SERMON ~ 08/21/2016 ~ “Calling”

08/21/2016 ~ Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Proper 16 ~ Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Isaiah 58:9b-14; Psalm 103:1-8; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17 ~ Vacation Bible School Kick Off Service at the U.C.C. ~ A Union Service with the First Baptist Church and Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

Calling

“Then Yahweh put out a hand, / touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Look, I am putting My Words in your mouth.’” — Jeremiah 1:9

I think too often we, who are ordained types— that would be David and myself—  talk about our calling— that is the calling to the ordained ministry.  In our defense on that count, in the course of the process of education and the process of ordination a very specific demand is made on us.  We are invited to state what that call is, what it feels like, how we first might have recognized its presence and even if we are comfortable with it.

However, it seems to me society, generally at least, somehow wants to sanctify a call to ministry, make it special, dare I say it— make a call to ministry holy.  I’ve even heard pastors make claims like that.  I beg to differ.

I think we can be called to many things in our life.  Both David and I will tell you we are called not just to the ordained ministry but we are clearly called to be baseball fans! [1]  (David responds “Amen,” so Joe responds, “Amen.”)  That may not be particularly holy but it is a part of who we are.  To turn that thought around, I think a call, any call, not just a call to ministry, is holy.

Let me explore that for a bit.  The Rev. Michael Himes, who happens to be both a Jesuit priest and Professor of Theology at Boston College, has an interesting take on what a call is really about.

He lays out some thoughts concerning a call in a lecture.  But the talk is not one given to those seeking ordination.  In fact, Himes gives this talk to incoming first year students at Boston College— all the first year students.  The title of the lecture is: “On Discernment: Three Key Questions.”

The first question about a call, a vocation: ‘is this a source of joy?’  The second, ‘is this something that taps into your talents and gifts, engages all your abilities and uses them in the fullest way possible?  The third, ‘is this role a genuine service to the people around you and society at large?’

Then Himes restates those questions in a more vernacular way.  First, ‘do you get a kick out of it?  Second, ‘are you any good at it?  Third, ‘does anyone want you to do it?’

Coming back to the first question about a source of joy— Himes says there is a  difference between joy and happiness.  Happiness changes from moment to moment and is affected by external factors— everything from sleep to illness to chance.

Joy is deeper and more central.  This Jesuit defines joy as the sense of the rightness in the way in which one lives one’s life.

As to the second question: ‘are you good at it?’— Himes insists other people have to tell us that, help us discern whether or not we are good at what we are trying to do.  You see, often we are not the best judges of what our talents are.

Last, ‘does anybody need you to do it?’  What does the community of people in which you live really need from your talents?  I may be really good at herding sheep.  But if I live in New York City, the community does not need someone who is really good at herding sheep, case closed.  (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Jeremiah: “Then Yahweh put out a hand, / touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Look, I am putting My Words in your mouth.’” (Slight pause.)

As was said when this reading was introduced, this passage has been referred to as “The call of Jeremiah.”  There are a lot of so called “call stories” in Scripture.  But I think there is one thing we moderns tend to overlook in all the call stories.

In each of these stories about people who listen to and for God there is an implicit admission about the reality of God.  After all, how can someone experience a call if God is not real?

This passage also expresses something seen in many of the call stories in Scripture— a reluctance on the part of the one being called.  (Quote:) “I do not know how to speak for I am too young.”

For me these two somewhat opposite ideas— the reality of God and a reluctance to listen to God— intertwine in exactly the way Michael Himes suggests they might with the second question: ‘are you good at it?’  You see, Himes says others have to help us discern whether or not we are good at what we are trying to do.

Guess what?  God is telling us we are— pardon the expression— preordained— by God to the place God might be inviting us to go.  So God insists the call is valid.

And there is also this to consider (quote:) “Do not fear anyone, for I am with you to protect you...”  God walks with us on the journey.

Last, God says (quote:) “Say whatever I command you.”  You see, the call is not our call.  We do not own it.

A call from God means God is working among the people of God.  And the invitation God offers to us is that we participate in the call, participate in the work of God.

There is one more thing to note.  Jeremiah is presented in the context of the events, the experiences of a specific time and place.  The very life and the community of this prophet become a significant part of the work of God.

Thus, the history of the community and the biography of the prophet are joined.  Therefore and as Himes states, part of the call has to do with what you have— what the community of people in which you live really need from your talents?’  (Slight pause.)

