Howdy. You know, I need to check, you know, it's
been a few weeks. How many of you are still following
your New Year's resolutions? Oh, okay. Well,
okay. Well, good for the two or three of you.
Okay, good. Excellent. All right. How many of
you had to modify your New Year's resolutions
a little bit? Oh, oh man. Okay. None of you even
made it that one. How many of you gave up on
the New Year's resolutions? All right. There
we go. Now we're seeing some more of them. And
how many of you think that the New Year's resolutions
are just kind of stupid? All right. Yeah. Okay.
And that's the rest of you. All right. There
you go. You are among friends. Okay. Good. I'm
gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this. I am actually
pretty happy about this. I did manage to lose
the Germany five. Okay. The five pounds I found
in Germany, they are finally gone. That part
worked. But that does not mean that I magically
got rid of everything else I wanted to. But not
everything has fallen into place now with this
new year. You know, the trip that I had, the
vacation, the time away and everything, you know,
it was a reset. Space to breathe, space to step
back, to see things just a little more clearly.
And yet, it did not turn me into a different
person. It didn't erase all the old habits. It
didn't fix everything. It just gave me some some
fresh eyes. And I think that's where many of
us are right now. I think that many of us still
struggle with how we see ourselves. We're still
trying to measure the progress that we've made
in life and whether that's with our hobbies or
our work or our personal habits or a family,
whatever it may be, we're still trying to see
beyond Are we moving forward or are we falling
behind? We're still trying to figure out whether
God's grace is something that we rest in or something
that we feel we need to catch up with. Somewhere
along the way the habits slip, the motivation
fades, the follow -through does not last, and
failure starts whispering a familiar message.
Maybe this just isn't who you are. But you know
scripture tells us a very different story about
who we are. Isaiah says before I was born the
Lord called me before effort before obedience
before success and before failure God did not
wait to see how you would turn out He did not
discover your weaknesses later and then reconsider
his plan He knew you fully even in the womb.
He knew your limits. He knew your strengths.
He knew the ways that you would stumble and still
He called you and to his kingdom. Who we are
and where we are going have been known by God
long before we could imagine it. And that does
not mean that our lives are scripted, just told
everything to do, or controlled like machines.
Scripture doesn't speak that way. What it does
tell us is that God sees more than just the moment
we are standing in. Still chooses to work through
us. He knows where we hesitate. He knows where
we resist. He knows where we fail and even with
that knowledge God prepares lives and futures
That make room for exactly who we are See Isaiah
is not written to people who have it together
either It is spoken to exiled people the ones
who were kicked out of their homeland You see
Israel was called to follow the Lord to trust
him to be shaped by his word And as a whole,
they did not. They chased other gods. They relied
on their own strength. They acted as a nation
as if they didn't even know God or who he was.
They ignored justice and doing what was right.
They forgot mercy and showing grace to their
fellow human beings. The exile was not just some
accident. They had well earned it. And yet within
that failure, There was a remnant. People who
endured. People who still prayed. People who
still remembered the promises of God. But frankly,
even that remnant, that small group was not ready.
They were wounded. They were bitter about their
situation. They were tired of feeling rejected.
They were unsure whether they even had a place
in the world anymore. Their faithfulness was
not enough to bring them home. Their endurance
did not earn their return to Judah. But Isaiah
makes this clear, that they are not restored
because they are ready. They will be restored
because God is gracious. God does not say, now
you've learned your lesson, so okay, let's go
try again. He says, I have not forgotten you.
I have formed you. I will bring you back. The
return is an act of mercy, not a reward. See,
that's why Isaiah turns our attention to the
servant. Isaiah failed, Israel failed to live
its calling fully. Even the faithful remnant
fell short. So God sends one who will embody
Israel's calling perfectly. and be all that Israel
was meant to be. The servant listens when others
do not. The servant trusts when others turn away.
The servant becomes a light not only for Israel,
but for the nations. This is not about replacing
Israel. It is about fulfilling what Israel could
not replace on its own. And this is where the
church needs to be honest with itself. We are
called We are marked, we are sent, and we regularly
fail to live that calling fully. And that matters
when we look at the disciples Jesus calls as
well. These are not the confident qualified candidates
we sometimes imagine them to be. Many had already
been passed over. See, they were not the chosen
ones that A rabbi had chosen to follow him earlier
in their lives when they would have been prepared
and ready They were not the first cut the first
string They were not the obvious choices and
there were plenty of reasons for them to believe
that they were disqualified their tempers their
insecurities their lack of political skills and
fancy words and the money to send them to their
rabbi and yet Jesus calls them Anyway, not because
they are impressive, not because they are ready,
not because they have it figured out. Each one
has a part to play, but not alone, together.
