When God calls . . . God raises up prophets from among the people: Deuteronomy 18: 15 - 22

          What’s going to happen to us when you’re gone? What’s going to happen to us when you’re gone?  This was the refrain sung by Westwood High School teachers in the spring of 1992 when Norman Sansom announced his upcoming retirement.  Mr. Sansom had been the principal since Westwood opened 11 years earlier.  He had hired each and every one of us who taught there. Low-key, he easily formed relationships with the staff, students, parents, and people from the community.  A former coach, he emphasized teamwork.  Norman was respected and loved by the faculty.  What’s going to happen to us when you’re gone?  Does it sound like we were anxious, maybe even a little fearful?  Well, we were.

            What’s going to happen to us when you’re gone?  That’s the question lurking behind the book of Deuteronomy.  That’s the question Moses addresses in his farewell speech—all 33 chapters of it.  Forty years before, Moses had led Jacob’s descendants out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom.  Moses brought them to the same mountain where he had first encountered God in the burning bush.  There, at Mt. Sinai God promised them: 5 . . . If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. . . .6 . . . you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.[1]  There God provided the 10 commandments —the foundation for faithful living—living faithfully to God and living faithfully with one another.  From Mt. Sinai, Moses had led the people to the Jordan River and prepared them to cross over into the land promised by God.  But fearing the land’s inhabitants and displaying what would become their characteristic lack of trust in God, the people refused to cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land.  So, for the next 40 years, they had wandered in the Sinai wilderness until the last of that generation died.  The people Moses addresses in today’s text are the 2^nd and 3^rd generations of the Exodus—those who were born and grew to adulthood in the wilderness.  They have known no other life but this nomadic life.  They have known no other leader but Moses.  And now, he has come to the end of his years.

            What’s is going to happen to us when you are gone, Moses?  To answer, he summarizes the last 40 years—retelling the story of the flight from Egypt, reviewing the 10 commandments, and reminding the people of God’s provision and promise.  Yet they are still fearful.  In the chapter and verses immediately preceding our text, Moses reminds the people of how through judges in each family group and through priests like Aaron, God has provided them with legal and worship leadership. In answer to the people’s continued refrain, “What’s going to happen to us when you are gone?  Moses assures them that God will raise up prophets from among them.  Not seers who tell the future—but faithful listeners who speak God’s word to the people.  Prophets who will call the people back to God when they forget to whom they belong. Prophets who will refocus the people’s vision on the mission God calls them into.  God will provide for the visionary leadership of the people just as God will provide for their legal, political, and worship leadership.

            The book of Deuteronomy is a reminder to listeners throughout the ages of God’s provision for and promise to his people.  Recalling God’s presence with them throughout their wilderness wanderings, Moses encourages his audience to embrace a hopeful future there at the edge of the promised land.   Six hundred fifty years later—at the time of King Josiah, this book was discovered during a temple remodel project.  Hearing the history and the law as if for the 1^st time, King Josiah, the priests, and the people re-dedicate themselves to the God who had promised to make their ancestors and thus them his treasured people.   One hundred forty years after King Josiah, the Jews exiled in Babylon encounter the book of Deuteronomy.  Listening to the words of Moses, they find hope for their own reconciliation with God. Reminded of God’s faithful provision of manna and water in the wilderness, of God’s promise of homes and land in Canaan, and of God’s direction for leaders in Israel to come, they find hope for their own return to Jerusalem. The book of Deuteronomy reminds us who we are and whose we are.  We are God’s treasured people—set apart by God to do his work.  Deuteronomy encourages us to reflect on our past—the past God has guided us through.  And it invites us to look to our future—the hopeful future God has planned for us, a future in which we continue to live and work for our God.

               Reflecting on the past and looking to the future . . . hmm . . .   In the past, who has God called as prophets in this congregation?  Sharing your stories with me, several of you talked about Miss Berenice Boyd Wallace.  In 1937, she was asked to teach the junior high Sunday school class—which she did until 1962. 

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[1] Exodus 19: 5 – 6 NRSV

Listening to your recollections of Miss Berenice and of your experiences in her class, and reading her own written recollection of that time, I concluded she was a prophet, raised up by God to speak God’s word—to her students and through them generations to come.  For you see Miss Berenice did not just come to church on Sunday morning and teach a lesson from her leader’s guide.  Instead, she put together a Bible study which was developmentally and intellectually appropriate for her particular students here. 

