This Call Is For You
Posted on Jan 25, 2015 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
You know in today’s world, when someone calls you, before you answer the phone you usually know who is on the other end, don’t you? I mean with cell phones, caller id, and any number of other ways we can receive messages, the technology is such that we don’t have to wonder who is trying to get a hold of us. Even though we have had this technology for quite a while now, it still startles me when I am calling someone and they answer the phone by saying, “Hi Dave,” or “Hey Dad.” But like many of you, I remember a time when until you answered and the person on the other end spoke, we did not know who it was that was calling. Heck, when I was a kid, we didn’t even have a private phone line. We had a party line and if any of you remember those, you didn’t even know if the call was for your house or not. It was always a challenge to figure out whether a call was for you or not.
When it comes to God’s call for our lives, it seems to me, it is still like it was with phones 20 years ago. Many times we don’t know if God is calling us or not. Just this week I had someone ask me how she would know if it was God calling her to do something or if it was her own desire to do something? Heck, later today, as a congregation we will decide whether the plans we are proposing to do this next year are plans that God has called us to do or not. I sure wish God’s call was as clear for us as it was for those who we read about in the scriptures, don’t you. It would sure be a lot easier to answer God’s call if it were that clear, don’t you think? In fact, I hear that thought all the time. Wouldn’t it be great if God came directly to us like he did to Jonah, Moses, or whoever. and was as clear with us as he was with them?
In the story of Jonah that we read today, we discover that God came to Jonah a second time and said “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you… Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Jonah knew that it was God speaking and he did what God said.
In our gospel text, Jesus had recently been baptized and had been driven into the wilderness by the Holy spirit where he spent forty days being tempted by Satan, but when he returned he discovered that John had been arrested, so he went to Galilee and began his ministry of proclaiming the good news, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news." Now, folks didn’t know, yet, that he was the Son of God, but his message was clear. In essence he was saying to the world, “Look, we have been wondering when it would be time to begin changing the world. We have been wondering when God would once again enter into this world and expand his reign, well, the time is now! It is time for us to change!
And then, Mark says, after proclaiming this for a while, Jesus goes and finds Simon and Andrew and says to them, hey, you want to be part of this change, then come "Follow me and I will make you fish for people" (1:17). And we are told that they immediately followed him (1:18). And then he did the same with James and John and they, too, immediately followed him (1:19-20).
If only as God was as clear today as he was back in the good old days, we could follow more easily. But, let’s look a little deeper. In the case of Jonah, yes he listened, but we know that whole story. Yes, God was clear with Jonah in what he wanted him to do. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, an archenemy of Israel, a wicked place, and Jonah was to warn them that God was about to destroy them. But Jonah said, no. He ran to Joppa, boarded a ship to Tarshish, the opposite direction of Nineveh, and ran away. He gets thrown overboard and God sends a big fish to swallow him and while in the fish’s belly, he prays to God and so three days later, God has the fish spit Jonah out on to dry land and it is then that God comes a second time to Jonah and says, now go, do what I told you, and Jonah reluctantly goes.
Even when God is clear, following his call is not easy. Jonah had to go into his archenemies home and proclaim that his God would destroy them. Imagine God saying to you today, go into the lead camp if ISIS and proclaim to them that God is about to destroy them. Would you go? Would you run? Even when God’s call for us is clear, it is still hard to answer that call.
What about those disciples? They followed Jesus immediately, why? We don’t know for sure, but the promise of the good news that God’s reign is here now; God loves you, as you are, must have been what they needed to hear and he challenged them to come and use the gifts they had. They were fishermen and so Jesus said, come, and I will teach you to fish for people. It sounded fun. It sounded like something they could do.
All, too, often we hear God’s call and we say, “Oh, that’s not for me.” God can’t want me to do that? I don’t know the bible well enough to talk about Jesus, or the good news. I don’t have the skill to do that! I am not comfortable doing… We are sure God wouldn’t call us because we are not nearly as good as those disciples, or Jonah, or Moses, or…
Really, that is why we think God isn’t calling us. Jonah, said no to God and even after he did what he was called to do, he whined and complained. Simon said yes to Jesus and when Jesus needed him the most, he denied him three times. Andrew, James and John followed, but throughout the journey they did stupid things, asked dumb questions and when Jesus needs them most, they desert him. But, in the end, they did God’s will and God loved them and God called them his.
God doesn’t call extraordinary people to do ordinary things. No, God calls ordinary people, like you and me, to do extraordinary things. This call is for you. God is calling and he is calling you. God’s call isn’t just for pastors or people who work in the church. God’s call for each of you is to do his will in whatever you do. Whether you are a teacher, a construction worker, a doctor, a sanitary engineer, God’s call is for you to do it to his glory. It is hard. It is scary. It is not always clear, but the call is for you.
In just a little while we will gather for our annual meeting and we will be challenged to make some tough decisions. Will we vote to become a fully welcoming community with a welcome statement that specifically says everyone is welcome here? Will we vote to carry on our ministries even though we face a financial shortfall? It is scary, it is an unclear future, but God is calling us.
As I said last week, we prefer to focus on facts, like number of people in the pews and dollars. But God calls us to act on faith. God looks and says feed the poor, help the homeless, love the children, stand up for marginalized and those who have no power or voice in this world. God’s call is for us to go where others don’t want to go, even when the facts say it is impossible to make it work.
This call is for you. This call is for me. God’s call is to a scary, impossible mission. God is the one saying to us, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” Brothers and sisters, God is being clear with us. Against impossible odds, we have done and continue to do amazing things here at Salem and I pray we continue to answer God’s call and say, Here I am Lord, use me, use us, use Salem. Amen.