Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
Feb. 7, 2010

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Have you ever gotten a call? A phone call, for example? The phone rings. You don’t know who it is; or, even if you do because you’ve got caller ID you don’t know what the person wants or what the call portends. So you answer, and you listen to learn who’s calling or what they are calling about. Maybe it’s someone trying to sell you something or hitting you up for money; and maybe, like me, at that point you sometimes just hang up. But maybe it’s something important; so you listen, you respond, and maybe that phone call changes your life. I’ve certainly gotten phone calls that have changed mine. We’ve all gotten phone calls.

We know about phone calls, but today I want to talk about a different kind of call. You see, the Judeo-Christian tradition has within it a related but far more profound meaning of the word call. Our tradition has always believed that God calls people. In a general sense God calls all people to lives of faith, decency, and caring; but the concept “call” has a more specific meaning in our tradition too. Our tradition has believed for thousands of years that God calls specific people to specific work on God’s behalf.

We have two good examples of God calling specific people to specific work in our Scripture readings this morning. In the first reading God calls Isaiah to go and speak the words that God will give him to speak. In the second reading Jesus Christ calls Peter to follow him and become a fisher of people. The two stories have a lot in common. In both stories, before God’s call actually comes, the men in question have a direct encounter with a manifestation of the holy, for Isaiah a vision of Yahweh seated upon a throne and for Peter and encounter with Jesus. Isaiah and Peter react to their encounters with the holy in exactly the same way. Both men respond with protestations of their own unworthiness. Isaiah says “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.” Isaiah 6:5 Peter says “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8 In their respective theophanies, in their own encounters with God, both men feel convicted of sin, to use the old-fashioned name for this experience. They can’t imagine God wanting to have anything to do with them.

But here’s the thing: In both cases God had a different idea. In Isaiah’s case God initiates a ritualistic cleansing and a pronouncement that Isaiah’s sin is forgiven. In Peter’s case Jesus basically ignores Peter’s plea, interprets it not as sin but as fear, and tells him to fear not. Then in both cases the divine figure in the story issues a call to the man before him, and both of them accept the call.

These are archetypal stories of the phenomenon of God specifically calling specific people to specific work. Many of us in ordained ministry believe that God has called us in ways somewhat similar to the way God called Isaiah and Peter so long ago. Perhaps you have felt your own call from God to speak a word or do some work on God’s behalf. I and many of the people I know who have perceived a call from God reacted pretty much as Isaiah and Peter did: “Yeah, Right. You’ve got to be kidding. You can’t possibly mean me. I’m not worthy. I can’t do it. Find somebody else.” And just as in the case of Isaiah and Peter God refused to listen to our protestations and kept on calling until we gave in and accepted the call. God’s call to specific people to do specific work is a very real phenomenon. We read about it in the Bible. Some of us think we have experienced it in our own lives.

There are lots of things to know about how God calls people. One thing to know is that God doesn’t just call individual people to do God’s work in the world. God calls groups of people too. I am convinced that God has called all of you, has called us, to do specific work here in this place at this time. And I think we all know what that call has been. God has called us to be the Open and Affirming, solidly Christian alternative in this place, to be the church where no one is rejected or turned away because of who God made them to be, to be a spiritual home for people who thought there was no Christian spiritual home for them, and beyond that to be a spiritual home for all people who want to be part of—and who want their children to be part of—a church like that. We get that. We’ve done that. We are doing that, as unlikely as we are with our diversity of ages, backgrounds, and views to be the ones to do it.

Another thing to know is that God’s call may not be static. It might change. It might not be a call for us to do a thing, to conclude that we’ve done it, and then sit on our accomplishments with no more work to do. In 2003 we discerned and answered God’s call to become officially Open and Affirming. We did it, and it changed this church forever. But that was then; and our faith in God requires us to ask: So now what? Is God calling us to do something new now, in this new decade, in this time in our life together? God calls us to continue what we have begun to be sure, but is that all? Is there something new, something more to which God is calling us?

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know the answer to that question, but something is at least moving me to ask it. I think I may hear the phone ringing, but I’m not even sure of that; and I certainly haven’t discerned what a call from God may portend for us. But then of course, discerning whether there is some new thing to which God is calling us, and if so what that new thing might be, isn’t my task alone. It isn’t even primarily my task. It is our task. It is your task.

Next week we begin a new year in the life of our congregation with the election of new officers and board members. So this morning I want challenge you new officers and board members who are about to take office. As you begin your term of service, spend some time seeking to discern whether the phone is ringing, whether is there is some new thing to which God is calling you and your group, to which God is calling our whole church. Think about it. Pray about it. Talk about it. Talk to me about it. I’m most always available if you want me.

Then, if we discern together that there is some new thing to which God is calling us, let us not say We are not worthy. Let us not say we can’t do it. Let us not say go away from us Lord. Let us not hang up when God calls. But let us be open to a new calling of the Holy Spirit in our midst. We have done much together. Perhaps God has yet more for us to do. Amen.