Isaiah 65:1-9; Luke 8:26-39

June 20, 2010 

“HERE I AM”

          We have a God who is centered on relationship.  We have a God who desires to be close, desires to be connected with his children, and desires intimacy.  We have a God who loves to make promises, and then our God delights in fulfilling those promises.  We have a God who is Immanuel, who is “with us.”  Our God does not wish to be an “out there” kind of God; no, our God desires to be a “right here” God.

            The sense that our God desires to be “up close and personal” has been a part of my faith understanding since I was a child.  Somehow, “Immanuel”…”With Us”…very early-on made its way into my heart.  I remember listening to music as a teenager and sensing how the lyrics of top 40 songs could also be statements about this “with us” God.

            One of those songs was written and released in 1971 by Carole King.  Her good friend, James Taylor, recorded the song in the same year and it became a #1 hit.  It is called “You’ve Got A Friend”.  As I listened to the song on my transistor radio, I heard “Friend” as being Jesus.

When you're down and troubled
And you need some loving care
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
You've got a friend

If the sky above you
Grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together
And call my name out loud
Soon you'll hear me knocking at your door

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again

Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there

Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend
When people can be so cold
They'll hurt you, and desert you
And take your soul if you let them
Oh, but don't you let them

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
You've got a friend

        You’ve got a friend, says God.  Here I am.

            This God-With-Us personal relationship goes both ways.  Just as God invites us to “just call out his name”, God also calls us by name.  There is a pattern, especially throughout the Old Testament when God’s call came through dreams or burning bushes.  Listen as God calls God’s own by name.  Listen to the responses.  Think relationship.

• God called Abraham in Genesis 21:1…”(God) said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”

• An angel of God spoke to Jacob in a dream (Genesis 31:11)…”Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’”

• God again spoke to Jacob, now called Israel, in a dream (Genesis 46:2)…”God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, ‘Jacob, Jacob.’  And he said, ‘Here I am.’”

• In Exodus 3:4 at the site of the burning bush, “When the Lord saw that (Moses) had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’  And he said, ‘Here I am.’”

• Several times in a dream God seeks to get Samuel’s attention (1 Samuel 3:1-10)…”Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am.’”

• The prophet Isaiah writes of his own call from God in Isaiah 6:7-8…”The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’  And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”

Now, just as we can sense intimacy through this personal relationship between God and God’s children, we also know that the closest of relationships, including holy ones, experience brokenness as well as intimacy.  We know that, sometimes, “up front and personal” can become turned backs and strained silence.  Just as there is joy when we sense that God is “with us”, when there is distance, when there is division, we may only be able to glimpse God from a great divide, but we are so entrenched in our own agendas we may not notice or even care.  Joy can become indifference.

So, moving from “just call out my name”, moving from “Here I am,” we hear God’s frustration issued through the Prophet Isaiah in our text.  Now God says (verse 1b)…”I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’ to a nation that did not call on my name.  Our text begins with God lamenting, “I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that did not call on my name.  I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually…”

What sobering words for a people who belonged to, who were chosen by God.  It is sad to sense that God has to endure being ignored and invisible to people God loves so intensely.  It is horrifying to picture a people “provoking” God “to my face continually.”  A spiritual knife slices into our hearts when we realize that God has waved his arms and shouted to each of us sometimes, to all of us as a church sometimes, “Here I am, here I am” to those of us who get so caught up in ourselves that we do not call on his name. 

But his love does not die; God’s steadfast love is greater than our ignorance and ignoring.  The intimacy God feels for us is greater than our indifference.  God is still with us.  “Here I am, Here I am,” says God.

We are shocked by the immensity of God’s love as we stare at Jesus on the cross.  What extremes God will go through to keep us close, to bring us home, to win back our hearts.  “Here I am, here I am!”  And as Jesus was dying, there were names on his lips…he spoke the names of those who would live as a result of his death.  Jesus called us by name from the cross.

Jesus calls us by name.  I am intrigued by what the scholars say about Jesus confronting the man who was imprisoned by multiple demons in our Gospel lesson today.  First of all, Jesus went where no other would walk.  Jesus went to the land of Gentiles, to a cemetery where people others did not wish to see were exiled.  And did you notice?  As Jesus was speaking to the man who could only shout with connecting fear and rage, Jesus asked: “What is your name?”  The scholars tell us that one has power over another when that one knows the other’s name.  “What is your name?”

Jesus knows our names.  Jesus spoke our names at baptism.  God’s presence, up close and personal, shouts intimacy, mercy, and steadfast love.  “Just call out my name and you know wherever I am, I’ll come running to see you again…”        

Here I am.