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The Call
A
sermon by Rev. Steve Booth
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Ephesians 4:1-6
It is a great comfort to have the sermon
preached before I even arrive at this pulpit. And it’s not just Phil’s solo, it
is every aspect of this service, even our voting on the budget. For it speaks
to how we operate in community.
This act of preaching- proclaiming God’s
message to His people, I must tell you is pretty humbling. That fits in the
sermon too. Not having this sacred responsibility every week, I couldn’t help
but remember a very old story, in fact it is so old it will be new to many of
you. But it goes like this: A young farmer standing in his field, gazing up into
the sky observes a peculiar cloud formation. What he thinks he sees in the
clouds are these letters being formed. ‘G,’ ‘P,’ ‘C.’ And he immediately
interprets them as a call from God. “Go Preach Christ.” He hurries to his
little church down the way and shares with the deacons of the church this call
to preach. And in his great enthusiasm, and they couldn’t stand not encouraging
him, it’s a good thing, they said “why don’t you preach next Sunday?”
That Sunday the sermon is long, tedious, and
virtually incoherent. When it finally ends, all of the leaders were there- sort
of sitting- stunned, about what do we say now and a wise deacon says “young man,
seems to me that the clouds were saying: “Go Plant Corn.”
If it really happened that way, it would not
be the first time someone has misinterpreted God’s call. In my early teens, I
began to ponder the big questions of life’s purpose and meaning. My father, a
Baptist pastor, something I said I would never be, growing up, began to ask me a
question that confounded and energized my thinking. Steve, does God want you to
do something special with your life? Now I can’t remember my initial response
to that but I do remember internally feeling that his question was intrusive and
certainly overwhelming.
As hard as I tried not to think about it,
the more it would dominate my thinking. I must admit to you, that the call I
thought I was hearing felt more like a burden to bear, than a purpose to live
into. Now here are some of my early thoughts in those early days of my life and
into my teens about God’s call on your life. Three hooks to sort of think about
real quickly. First I believe that when God called, it probably wasn’t good
news. In fact, I thought that the thing you most dreaded was probably what God
would call you to do. Whether it was wading through snakes in the rivers and
jungles of South America or whether it might be called to the urban corridor in
New York City to witness to street gangs.
Secondly, I thought a call from God was
reserved solely for those in professional ministry. When my dad used the
language: “doing something special with your life.” It was really code language
in my mind for was I ready to surrender my life to fulltime Christian ministry?
I heard that as it had to be a pastor or missionary. My dad pastored smaller
churches, and that was all that I had come in contact with. Maybe a part-time
minister of music occasionally, Phil, but it was limited. So it was either a
pastor or missionary.
And the final thing that I thought about it
terms of ‘calling’ is that once you surrendered to a certain ministry path-
pastor or missionary that is- there was no changing course. In other words, you
were locked in for life. To say the least, it was a fairly narrow and negative
understanding of God’s call. Through the years, I had been drawn to Paul’s
letter to the Ephesian church. And I found in that letter and many other places
in the New Testament- a lot of new insight to help me sort of re-focus that
understanding of the call that God may have for me.
I would invite you now to turn in your
Bibles to Ephesians, chapter four, verses one through six. As I share that with
you, hear this, the reading of God’s Word, Ephesians four, one through six:
“As a prisoner for the Lord then, therefore,
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be
completely humble and gente; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make
every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There
is one body, and one Spirit - just as you were called to the one hope when you
were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who
is over all and through all and in all.”
In this passage, Paul is holding up to the
Christians that would be reading this epistle that it’s about being unified in
Christ. The central call on our life is to follow Christ. So in its first and
primary form, God’s call- the call that we have received that Paul refers to- is
to know and to love God. It’s the simple Gospel.
To know and to love God, the thing that drew
Danny to start seeking and accepting the invitation to check out churches was
about something within him- very deep. That drew him to know more about who God
is.
Saint Augustine, the fifth century church
father, said it well. When he said: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and
our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” But let me move ahead to say
very quickly that the God we long for is not someone we must somehow find. Ours
is a seeking God, who has found us. He acts in our behalf, and we are made
right with Him through faith in Jesus Christ, not through our deeds or efforts
or words.
As 21st Century people, we are
all on search for significance. We desire to make a difference, we long to
leave a legacy. Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose
bigger than ourselves. Soren Kierkegaard, the great 19th Century
theologian wrote in his journal, “The thing is to understand myself to see what
God really wants me to do. The thing is to find the truth which is true to me
to find the idea for which I can live or die.”
Many of you will remember the great film
depicting the story of Eric Liddle. It’s called “Chariots of Fire.” And in
this story, we see in one of the scenes Liddle taking his sister, Jenny, for a
walk in the hills of Scotland. To explain to her his commitment for training
for the Olympic Games, the 1924 Olympic Games that were to be held in Paris. He
tells her, “Jenny, I’ve decided I’m going back to China. The missionary said
that I was accepted.” Now Jenny rejoices to hear this, because she had been
fearful that her brother would abandon his commitment to be a missionary-
because she knew of his great love for running. However, Eric goes on, “But
I’ve got a lot of running to do first. Jenny, Jenny, you’ve got to understand,
I believe that God made me for a purpose- for China. But He also made me fast,
and when I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in
contempt. You’re right, it’s not just fun, Jenny. To win is to honor Him.”