Recognizing that our faith is deepened through worship, Miss Berenice led her

class using elements of worship, and she arranged the space in which they met to look like a worship space.  

           

  Miss Berenice also connected what her students learned in the Bible with how they were called to live their lives.  She gave them opportunities to serve and she shared with them a pledge to guide their daily lives:

I pledge to do for others such work as Jesus would do if he were here in person.  Anything, however simple, that brightens even an hour of another’s life; that relieves pain or poverty, or sickness or distress; that makes the world a happier place to live in; that teaches others to know more; and especially to love more.  That is my pledge.

Miss Berenice was a prophet.  She spoke and acted on God’s word—how important it is to develop our faith and to deepen our discipleship.

            About the same time Miss Berenice handed over the junior high Sunday School class to a new generation of teachers—a generation she had prepared—God raised up another prophet in this church.  Actually it was a group of 5 people speaking as 1 prophetic voice.  5 women in our Presbyterian Women’s group began to wonder about people in this community who needed clothes but who could not afford to buy them.  Realizing they shared a common concern, these 5 came together.  Having no local model to emulate, they consulted a Presbyterian Women’s group in Lawrence which had successfully begun a Thrift Shop.  Modifying their ideas and practices, this group of 5—with the support of the PW leadership—presented their thrift shop idea to the Session.  Patiently the 5 listened to and addressed concerns that were expressed.  And there were concerns expressed—selling in the church building? people we don’t know, people we don’t know anything about—wandering in our space?  This group of 5—these prophets—spoke God’s word calling this church to a new mission.  Then they prayed and waited for God to make the way clear.  Over 40 years later, this mission continues.  During these 40 years, not only has our PW Thrift Shop provided clothes to people in this community and this county, but it has also provided funds with which other missions in Paola, in Heartland Presbytery, in the United States, and in the world have benefited.  

            Reflecting on our church’s past, we see God indeed raised up prophets to speak God’s word and to offer visionary leadership.  From this perspective, we look for the prophets God will raise up in this generation.  Through them God will speak a word about reclaiming our rich tradition of faith development through Bible study and worship.  Through them God will speak a word about deepening our discipleship through mission. 

            Unlike the people Moses addressed, unlike the teachers at Westwood High School, we need not be anxious or fearful crying out “What’s going to happen to us?”  Reflecting on our church’s past, we see God’s provision in every generation.  God has a good track record.  So let us move forward into 2012—prayerfully listening for God’s word— confident that He will raise up prophets from among us—and courageously and faithfully stepping out to do God’s will. 

"When God calls . . . transformation can occur" (the book of Jonah)

            In the weeks between the New Year and the beginning of Lent, we are examining “call stories.”  What happened to people in the Bible when God called them and how does that translate to God’s call in our lives. 

            Two Sundays ago, reflecting on Mark’s account of Jesus’s call story, we noted that at the moment of God’s call, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus—not only empowering him for his ministry but also filling him with God’s presence.  That same day we recognized the presence and claimed the power of the Holy Spirit within this church as we ordained and installed our new group of elders and deacons.  “When God calls, the Holy Spirit follows up.” 

            Last week as we encountered Samuel hearing a voice and Eli discerning it was God’s, we were reminded that God uses mentors and friends to help us recognize God’s call and direction for our lives.  And we acknowledged God uses our whole community of faith in determining what God is leading our church to do. “When God calls, others help us discern.”

            Today, we read and reflect on a very familiar Bible story—the story of Jonah.  But, we go beyond the tale of Jonah and the whale, for we consider why God is so persistent in calling Jonah.  

  

Let us pray:  Oh, God, your steadfast love pursues us.  You are our rock and our salvation.  May we hear the message you want us to hear today, and may we follow your Son all the days of our lives.  Amen.

            When Kevin interned as a hospital chaplain he rotated “on call” hours with the other chaplain interns and residents.  When he was on call, we had to make some changes in our routines.  For example:  If he was on call on a Sunday, we drove to church in separate cars—so that if he got called out, I still had a ride home.  If his on-call was Friday evening, our weekly date-night changed to Saturday. A call from the hospital would change whatever we were doing—it would postpone a family game or would shorten our evening walk around the neighborhood. When Kevin was on call, we had to be ready for change.

