Let us pray: Faithful God, you create us and give us life. You know all that we are and can be. Help us discern your call and recognize the gifts you have given. Strengthen us to bear your light in the world, so that your ways may be known to all people. Amen.

We just heard three different tales of being called. There is the story of Isaiah – in this case Second Isaiah – the second of the writers whose work is recorded in the book of the prophet. This Isaiah suggests that he was destined to undertake the work of calling the people to account: “God put me to work from the day I was born. The moment I entered the world God named me.” He goes on: “God gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.” As you heard, this Isaiah is both resigned and delighted by the work God has called him to do. And in this case at least, it is encouraging work, as he has a message of return from exile for his people, the people of Israel.

Then there is the story of Paul. In this instance he is writing to the Christian community in Corinth. He too talks about being called by Jesus (not literally of course, for Paul and Jesus were not contemporaries) according to God's plan. Paul is also in the encouragement department, telling the Corinthians how faithful they've been so far.

Finally, we have the encounter as recorded by John between Jesus and another John, John the Baptizer. John sees Jesus and recounts the events of yesterday when Jesus came to John to be baptized. John describes how he was called by God to baptize with water, but according to what he witnessed on the previous day when Jesus came up from the water, namely the coming of the Holy Spirit, he calls Jesus the God-Revealer. As the story continues we read that two others – people who were hanging with John are prompted to join with Jesus and his God-Revealing mission.

God-Revealer. That description of Jesus really appealed to me when I encountered it the reading from John's gospel. It captures an essence of what Jesus was about, both contextually in the stories we have of his teaching and healing around Galilee and cosmically as he became the Christ, not only for the people of Galilee, but for an ever expanding circle of faith.

It's a good description for the other three people we meet in the readings today. Second Isaiah, the prophet quoted in today's reading from the Hebrew bible is a God-Revealer for the people of Israel, given the spiritual gift of cutting and penetrating speech in order to get through to the people and help them understand who and what they were, to encourage them with word of God's goodness, to bring hope with word of God's promise that their current distress in exile will end.

Paul is also a God-Revealer for the dispersed communities of followers of Jesus all around the Mediterranean Sea. Paul often prefaces his advice, admonition and encouragement with the story of how on the road to Damascus he changed from being a persecutor of followers of the Way – the nascent Christian church, to being an apostle.

Even though John coins the term God-Revealer in reference to Jesus, we know that he too, had a role as prophet for the people of Galilee. While Paul and John are often not referred to as prophets, they were every bit prophets as much as Isaiah. They, like Jesus, the prime God-Revealer, were called, whether by conversion experience or by other circumstance to show and tell other people what it means to live lives that reveal God's presence.

I mentioned a moment or two ago that Jesus was God-Revealer for the people of Galilee, as described in the gospel records. How often do we read in those gospel accounts of encounters between Jesus and people who would be considered outcasts, despised, or at the very least, looked over? And then we read how Jesus holds them up as God-Revealers themselves. Your faith has made you well, he says to them. By helping them to see with new eyes, hear with new ears, understand the world from a different perspective, consider the ways in which they both understood and accepted God's presence and blessing, they and their lives became a revelation for others of the way in which God always shows up. By revealing God's presence – which was in and part of them already, they not only come to understand and accept that they count in God's eyes, in God's way of defining meaning and purpose, but also become an example for others.

This week we were confronted in newscasts, commentaries, and the proliferation, these days, of other ways that we learn about happenings and events in the world, by the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. We were also informed of the devastating flood damage and destruction in Australia and terrible mud slides in Brazil, political turmoil in Tunisia to name just a few. Any and all of these cry out for a word that will bring meaning to the seemingly endless litany of ways in which people are suffering in this world. It's not easy, but these situations and the many others call for God-revealing words and actions. Sometimes the word we need to hear has to be discovered in unexpected ways. Just as Jesus would demonstrate God's presence by pointing out the faithfulness of people who might otherwise be ignored or dismissed, we need to look for the surprising and unexpected ourselves. What words of hope can be found in the midst of violence, terror and destruction by natural disaster? In these days when information is so readily and overwhelmingly available, we need to try even harder to delve into the deeper stories, to go beyond the sound bites and mainline responses. We need to listen to the dissenting voices – for often this is where God is revealed most clearly. We need to question what we read and hear, not as cynical or skeptical individuals, but as people of faith who live in the sure and certain knowledge that God is present. We need to live our lives knowing that God is ready to be revealed. We need to offer a different perspective, to hear the stories that are told by others on the margins, to live lives that reveal our confidence in God and which say something about a way of life with which God will be pleased.

God-Revealer. It is something to which we should all aspire, even as we live lives that try to follow the path that Jesus, God Revealer set before us. May we live lives that tell the story that they become part of the story. Amen.