You are called

1/19

Neil and Pam lead us with music

It's a cold but sunny day as I head to Good Shepherd Faith for worship. (But not as cold as yesterday!) As is their style, most prayers and readings are communal. There's always been a strong strain of horizontal at GSF.  And they do share their gifts. Neil always sees the church is decorated and today he and Pam lead us in music with Doug at the piano. After a communal reading of John1:29-42, it's time for my reflection, or "prompting" as they say here.....

Good morning. And since this is the first tine I’ve seen you this year, I’ll say “Happy New Year.”  Still time to be thinking about new beginnings. Although we’re still  dragging a lot of stuff with us into a new year. We’ve got tension with Iran and we're not sure how that’s all going to turn out. And we’ve got an impeachment trial opening up next week. Yesterday in the freezing cold and new snow women in New York City and around the world marched for the 3rd consecutive year. And it was a day no one wanted go out.

So where are we? As interested as I am in resolutions, and I actually think they’re good things, I’m more interested in something else. Have you ever thought about  the fact that the two words we use to describe our work, namely profession and vocation are both religious in nature? Now I know we use the word professional to describe getting paid to do something. I was really excited the first time I got paid for playing music. I thought, “Hey, now I’m a professional!”  But at the root of professional is profession, as in what is your profession? As Christians, we use the word in the context of profession of faith, saying what you believe. So the implication here is that your profession, what it is you do, is in some significant degree a statement of what it is it believe. Take that home and think about it awhile. 

The other word we use is vocation, as in what is your vocation? And at its root, the word vocation means calling. As if our vocation is in response to an inner voice speaking you, calling to you, leading you on. And that’s what I’m interested in today. One my mentors, and my predecessor at West Park as its interim minister, was Philip Newell. The title of his memoir was “What is Your Calling?”  and the beauty of his book was that it was his argument that this this is the central question for all Christians, not just those of us who serve as ordained professional ministers of word and sacrament. That’s what I’d like to reflect on this morning. 

Seems to me that our gospel this morning  is about calling. For John. And Jesus. Andrew and Simon Peter. The setting  appears to be Jesus’s baptism. Like the first verses of John1 are John’s unique take on the Christmas story, these verses are John’s take on the Baptism story. Last week’s gospel was the baptism story in Matthew. Baptism of Jesus Sunday in the Roman Catholic tradition is the final end of Christmastide. (OK, you can take the trees down now.). Just before this in John, the leaders in Jerusalem have sent people out to find out who this wild man in the wilderness is. The Messiah? Elijah? A prophet? John tells them he is the one who was sent to be, called to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord…” John understands his calling to be that of the one who prepares the way. And he does so by baptizing, a version of the Jewish mikve, or cleansing used to become ritually clean again, or for new converts. And he baptizes Jesus. 

One small note about the gospels…they’re all different. Here John says “he didn’t know him”….but in Luke, they are cousins…their mothers quite close. So why doesn't he know him? Well, maybe it's been few years…

Remember…Jesus was not baptized as a  baby but as an adult. As a child he had a bris, a circumcision ceremony. As an adult, he goes to John to be baptized. Why? To show complete and total identification with and solidarity with us human beings of which, even if he is John’s cosmic Christ, he is one. 

And from John, Jesus receives his calling. And he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and from that baptism will flow more calling.  Andrew and Simon Peter start “following” Jesus just because John calls him the lamb of God. Jesus calls them, he says “Come and see…”. I think we worry way too much about what we believe or don't believe. I feel vocation is more important than profession. I ‘ll be blunt…to follow Jesus is more important than to believe in Jesus. Or to put it another way, if you start by following, believing will take care of itself. They say with him and know, just by being with him, that he is the anointed one. They’re ready to roll with no idea of what that might mean. What follows in John is more stories of calling and following. And brings us to us. John, Andrew, Peter….each had their own unique role to play. 

Likewise  each of you here today has your unique role to play, you own unique calling. It is part of our calling as Christians is to help each other discover our own unique callings, not just elders and deacons but each and every one of us, a calling received not with ordination but with our baptism. And beyond that, to discover our calling as a community.

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day. One who heard and answered his calling. No matter where it led. We came and saw. And we became a better people because of him.

Let me be clear. I am not saying w need to be more like Martin Luther King,Jr. There’s a great story about a man who came to see his rabbi worried  that when he came to die and meet God, God would say, Why couldn’t you have been more like Moses?  The rabbi shook his head and said, No the question is, why couldn’t you have been more like you?

So as we leave here this morning, your take home question is, what is your calling? And what is your calling as Good Shepherd Faith church I this year of our Lord 2020? 

Let those with ears to hear, hear…..

My prompting seems to inspire some conversation. Doug wonders what it's like to hear a calling. If God has a distinctive voice or it can be just a thought. And how he had asked for guidance and came up with a thought that seemed crazy but was just the right thing. Pam's been wondering about the difference between a call and temptation. Something we all struggle with. But also gets into the importance of community in helping us with discernment. 

Our worship time is over. I am off to do a winter wedding in the park, thankful it's today and not yesterday......

Gospel John 1:29-42

29The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).