What is your purpose? What has God called
you to do first and foremost- it’s about a relationship with God through faith
and belief in Jesus Christ.
Our children, in their pure innocence, spoke
that Gospel message “simply trusting Jesus.” It starts there. To know God’s
purpose- or to know your purpose for life starts with a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. It is the way that we best know and understand God in His
love for us. But it is a process. It’s not something that happens once. Paul
speaks about this in the Philippian letter when he says, “work out your
salvation with fear and trembling.” But the reality that we must acknowledge is
that no one ever makes it completely there- to full, complete, perfect
disciple-hood. It’s a journey that takes a lifetime and only in that time we
stand before God in eternity will we be completely perfect in Him. But, we’re
on this journey.
Fellow travelers seeking to grow and to
understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Even those living with Jesus, every day for
several years struggled to understand what it meant to follow Him. And they got
it wrong a good bit of the time. It’s the same for me, it’s the same for all of
us. We never arrive, we’re in process. But it also is a daily choice.
Following Jesus is not something I do today and it’s done. Everyday I have to
make that choice again. If you’re wondering why sometimes after you have come
to know Christ and accept Him, His forgiveness and grace and you still
struggle. Well, it’s because everyday we have to give it back up to Him. We
have to put Him first- self second. It’s a daily choice. “If anyone would come
after me,” Jesus said, “He must deny himself or herself, and take up his or her
cross- daily, and follow me.”
And this journey, this call is done in the
midst of community- a community of faith. What created a safe place for Danny
to find Christ and to ask Him into his life was a safe community of faith. It
was a pew family that cared for him. It was other places in the life of this
church and in other Christians that he came to know that began to say to him ‘we
love you, we care for you, you can know this joy that we know.’ We’re called to
Christ and we’re called into relationship with God’s people. We come to faith
as individuals, it is an individual choice, but we grow in community. I don’t
buy anyone saying that they can worship or have a relationship with God on their
own. It buys in to that individualistic kind of mind-set that says it’s all
about me and what I can do. We need each other. We need community. Life in
Jesus is not meant to be a solitary relationship, but shared.
Donald Miller in his very popular book, and
I recommend it for your reading, “Blue Like Jazz” - great title. Reflects that
before he lived in Christian community he thought Christian faith was something
a person did alone. Like monks in a cave. Living by himself for years, Miller
said he began to think the world belonged to him. He said, ‘you begin to think
that all space is your space. And all time is your time.’ But he continues,
‘living in community made me realize one of my faults- I was addicted to
myself. The most difficult lie that I have ever contended with is this: ‘life
is a story about me.’ Let’s face it, Miller isn’t alone. We’re right there
with him, and our culture doesn’t help us. Most Americans sees individualism as
positive- it’s something that promotes free will, and free markets and good
self-esteem, and free choices.
But the dark side of this self made pull
oneself by one’s own bootstraps mentality is our inevitable tendency to drift
away from each other. The hard-to-swallow reality is that sometimes our
churches also have been pulled toward this individualism. Some may say, ‘we are
more a collection of individuals than a community united around common belief
and life principles.’ This is the reality, my friends. The spiritual life, the
Christian journey, cannot be lived alone. But it must be lived in the context
of community. Without the encouragement, support, love and prayers of each
other, people like Danny, and yes, people like me, would not be able to grow in
faith and face the world and its culture in such a positive way.
One thing I know today, that regardless of
what you think of this sermon and how much it may speak- or not speak to you.
That you’re going to love me afterwards. I’m bettin’ on it. Because I have a
place here in community, and I know that it’s not about my performance that
ultimately you’re going to embrace, but it’s that you see me a fellow journeyer
–fellow traveler together seeking and trying to discern God’s call and will.
C.S. Lewis put it this way, “Christ works on
us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other. Men
and women are simply mirrors or carriers of Christ to other men and women.
Usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others.”
Paul’s practical advice for how we live in
community are captured in these words, “Be completely humble, be gentle, be
patient, bear with one another in love, and make every effort to keep the unity
of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” It’s about understanding that it’s
not about being god our self, it’s about being together in Christ.
Eugene Peterson, in “The Message,” the
paraphrase of the scripture that he has written, says it this way: “I don’t
want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling
off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility
and discipline- not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for
each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending
fences. You were called to stay together, inwardly and outwardly.”
It’s about loving each other even in our
differences. It’s about walking along beside each other, bearing each other in
love. It’s about being patient and gentle and humble of spirit. If we can
continue to capture that, we make a safe place to be on journey together. And a
safe place for others to come and to find Christ- and to experience the joy of a
complete surrendered life to Him. It is why we are here, and in our moments of
transition, it seems like a long time, but it will be a short time. How we bear
up one another in love will make all the difference.
One final word, in the form of a prayer, one
that has made such a difference in my life when I discovered it many years ago
as I struggled with what is God’s will for my life- what is God’s purpose for my
life. I just wanted to understand it, I wanted to be clear- I pray these crazy
prayers, like- “Lord just send me a telegram, or write me a letter that I can
read- anything so I’ll know.” But what He sent me instead was this prayer by a
monk, by the name of Thomas Murton, and here it is…
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I’m
going. I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it
will end, nor do I really know myself. And the fact that I think that I am
following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe
that the desire to please you does in fact, please you. And I hope that I have
that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart
from that desire and I know if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always. Though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death I will not fear, for you are
ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.”
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