January 30 Sermon at Grace Community Church in Potlatch, Idaho: Our Calling

 Lectionary Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 71, Luke 4:21-30

Have you ever noticed how Christians often talk about a calling? I guess I’m such a literalist that I find that word confusing. Since I’m a person of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, the word “call” implies a telephone or shout across the distance to get someone’s attention. I have never had that kind of experience from God where he shouts at me, or picks up the phone and has a conversation with me but I have heard plenty of Christians act as if that is exactly what happened to them. So, the term seems confusing at best and nonsensical at worst and might cause me to become somewhat snobbish about my own faith as if that “calling” others talk about is something in their head. Yet part of me knows, not just from Bible passages like Jeremiah, but a sense of belief beyond my scoffing. Maybe I get jealous that God doesn’t talk to me like that, yet at the same time I don’t really want God to talk to me like that. I think it sounds terrifying. And that may be exactly why he doesn’t call me in such a direct way, I don’t know. Nevertheless, I do believe in God’s “calling” or desire for me to do something, sometimes something very particular. Sometimes I spend too much time thinking about it, and at other times I don’t think about it at all. I think it can sometimes be very hard to know what you are supposed to be doing, what you are “called” to be doing because there might seem too much to be done and you can’t possibly do it all, or even a little bit of it. (Little secret: We definitely are not called to do it all. Remember how great God is and how miniscule we are and that we are only called to do a miniscule part of the whole.) Other times it doesn’t seem there is anything to do, but it can be possible that I’m called to just sit still and know God is God. We are all called as Christians and getting overwrought about what specific calling we have is not going to make us grow taller. He lets us know in subtle and not so subtle ways.

Jeremiah had one of those dramatic callings, the kind that I would find frightening. “⁴ The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

⁹ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.””

Jeremiah was called to tell the Jews that they were not following the laws correctly, that they were ignorant of social justice, and that they were going to be overtaken by, what turned out to be, the Babylonians. If anyone needed a bolstering from God to meet their calling, it was Jeremiah. ⁶ “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

God knows our very inmost being, so he certainly knows what we are and are not capable of doing. And we need to know that anything he wants us to do, he will make it possible. He knew Jeremiah would be reluctant to do what he was called to do. He knew he was asking a great deal of Jeremiah, yet he also knew that Jeremiah was the perfect fit for what he needed done. God directly told Jeremiah in a verse that we always quote for ourselves in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We are not wrong to quote that verse as words for ourselves because they are true for us as well, and probably most of us haven’t been called to anything nearly as terrifying as what Jeremiah was called to do.

When I think about what I am called to do, I know it mainly involves what I am perfectly capable of doing, things I probably enjoy doing pushed a bit beyond my comfort zone. Things like writing, being with people, just talking, going for walks, runs, etc. I don’t particularly enjoy public speaking, but it no longer terrifies me and sometimes, like today, I am called to do it. And like any other calling, I have moments of doubt. “Why did I say I would do this? I don’t know enough about this. There are plenty of people who could do it better than I can…” That, I have learned, is not at all abnormal for any of us. It is right to have self-doubt because then we can turn it over to God and let him use whatever comes from us for his will. He tells us that in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Everyone here has a calling to serve God through faith and humility and we don’t have to hear it quite as directly as Jeremiah did. We are the called according to his purpose and we just have to remember that it’s his purpose, not ours so whatever he has us do will work for him.

There’s no doubt that Jesus was a very brave man. I suppose it helped a great deal that he was also God, but being fully God did not negate being fully man. He knew exactly what he was called to do and he did it, but he did ask to be released from some of it, then turned it over fully to God’s will. Certainly, we need to look to him when we have doubt or fears about our own calling. From the Psalm: “Be my rock of refuge,
    to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.”

Look at what happened to Jesus in the Gospel reading starting a little early at verse 16: ¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[f]

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. ²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[g] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.”

Jesus publicly declared his calling in the synagogue, read from Isaiah and impressed people, but then he said that he wasn’t called for his hometown and the people just got mad, taking him to the cliffs to throw him off, yet he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. It’s a little bit shocking how they treated him, but it’s also interesting how he easily sidestepped them all. He knew today’s Psalm: ¹ In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
    let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
    turn your ear to me and save me.

Fully God, fully man. Fully aware of what was going to happen, unlike us, yet we can still take refuge in him and his assurance of salvation.

I have no doubt that sometimes we say we don’t know what we are called to do, not because we don’t know, but because we are afraid. But we don’t need to be, because if we are called by God to do something, we are protected and we don’t need to be afraid. It will be all right. And I’m pretty sure that I have not said anything here that we haven’t all heard before, but I believe we need a reminder. I certainly need a reminder. I think these scriptures for today from the lectionary are not necessarily as cohesive in a singular theme as they sometimes are. But the call of Jeremiah struck me, especially with the Gospel reading and Jesus proclamation of his own calling. It seems easy to relate to Jeremiah and his reluctance to answer the call because he was too young. Maybe for many of us here the excuse is that we are too old? I don’t know, but the Psalm is one of reassurance that we have refuge in the Lord and that he takes care of us. So, I don’t think we need to be “worried” about our calling, we just need to know that we are called.

But I haven’t forgotten the passage from I Corinthians, the love chapter. For me, that passage and the first Psalm are key to my faith and believing that I am called. The first Psalm talks about being steadfast, like a tree planted by a river. Listen again to todays passage from I Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

If we are only getting a part of the picture, but we know we have refuge in the Lord and that he loves us, we don’t need to worry about what we are called to do because we already know that all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Because love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. We must also do that. We love him because he first loved us and we know that all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. We know our calling. It may not have come out of the clouds in a frightening voice, or over the telephone lines or a text message, but we still know our calling.

My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
    of your saving acts all day long—
    though I know not how to relate them all.
¹⁶ I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord;
    I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
¹⁷ Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
    and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
    your mighty acts to all who are to come.

¹⁹ Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
    you who have done great things.
    Who is like you, God?

There is no better calling. Don’t be confused, afraid, or ashamed. We know our calling. Amen.