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Responding to God’s Call
Jonah 3: 1-5,10
Mark 1: 14-20
In Mark’s
Gospel, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry has only a brief prelude. In=
a
scant 13 verses, John the Baptizer fulfills the prophetic role of preparing=
the
way for God’s promised ‘messiah;’ Jesus is baptized; and =
then
Jesus is tempted in the wilderness to do things other than what he had been
called to do. As John’s
ministry comes to an end for political reasons --- as would Jesus’
--- a proclamation is made th=
at
serves both as an introduction and a summary to all that follows: “the
time” --- meaning “the time” of which the prophets had sp=
oken
--- is now fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. That’s the good
news. The kingdom’s presence involves judgment, as John had emphasized
--- for it calls people to depart from their self-centered ways of viewing =
the
world and themselves and of behaving toward others. Jesus’ message wi=
ll
emphasize not the judgment, but the grace of God. The forgiving and renewing
love of God will be revealed to believers who respond to Jesus’ call,
disciple themselves to his teachings and do the deeds of love and mercy by
which the heavenly kingdom comes.
Four fishermen are
the first to be called in Mark’s narrative. They are called to leave
their familiar lives and routines --- and even loved ones --- to follow Jes=
us
and help him spread this good news. The rest, as they say, is history --- p=
art
of the history of salvation. The beloved story of Jesus’ invitation a=
nd
the fishermen’s response has been remembered in many hymns and bible
school songs --- like the one we’ll shortly be singing.
This often
over-sentimentalized scene is also troubling to us, however --- and rightfu=
lly
so. Perhaps it brings to mind stories of young people suddenly leaving their
families and former lifestyles to join a religious cult and follow some sel=
f-proclaimed
guru. What, indeed, do those =
who
are mending and casting nets along the Galilean Sea know about Jesus? How well informed or impulsive is =
their
response? But the fishermen in today’s gospel lesson were clearly not
fancy-free youths; neither were they uneducated or economically disadvantag=
ed
folk from the fringes of society who might have had little to lose.
So how can we rel=
ate
Jesus’ calling of his first disciples --- and their response --- to o=
ur
lives? Can we imagine the Son of God walking into our office or classroom;
showing at the assembly line or retail store where we work; joining us at t=
he
family dinner table; or even making an appearance here on a Sunday morning
asking us to leave what we’ve been doing with our lives so that we ca=
n follow
him on a promising but risky journey? Well, he does . . . over and over aga=
in
--- but are we attentive and responsive?
In recent weeks
I’ve been interviewing some high school seniors who’ve applied =
for
admission to one of my alma maters. One of the questions I like to ask them=
is
what they feel called to do with their lives. “Call” may seem a
religious concept --- and indeed, how we commit our lives to the world is a
sacred thing --- but even those young people I sense had little religious
exposure in their upbringing seem to know what I’m asking. Some with =
whom
I talk have no particular vocation in mind yet, but whether they know they =
want
to be a doctor and have wanted to be a doctor since they were little kids, =
they
also seem to know that the question about “calling” concerns how
they envision themselves being in the world --- what difference they want t=
heir
lives to have made in the world when all is said and done. Vocational calli=
ng
is something more than what one can do with their natural and nurtured gift=
s;
it is something found, in the words of Frederick Buechner, where one’s
greatest love intersects with world’s greatest need.
Reflecting on my =
own
call to what Presbyterian’s describe as the “ministry of Word a=
nd
Sacrament,” it came as a realization that the kinds of things I’=
;d
observed ministers doing in the course of my Methodist upbringing would be
means of expressing the ways in which I felt called to be among people. When
enough pieces of that vocational puzzle shaped by our natural and nurtured
gifts, our joys and experiences, had fallen into place, I went to talk with=
my
pastor. It was near the end of my junior year in high school when I asked h=
im,
“How do you know if God is calling you to the ministry?” Among
other things I’m sure he said to me, I remember one very distinctly:
“If you can do anything else and be content, then do it.” In ot=
her
words, there’d be no way for me to take up any other future without b=
eing
haunted by the sense that I wasn’t doing what I was called to do, tha=
t I
wasn’t being in the world in the way God intended me to be among
others.
The particularity=
of
how our calling gets expressed develops and even changes over time and thro=
ugh
the interactions of an individual with a faith community as well as the wor=
ld
around them. As Jonah discovered, however, it’s hard to be content if
we’re someplace other than where God wants us to be, not doing what G=
od
wants us to do.
For ordained
ministers, of course, there are vocational options other than the parish.
Having loved the lifestyle of a university community for 8 years, the idea =
of
spending my life there was attractive. I started a Ph.D. program after divi=
nity
school with the goal of becoming a professor of religion, perhaps with a
chaplain’s role, as well. But it took only one “semester of self
understanding,” I call it, to realize that was not where I was called=
to
be. Parish ministry was clearly either the large fish that would swallow me=
or
the shore upon which the whole process of preparation would land me. (My fi=
rst
draft said: “Spit me up!”)
