Sermon - "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"

Sermon preached by Dr. B.J. Hutto at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday, September 7, 2025.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Thank you choir. So in the spirit of a new academic year I thought this morning I would begin with a story from college. Two of my friends at Walford ended up being roommates their freshman year and early in their first semester one night they were lying in bed talking and they had this exact conversation. Hey, cut off the light, would you? Let's go to sleep. I don't want to cut the light off. You cut it off. Dude, you were the last one up. Just cut off the light. I'm comfortable. If you want it off so bad, you get up and cut it off. Now, they were just messing around with one another, of course, but all that night, that light stayed on. And the next night, laying in bed, one says to the other, so are you going to cut that light off or not? Nope. And the light stayed on. The next night, dude, just cut the light off. I cannot sleep with it on. No way, man. You do it. Once again, the light stayed on. By the second week of this, the rest of us had caught wind of what was happening and had started to egg them on. By the end of week three, one of them had started sleeping with their pillow over their head. And by the end of week four, the other one had made a nest on the floor of his closet just to get away from the light. But that light, it stayed on. In fact, the light in their dorm room stayed on for the rest of that entire semester until the RA went in there doing room checks at break, found that they had left it like that, and turned it off himself. A couple of things here. The first is that that is an absolute 100% true story. The second is that both of these people ended up growing into functional, successful adults. One of them is actually a medical doctor. And the third is that alongside being true, This story is also something of a parable. It is a small story that illustrates something larger about our world. You and I, it's easy to see what needs to be done in our world. But we live in a world where it is significantly more difficult to find people who are willing to take responsibility and actually do them. I think this is one of the reasons why for generations people have found our Isaiah text so compelling. Uzziah, the king in Jerusalem, has died. He had reigned for 50 years, which at that time in history was itself something of a miracle, but even beyond that, they were 50 good years. 50 good years in a period of Israel's history marked by broader uncertainty. And now he was dead, and the uncertainty was back. And at his funeral, as that uncertainty loomed, Isaiah heard a word from the Lord. Who will go for us? And he answers. Notice, by the way, that Isaiah has his doubts. He doesn't have any delusions of grandeur. He knows exactly who he is. I am a man of unclean lips, he says, living amongst a people of unclean lips. He knows he is not perfect. But he answers. Here am I, O Lord. Send me. This morning in our worship service, we are installing a new class of deacons. Eight of you, seven of whom have served before, and one of you, Mary Nell McCoy, who will be ordained and serve for the first time. Now, in two weeks, we will ordain Mary Nell a second time, but that's a different story. And we are doing this today because the eight of you have done something unusual and surprising and, in fact, countercultural in our world. You said yes. You said yes when you could have said no. You said, here I am, send me, when you could have said, I am too busy, or I'm just not interested, or it's just not the right time, or I'm just not the right person. That's what Isaiah could have said. But he didn't. That's what any of you could have said. You did not either. In some Baptist churches, and I think it's probably safe to say in most Baptist churches, when you agree to be a deacon, you are agreeing to a position that comes with a fair bit of prestige. You become the chair of a committee. Your office puts you in a position of leadership within the congregation. But as is so often the case here at HAB, things are a little bit different. Here at HAB, deacons don't lead. They serve. At deacons' meetings at HAB, we don't discuss the budget or personnel questions or property issues. We discuss who's been in the hospital, which homebound members need just a little bit more TLC, who in our church needs to be served. Because that's what you do when you agree to be a deacon. You agree to serve. And yet, because you have stepped forward and answered the call to serve, the eight of you have actually also proven yourself to be leaders, to be the kinds of people that the rest of us should follow, should seek to exemplify, should look up to. Because in a world where most people would never volunteer to look after their neighbors in need, where most people would rather just keep to themselves, focus on themselves, where institutions of all types, from bowling leagues to civic groups, and yes, even religious families are in decline, and where people are less and less interested in investing in the lives of their neighbors, it remains a stubborn truth that you and I serve a Lord who calls. We serve a Lord who expects something of us. Love, service, faith, grace. A Lord who offers us a role in his work in this world. And so by doing what you have done today, by making a decision to invest yourselves in the lives of this community and in the lives of your neighbors, you've actually done something even more than chosen to serve, and quite frankly, even more than having chosen to lead. You have chosen to bear witness. As deacons, you will be signs of God's love in this world. Love for people who need it. Love for people who usually can't reciprocate it. There is no quid pro quo here. This isn't some devious way to gain favors or get ahead in the world. They will not scratch your back after you have scratched theirs, so to speak. Sometimes it will be love for people who don't always appear grateful for it. After all, you're going to be serving a group of Baptists. And as we all know, Baptists, and yes, sometimes even older Baptists, can be ornery from time to time. So it's just love and service and gift. In a word, my friends, It's grace. And because of that, as you serve this congregation as its deacons, you will bear witness to the rest of us, and to everyone who is around us, of the abiding, overwhelming, unearned, and eternal love of our God. And because of that, we who are here today are grateful. Amen.