In the gospels, Jesus repeatedly calls people to follow him. In case it wasn’t obvious, that call is meant for each of us. Christianity is not a spectator sport, and it’s not one-size-fits-all. We are invited to follow the teachings of Jesus, however imperfectly. And more: the sacred is big enough, and complex enough, to intersect with each of our lives, to invite each of us on a unique journey of learning and service. And we each respond, imperfectly, in a unique way.
Your call may be one thing, or many. It may look religious. It may be to do your day job with heart and skill, or to care for your family, or to carry a certain quality of presence with you wherever you go. It may be for some personal passion or form of service. Sometimes our call is an inside job, not to do anything new, but to do what we’d be doing anyway but with more gratitude and openheartedness and attention and caring… all those ways of being that bless us and those around us. Maybe everybody has that call. Our call can change over time; it can change day to day.
I trust that the sacred is also calling people who do not understand themselves as Christians. Some are answering that call, and some not so much, just like we who call ourselves Christians. Some calls are showy and public. Some are simple and down to earth, and no less important. A call is a gift from God, as well as a challenge. Responding to the lure of the sacred gives our lives meaning and purpose.
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Brea Congregational United Church of Christ
June 30, 2019
Call and Response
Luke 9:49-62 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” 50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you.”
9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village.
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In the gospels, Jesus repeatedly calls people to follow him. In case it wasn’t obvious, that call is meant for each of us. Christianity is not a spectator sport, and it’s not one-size-fits-all. We are invited to follow the teachings of Jesus, however imperfectly. And more: the sacred is big enough, and complex enough, to intersect with each of our lives, to invite each of us on a unique journey of learning and service. And we each respond, imperfectly, in a unique way.
Your call may be one thing, or many. It may look religious. It may be to do your day job with heart and skill, or to care for your family, or to carry a certain quality of presence with you wherever you go. It may be for some personal passion or form of service. Sometimes our call is an inside job, not to do anything new, but to do what we’d be doing anyway but with more gratitude and openheartedness and attention and caring… all those ways of being that bless us and those around us. Maybe everybody has that call. Our call can change over time; it can change day to day.
I trust that the sacred is also calling people who do not understand themselves as Christians. Some are answering that call, and some not so much, just like we who call ourselves Christians. Some calls are showy and public. Some are simple and down to earth, and no less important. A call is a gift from God, as well as a challenge. Responding to the lure of the sacred gives our lives meaning and purpose.
One of the ways Christians have messed up this simple and powerful idea of call is to believe that only professional religious people have calls, priests or pastors or missionaries. I understand why it happened. Calls from God available to the rank and file? We can make mistakes in judgment about what we are called to do. More to the point, our call may challenge authorities, religious or civil, who have a bigger investment in their own power and in business as usual than in the flow of the Spirit breaking within us, among us, bringing life and hope. Our Congregational form of government is founded on the understanding that God is still speaking, and God can speak to any one of us a word that all of us need to hear.
You’ve heard me talk about this idea of call before. Who has a pretty good sense of what they might be called to do and be at this season of their life? That’s a big question, right? I’m actually in a period of discernment right now myself.
Do you wantto have a call? It seems like a big responsibility. Let me rephrase that. Do you want to acknowledge your call? I think life goes better when we do. If you’re not sure what your call is yet, your call is to listen for your call, to explore. If you’re pretty sure you know what your call is, you will still want to listen, to stay on track.
It’s a lot easier for God to get through to us when we make time to listen. We might listen through prayer and meditation, by reading scriptures and devotions, not for “the anser” but as a starting point for reflection. Taking walks in nature, conversations with wise people and soul friends, and more.
If your call seems odd or risky, it’s essential to talk it over with someone. It’s always helpful to talk over your understanding of your call. Saying it out loud helps make it real. Do you have someone who will listen when you talk through your call? Add me to your list; I’d love to reflect with you.
In today’s reading Jesus gives us five challenging one-liners about call. Let’s explore them. Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He’s on his final mission. He’s talking to people in his hometown who are sort of already following him. He’s challenging them to leave home on short notice on an unknown and scary journey.