I share those par=
ts
of my personal experience of being “called” by God because, as
I’ve said to our young people many times over the years, I can’t
tell you exactly where and how you will find God. I can only tell you some =
of the
ways and places where I found God --- or to be more truthful, where and how=
God
found me. In the final analysis, that’s what the stories in scripture=
are
all about, as well. Our collective stories pass along --- from generation to
generation --- how the Word made flesh has been encountered by those who ha=
ve
gone before us on the journey of faith.
Andrew and Simon
Peter, James and John left their families’ trades and whatever comfor=
ts
they had at home to disciple themselves to One whose comforting words and
healing deeds endeared him to the multitudes --- especially to those most
vulnerable to the exigencies of life. They henceforth “fished” =
for
the sake of the kingdom to feed those who hungered and thirsted for
righteousness in their lives.
We do that, too, =
when
we respond to our Lord’s call to establish a health clinic for those =
with
little access to healthcare in our society. We respond to Jesus’ call
when we become tutors for students likely being raised in
educationally-deficient environments that have already fallen behind their
peers in early grades, students “at risk” who, without help, wi=
ll
likely drop out before finishing high school.
We respond to
Jesus’ call when we serve meals at the Rickman House and the soup
kitchen, when we help at Loaves and Fishes or one of their food pantries. We
respond to Jesus’ call when we give of our time and talents to help
Habitat For Humanity build houses for those who might otherwise never have =
one.
In brief, we respond to Jesus’ call whenever we give of ourselves and=
our
treasure in ways that give reality to those things he said would be signs of
his presence in the world: giving new life to the dead; helping the lame wa=
lk,
the blind see and the deaf hear; when we do any of those things which bring
‘good news’ to the poor --- for a change.
But the disciples
also found themselves following One whose challenging words and prophetic d=
eeds
alienated many who benefited from the injustices burdening the oppressed, t=
hose
who were determined to perpetuate their hold on power by violent control of
others.
It is the prophets
among God’s people who remind the nations that they are accountable to
God for their actions. When justice is denied to the powerless, the powerful
will reap judgment. When greed of the well-connected results in poverty for
others, God will render judgment. When nations spend their wealth on weapon=
s of
death rather than implements of life, God’s judgment is harsh. We know
this from our own experience.
Anything that opp=
oses
God’s plan for creation will ultimately fail, and it is one of the
callings of God’s people to speak that prophetic word when so moved by
God’s Spirit. Sometimes there are specially-anointed voices that
articulate the prophetic messages in ways which not only confront the power=
s of
this world but inspire others in the community of faith to remember that Je=
sus
calls us to be in, but not of the world. We celebrated the ministry of such=
a
prophet this past week.
The uncomfortable
side of responding to Jesus’ call, for contemporary followers as well=
as
those fishermen in Galilee, is bearing witness to the good news in words and
deeds which challenge the way things are in the world. This past week, for
example, a group representing the Michigan Organizing Project gathered on t=
he
Kalamazoo Mall to raise awareness of the needs of people often ignored by t=
he
political system. This church, through the action of our Session, participa=
tes
in the work of MOP as we join other faith communities seeking to house the
homeless, find jobs for the least employable and promote a more just and
compassionate immigration policy, among other things. Paul Clements, who ch=
airs
our Outreach Committee, gave the keynote speech at this rally which ended w=
ith
the reading and presentation of a petition to our congressman asking him to
support just and compassionate policies affecting the poor and powerless of=
our
state and nation.
As a consequence =
of
the recent violence in Gaza, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) sent a
strongly-worded letter to the government of Israel --- as well as our own -=
--
calling for an immediate end to the unbridled death and destruction of
Palestinian people by warplanes and missiles paid for by American taxpayers.
Protesting the virtual imprisonment of a people who are regularly denied ac=
cess
to the necessities of life in addition to suffering the recent slaughter th=
at
left thousands of casualties
--- including the deaths of some 400 children --- the statement from=
the
national office of our denomination deplored the use of all violence, inclu=
ding
the missiles that have taken a few Israeli lives. But it noted especially t=
he
lack of proportionality in the Israeli attack and its seeming disregard for
civilian casualties.
The implications =
of
Christian calling, as I understand it, called me to stand in solidarity with
others publicly protesting the slaughter in Gaza of mostly innocents and to
write my own letters to our political leaders. Those who protest actions of=
the
Israeli government can expect be labeled “anti-Jewish,” of cour=
se
--- much as those who protest the policies of any particular American
government are, for obvious political reasons, often labeled
“un-American.” That’s one of the risks of discipleship.
Responding to
Jesus’ call, as Peter and Andrew, James and John were to discover, is=
not
an easy thing to do. Choices about our behavior and support of others’
behavior sometimes have to be made when all the facts can’t be known =
and
the judgment of history is unknowable. But discipleship calls us to be acti=
vely
involved in the world of human affairs, as Jesus was, doing the work of the
kingdom as best we --- as a community of believers --- know how, because no=
t to
act on behalf of the poor and the vulnerable is also a choice --- a choice =
that
undermines God’s good news to which we are called to witness.<=
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