“Call and Response” – Jan 15, 2012 Sermon
Jan 15, 2012
Scripture Lesson: John 1: 43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Sermon: Call and Response
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Oh no, really? Do you hear that, that phone ringing? Maybe I should answer it… Gosh it’s hard for me to tune out a ringing phone. Is it like that for you, too? At least with a cell phone, I can turn off the sound pretty quickly, but these land lines just ring and ring and ring until they go to voice mail or get answered. But I don’t even like to turn off the sound and let a call go, and usually only do so when it would be rude to someone else to take the call. And then I usually call the person back as soon as I can. I tend even to answer the church or my home line when caller ID indicates telemarketer. But I know people who love the freedom of choice they feel to ignore a call, turn off the ringer, let things go to voice mail, even delete messages without listening. Back before the days of cell phones, I was astounded when someone told me she turned off her phone at 9:30 p.m. every night because she liked the quiet, and there was absolutely nothing she could think of that couldn’t wait til morning.
As I read the scripture passages for this week, the call of Samuel that I told in the children’s message, and the call to Philip and Nathanael from John’s Gospel, I thought about the different ways people respond to spiritual calls. John’s gospel is a little different than the others in the story of Jesus’ gathering of his disciples. In John, just before today’s passage, John the Baptist exclaims, as Jesus comes toward him, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.” Two of John’s followers, Andrew and an unnamed person, hear this and follow after Jesus. Jesus turns and sees them, and asks, “What are you looking for?” They ask where he is staying, and he invites them to come and see. Andrew goes to find his brother, Simon Peter, and exclaims to him that they have found the Messiah. Simon Peter goes along to meet Jesus, who promptly gives him a new name. This leads right into today’s reading, which starts with Jesus finding Philip. Perhaps Philip was the other of John’s disciples with Andrew, or maybe Jesus knew him another way. However it happens, Philip seems excited to go along, and goes to get his friend Nathanael.
In these passages, there is mostly eager response to Jesus’ call. And I don’t know if I’d even call it a call. Jesus seems to be issuing invitations – “come and see.” And often Jesus he doesn’t initiate it. Andrew starts to follow him, Andrew gathers Simon Peter in, and Philip gets Nathanael. Can we learn something from this about what it’s like to be called? For some it is a hunger that starts inside, perhaps we are searching and we are not even sure what for. We seek out people who might point us in the right direction, as John the Baptist did for his followers. Or we overhear something that sticks in our minds, and compels us to look further. Maybe we just need that little bit more encouragement – come and see. Oh there’s so much more I wish was in John’s gospel. What happened when Andrew and the other person followed Jesus to where he was staying? What did they hear or see or feel? I love that Philip and Jesus didn’t get defensive at Nathanael’s skeptical, even somewhat bigoted response – can anything good come out of Nazareth? Sounds like a dis of a rival town or something. But they let it ride, and just invite him again – come and see.
Sometimes people think of a call from God as something very forceful and clear – like God’s specific message to Samuel, or Jesus’ clear directive to Philip – “follow me.” Anyone looking to work as an ordained minister is asked frequently about their “call.” I always struggled with the word, I thought a call would be like that – God saying, “I want you to be a minister in the church – preach my Word, administer Sacraments, be a catalyst for justice and peace-making actions. And I never really thought God was that specific, at least not with me. I’ve heard lots of other people’s stories, how they came to seminary, what led them on the path to this vocation. And the stories were quite varied, just as the stories are in the bible about how God or Jesus invites people into relationship.
Personally, I identify with the two disciples of John who then follow Jesus. I was searching for something. I wasn’t sure what – some sense of purpose and meaning and connection. I found wonderful teachers and role models, lots of people pointing me in the right direction, sometimes co-workers or friends, sometimes writers. And when I overheard things about Jesus, I experienced that wonderful invitation to “come and see.” I didn’t get the strong directive, “follow me.” But like Simon Peter, like Nathanael, once I went to see, I was a goner – hook, line and sinker, awed and in love with Jesus.
I think it’s a shame that so much is made about the “call” of ministers, and so little made of other calls. Religion often gives lip service to the idea that all Christians are called to be ministers in their own way. There is talk about the priesthood of all believers, but I don’t think this truth is honored enough, not given the weight it deserves. For instance, it is not often that others have much chance to really reflect and talk about the ways they are called, whether they’ve experienced a gentle invitation to “come and see,” or a niggling to follow Jesus, or have been awe-struck at what they have heard or seen. I believe these “calls” are not just focused on religious or church-related activities. People can be called to parenthood or friendship, to teaching or ecology, to the arts, to science or medicine. I think it’s important that anything we do for the upbuilding of God’s world can be a way of following Jesus. And I think we should talk about it that way.
Now not everything we do is a response to a call. Perhaps you earn money in a way that doesn’t especially contribute to the upbuilding of the world, but you volunteer in the food pantry on a regular basis. Perhaps that’s your call. How did you get involved in the food pantry, I’d want to know. Maybe Cindy and Jackie and Bob have wonderful call stories about their music ministry, or Deb and Neil can tell about their call to be deacons. I know Ron and Len and Neil do amazing things caring for this building. I’d love to hear those call stories.
Now maybe people are doing things not because they are called, but because they can’t say no. Maybe they don’t know the phone wasn’t ringing for them, but for someone else, and they just answered quickly. Or maybe it wasn’t God calling at all. That’s the problem now that we have the resurrected Christ to deal with instead of the flesh and blood man Jesus. It’s much harder to discern where invitations are coming from. It’s harder to discern what the invitations are.
There is a quote by Frederich Buechner that I used in my ordination paper, that “..the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I love this statement, and believe it contains much truth. We have to pay attention to both parts – where there is need, whether in the world, in our families, in our church – and where there is deep gladness for us. I do not believe God calls us to or through misery and suffering. There might be parts of fulfilling a call that are difficult or painful, but the overall experience ought to be one of deep gladness. I believe that is what God has in mind for us, and one of the best indicators of a call.
My hope is that church can be a place where people are helped to discern their call, to be supported in living it out. We have to cultivate an atmosphere of invitation, of come and see. It’s always intrigued me that John the Baptist, for all his insight into who Jesus was, never became a disciple, did not follow him in his travels. That was not John’s call, you see. He had a different call, and knew he couldn’t be true to it if he joined Andrew and the other person. Sometimes you have to say no to an invitation in order to find and live your own call. If you have lost your gladness in a certain ministry, perhaps you are being called to something else. People will have different calls over a lifetime. I am absolutely convinced that I was called to addictions counseling before I was called to ordained ministry. I was called to mothering along the way as well.
If you are searching for something, some purpose or meaning, and you are not sure what, I invite you to talk with me, or talk with each other. Perhaps you will be like Eli, helping someone to discern God’s call. Perhaps you will be like Andrew or Phillip and invite someone else who is searching or waiting. Listen well to others, invite them to come and see – come and see what church is about, come and see what service is about, come and see what pledging is about, come and see what bible study is like. I encourage you to pay attention to what is going on in your mind, in your heart, in your soul. Your unrest is important, it is a ringing phone. You can silence it, let it go to voice mail, let someone else run to answer. But you might miss out not only on the deep gladness of living out a call, but the great things Jesus speaks of to Nathanael, the heavens opening, and angels of God breaking through. Perhaps you are being called to be one of those angels breaking through, serving God, losing yourself and finding true life.
In closing, in honor of Dr. King, I’d like to share his thoughts about his call. “Every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. [That] I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.” Can I get an Amen?
