Based on Isaiah 6:1-8
Some years ago, I was privileged to attend the graduation for the U.S. Army Rangers at Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, in Georgia. At that graduation, one of the speakers quoted Isaiah 6:8: āThen I heard the voice of the Lord saying, āWhom shall I send? And who will go for us?ā And I said, āHere am I. Send me!ā ā
The purpose for that quotation and its use among the U.S. Army Rangers is that it reflects the Rangersā ability to complete tasks with little to no prompting, to engage in violence of action. And those who wear the Ranger tab are qualified to carry out those types of missions.
Iām not a U.S. Army Ranger. Iāve not been qualified in any type of the Special Operations Command training with their weapons or their tactics. I am unqualified in close quarters battle. Thatās not something that Iāve been called to do. And I donāt know about you. Maybe some of you are qualified in that, and I thank you for doing that on our behalf.
And maybe for some of you, thatās not your vocation either. You are a military service member. You are a warrior. And maybe youāre not a warfighter, but you are somebody who supports the warfighters. You also have other callings from Godāother vocations. Maybe you are a son or a daughter to your parents, and youāre called to love and care for your mom and your dad. Maybe you are a husband or a wife, and youāre called to love your spouse. Maybe you are a father or a mother, and you are called to love your children.
Maybe you are someone who is not in the military world, but youāre on the civilian side, but youāre still called to serve those that you interact with on a day-to-day basis. And still there may be some of you who have one foot on the military side and one foot on the civilian side as you serve in our Guard or as a reservist. This is where God has put you, and what he has called you to do is to love and serve those people at this time and at this place.
So my question to you is this: How is it going? Do you feel qualified to serve those people at this time in your life and at that place?
I donāt know about you, but I often donāt feel qualified to carry out the vocations that God has called me to carry out. I often disappoint my spouse and my children and my friends and my colleagues with promises made and promises not kept. And I often find myself with a self-serving attitude rather than a self-sacrificing attitude. And it reminds me of a part of the Ranger Creed that says, āNever shall I fail my comrades.ā Well, I am often guilty of that. I donāt do those things. I often feel unqualified to carry out the vocations that God has called me to do.
What about you? Well, youāre not alone. The prophet Isaiah felt that way as he stood in the presence of a holy God. He acknowledged that he was sinful and unclean, unqualified to do the work that God was going to call him to do. But in Isaiah 6, that same chapter that that U.S. Army Ranger quoted at that Ranger tab pinning ceremony, God said to Isaiah, āYour guilt is taken away and your sin atoned forā (verse 7). And by faith Isaiah believed that. His Savior would not take on human flesh for another 700 years. But Isaiah believed that thatās what God had done. He had taken away his guilt. He had atoned for his sin.
And the same is true for you and for me. Our Lord Jesus has taken away our guilt by becoming our guilt. For all those times that we were self-serving and not self-sacrificing, Jesus sacrificed himself perfectly for you and for me. He said to you and me, āYou are innocent. You are not guilty.ā
Jesus paid the ultimate price by laying down his life for yours and mine. He has atoned for your sin, which means he has made that payment of life blood for you and for me. And it was after the Lord had proclaimed that forgiveness to Isaiah and asked him, āWho shall go for us? And whom shall we send?ā Isaiah raised his hand and said, āHere am I. Send me!ā
Whatever vocation God has called you to at this time and this place to love and serve other people, we can confidently say to God, āYes! Here am I. Send me! You have called me to love and serve these people.ā The reason we can do that is because he has taken away our guilt. He has atoned for our sin.
So go! Go and serve confidently and say to the Lord, āHere am I. Send me!ā
Prayer:
Lord, with heavy hearts we come before you on behalf of the families of those U.S. Army soldiers, Rebecca Lobach, Ryan Austin OāHara, and Andrew Eaves, the U.S. Army flight crew who died in that helicopter crash in Washington, D.C.
We also pray for the family members of the 64 individuals on that commercial aircraft who also perished. You tell us in your Word in Isaiahās book that your ways are higher than our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts, and sometimes we struggle to understand a tragedy like this, Lord.
When we suffer and when we are sad, you point us to your promises in Christ Jesus to grant peace and to give the hope of eternal life into heaven and to strengthen us on our way there. And so, Father in heaven, we ask that you grant that peace, that hope of eternal life, that strength to the survivors, that you provide faithful Christian pastors and chaplains and family members and friends to comfort them in the weeks and months ahead.
And so also, Father, we pray for all of our service members who are training around the world. Send your holy angels to watch over them and to protect them. Keep them faithful to their training. Keep them alert and aware. Keep them safe, Lord, by your grace. Amen.