            Change . . . we see it here in the story of Jonah. “The LORD’s word came to Jonah, 2 ‘Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their evil has come to my attention.’ 3 So Jonah got up—to flee from the Lord[1]”— 

                                                           

                                     http://visualunit.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/jonah_map.jpg

Jonah goes to the port city of Joppa—labeled A—and hops on the first ship he can find heading to Tarshish (labeled C) which was as far to the west as he could travel in those days. God calls and Jonah goes—in the opposite direction!

            The ship is not long at sea before it is engulfed by a great storm—so terrible that the captain and crew pray to their pagan gods for deliverance. Because the storm continues, Jonah finally fesses up he is running away from his God—“the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.[2]”  He tells the sailors the only way to save themselves is to throw him overboard—which they do reluctantly.  And what do you know? Once he’s off the ship, the storm abates—the ship and crew are safe. Recognizing the God of Jonah as the Lord God Almighty, the crew worships and offers sacrifices to God.  They are changed—transformed from non-believers into people who know and worship the one true God. 

            Tossed into the storm’s tempest, Jonah goes down into the depths of the sea where God sends a big fish to swallow him up until, after 3 days and 3 nights, Jonah prays to God—and the fish spits him out.  “The LORD’s word came to Jonah a second time: 2 ‘Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.’ 3 And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh[3]” preaching “40 more days is all you have before God destroys this city because of its wickedness.”  (my paraphrase)  And the people of the city—from the servants in the plainest household to the king in his palace—the people of the city change.  They repent from their wickedness, and God relents—choosing not to destroy the city after all.  Twice in this story, we meet people with no previous knowledge of or relationship with the creator of the universe.  And both times, these people are transformed and worship the great “I Am,” the Lord God Almighty.

            Change—all the characters in this story—God, the sailors, the Ninehvites—all except Jonah—experience some kind of change.  God, a change of heart—deciding not to destroy Nineveh.  The sailors and the Ninevites—a change of faith—reckoning with and worshiping the one true God.

            But what about Jonah?  As the story begins, Jonah—mind and heart closed—refuses to prophesy God’s judgment against Nineveh because they may listen and repent.  He does not want his God to forgive them.  The story ends with Jonah bitter because God has shown towards Jonah’s enemies the very mercy and steadfast love that characterize God.  Perhaps God was so persistent in calling Jonah because God hoped Jonah would experience transformation—transformation of his heart. Maybe God hoped that as Jonah walked through the streets of Nineveh, he would look into the eyes of the people he met and begin to see them as individuals—not a collective “the enemy.”  Maybe God hoped Jonah would see the inhabitants of Nineveh as people like him, created in the image of God. Do you remember the Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas?  Perhaps God hoped that Jonah’s heart—like that of the Grinch—would grow 3 sizes. 

Maybe that was the transformation God hoped for Jonah. Maybe that’s a transformation God hopes for each of us—that our hearts will be full of love and mercy towards each and every person we encounter.    

            When God calls, transformation occurs. It may be individual transformation— a relationship with God begins; a talent—a gift—is discovered, nurtured, and shared; the course of a person’s life changes.  It may be communal transformation—transforming our church.              

            

                 http://enegrenbrewing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/grinch-heart.jpg

Yesterday MG, DM, and I attended “Embracing Hope,” a Presbytery leadership training event. One of my breakout sessions was titled “Transforming Your Church—Using Your Assets.”  I thought about our assets—identified in our leadership retreat in November.  This building, this debt-free building with clean, functional, inviting, beautiful spaces—this building is an asset.  Our music program—our faithful, talented, energetic singers, choir director, and organist/pianist are an asset.  Our Presbyterian Women’s group—committed, generous, mission-minded—they are an asset.  Our Pre-School, the longest-running church pre-school in Paola—directed by an experienced kindergarten teacher—our pre-school is an asset.  You—our people—your individual talents, your passions, and the relationships you have with organizations in this community (like PEO, Foster Grandparents, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, PACA, and the schools) you and your relationships are assets.  In this breakout session, I wondered, how is God calling us to use our assets to transform our church.  How is God calling us to be—like Jonah—agents of transformation in the lives of each other, of people in this community, and of people outside of Paola.

            God’s call always leads to change—transforming hearts, minds, wills, and lives; transforming families, churches, communities, and the world.  Answering God’s call, we may be transformed and we may be agents of transformation. For when God calls, transformation occurs.    

