THE SERMONS AT CALVARY

BY FATHER RICHARD HUMKE

GOD CALLS -- HOW DO WE ANSWER?

January 19, 2003, 2 Epiphany B, Calvary Church

It's very clear today what the Scripture is about: it's about being called by God and responding to the call. At least that's what the Old Testament and the Gospel readings are about.

With the Second Reading we may get bogged down with words like "fornication" and "prostitute" and therefore never quite get some rich messages in that reading, things like "I will not be dominated by anything" (who doesn't need to hear that?) or "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you" (remember that the next time you don't want to exercise) or "you were bought with a price" (don't forget that on one of those days when you think you aren't worth much).

It is, however, what we find in the First Reading and in the Gospel to which I want to speak: being called and responding to the call.

Our First Reading is the story of Samuel, a little boy who lived at the chief religious shrine of early Israel, and Eli, the priest whom he served at that shrine, a story that I have known from my earliest Sunday School days. It is only of recent years, however, that I realized that little Samuel was an early whistle-blower.

We heard the story of how little Samuel kept hearing a voice calling him, and thinking it was the priest Eli, he went to him numerous times, only to be told to go back to bed because Eli hadn't called him. So finally Eli realized that the voice Samuel heard was the voice of God.

The part I had the lector not read this morning tells us what Samuel did after he was certain it was God calling him. That's where the whistle-blower part comes in. Samuel blew the whistle on Eli's sons who were corrupting the holy place, and he told that to Eli, no pleasant job, to be sure. As any principal or teacher will tell you, no parent likes to hear critical things about his or her child. Eli, however, to his credit, listened, no doubt with a heavy heart, and said, "...let (the LORD) do what seems good to him.

Samuel, you see, was called by God to an unpleasant job, a job of truth-telling. This is the same Samuel we hear about many years later when he has the unenviable job of telling King Saul that Saul was no longer in God's favor and that the kingship of Israel was passing to someone named David.

That's one call we hear about in today's readings. Another call is found in our Gospel where Jesus goes to Galilee early in his ministry and begins to collect a small group of men around him. In today's reading it is Philip who responds to Jesus' simple call, "Follow me." And in response to this call Philip goes to someone named Nathanael to tell him that the long-awaited one, promised by Moses and the prophets, had finally come, to which Nathanael cynically replies, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Or to put it into words we will understand: "Did I hear you say he came from Waddy?"

So the Scripture today speaks principally about God's call. There was a day, not so very long ago, when we spoke a little more certainly and less embarrassedly about God's calling someone to do something. We don't speak of it so often any longer, I think; and perhaps one reason for that is that the whole concept has been cheapened by overuse. Another reason may be that we aren't quite certain God cares any longer.

One of the things that makes it difficult to talk about God's calling is that people generally think that, not only must it be dramatic, as it is in today's readings, but it must also be a call to do something specifically religious. You know, we still talk about people's being called to ordained ministry, but seldom do we talk about people's being called to other walks of life.

Last Sunday, when I was not here, was the Sunday when we commemorate the Baptism of Jesus each year, and I understand that Bishop Reed preached about the Baptismal Covenant, and then shortly after that you recited the Covenant. I hope some of it stuck! It is, you see, our calling as baptized people to do what we promise to do in that Covenant.

It is a calling every bit as important as the callings in today's readings. Not so dramatic, but just as important.

It is not dramatic because it calls us, not to feats of heroism, but to live our daily lives in response to the Gospel. That's so hard, and we fail so often. But it is the call of God to each one of us.

I think it means that we live intentional Christian lives. Intentional Christian lives. By that I mean that we live a certain way and we do certain things because of who we are, because we are Christian people.

Let me give you some examples. A woman finds herself volunteering three times a week to work with the hungry and the needy, a growing population in American society today. When asked why she does it, she says something like, "Well, I read in the papers about the need, and I realized I have some free time, and so I just decided to do it. And I like doing it."

Good enough explanation, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. This same woman is in church every Sunday receiving the Sacrament. She hears the Gospel every Sunday. Is it not more than probable that her response to human need is coming from what God implants in her heart each Sunday morning, year after year? Why doesn't she say that? As our more evangelical brethren would say: "Give God the glory." Acknowledge that your sensitivity to the needs of others is a response to a calling, a calling from God implanted in your heart.

There are so many other ways in which we are called to live good lives that reflect the Gospel, which

we say we believe in.

Some of us are called to be good parents, instilling in our children values we say we believe in as Christians: people are more important than things; money is not the end-all of life; sharing is important; honesty in speech is necessary for the common life; no person is better in God's eyes than anyone else.

We are called to do our work (what we call our secular life) with honesty and faithfulness, going the second mile, doing what we have said we will do, trying to bring harmony into our work situation.

We are called to live good lives as citizens, paying the taxes we owe, working for the common good and not just the good of the social class to which we belong, obeying the law.

You get the point, I think. Dramatic callings, such as we have in today's Scripture, can blind us to the fact that God's call to most of us is not dramatic. We do not hear voices in the middle of the night. We do not meet the Messiah as we walk along one day. We are not even certain what is the right thing to do in many situations -- what God would want us to do, that is.

It isn't so cut and dried as the stories might have us believe. But what I am trying to say to you today is that God calls each one of us -- God calls us to live lives of integrity and service and faithfulness. If we would only remember that -- if we would only remember God, as we go through our days -- we would more clearly sense that the calling is still going on.

Richard H. Humke