Our readings this week are Isaiah 49.1–7 and John 1.29–42.

I don't know what your relationship is to the idea of a divine calling?  Some people seem to have a very clear understanding that there is a particular purpose for each of us, a divine plan that lays out our life: where we are meant to go, and what it is we are meant to be doing.  The passage in front of us from Isaiah this week seems to fall into that camp.  In verse 1 we read,  'The Lord called me before I was born'.

It could be that such an idea fills you with confidence, joy, and wonder - and if so, that is great; but I suspect that there is also a group of us for whom that idea is just terrifying and anxiety-inducing.  If we're meant to be in a particular place, doing a particular thing, how do we know we're getting it right?  And (perhaps worse!) what happens if we don't!?

I'm reminded of a postcard that my mate Jim's mum had pinned up in their kitchen when we were kids.  It said this, 'God placed me on this earth to achieve certain things.  At the moment I'm so far behind, I'm never going to die!'

It is into that sort of uncertainty that I believe our gospel reading speaks this week.  

It begins with the certainty of John the Baptist, 'Here is the Lamb of God!... This is he!'.  But those of us who have read the whole story can't help but be mindful that this is the same John the Baptist who is going to send his disciples to Jesus a little later to ask him, 'Are you the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?'

And this passage ends with Jesus renaming Simon 'Peter', or 'Rocky', because, as Matthew's gospel reminds us, his intention is to build his church on him. We know Jesus' view on appropriate foundations for house building: rock is most definitely preferred over sand! But we also know - again, from reading the whole story - that Peter, if he is a rock, is a pretty flaky one...

And yet, Jesus says of John the Baptist - John the Doubter - that there has never been anyone born greater than him; and Jesus does, indeed, build his Church on Peter and his ministry.

What emerges, then, is a Jesus - a God - who knows what he's about. A God who, yes, has a purpose - has a church to build, and people to save.  And a God who invites human beings to help him fulfill those purposes, calling them at certain times to certain tasks.  But a God too, who knows he is working with human fallibility, foolishness, and - oftentimes - failure.  And yet when the whole story is read it is those who have doubted and disowned - the Johns and the Peters - that he names great, and solid, and dependable.  Because, at the end of days, it is ultimately his power, not our own, and his purpose, not our own.  And neither of those things can be threatened by our incompetence.

He calls us not because he needs us, but because he loves us.  And he calls us not as we believe we are, but as he knows we will become - which he has known since before we were born.

So take heart - it is his strength, and his story, and you can't mess it up!