Let us pray:

Almighty God, by your love transform us and through love, use us in the transformation of this world to become what you created it to be.  Amen

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[1] Jonah 1: 1 – 3

[2] Jonah 1:10

[3] Jonah 3: 2 – 3 

When God calls . . . others help us discern 1 Samuel 3: 1 - 11; 19 - 4: 1a

            Twenty years ago I participated in Mission Presbytery’s Lay Leadership Institute.  Along with 11 other non-clergy members of Presbyterian churches in central Texas, I studied, discussed, and reflected on reformed theology, Presbyterian polity, and the church’s mission.  (I’ll bet that sounds familiar to you deacons and elders who attended our leadership retreat in November, for that is what we studied, discussed, and reflected on.)  Meeting Friday afternoons through Sunday mornings on 5 weekends at 5 different venues in our presbytery, we participants questioned, absorbed, pondered, and planned in community.  About 2 months lapsed between each of our meetings, and during that time we planned and developed and began to implement individual projects that would benefit our particular churches.

            Most of the other participants were retired, with adult children and grandchildren.  I was the youngest.  While I brought energy, enthusiasm and bit of restlessness to the group, others brought wisdom, patience, and a long-term perspective for their churches and the church universal.

            Our October meeting was held at the presbytery’s beach retreat. I remember sitting on the balcony of my room that Friday evening, wrapped in a blanket because the breeze off the gulf was cold.  I rested—listening to the waves rolling in, gazing at the star-lit water, basking in the opportunity to just sit and be.  As mother of 2 pre-schoolers, wife, public school teacher, Sunday School teacher, elder, and children’s ministry chair; I was always busy.  I never took the time to sit and just be.  Perhaps it was this time spent in stillness and quiet which prepared me to listen that weekend. 

            The next evening, after a full day of study, discussion, and planning, several of us took a long walk on the beach.  After awhile Andy and Paul and I found ourselves walking together—separate from the rest of the group.  We talked about our lives outside of these Lay Leadership weekends—our families, our jobs, our hobbies.  As I shared my experiences teaching math, Paul said to me, “Mari Lyn, you do know that teaching is not just your job.  It’s your vocation.  It’s what God has called you to do right now.” 

            It’s a good thing it was dark because I know the expression on my face clearly disagreed with him.  God had nothing to do with my being a teacher.  I went into teaching because in my senior year in college, I realized I could not stay in school forever. I needed to quit living off the largesse of my parents and start being a responsible member of society.  I enjoyed school—being a student; perhaps I would enjoy school—being a teacher. There was a demand for math teachers, and I enjoyed math—well, until Differential Equations ate my lunch.  By my senior year, I had a lot of college math hours.  I had a job as soon as I earned my teaching certificate.  That’s how I ended up teaching.  Besides, how does teaching teenagers college preparatory math fit in with God’s grand plan?  Teaching was not my vocation! God had not called me to be a teacher—or so I thought.

            Andy agreed with Paul—saying, “Yeah, Mari Lyn, listening to you talk about your students—how you are available to help them outside of the classroom and how you provide multiple opportunities for them to succeed—that shows how important your students’ learning is to you.  It shows how important your students are to you.  I wish my son had teachers who cared that much about his learning.  I wish my son had teachers who cared that much for him.  I wish you were my son’s teacher.” 

            My teaching—in a public school—a God-directed path? a God-called vocation?  I had never considered that—not until that conversation on the beach with Paul and Andy.  Over the next days, weeks, and months, I kept hearing Paul’s words “Mari Lyn, you do know that teaching is not just your job?  It’s your vocation.  It’s what God has called you to do right now.”  Sometimes it takes someone else—someone other than ourselves—to help us recognize God’s direction in our lives.  Sometimes we need someone else to hear God for us.  Sometimes when God calls, we need others to help us discern what God is leading us to do. 

            That’s what happens in our text today.  The youth, Samuel, hears a voice, and is able to recognize it as God’s voice only through the help of Eli.  Of course at first Samuel did not realize it was God speaking to him. After all, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”  In those days—in ancient Israel, only priests mediated the presence of God with the people, and all priests were Levites, descendents of Moses’ brother, Aaron.  In those days, at Shiloh, the Levite, Eli was the priest who proclaimed God’s word to the people.  Eli’s sons—not Samuel—were heirs to this priestly role.  Samuel was just a boy whose mother Hannah—out of gratitude for his long-hoped for birth, had dedicated him to God and had brought him to Shiloh to serve Eli.  Samuel was a servant of Eli, not a servant of God.  He lived in the tabernacle because his mother took him there, not because God brought him there—or so Samuel thought.  It took someone with whom he had a close relationship—it took Eli—to help him realize God was speaking to him.  Samuel heard a voice.  Eli discerned it was the voice of God.

