“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” I want you to think about this. Who, when they are standing before the throne of God says, “Oh, I hope He doesn’t pick me?” Who here, having been swept up in the vision of standing before the throne of God would not jump and shout and wave their arms at the Lord out of a sense of love, devotion and emotional rapture? So, Isaiah, who was like you and me, he says, “Here I am, send me!” This all reminds me of a farmer who had nine children. One morning at breakfast, really early in the morning, he sat down at the table with all of his children. He and his wife had been having a conversation, and the children do not hear all of the conversation. As he was sitting down, he said, “Whom shall I send? Who will do it?” At the end of the table is the youngest of the children. He is about eight years old. He is anxious to finally be recognized by his father. He hears the end of the conversation and he wants to please his father so much. So he blurts out, “Here I am! Send me!” The father looked up from his plate with a little grin on his face. He says, “O.K., son. You can meet me at the pig pen after breakfast and we’ll shovel it out together.” I say that because Isaiah is like that little boy. He is witnessing the glory of God. He is swept up in our Father’s majesty. Eager to love him and please him, when the Lord says, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah says loudly and clearly, “Here I am! Send me!” Then the heavenly Father turns to him and tells him, that he will have to go and tell the people that they have an aversion for the holy. He must go and tell the people that the Lord is going to ruin all that he has given them, because of the simple fact that they have forgotten that the Lord is holy and we must approach our worship of him and our daily lives lived for him with a profound sense of His holiness. That holiness of God must cause us to react like Isaiah did and say, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips!” Instead of a faithful community, Isaiah will encounter a community that has closed its eyes, ears and hearts to God already. He must go and clean out the pig pen called Israel. It is an unenviable task, but the Lord needs people to go do it. Because it is not just in Isaiah’s time, but in our time, that the people of God reject the Word of the Lord. They forget that they are to be a holy people because the Lord himself is holy. What we do as “the people of God” reflects upon God in the eyes of the world. There was a young energetic protestant pastor who was sent to a church that his superior said, “wanted to grow.” The superior said that the little congregation recognized that it was in a community that was growing by 10 percent every year. In the years to come, said the superior, this little congregation would grow. “So, send us a young energetic pastor, please!” said the church. So the superintendent and the Bishop did just that. After about two and half years of this young energetic pastor getting shot down at every turn, the little church met to make its recommendation for a pastor for the next year. The pastor walked into the meeting and everyone was there. That was unusual. The young energetic pastor sat down and the chairperson of the church committee said, “Pastor, we think you are the best preacher we have ever had in our memory.” “Thank you,” said the young energetic pastor. “And, Pastor, you visit the sick and shut ins better than any pastor we have ever had.” “Thank you,” said the young energetic pastor. “And, Pastor, you are a really good administrator.” “Thank you,” said the young energetic pastor. “And you have got move,” completed the Chairperson, “because you are asking us to do too much. We know how we are supposed to live, but we want a pastor who will be more nurturing and tell us how good we are, not push us to live the kind of life you are telling us to live.” Let’s face it, being holy is not exactly fun sometimes. At least that is what we are lead to believe. This may be true, but being holy is not about being fun. Being holy is about being in love with the one true, pure, holy and glorious Lord God the Almighty. Being holy is about losing your mind in the Lord. I can testify to that, because when the Lord said, “Who shall we send to Gary, IN?” I said, “Here I am! Send me!” Everyone around me said, “You are out of your mind.” Even St. Peter, who would be crucified upside down because of his response to the calling of God, said to the Lord “go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!” when he had objected to Jesus’ power. Thank God that our Lord did what he was going to do in spite of St. Peter’s objections. This points out one of the reasons we reject the holy. Think about it, especially in these gray days we have been having, who is really thinking about the holy day in and day out? We don’t think of the possibilities of one who is powerful enough to be so holy. We think in a little box of our capabilities. The holiness of god is beyond all of our wildest imaginings. His holiness cannot be contained by a little tabernacle. Today, I invite you to contemplate what we are doing when we worship God. Are we just meeting in a room and going through a program, or are we standing before the throne of God? Are we just singing to be singing or are we offering up our voices to the holy one? When the homily is preached, is just another opinion, or is it the Word of God through the lips of his anointed? If God is real, if the Eucharist is real, if the Scriptures are the Word of God, if our church is from whence holiness emanates throughout the world, then how can we even begin to think of Sunday morning as ordinary, drab, obligated and dull? Holiness is exciting. Holiness is enthralling. Holiness is invigorating. Holiness is challenging. Holiness is inspiring. When God calls are we saying, just a minute, I am too busy with MY life, or are we standing on our toes, waving our arms in the air and saying, “Here am I! Send me!”? Amen. Amen.