Moses is reckoned as the greatest prophets of the Jewish Scriptures. He is acclaimed and respected by Jews, Muslims and Christians. You remember that the voice of God spoke to Moses from the heart of the burning bush, sending him to Pharaoh with the message, Let my people go. Today we hear God’s call to another prophet who is vitally important to Jews, Muslims and especially Christians, and that is the prophet Isaiah. It was Isaiah who first foretold the coming of a Messiah, an anointed ruler who would save the people. It was Isaiah who declared that God’s sign for his people would be a young woman, giving birth to a son whose name will be Immanuel. And it was Isaiah who spoke of God’s suffering servant who was to bear the sins of all people and to make his life an offering for sin. The book of the prophet Isaiah has some of the most poetical and moving words in the whole bible.

Today we hear how God sent Isaiah a vision and called him to be a prophet. It is told like a dream. Isaiah dreamed of God sitting like a king on a throne. Seraphs, each with six wings, proclaimed his glory and the temple shook like an earthquake and filled with smoke. Last week we heard how God touched the lips of Jeremiah to put God’s words in his mouth. Isaiah’s lips were touched with a burning coal which burned away his sin and guilt. Isaiah was ready for his ministry.

God calls his servants with a vision and a word. Moses heard God’s voice from the burning bush, Elijah heard the still small voice in the midst of an earthquake, fire and storm, while Isaiah’s vision was of the kingly power of God.

In our second reading, God calls his apostles through the Jesus, who appeared, as St Paul relates, to Cephas, that is, Simon Peter, then to the twelve, then to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters, then James, then to all the apostles. Last of all Paul remembers his own vision of Christ on the road to Damascus. Each of these great saints of the church were called to their ministry through a vision of Jesus and God’s voice which spoke to them.

Now the gospel also tells of a calling, and it is not the story of a heavenly vision; it is the story of about ten tonnes of fish, two boatloads full. The gospel tells the story of Simon Peter, who with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were fishermen. Jesus came to them as an ordinary living human, a carpenter who knew nothing about fishing. And all those ten tonnes of fish had nothing to do with being a clever fisherman, Jesus was using them as an illustration to show what God was expecting of Peter, James and John. “See those fish?” says Jesus, “well, I want you to catch that many people.”

In the same way, God calls us with a vision and a word. I remember when I was a surveyor in Papua New Guinea, with our baby only two years old and Sue pregnant, wondering how we would live in Australia, with no job to go to. Tefita Talanoa, the parish secretary, called round to ask me to read at the next Sunday Eucharist. The reading was from the book of proverbs, “Let the Lord be your silver and gold.” We heard this as a call to trust God. We returned to Australia, trusting in God, and God did not abandon us.

Down in Newtown, painted on the wall opposite the post office, is a huge picture of Martin Luther King and his words, “I have a dream…” His dream was of a society where people of all races were treated equally. He did not live to see his dream fulfilled, and his dream is still only a dream in many parts of the world, but this vision and this word is still an inspiration. Someone is trying to keep the dream alive, and used the wall in Newtown to say so.

Jesus had a dream; a dream of a mother hen. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, he said, how I have longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings.

We have a dream at St Luke’s, too, a dream which brings people together, regardless of age, gender, race, marital or family status, sexual orientation, disability or wealth. We think it is important enough to print on our pew bulletins, our publicity leaflets and our website. It’s a great dream, but like all great dreams, it needs to be made reality through vision and courage, passion, energy and hard work.

Now every prophet there ever was worried about what they had to do. Jeremiah, you’ll remember from last week said he was too young; Isaiah felt unable to speak God’s word. “Woe is me! I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips, like the people around me.” Paul said he was unfit to be an apostle, and Simon Peter fell down, crying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Even Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane asked that if it was possible, he could avoid the cup of death. But in every case, God came to strengthen and inspire.

And so it is for us. God calls us and God will be with us when we seek to do God’s will. The question today is, what part of God’s vision do you see; what word do you hear, and where does God send you? At our futures forum after church today we are going to look around at the many visions God gives us. Some are visions of the mind, like Isaiah’s dream, others are solid and real like the miraculous net-full of fishes. Let’s get together and share the visions that we have. I know that God is calling us to serve in this place. And God will provide both the vision and what is needed to achieve them. Let us place ourselves in his hands.