            And what about Eli?  Here is a man who was already a priest of God, a man who expected his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons to continue mediating God’s presence among the people, but God is calling someone else.  Eli could have been angry that God had chosen another.  He could have refused to identify the voice Samuel was hearing as God’s.  Here is a man whose senses of sight and hearing are losing their edge.  He could have closed his eyes and his ears to God’s presence there —to God’s presence with Samuel.  Here is a man coming to the end of his years.  He could have decided he was too tired to mentor Samuel—for surely he knew that in revealing God’s call upon Samuel’s life, he would be taking on the task of preparing him—preparing Samuel to hear and proclaim God’s word to the people, preparing Samuel to mediate God’s presence among them.   

            In order for God’s plan to unfold in this call story, both Eli and Samuel must respond faithfully.  To hear and obey God’s word, both Eli and Samuel need to trust—to trust each other and to trust God.  To experience God’s presence, both Eli and Samuel need to listen—to listen to one another and to listen for God.  To respond to God’s word, both Eli and Samuel need to act.  God’s plan unfolds within community, and in today’s text, community is the relationship between Eli and Samuel.

            God’s voice can be and is heard by individuals, but it is confirmed within community.  Within community—among one another, connected by the Holy Spirit.  It is within community that God’s voice is heard, God’s plan is understood, God’s call is followed, and God’s will is obeyed. 

            Sometimes it takes someone else—someone other than ourselves to help us recognize God’s direction in our lives. Sometimes we need someone else to hear God for us. After my conversation on the beach with Paul and Andy, I viewed my teaching from a different perspective.  No longer was it the job I had chosen.  Instead it was a God-inspired opportunity to be a blessing in the lives of my students and my colleagues. I began to realize I had a gift for teaching.  My conversation with Paul and Andy on the beach helped me turn the knob to open the door—just a little bit—to the possibility that God had a call, a purpose, a plan—for my life.

            The insight, encouragement, and affirmation of others help us recognize God’s hand in our lives. This week I invite you to take some time from doing—and spend some time being—being in God’s presence—in prayer, in reading or meditating on scripture, in quiet reflection—spend some time just being.  In this time, I invite you to—metaphorically or literally—say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  I invite you then to listen for God’s word to you.  Reflect on how and to whom you might be an Eli—revealing God’s presence or God’s plan in someone else’s life or in the life and ministry of this congregation.  I invite you also to envision how you might be a Samuel—one who listens to the insight of another, one to whom God speaks, one who responds to God’s direction for your life.  This week, I invite you to listen—so that God may reveal God’s self to you and through you—through each one of you—God may reveal God’s plan for this congregation. 

Let us pray.  Loving and guiding God, may we not only hear your word, but also discern your will, and respond with faith and courage.  Amen.

“When God Calls . . . the Holy Spirit follows up.” Mark 1: 4 – 11

            I’ve been asked—What’s the best thing about being your pastor?  The answer:  getting to visit with you.  Whether it’s in your home, at your place of work, here at the church, at a local business, or even at the hospital, I enjoy visiting with you.  While sipping a cup of coffee, sorting through items at the Thrift Shop—let me restate that—watching you sort through items at the Thrift Shop— checking out a book, taking a break, or watching our children at play or practice, I enjoy visiting with you.  You see, I love listening to your stories—how you met your spouse, what brought you to Paola, why you chose your vocation.  I appreciate your sharing memories of special people in your lives, funny anecdotes of your family, and how this community has changed over the years.  I love listening to your stories. 

            I have always been fascinated by stories, and it’s the stories in the Bible that grab my attention—more than the theological reflections, more than the poetry, and more than the prophetic proclamations.  It’s the stories in the Bible that I enjoy the most. 