Whoever is not against you is for you. The disciples wanted to stop someone who was healing in Jesus’ name because he wasn’t in their club. We have so many religious groups in Orange County that we couldn’t possibly keep track of them all. Still sometimes we can’t help judging other religious people. Whoever is not against you is for you. If they are doing the work, they are on the same team, despite their differences in beliefs or rules. I want to judge certain churches for their failures. And if my church was perfect, I might be justified. Why not celebrate our common ground instead? Maybe we can build a bridge to heal some differences.
And when we meet hostility? Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them. The disciples are got a little full of themselves there. Here is a principle from Jesus that, if we could implement it broadly, would transform our world. We don’t get to attack or punish people who harm or offend us. The more passionate we are about our call, the more likely we are to be jerks about it. We have to be careful about even defending. What we think is defense is usually experienced by the other as attack. Peace begins when threats and keeping score end. And Jesus invites us to end them.
These first two sayings remind us that whatever our call, we are probably not the only ones doing it, there is probably not one right way to do it, somebody will probably think we shouldn’t do it, and we don’t get to harass the people who think we shouldn’t do it. For instance, not every church is called to be socially active, and that’s OK. I’m glad I’m here.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. This is a warning about where these particular disciples were being called. To Jerusalem, to witness Jesus’ death, to wait in vigil as they wondered what would come next, and with the help of the Spirit, to become the early Church, in Jerusalem or on the road, all over the Roman empire, far from their homes. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head… Luke must have really identified with this saying, because Luke gave up his own home to go on the road with the first apostles.
“Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Harsh, right? Well, Jesus was on a schedule. Passover was the following week. Also, “let me bury my father” may not have meant the man’s father was even dead yet. It could mean the man was committing to serve and care for his frail father until his death, who knew when. That is compassionate action. It is faithfully following the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” This man has chosen a worthy mission, but not the mission for which he was actually needed at that time.
The final saying:“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”Again this sounds harsh, but maybe a more contemporary image will help us understand. Nobody who drives with her eyes glued to the rear view mirror is going to arrive at her destination safely. Perhaps Jesus knew that saying goodbye to family and friends would mean getting guilted into staying home. I’m sure nothing like that has ever happened to any of us.
These last couple sayings, harsh as they are, remind us that we can’t move forward into God’s future if we are unwilling to give up the past, the familiar. The ironic thing is the familiar can be very unpleasant and sometimes we still cling to it for dear life. There are so many excuses why we can’t answer our call right now.
There was a newly retired man who felt dry. His life needed spice, adventure, something. So he decided to he should try something new. His neighbor heard his plan and invited him on a deep sea fishing trip out beyond Catalina Island. But when he did the math, to be out at San Pedro harbor by six am, the man realized that he’d have to wake up at four am. He wasn’t going wake up at four am. So no fishing.
A note came in his email from the city parks and rec department that there was a dance in the park that Saturday. He used to love dancing. But he didn’t want to go to a dance without a partner, and he was embarrassed to ask anyone. Anyway, he wasn’t sure what kind of dancing it was going to be. So no dancing.
His church was signing up crews to go to downtown Fullerton to cook and serve meals for the homeless. That would be a great service activity. But he wasn’t sure about hanging out around homeless people. He could imagine they might have some health or safety issues he’d rather avoid. So no serving meals.
His sister in Pasadena invited him to meet her in downtown LA to see an art exhibit. It had been a while since he’d been to downtown L.A. Traffic was always a nightmare. And parking cost a fortune. Going to L.A. was just a great big hassle. He really didn’t want to bother. So no art exhibit.
He watched out his living room window as the neighbor boys tried to figure out how to throw a football to each other. They really needed some coaching. He started to get off the sofa, but then he thought better of it. Who was he to walk out the door and volunteer to teach them? If they didn’t just dismiss him, they might start knocking on his door asking him to come help them any time. So no football.
Eventually, the man did what he always did, got a bag of chips and flipped through the TV listings looking for a crime show he could watch. There just wasn’t anything else to do.
God is still speaking, in fact God is inviting you to your next adventure. Or possibly to clean up your last one. In any case, the invitation is whispered more often than it is shouted. Our job is to pay attention, be willing to try something different, or possibly to try one more time to do something we always do, in a different way. In this call and response is life and learning and service and joy. May you keep responding. Amen.
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