None of them are interchangeable. You can't just,
oh, here's a disciple, there's a disciple. Each
one is necessary for how God has made them. And
none of them are carried simply by being near
the right group. Let me give you a picture. Imagine,
if you will, two grown men standing on a platform
in Germany trying to figure out whether they're
getting on the right monorail. The sign looks
right, the map mostly makes sense, but one of
them is overly confident while the other is not
confident enough to say yes with authority. And
I have no idea who one of these two grown men
might have been. But you see, they hesitate,
they question, they second -guess, and by the
time they almost agree, one of them is stepping
onto the monorail while the other has the doors
slammed in front and misses it altogether. It's
ridiculous, really. Two capable adults, but neither
fully trusts what they're seeing and neither
fully trusts what the other is saying. Instead
of always saying yes, should they sometimes say
wait? Instead of always saying no, should they
sometimes say let's try it? But you see, here's
the thing. These were two different people with
two sets of strengths. One of them noticing the
details and one of them looking at the big picture.
One of them wants certainty and the other one
is willing to move and to adjust. And then when
the next day starts, the roles will reverse with
the same issues. And instead of recognizing that
those differences are meant to work together,
they treat them like obstacles. They are not
on that trip so that one of them could have figured
everything out while the other always had to
follow. They were meant to see more clearly together.
And hopefully, maybe the next vacation will have
it better figured out. But you see, that's often
how God works with us. Jesus does not say, explain
things to me correctly once you have it all figured
out. He says, come follow me and see. To a community
that needs one another to truly believe. Andrew
and likely the other disciple was John, they're
already listening to John the Baptist. They are
prepared to notice and when they do, they tell
others what they have seen. the Messiah, the
one sent to bring salvation to the world. Andrew
then goes to his brother Simon. John would have
gone to James, which raises the question, would
Peter and James have followed without Andrew
and John first saying something? They had businesses,
they had families and responsibilities. Leaving
to follow the Messiah was not some impulse. It
was repeated encounters where they needed someone
to say, here is the Messiah. After listening,
after seeing the nets overflowing, after realizing
this is from God. Faith grows in relationship.
Calling is awakened in community. There are no
elite followers who can be the perfect servant
of the Lord alone. As the kids show you, I'm
not even the best at all of it. So often people
resist, they turn away, they reject what God
has in mind, even after giving their hearts over
to God. But God, knowing how much we will butcher
the whole thing, does not turn to rejection.
He still turns to invitation. You are baptized
into God's kingdom not because you understand
everything about it But because you are loved
not because you will never fail But because failure
does not have the final word and if you're not
baptized into Christ Jesus Let's do it because
there's nothing to stop you from having the Word
of God Reach you Most of us don't struggle with
Isaiah's idea that God could call us before birth,
though we spend more time politicizing it than
hearing it as our calling. But many struggle
with the idea that God could call us through
water, bread and wine, or spoken forgiveness.
People struggle to see God calling us in the
everyday practices we have, because that would
be too passive. Too normal, too difficult to
define and outline, too difficult to understand
and control. But scripture never separates the
grace of God from whatever means He chooses to
bless us. And what brings people out of darkness
is God speaking in the community and individually.
You see, nothing about this life of faith works
well alone. That's true of New Year's resolutions.
You do not do as well when you are doing them
by yourself, and it's also true of faith. The
church exists not to erase your individuality,
but to sustain it. Your individual life and calling
in Christ. Not to replace your response to the
gospel, but to support you in it. To remind you
who you are when you forget, because how often
do you forget? To speak hope when the discouragement
takes over. You see, this is what Isaiah speaks
into the exile. God says, you are still known.
You are still called. You're still part of my
plan. In Isaiah, the people cannot make themselves
righteous. They cannot rescue themselves from
exile. So God speaks. I have called you. I have
formed you. I have not forgotten you. And he
grounds that promise not in Israel, not even
in the select few, but in his servant. The one
who will be faithful when Israel failed. The
one who will be the light for the nations. Even
when God's people fail to be servants, the true
servant does not fail. When I was a teacher,
I quickly became aware of how many things I did
not know. Whenever the kids would say, did you
just learn that? And I would say, oh, absolutely
not. As my eyes are darting from side to side,
knowing that they easily understood my sarcasm.
I did not go to school to be a teacher. I did
not have the same training. I did not always
know how to prepare or how to plan. And there
were plenty of moments where I felt behind before
the day even started. And plenty of times when
the tears that needed those tissues were from
me instead of my students. And yet there was
still this deep sense, this quiet conviction,
that for whatever reason I was meant to be there,
to mentor the young men, to transform the math
department and the outdoor program, to share
the gospel when it was possible. That I was supposed
to be part of that community and that I was meant
to be a blessing in that place Even if I could
not always see how and there were frustrations
The ups the downs the days when I genuinely wondered
whether I was doing any good at all You can hear
the teachers talk about their favorite teachers
and you find yourself quietly wondering does
that include me at all Or am I just getting in
the way? And in many ways that experience mirrors
what we see and live out in this faith community.
