The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

I love reading call stories in the Bible and hope you do, too. All of us are called to be something different to fulfill our potential but sometimes figuring out what that is can be very confusing. I’ve had a few different professions and a wide array of interests and passions. All these expressions of who I am contributed to who I am now.

My sisters, however, focused early on being ballet dancers, and never had doubts about that as they grew to adulthood.

As Jesus followers, we are taught that we all have different gifts in the Body of Christ, and our faith walk demands that we ask not only who we want to be when we “grow up,” but also who is God calling us to be and what would God have us do. I have rarely been certain about who God was calling me to be, and I wonder if that has been true for some of you?

I’ve looked for insight my entire life, and often asked other people, “How did you know it was right for you to become a nurse, a teacher, an artist, a _ _ _? But my “How did you know?” queries took on a different character when I returned to the church after a long hiatus late in my life. For the first time, I felt with certainty that God was calling me to change direction and it was scary because I didn’t know what the new direction was. That Holy Spirit can be tricky!

The call of Isaiah to be a prophet is one that can be informative (Isaiah 6:1-8, 9-18). The Holy One calls to Isaiah in a vision: 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!"

A soon as Isaiah says, “Here I am; send me!” God says to Isaiah, “Go and say to this people [meaning Israel]:

“`Keep listening, but do not comprehend;

keep looking, but do not understand.'

Make the mind of this people dull,

and stop their ears,

and shut their eyes,

so that they may not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and comprehend with their minds,

and turn and be healed."

Then Isaiah asks, "How long, O Lord?" I can only imagine Isaiah’s horror when God responded:

"Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is utterly desolate;

until the Lord sends everyone far away,

and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

Even if a tenth part remain in it,

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak

whose stump remains standing

when it is felled."

The holy seed is its stump.

You see, sometimes we are called to do something very hard. Sometimes it’s to jump into freezing water to save someone who has fallen into the river. Sometimes it’s to be the bearer of a truly horrifying message. And the story embedded within the call of Isaiah that leaps out at me is that while he was asked to prophesy very bad news, the potential of the felled tree remains in its stump. Note that this is my interpretation, and some scholars will disagree.

Perhaps your call is to do something easy, and perhaps it is to do something difficult like delivering bad news. If God ever calls you to do that, think of Isaiah, and think of physicians who must deliver a heartbreaking diagnosis. Whether you are called to deliver something joyful or something sorrowful, something that seems impossible or something you believe to be trivial, God will always want you to deliver love along with whatever the task, because love is the living water that sustains hope. That seed is present in all of us even when we walk through fire. These are some uncertain times right now, and God is calling each of us to show up for our colleagues, our communities and our families

God is calling each of you to something, so be willing to listen and invite God to speak. I am confident that you will indeed be given a message and a mission.

Love and Light to you all,

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