WHOM SHALL I SEND?

Who is it that can do God’s work?  How is it that God’s will is carried out? If we are to see the face of Jesus, where will we look? Who will embrace? Who will forgive? Who will encourage? Who will love? Who will kiss the leper clean? Who will care for cruel and kind? Who will manifest the love and face of Jesus?

The Iona Worship Book as a service to celebrate the ‘Act of Commitment.’ In it the Christian is reminded of whose hands are to be busy and whose feet are to be marching. The Christian is reminded of whose arms will embrace and whose heart will forgive. These words are found within that liturgy –

Leader: Look at your hands, see the touch and the tenderness,
ALL: GOD’S OWN FOR THE WORLD.

Leader: Look at your feet, see the path and the direction,
ALL: GOD’S OWN FOR THE WORLD.

Leader: Look at your heart, see the fire and the love,
ALL: GOD’S OWN FOR THE WORLD.

Leader: Look at the cross, see God’s Son and our Saviour,
ALL: GOD’S OWN FOR THE WORLD.

Leader: This is God’s world,
ALL: AND WE WILL SERVE GOD IN IT.

This is a radical acceptance of the order of God’s creating. Here the worshipper is reminded that ours are the hands that will touch the leper and offer tenderness to those in grief. We acknowledge that the hands that we have are God’s own and that they are given for the world and for God’s service in the world.

The worshipper is reminded that ours are the feet that will take God’s love into many directions, down many paths and in varied communities. We acknowledge that the feet that we walk on are God’s own and they should carry God into the world in many paths and directions.

The worshipper is reminded that ours is the heart that will love others back to health. We acknowledge that this heart that we enjoy is God’s own and it beats in time with a rhythm of love, hope, healing and forgiveness.

The worshipper is reminded that the cross on Jesus was nailed is God’s own symbol of forgiveness. Guilt and shame were nailed down as the cost purchased forgiveness of God’s beloved. We acknowledge that the cross is God’s own and it calls us to a new way of life and a new way of being that frees us from being defined by guilt or shame.

This is God’s world and God is at work in all that we do. God in fact relies on us to take seriously the notion that we are called to do the difficult but necessary work of loving, healing, forgiving, and renewing. We are called to be the hands that remove walls of hatred and segregation and to polish the hallways of justice to make them free of the stains of fear and suspicion

Who is it that will do God’s work? – As we pray tonight perhaps we can add the words….Here I am Lord – Send Me!