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| 3 Epiphany 22 January, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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Last week we returned, to a theme I first set out a couple of years ago, arising from
the Greek word, hamartia – to miss the mark, or to sin. And I spoke to you once more
about how God calls us, not to be followers of a set of rules or laws or
commandments, but to realize, in our lives, the fullness of that person He has
created us to be.
Our lessons, today, take us, not in a different direction, particularly, but to a
decidedly different emphasis.
An emphasis on “call,” itself. An emphasis on God “calling” people.
Not an unfamiliar concept to any Christian. Unfortunately, though, for most I suspect it
has a rather limited application. We tend to think of someone who “has a call,” as one
being called to full-time, or “professional” or ordained ministry. But there’s more to
the notion of “a calling” than that – much more. And our lessons, today, describe
three different “calls.”
Our first lesson, this morning, is from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah,
himself, is a great example of that type of call we tend to think of. When he was just a
boy the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to
the nations.” Jeremiah resisted, as people usually do, because a call to the Lord’s
Ministry is never an easy thing to either consider or accept; but in the end, he gave
in and served as a prophet of the Lord to the people of Judah from his call in 627BCE
through one of the most crucial times in the life of the Hebrew people. When
Jeremiah begins his ministry, the Northern Kingdom has long since been destroyed,
and the southern kingdom – Judah – is beset by threats from outside, and, in fact,
Jeremiah’s ministry will continue right into the deportation to the Babylonian exile,
and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 – the same year that Jeremiah, in fact, dies in
Egypt. So Jeremiah’s call is to a ministry that virtually coincides with the destruction
of his nation, his people, his world – a hard “call,” indeed!
But in this morning’s lesson, the emphasis is not on God’s call of Jeremiah. Rather, it
is Jeremiah who is doing the calling, on behalf of God. Here, God is calling the
people of Judah to faithfulness. “Return, O faithless Children,” the Lord says,
through Jeremiah, “I will heal your faithfulness.”
And this is always the first call of God to his people: to be faithful. As I have pointed
out to you, to be faithful does not mean to “believe” the right things about God – to
“assent” to certain propositions about God. Rather the meaning is closer to what we
mean when we talk about being faithful to a lover: being true; being dependable. God
is faithful to us – always true to us, always dependable – because HE loves US; and
he calls us to be faithful to him. But in Jeremiah’s lifetime, the people of Judah are
UNfaithful. They desert the true worship of the Lord, and they go after false gods –
the fertility gods of mountain worship – and they suffer the consequences of
faithlessness in their deportation to Babylon, and the destruction of their society and
their temple.
In our second lesson, from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Paul speaks
more of the kind of call I spoke to you about last week: “…let each of you lead the life
that the Lord has assigned, to which God has called you.” And he emphasizes that
God’s call to each of us, individually, is NOT about what we DO in our lives, or WHAT
we are – circumcised or uncircumcised (that is, Jew or Gentile), slave or free,
merchant or prince, male or female – but WHO we are, and THAT we be faithful (there’
s that word again) to the person God has created us and called us to be. This is the
kind of “call” I spoke of last week.
And, finally, our Gospel lesson, this morning, continues the story of Jesus’ call of his
Apostles, with the calls of the brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother, Andrew;
and James and his brother John; that call that is to devote one’s life, fully, to a
particular ministry – to leave what one is doing, and to become “fishers of men.”
Three lessons, three calls.
A call to be faithful; a call to be true; a call to follow and serve.
Three calls.
And one call.
The call to faithfulness, the call to “HIT the mark,” the call to follow and to serve – are
really all the same call, in the end. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
before you were born I consecrated you,” the Lord tells Jeremiah. And so the Lord
tells each of us. He knows us before we are formed, and he CONSECRATES us before
we are born. He consecrates us to lives of faithfulness, of authenticity, of service. A
few, indeed, are called out to serve in special ministries of sacrament, of
proclamation, of healing – as in Jeremiah’s call, and the call of the apostles; MOST
are called to serve where they are – as in St. Paul’s words. But ALL are called, and the
difference is only in the details.
It’s a lesson we too easily forget, that the Lord does not ONLY call those he needs to
serve as prophets; he does not ONLY call those he needs to serve as Deacons and
Priests and Bishops. As he called even those who lived in slavery, to serve him
where they were, so he calls each of his people, each one of us to service where we
are. “Make use of your present condition,” Paul tells us, “now more than ever.”
Regardless of that condition; regardless of where we are!
Nor does he ALWAYS come to speak to us in dreams, as he did Eli in last week’s
lesson, and Jeremiah in today’s; he doesn’t ALWAYS walk up to us, tap us on the
shoulder and say, “follow me,” as our Lord did with his apostles. But call us he does,
to live our lives as he would have us, in faithfulness, on the mark, and in service. The
trick is learning to listen. Our TASK is learning to listen to the call.
Before you were formed in the womb, our Lord knew you; before you were borne, you
were consecrated to be his – called to a life of faithfulness, of authenticity, of
service. Just as surely as Eli was called, as Jeremiah was called, as the people of
Judah were called, as the apostles were called – so you were called. So YOU WERE
CALLED! So you ARE called! To be a follower of Christ, to be a Christian IS to be called!
The question is never, “do you have a call?” It’s always and only, “have you HEARD
God’s call in your life. Have you paid attention? Have you learned to listen? Listening
to the call – the most basic task of EVERY Christian.
He HAS spoken; he IS speaking. Our task – your task – is to hear him. To learn what
his call to YOU might be. And to answer.
