If someone were to ask me.."Who was Isaiah?" I would probably say that
Isaiah was God's greatest prophet….that he lived in the 8th century BC….that
he was a sublime poet…that his words were appropriated by Handel for the
Messiah oratorio.

What I probably wouldn't think to add was that Isaiah was a family person…a
man with a wife and two sons, a faithful Jew who went to the temple to pray…a
man of influence in the community and the king's court…Isaiah was not all
that different from us..not all that different until the day he went to pray
in the temple…until that day in the year King Uzziah died. For on that day
God claimed Isaiah for his own. And Isaiah said yes.

Until that day Isaiah had lived a life of comfort and privilege. He would
have been listed in the 740BC edition of Judah's Who's Who. Then God moved
in on Isaiah.

It was a turbulent period in near eastern history when God called Isaiah. The
little kingdoms of Israel and Judah were caught up in the clash of great
empires. Judah's kings quite naturally thought in terms of swords and spears
as Assyria loomed nearby, while Isaiah sternly preached that Judah's only
defense was the shield of faith in God

Isaiah abhorred the ostentation and moral laxity that he saw around him,
especially at court. Once a member of the establishment, Isaiah had no
respect for men of property or women of fashion. In the year King Uzziah
died Isaiah became a different man, the man God called him to be.

In a heartbeat he had been transformed…some may have thought he had gone mad
that morning in the temple with his talk of the Lord God sitting high and
lofty on a throne and seraphim dancing all around him…with his talk of peace
and harmony where there were terrible rumors of war…with his call to beat
swords into plowshares and lions lying down with lambs. They may well have
wondered about his sanity, but in a heartbeat God had given Isaiah a new
vision for his people, a new vision for creation, a new direction for his
life. And all because God had asked: "Who will serve me?" and Isaiah could
only answer: "Here am I Lord. Send me.".

I'm sure you remember Saul. On his way to Damascus to arrest some Christians
to drag back to Jerusalem and punish or kill, God stopped Saul dead in his
tracks. A bright light stunned him as he rode to Damascus and a voice said:
"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city and you
will be told what you are to do."

And Saul said yes to God. He changed his name. He became a new man, because
God had transformed him. Rather than persecute Christians, St. Paul became
the greatest evangelist bringing the Good News to Asia Minor and the people
of the Mediterranean world. You can't say God doesn't have an ironic sense
of humor.

When God has work to do, he makes a claim on us. When we dare to say yes, our
lives are forever changed…enlarged far beyond ourselves.

God comes to you..God comes to me as we are simply going about our daily
routine…a quiet prayer to begin the day..a trip to Damascus..God makes a
claim on us..has other plans for our lives.

And then there was Simon Peter. God stepped into Simon's boat after a
luckless night of fishing. Simon thought he was inviting Jesus into his
boat. When the net cast into the Sea of Galilee returned overflowing with
fish, Simon Peter saw the Lord at his side. God came to Simon Peter to tell
him that from now on he would be a fisher of men, and Simon Peter said yes.

You see when there is a real relationship you must say yes in some way. When
you are in love, you welcome your lover's embrace…where there is faith, it
must find expression in service…for faith is not so much assenting to a core
of beliefs as it is a living relationship with God. It is returning God's
embrace. Serving God returns God's embrace.

God reaches out to us in endless ways…some stunning like Isaiah's and
Saul's…some a quiet revelation of the heart…often as we are going about our
business, rarely in some staged moment on a mountaintop.

One other thing about seeing God when God comes to us. Today's text begins:
"In the year King Uzziah died."

It wasn't until Israel's great king, a king who reigned over a golden age,
politically, intellectually and spiritually…it wasn't until this giant of a
king died that Isaiah saw the Lord..not before, but after Uzziah died. And I
have to wonder…did the glory and adoration for this great king obscure the
glory of God?

Have you ever idolized someone. We do it quite naturally when we are growing
up…we seek out someone to admire as a model for our lives. But mind this,
only when King Uzziah died did Isaiah see the glory of God…only when King
Uzziah died did Isaiah realize his own potential.

And so it was that the great king died and was buried like any other human
being. And Judah wept and its new leadership was inept and godless…and
Isaiah grieved and prayed.
But think about it now…Most of us know the name of the prophet Isaiah. How
many of us know the name of Uzziah the great king? In the year Uzziah died,
Isaiah was made ready to see God, and God claimed Isaiah to be part of faith
history. God made his claim and Isaiah said yes.

People ripen…they mature spiritually…usually a centimeter at a time, though
once in a while like the faith heroes in this story…it's a great leap all at
once. We ripen into a readiness to see and respond to God. But being called,
being claimed by God…being saved some might say..is not an end in itself. " I
am saved", some exult. "Saved! Are you saved?" And it almost feels like a
challenge to the validity of my faith. But being saved is not some great
divide between heaven and hell. Being saved is not an end in itself. Being
saved is a beginning.

God didn't claim Isaiah or Saul or Simon's heart so they could exult in their
unique and precious status. God saves to serve. We are saved, we are
claimed to be servants as Isaiah and Saul and Simon Peter were. We are saved
to say yes to God.

Saying yes to God is what this is about this morning. And just this week I
was talking to a woman from St. Mark's in Lindenhurst. Someone was needed
last year to coordinate the work of Project Build in the congregation. The
pastor asked Marilyn to do this job. It was the last thing she wanted to do.
She is shy. She is reticent. She had no experience in public speaking, much
less asking for money. But as she told me last week, "I just loved the
pastor and couldn't turn her down. I was afraid but said yes. And I had no
way of knowing at the time that I was about to become part of something
really big, bigger than myself.". .

When you say yes to God, you say yes because you love God…even when you may
not feel up to the job or know where the yes may take you…you say yes and you
grow.

Here at St. James I see so many who have said yes to God…teaching Sunday
School, bringing in food and hosting at PADS. I see Fred who challenges us
each year to support him in the CROP walk and then goes on to raise more
money for hunger than any other single walker in the county…servants all
around…at the Lord's altar, teaching, singing, welcoming and working on
committees. All saying yes to God, and growing in faith as they do. And none
of us has reported the sky exploding or seraphim in the sanctuary. It
doesn't take a spectacle to move our lives. It takes an experience of being
loved, being blessed, and our serving is an embrace returned.

In the year King Uzziah died, God called Isaiah to serve him.
If someone this morning were to ask, "who is Isaiah?"
Today I would say WE are Isaiah…Tony has moved on, and God is asking us…all
of us as His beloved people: "Who will serve me?"
Can we say each in our own way…."Here am I Lord. Send me."