a long stretch of the year called “ordinary time”.

Today in the scriptures are stories of call, response, moving on, beginning again.

Every season brings with it a new call from God, a new reminder of where we are meant to be.

Even as one season falls behind us, we enter into a new and fresh one.

We have in the Scripture passages today three very different stories of call and response: Isaiah - the most well known of the Old Testament prophets, Nicodemus - a religious leader questioning what he knows about Jesus, and us - the church today.

Call

Isaiah

In one of the most dramatic call stories in all of Scripture, Isaiah’s vision is vivid and terrifying.

God’s presence fills an entire throne room and God is surrounded by strange angels who are calling out in this call to worship shouting, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of all!

The whole earth is filled with God’s glory!”

Not only is the throne room filled visibly with God’s glory, the angels say, God’s glory fills the entire earth!

And when the angels shout out, the ground rumbles!

Can you imagine?

Before God even spoke, Isaiah was quaking in his sandals.

He seems to know, though that he’s been called to say something to someone.

He immediately worries about his unclean lips - he’s worried about the ways he and the people he’s from have used words.

So the angel comes and cleanses Isaiah’s lips.

Once Isaiah has been made ready, God speaks.

“Whom shall I send?”

This is even a general call - Who shall I send?

ME! PICK ME!

We are all invited.

And now, having confessed and been made clean, Isaiah is ready.

“Send me!”

He shouts.

Nicodemus

What a different call story we see in .

Where Isaiah’s call is a distinct moment issued to him in a vision, Nicodemus’ call is more of a process.

Nicodemus gradually realizes that Jesus is calling him to challenge the status quo.

While Isaiah sees God in a glorious throne room, Nicodemus comes to God in the quiet of night.

Perhaps Nicodemus is afraid to see Jesus in the daylight.

There may be something deep down inside telling Nicodemus that he’s about to be turned upside down.

I wonder - does Nicodemus come at night because he’s afraid to really really see Jesus?

Does he have a sinking feeling he knows what Jesus is going to ask of him and he is hoping to dampen that somehow?

With Nicodemus’ call, as with Isaiah’s, comes a challenge to be made new.

“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” says Jesus.

But Nicodemus wrestles with this idea more than Isaiah does.

He wants to take it more literally, for starters.

Sometimes, taking things literally is easier because then we can discount them by saying things like, “You can’t ACTUALLY be born a second time, Jesus!” instead of taking on the challenge that Jesus is really issuing us.

I once heard a pastor read this passage from John about being “born again” and illustrate it by saying it’s like getting a golden train ticket to heaven.

He said all you have to do is say this particular prayer in this particular way and you’re born again and good to go.

For many people, like Isaiah, conversion or calling is a very distinct moment.

That’s not what I take issue with.

The problem is the idea that everyone’s conversion experience is a distinct moment or that once that moment has past or that prayer has been prayed, we’re done.

Baby Leah, who we baptize at St. Andrew’s this morning, is not going to remember today.

She’s not.

Her baptism today is not a “golden train ticket to heaven.”

It’s a seal of God’s grace in her life and it’s a sign that we make to promise to help her learn and grow in faith.

When we remember our own baptismal vows, it’s not as some nostalgic celebration of what holy parents we had when we were a baby like Leah.

It’s a time to remember that our baptism is still a work in progress as long as we’re still alive and that we are called daily to continue living as people called to a life led by the Spirit.

While Isaiah is immediately ready to shout, “Here I am! I’ll go!” it’s more of a slow burn for Nicodemus.

But that’s ok.

This is not the last time we’ll see him in the gospel.

The church

In , we see another call to repentance and new life: we see our calling as the church - the people of God.

Like Isaiah and Nicodemus, we are called to be new.

Our tradition likes to refer to ourselves as “the church reformed and ever reforming.”

We’ve been changed, and we allow the Spirit to continue changing us.

We’re called not to one confession and turn around, but to a lifetime of repentance and renewal.

I once heard a pastor read this passage from John about being “born again” and illustrate it by saying it’s like getting a golden train ticket to heaven.

He said all you have to do is say this particular prayer in this particular way and you’re born again and good to go.

It was probably the worst sermon I’ve ever heard.

It was certainly the most dangerous.

Don’t live according to the flesh - we tend to equate this solely with very physical sin like sexual sin or gluttony, etc.

But this isn’t a very faithful interpretation of the Greek.

These are certainly included, but are too narrow a reading.

Some translations use “corrupt nature” or “selfishness”.

Let us read this as the flesh being the pragmatic, the ordinary.

Let us see the world in a NEW WAY!

For many people, like Isaiah, conversion or calling is a very distinct moment.

That’s not what I take issue with.

The problem is the idea that everyone’s conversion experience is a distinct moment and if you haven’t had that “magic prayer moment” you’re not actually a Christian yet.

Because while Jesus says that you have to be made new, the person he says it to takes a while to get on board.

We don’t see Nicodemus responding to any emotional altar call moment, so that cannot be the only sort of experience Jesus is talking about here.

I also take issue with the idea that once that moment has passed or that prayer has been prayed, we’re done.

Baby Leah, who we baptize at St. Andrew’s this morning, is not going to remember today.

She’s not.

Her baptism today is not a “golden train ticket to heaven.”

It’s a seal of God’s grace in her life and it’s a sign that we make to promise to help her learn and grow in faith.

When we remember our own baptismal vows, it’s not as some nostalgic celebration of what holy parents we had when we were a baby like Leah.

It’s a time to remember that our baptism is still a work in progress as long as we’re still alive and that we are called daily to continue living as people called to a life led by the Spirit.

This is not a “golden train ticket to heaven”: It’s a call to be a renewed people who are willing to constantly be renewed.

Response

We should response to God’s call accordingly.

Not all will receive the same type of call as Isaiah.

But all are called to be changed in the way Nicodemus was.

All are called to be changed in the way that the church in Rome was called to change.

And so the first step of our response to God’s call on our lives is to figure out what it is that God is saying.

Isaiah

Our calls are all both very much the same and very much different.

Isaiah is called to a vocational transformation.

This is what we usually think of as a calling.

We often think of “calling”, in regards to Christian life, as being something that pastors and missionaries have.