We do not always believe, we do not believe that
you always have everything figured out. We do
not expect that all your plans are perfectly
formed or that everything is cleaned up and settled.
We do not expect that you handle everything exactly
as you should. Not every slide is perfect. Not
every note sounds in key. Not every single ministry
has been announced the way it should be, but
that has never been the requirement. But there
are times when that means that we need to slow
down. Times when we have to say this is not the
moment for this. This is not the way. This is
not the place. Not because there is no calling.
Not because there is no purpose. But because
that calling may need time to be revealed. Or
it may need to take shape a little differently
than what we first imagined. I can see myself
in that too. I can look back at the times when
I needed support whenever the help that I depended
on was what I clung to. And how within the context
of the community I was in, even during the moments
when I resisted or did not want to hear it frankly,
there were still people encouraging me, walking
alongside me, helping me to stay grounded when
I felt unsure, and that's what community does.
Not because any one of us has it all together,
but because none of us is meant to figure it
out alone. The path was prepared before you were
born. You do not yet see all of it. You do not
yet know all of the path. But you do not walk
it unloved, unnamed, or alone. Because grace
is not a race that you run on your own. It's
a relay with others. It is lived out in the everyday
life that we are in the midst of. And that tension
between who we are, who we wish we were, and
who God says we already are, is exactly where
today's readings have met us. But even as we
may know that we are called to support the community,
maybe we also know that there is something bigger
and deeper that we're meant to move into. And
that is how Christ senses people. Not because
they are complete, not because they are confident,
not because every joke always lands, and not
because every moment feels strong. not because
they have mastered the path, but because they
are loved. We are not sent away from Christ to
represent Him on our own. We are sent in Christ,
still carried by Him, still shaped by His Spirit.
That is the pattern for all of us. God calls
us personally with our particular strengths.
and with our particular limitations. And then
he places us in community where those differences,
they actually matter and they're needed. Because
none of us is meant to do this alone. The church
often struggles here though. Instead of saying,
I can see what you're seeing, we rush to saying,
well I've heard you, and now let me explain why
you're wrong. We are called to be light for the
world, but more often than we like to admit,
we fall short. and burn dimly. Even those who
take faith seriously, those who read the scriptures,
those who pray, those who know the call to care
for the widows, the orphans, the poor, the foreigner,
the rejected, even they still stumble. We hesitate.
We fail. We fear admitting our need for one another
to point things out to us. How dare you point
that out? And yet, even when God's people fail
to serve as they should, the true servant of
the Lord does not fail. Christ has already given
himself fully, and he remains faithful to us.
And his plans do not fail. Maybe that is why
God's mission for us feels so intimidating. To
go into the world and to share the gospel. Maybe
we're afraid of being exposed. We're afraid to
admit that we need the same forgiveness as everyone
else, afraid of being labeled hypocrites, when
the truth is simply that we're all sinners who
are living by grace. Maybe we're afraid because
we imagine being sent into the world apart from
Christ as if we're expected to do this by our
own strength. But that's not how sending works.
None of those apostles, as much as they may have
done for the gospel, ever did it. on their own.
We are sent in Christ, still carried by Him,
still forgiven by Him, still shaped by His Spirit.
So over this last year, whether it's been new
challenges or new efforts or simply just facing
our own limits, many of us have felt uncertain
about the next step. But even if we were doing
something as mundane as going to the gym, we
do not stop at the door and ask if we belong.
And if you did, just go inside. Because we show
up and we see what happens next, even as we do
here in this very faith community. We do not
assume we're disqualified before we even begin.
We take what is in front of us and we learn as
we go, but the same is true here, is that even
when others see our flaws, and frankly we are
going to see each other's flaws, even when those
who know us best know exactly how imperfect we
are, we still step into the calling that God
has placed before us. Because our place in the
body of Christ was never earned by having it
all together. We belong because Christ is faithful.
We are included because He is perfect and He
has loved us enough to claim us as His own. So
maybe the resolution before us is not to figure
everything out, but to admit that we haven't
done so. To trust that grace is already at work
and to allow our lives our community and our
calling to be shaped not by our confidence, but
by Christ who calls, sustains, and sends us in
his name. So instead of resolving to have it
all figured out, maybe we resolve to admit we
don't. Because grace is not a race that you run
on your own. It's what we do together. The path
prepared before you were born, the one you do
not see all of, but you do not walk alone. or
unloved and the God who called you has not stopped
calling you this year or beyond. With that, thanks
be to God.