Sunday, January 24, 2021

Being Called

January 24, 2021

St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Mark 1:14-20[1]

Please pray with me. Insistent God, by night and day you call your people. Wake us with your voice and shine the light of your grace into our lives so that we may respond to the call of Christ in mission and ministry. Amen.

“So, what do you do?” That is the question that often begins a conversation with someone new. What we usually mean by that is “What do you do for a living?” or “How do you make money?” or even “What sports do you play?”

That question can sometimes give a good impression of who a person is, at least on the surface. But it usually doesn’t go deeper than that. What do I do? I’m a minister. And if the conversation doesn’t end at that point, there is the can of worms of explaining the United Church of Christ, how I can be a “priest” and be married with kids, etcetera. But after all that, you really have only scratched the surface of who I am.

I love ice cream; I’m very particular about my milkshakes. I watch sunsets. I dream of travelling to Mars, or taking my family to Honolulu. I miss my friends in Denver. I play guitar, from time to time.

So I tried asking a different question once. “What would you be doing if you could do anything?” And the first person to whom I posed this question startled me with her answer. “What I do right now. I’m an archaeologist. I am helping to excavate ruins in Mexico.” Wow, right? She didn’t even have to think about it.

I wonder what would be different if we answered that question, “What would you be doing if you could do anything?” with “What I do right now. I follow Jesus.” We are Christians after all. We are the modern-day disciples of Jesus, and following him is what we do. “What do I do? I follow Jesus.” Whether or not we choose to follow is up to us, but we have been called. We have been invited. We have been seen by Jesus, he has fixed us in his gaze, and he has said, “Follow me.”

Now, you and I were probably not called in the same way as Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Jesus didn’t appear to me and say, “Come on, time to be a minister.” My calling sprouted in high-school when I joined group of youth planning and leading retreats each year at a camp called La Forêt. I served two years on this committee learning skills for leading groups and planning meaningful experiences. I was, as a youth, in ministry with young people and adults. After college I served as a camp counselor as often as possible, taking on more and more responsibility, and was eventually asked to direct the program.

I served as a delegate to the UCC General Synod in 2001. Through the workshops, worship, and speeches, I heard God’s clear and persistent call to ordained ministry. My peers recognized God’s call on my life and my skills for leadership. My pastor and other leaders in my church encouraged me to go to seminary, and I entered Chicago Theological Seminary in 2003.

However it may differ from the way the prophets and disciples were called, we have been called by God. We have been called by God, who formed our inward parts; who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. We have been called by God who knows who we are in the depths of our being, who gave us our talents, our gifts, and nurture our abilities. We were called by God before we were born. We have been invited to participate in the captivating, ensnaring work of the master. “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

Not everyone responds with an enthusiastic “YES!” when God calls them. We might respond to God by saying, “Me? Are you sure?” “Who am I that I should go?” (Exodus 3:11); “What shall I say to them?” (3:12); “What if they do not listen?” (4:1); “Send someone else” (4:13). You hesitate. You are reluctant. You feel inadequate to the task. Well, I’ll tell you a secret. You’re not the only one. These are the same objections that Moses raised when God spoke to him out of the burning bush. “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy” said Jeremiah. Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jonah all questioned their call. And that is actually a good thing. Why?

When God calls people to service in the world, it is not those who think they have certain skills or who seek leadership. Rather, God calls those who understand how inadequate they are for the task, yet are humble enough to depend upon God for guidance and empowerment. The great leaders of the Bible did not campaign for the position; they were placed there by God, or by the community. Not a single leader of the Old Testament is portrayed as having in themselves the abilities to be a great leader.[2]

In fact, if you look at who God chooses to do special things, they are usually people who are totally outside the traditional power structures: David, the youngest child; Deborah, a woman; Abraham, a wandering Aramean; Jacob, a scheming liar; Gideon, a coward; Peter, a simple fisherman; Mary, a teenage girl from a remote country village.[3]

What made them, and makes us, capable of doing what God is calling us to do is found in the answer that God gives to the objections: “I will be with you.” We don’t need to rely on our own strength and abilities. God promises to give us the power and the ability to accomplish our task. God is with us, even, as the psalmist says, in the valley of the shadow of death. The most frightening places we can imagine are filled with the presence of God.[4]

OK, I’ll go. So, what is it I’m supposed to do again? Where is it, exactly, that we are called to go? It’s not really a specific “job” or occupation, but rather a call to live out God’s beautiful purposes not just for our personal lives, but for our communities and for all of creation. It is living with an understanding of ourselves and everyone around us as precious children of God.[5]

Now, it is easy to see the beauty and wonder of God’s creation when we gaze at the stars, the purple mountain majesties, the endless oceans. It is easy to see God’s purpose in a newborn baby, a child discovering the thrill of the swings, or when a poet takes our breath away. What is harder is to see that same beauty and purpose in ourselves, especially for those of us who have been alive a while and know our failures, our shortcomings, our faults. Even though we spend a lot of our time trying to polish our image, to hide our weaknesses, and gather up credentials to prove to others how good we are, we know the truth.

Yet the truth is more than what we think about ourselves. We are not worse than we should be. We are better than we think and better than we deserve to be. Why? Because, underneath everything, we are created in the image of God, in the image of goodness, and beauty, and strength. One day you may lose everything you have, everything you have earned and all that you value; but, no one can ever take away from you the fact that you are a child of God and that God’s image is embedded in your very soul.

The author and spiritual guide, Marianne Williamson, put it this way:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.[6]

You, my friends, are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are precious children of God. And God is calling you to live like you believe it.  Amen.



[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] Dennis Bratcher, “The Prophetic ‘Call’ Narrative: Commissioning into Service” from http://www.crivoice.org/prophetcall.html.

[3] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" (New York: HarperOne, 1992).

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