In Christ’s Name. Amen.
the Greek word, hamartia – to miss the mark, or to sin. And I spoke to you once more
about how God calls us, not to be followers of a set of rules or laws or
commandments, but to realize, in our lives, the fullness of that person He has
created us to be.
Our lessons, today, take us, not in a different direction, particularly, but to a
decidedly different emphasis.
An emphasis on “call,” itself. An emphasis on God “calling” people.
Not an unfamiliar concept to any Christian. Unfortunately, though, for most I suspect it
has a rather limited application. We tend to think of someone who “has a call,” as one
being called to full-time, or “professional” or ordained ministry. But there’s more to
the notion of “a calling” than that – much more. And our lessons, today, describe
three different “calls.”
Our first lesson, this morning, is from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah,
himself, is a great example of that type of call we tend to think of. When he was just a
boy the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to
the nations.” Jeremiah resisted, as people usually do, because a call to the Lord’s
Ministry is never an easy thing to either consider or accept; but in the end, he gave
in and served as a prophet of the Lord to the people of Judah from his call in 627BCE
through one of the most crucial times in the life of the Hebrew people. When
Jeremiah begins his ministry, the Northern Kingdom has long since been destroyed,
and the southern kingdom – Judah – is beset by threats from outside, and, in fact,
Jeremiah’s ministry will continue right into the deportation to the Babylonian exile,
and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 – the same year that Jeremiah, in fact, dies in
Egypt. So Jeremiah’s call is to a ministry that virtually coincides with the destruction
of his nation, his people, his world – a hard “call,” indeed!
But in this morning’s lesson, the emphasis is not on God’s call of Jeremiah. Rather, it
is Jeremiah who is doing the calling, on behalf of God. Here, God is calling the
people of Judah to faithfulness. “Return, O faithless Children,” the Lord says,
through Jeremiah, “I will heal your faithfulness.”
And this is always the first call of God to his people: to be faithful. As I have pointed
out to you, to be faithful does not mean to “believe” the right things about God – to
“assent” to certain propositions about God. Rather the meaning is closer to what we
mean when we talk about being faithful to a lover: being true; being dependable. God
is faithful to us – always true to us, always dependable – because HE loves US; and
he calls us to be faithful to him. But in Jeremiah’s lifetime, the people of Judah are
UNfaithful. They desert the true worship of the Lord, and they go after false gods –
the fertility gods of mountain worship – and they suffer the consequences of
faithlessness in their deportation to Babylon, and the destruction of their society and
their temple.
In our second lesson, from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Paul speaks
more of the kind of call I spoke to you about last week: “…let each of you lead the life
that the Lord has assigned, to which God has called you.” And he emphasizes that
God’s call to each of us, individually, is NOT about what we DO in our lives, or WHAT
we are – circumcised or uncircumcised (that is, Jew or Gentile), slave or free,
merchant or prince, male or female – but WHO we are, and THAT we be faithful (there’
s that word again) to the person God has created us and called us to be. This is the
kind of “call” I spoke of last week.
And, finally, our Gospel lesson, this morning, continues the story of Jesus’ call of his
Apostles, with the calls of the brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother, Andrew;
and James and his brother John; that call that is to devote one’s life, fully, to a
particular ministry – to leave what one is doing, and to become “fishers of men.”
Three lessons, three calls.
A call to be faithful; a call to be true; a call to follow and serve.
Three calls.
And one call.
The call to faithfulness, the call to “HIT the mark,” the call to follow and to serve – are
really all the same call, in the end. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
before you were born I consecrated you,” the Lord tells Jeremiah. And so the Lord
tells each of us. He knows us before we are formed, and he CONSECRATES us before
we are born. He consecrates us to lives of faithfulness, of authenticity, of service. A
few, indeed, are called out to serve in special ministries of sacrament, of
proclamation, of healing – as in Jeremiah’s call, and the call of the apostles; MOST
are called to serve where they are – as in St. Paul’s words. But ALL are called, and the
difference is only in the details.
It’s a lesson we too easily forget, that the Lord does not ONLY call those he needs to
serve as prophets; he does not ONLY call those he needs to serve as Deacons and
Priests and Bishops. As he called even those who lived in slavery, to serve him
where they were, so he calls each of his people, each one of us to service where we
are. “Make use of your present condition,” Paul tells us, “now more than ever.”
Regardless of that condition; regardless of where we are!
Nor does he ALWAYS come to speak to us in dreams, as he did Eli in last week’s
lesson, and Jeremiah in today’s; he doesn’t ALWAYS walk up to us, tap us on the
shoulder and say, “follow me,” as our Lord did with his apostles. But call us he does,
to live our lives as he would have us, in faithfulness, on the mark, and in service. The
trick is learning to listen. Our TASK is learning to listen to the call.
Before you were formed in the womb, our Lord knew you; before you were borne, you
were consecrated to be his – called to a life of faithfulness, of authenticity, of
service. Just as surely as Eli was called, as Jeremiah was called, as the people of
Judah were called, as the apostles were called – so you were called. So YOU WERE
CALLED! So you ARE called! To be a follower of Christ, to be a Christian IS to be called!
The question is never, “do you have a call?” It’s always and only, “have you HEARD
God’s call in your life. Have you paid attention? Have you learned to listen? Listening
to the call – the most basic task of EVERY Christian.
He HAS spoken; he IS speaking. Our task – your task – is to hear him. To learn what
his call to YOU might be. And to answer.
In Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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