            In planning for worship between now and the beginning of Lent—as I was reading the lectionary scriptures, I noticed that each Sunday included a text related to a “call” story—a narrative (sometimes brief, sometimes comprehensive)—of how someone in the Bible heard God’s call for his or her life.  There are many “call” stories in the Bible—from God speaking to Moses through a burning bush to the angel Gabriel telling Mary she will bear God’s son to the blinding light striking Paul down on the road to Damascus.  The Bible is full of “call” stories.  So, I invite you—during these next few Sundays to join me in reflecting on “When God calls .  . .”

            Today’s text contains Jesus’ call story.  This is how the evangelist Mark perceived God’s calling Jesus into his life’s ministry.  Along with many folks from the Judean countryside, Jesus responds to John the Baptist’s life-changing invitation. 

In my mind’s eye, I see Jesus standing in the Jordan River, hands clasped at his heart.  John is standing beside him—facing him, one hand holding Jesus’ clasped hands and the other at the top of Jesus’ back—supporting his neck.  In my mind’s ear, I hear John saying “I baptize you with water—symbolizing the refreshing cleanliness of a new life—a life turned towards God.  The one whose way I prepare, the one who comes after me, the one is more powerful than I, he will baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.”  Then I see Jesus leaning back into John’s strong arm.  As John lowers him into the Jordan River,

Jesus is completely covered by the water.  Then John begins to raise him back up.  As he comes up out of the river, water drenching him—running into his eyes—Jesus sees the sky split open and the Holy Spirit coming down—like a bird in flight—from that fissure.  Even as the water is dripping from his ears, he hears God’s voice, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love.  I am very pleased with you.”  Now standing, wiping the water from his face and his ears, Jesus looks up and around.  No one else seems to have seen the Spirit or heard the voice.  He makes his way out of the river as John waits for the next person to come down and be baptized.

            At the riverbank, Jesus pauses, he reflects—rewinding and replaying in his mind the tape of what just happened:  God speaking to him . . . the Holy Spirit landing on him.  This is Jesus’ call story.  At his baptism, God calls him beloved Son and fills him with God’s presence and power.  Here, in Jesus’ call story, we experience the Trinity—God the Parent—speaking, God the Holy Spirit—empowering, and God the Son—receiving and responding.   We experience the Trinity—poised on the brink of the ministry to which Jesus is called.

            When God calls, the Holy Spirit is right there—following up—surrounding you with God’s presence, offering you signs of encouragement, and giving you the gifts—the talents, the skills, the character traits—you need to do that which God calls you to do.  

            You?  Yes you—for each one of us is called by God.  In the waters of our baptism, God claims us as God’s very own, saying, “You are my dearly loved child.”  Welcomed into God’s family, we are called into discipleship.  We become heirs with Christ of all that is God’s, so God calls us into the “family business”—the family business of sharing the good news.  When God calls us into God’s family, the Holy Spirit follows up—encircling us with God’s presence; encouraging us in our daily lives to follow Christ’s example of love and service; and endowing us with the gifts we need to do so—giving us faith and hope and love. 

            In the family of faith—that is, the church—and in this particular congregation, God calls some to leadership—leadership in a ministry of compassion (deacon) or leadership in nurturing the faith of this congregation (elder).  Today, we ordain and install those people whom God has called to leadership here in the next three years—deacons and elders.  Because God has called them, we know that the Holy Spirit is right here, following up—assuring them of God’s presence, encouraging them through our response to their leadership, and equipping them to guide this congregation in the ministry God has planned for us now and in the future.

            The ministry God has planned for us—yes, us—God calls us—collectively as well as individually—into ministry—the ministry of this church.  We do not ordain and install deacons and elders to do the work of this church.  We ordain and install deacons and elders with whom we will do the work of this church.  We ordain and install elders and deacons who will prayerfully lead us and with whom we will work—we will minister—together.  Together.     

            Over the next few Sundays, as we read and reflect on various biblical call stories, may we open ourselves to the certainty that God calls each one of us. May we open our ears to hear God’s message to us individually as well as to us as a group. May we hear God saying to us, “You are my beloved son.  You are my beloved daughter.  You are my beloved children.  I am well-pleased with you.  Join me.”  May we open our eyes to see the Holy Spirit poised to guide us along the path God is laying out for us.  May we flex our hands and our feet and stretch our arms and our legs to ready our bodies to respond—to physically respond—to God’s call.  May we feel the touch of the Holy Spirit—assuring us of God’s presence, inviting us to share God’s love, encouraging us and equipping us to answer this, God’s call on our lives. Amen.