All that is well and good but this is not just any call I’ve been addressing, after all.  This is the call of God.  So is there something here beyond a very specific call to the work of God, for a lack of a better term, a call to ministry, as opposed to a call to be a ditch digger, a banker, a plumber, a lawyer, etc., etc., etc.?  After all, part of my premise here is a call to ministry is not as holy or set aside as some would have it.

And that is the very place where the Rev. Himes has something to add.  He says many of us live our lives as if we were a star in a movie and have the leading role— Himes the Movie!  Therefore, everyone else in our life only plays a supporting role.

Yet, we need to see others as people, real people not as tools, actors in our movie.  We should not project anything on them as if we were in their shoes.  That’s because we are not in their shoes.

Further, we all have multiple vocations, says this Jesuit.  (Quote:) “For instance I, Michael Himes, am a priest, an academic, a teacher, a writer, a friend, an uncle, a brother, a citizen, etc., etc., etc.  I have private, public, professional identities.”

“It may be, in fact, that I have discovered my joy and that I know what my abilities are.  But have I discerned what the people around me really and most deeply require?  More importantly, have I got the courage and the wisdom to respond to their need?”

Himes then says this: “There is only one vocation that embraces all our other vocations: to be human.  We are, thereby, called to be as intelligent, as responsible, as free, as courageous, as imaginative and as loving as we can possibly be within the context of what we do.”

“All of my other vocations, all of the many ways in which I live my life, must contribute to that one all embracing demand, that one constant vocation— to be fully, totally, absolutely as human as I can possibly be”— Michael Himes, Jesuit, College Professor. [2]  (Slight pause.)

So, if our one and true calling is to be truly human, what does that entail?  (Slight pause.)  Let me speak for myself.  First, I am flawed.  But I think we need to realize and even need admit that we are all flawed.  Not one of us is perfect.

Indeed, if you think you are perfect, please leave now.  After all, church would be superfluous for the perfect.

Second, to be truly human we need to rely on the reality of God.  Third, we need to rely on the grace of God.  Fourth, we need to rely on the love of God.

That list, as you can probably imagine, might go on and on.  Therefore, what I am really saying is a call is not a goal.  We think of a call as a goal.  But it is not.

So what is a true call, a real call?  A true call, a real call is a process.  It is the process of relationship with God and with one another.

Now, there’s a theological word, a theological term, which describes this process of relationship with God and with one another.  This word, this term which is theological— I think you’ve heard it before.  The word is love.  Love is a process.

Most often in church we hear it said this way: love God; love neighbor.  Loving God and loving neighbor is our one, real, true and only call— a process, not a goal.  (Slight pause.)

Earlier, at the start of the service, I said this: “Our churches invited our brothers and sisters in Christ from Emmanuel Episcopal to join us in worship today, in part because they are experiencing a time of transition and in part because we wanted to find a way reach out to express our support for them after the death of our friend Chuck Taylor.  The fact that we can worship together on this day is also statement of the obvious: we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.” [3]  (Slight pause.)

And so, that is one way we have, on this day, tied to express our call to be human.  We, thereby, acknowledge that God is real.  We, thereby, acknowledge that God loves us and that we need to love one another.  We, thereby, acknowledge that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so, let us continue to be in and to maintain the process of loving God and loving neighbor.  Let us never let human barriers separate us, for we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Amen.

08/21/2016
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “Having mentioned Michael Himes and his lecture about call, let me offer two quotes he used in the course of that talk.  The first one is from St. Augustine.  (Quote:) ‘Dissatisfaction— restlessness— is not a bad thing… indeed it’s the best thing about us.’  The next quote is from The 20th Century poet Marianne Moore. (Quote:) ‘Satisfaction is a lowly thing. How pure a thing is joy.’  Then the Rev. Himes chimes in (quote:) ‘Contentment is an obstacle.  Joy always pushes us forward.  It’s a impulsion, a pressure to move forward, to do more, to expend oneself more deeply, more richly, to open ones talents even more widely than one had before.’”

BENEDICTION: May God bless us and keep us.  May the face of God  shine upon us and be gracious to us.  May God look upon us with kindness and give us peace.  May the God of joy fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may abound in hope.  And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much.  May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else.  Amen.

[1] The Rev. David Spiegel, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, who participated in this service.

[2]
http://www.visitationmonasteryminneapolis.org/2010/02/on-discernment-three-key-questions/

[3] As this statement indicates, this was a Union Service with the members of First Baptist Church.  It was also a service with Emmanuel Episcopal Church who are now in a transition period and whose pastor died several months ago.