This week was our church’s annual golf tournament. Between several activities from putting to going out with a foursome for a while and getting ready for the dinner, I had time to philosophize, to think, to reflect, to meditate about why on earth we play this game. I decided that it was time to actually develop anthropology of golf; something credible and intellectual; something that would last for a long time. As I sat there, I was inspired. I came to the conclusion, after watching so many of you, that there are basically two types of human beings who play golf: Those who think they are better than they are; and those who think they are worse.
The first group are noticeable by their anxiety and level of distress. They hit a shot and it goes into the bushes or the traps or it doesn’t go where they aimed and they are distressed. They think that they are better than that, and can become depressed and rather unpleasant about it. The second group on the other hand, when they land off the fairway or in a trap or in the water are not surprised, and rather when they hit a good shot, they are ecstatic, happy, thrilled. Which group of players would you rather play with, I ask you? Would you rather be with the people who think they are better than they are, and are in a constant state of anxiety and depression, or those who think they are not as good as they are, and who are happy from when something goes reasonably well? I concluded I wanted to be around the second group of people, for they are the ones with whom I can identify most closely. They are the ones who give you a sense that after all, it is only a game.
I have been thinking about that, because in some ways it applies to the way we relate not only to the game of golf, and life as a whole, but also to our relationship with God. There are some people who think that they are so good that they don’t need God in their lives. They have everything they want and need. They understand the universe and how it works and have concluded that they are basically good people, and that God would be superfluous, unnecessary, a requirement for those who are emotionally weak. Others feel that they are completely dependent on God, and have no good within them. They feel that they are not worthy of doing anything good for God and become depressed. They are worried that they are not living up to the standard that God has set for them, and that maybe they are not worthy even to mention God’s name.
Now, I don’t know where you are within those two groups, and maybe you don’t fit neatly into either of them. But, in the Scriptures it seems to me that a disproportionate amount of time is spent on those who are not good enough for God, those who feel that they are not worthy to rise to the challenge that God has placed before them and therefore feel they are inadequate: “Who am I to serve God?”, “Who am I to proclaim his name?”, “Who am I to serve him in the world?”, “I am not good enough!” Those who think that there is no place for God because they are better than God will reject God outright. They will live as if there is no God, and maybe at times in their lives they will come to a point where they will realize that they are actually not as good as they think they are. Jesus dealt with those people. There were people who felt they were really hyper-super religious and they could do everything, and they thanked God that they weren’t like everybody else, and Jesus points out their frailties and their failings. Basically, the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the faith has been to those who perhaps have not felt worthy and been challenged and changed.
In today’s passage from the Book of Isaiah this is a case in point of someone who didn’t feel they were good enough. Isaiah was living in a nation that had thought that it was better than it was. They thought they were so good that they didn’t need God. They were corrupt; they were violent; they had turned their back on the Almighty. They thought God was an unnecessary part of their lives. But then there is a crisis: their King, called Uzziah, died, and they had to appoint a new king. There is a great deal of anxiety in the nation. The nation that thought it didn’t need God anymore was now having to face life without their king and monarch. What would the future hold?
Isaiah, who had come from a very good home and had a very good education, goes to this coronation ceremony of the new king. When he arrives there, he has a strange vision of angels and smoke. His vision would make the creators of most video games look really dull! It was really something strange! But, in the midst of all that, this great prophet Isaiah is challenged. He felt terrified and unworthy to be in God’s presence. He had a sense that God was present and he didn’t know what to do about it. “I am a man of unclean lips, I don’t say good things, I am simple, I am fallen, I am not worthy, and I am around a group of people who have unclean lips and are unworthy and should not be blessed by you!” He says to God, “Why are you here when so many of us have turned our backs upon you and against you?”
God then reaches out to Isaiah. He touches his tongue with coal (a symbol of purity and says, “Don’t you worry! I will make you good enough. I will make you worthy. I will give you that power.”
God then says to Isaiah, “Who am I going to send to this nation with its problems and corruption? Who am I going to send?”
Isaiah, in these incredible words at the end, says immortally, “Send me.”
You see, he went into all this thinking his game wasn’t good enough. He was one of those who felt that they weren’t worthy enough, yet God had given him the strength and the forgiveness and the power to make a difference.
Confirmation Class, with all that you are doing at school, all the challenges of your life and your friendships and your families, all the things that you have on your minds and that you enjoy doing, all your friends, yet you might be thinking, “I have so much to do, and my life is so busy and so full, and I am young, what can I do, who am I that I might be able to serve God?” Well, if you feel like that, you are no different than Isaiah when he was a young man in that Temple. He felt exactly the same way. But, God called him.
God doesn’t expect, and this is to our new members, for you to enter us and be perfect. We didn’t do, you will be pleased to hear, a perfection background check on you before we brought you in here. What we do is enter you into who we are. What we are is like Isaiah, simply people who are willing to be available and to respond to the grace of God.
In the eleventh century, there was a very famous Bavarian king called Henry III. He was nicknamed “The Pious” because he was very religious. He was part of The Holy Roman Empire, and had been blessed by the Pope himself. He was questioning whether he was worthy. He became the king and after wars with Hungary and elsewhere had an edict of peace and forgiveness. He wanted people to live in peace and encouraged them, but finally he had given up. His affluence and his power wasn’t working, so he went to the Prior of a monastery, the head of a monastery, and he said to this Prior Richard, “I would like to become a monk. I have got to get out of this. I am simply not good enough to be able to run the Empire.”
The Prior said to him, “Okay. But, if you join this monastery you do realize that you have to swear an oath of obedience to me, and I am representing God.”
Henry responds, “Okay, I am willing to do that. You just tell me what to do, and I will be.”
The Prior says, “Okay. I don’t want you to enter the monastery. I want you to go back and be the king as God had appointed you in the first place. I want you to keep working for peace. I want you to keep changing people’s lives, and I want you to be faithful.”
You see, the king had gone to the Prior expecting to hear one thing, when in fact he heard something else. He thought he wasn’t good enough – “Who am I? I am weak!” – and yet God was calling him to be where he had placed him.
That is all God asks of us. It doesn’t matter what the challenges are in our lives; it doesn’t matter the things that we encounter; it doesn’t matter how we sometimes feel unworthy: God calls us and asks us one thing, “Who will I send? Who is going to go and be part of my people?” All he wants from us is what Isaiah said, “Send me.” When you say that, as you do today, it is He who gives you the strength and the power and the grace to do it! What a wonderful message on this glorious day from the great Isaiah! Amen.