What Does Ot Men "to Serve the Present Age?"
Scripture
ane Samuel 3: 1-20
John 1: 43-51
Sermon Title, "To Serve the Nowadays Age"
"A charge to keep I take, a God to glorify; a never dying soul to salve, and fit information technology for the sky. To serve the present historic period, my calling to fulfill: O may it all my powers engage, to exercise my Master's volition!" These words of Charles Wesley pierced my eye and spoke to my soul when I was in college. I was reading out of Methodist Hymnal from 1850 that I picked upward at a used bookstore, considering you know that's what all college students do, look for one-time hymnals at used bookstores. I was a church building history nerd fifty-fifty in college. What especially struck me was that those words I just read were already circled when I opened the book. The circled words were of Wesley's poem and later hymn, "A Charge To Keep I Have." I kept reading it on my dorm room bed and those words "To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill" kept speaking to me. It's like those words were circled simply for me. At that moment, it was incommunicable to know what would come, except that I had "my calling to fulfill."
This is true for every single 1 of us. We all have our calling to fulfill. This concept of a call is non something reserved for clergy or missionaries, we are all called. This morn nosotros motion from Baptism of the Lord Lord's day last week, where we remembered our baptisms and our baptismal call to serve God and to follow Jesus, to this week where we find these 2 telephone call stories of the immature Samuel in the Hebrew Bible and Phillip and Nathanael in the Gospel of John.
Allow'south consider start the context of Samuel's phone call. Information technology was a time of major changes in the life of State of israel. "The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were non widespread." It was a time of incertitude where the Israelites felt like God was no longer leading them. Why? Eli, the priest. Or at least according to the book of i Samuel, we meet that Eli is office of the trouble, as he is non a good leader. Nowhere in Scripture exercise we read that Eli, the leading priestly and prophetic voice of his time, hears from God. Instead, in i Sam one:13, we read that "Hannah," Samuel'south mom, "was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard." Hannah was praying silently of course, simply "Eli thought she was drunkard." Even in the reading from today, nosotros find out right away in poetry ii that Eli'southward optics were becoming then weak that he could barely see. Could it be that it's non his bodily eyesight that's weak, simply his power to clearly come across God'south vision?
Eli was not a good leader or priest for his people. In fact, Samuel's first activity was to prophesy sentence to Eli. Before Samuel could speak God's word to power, that is speak prophetically, he offset had to mind for God'south vocalism and call on his life. I know it was a long reading from 1 Samuel this morning, only the entire story includes then much. Yous may have noticed from the reading that Samuel was called not in one case, or twice, but three times. He first thought it was Eli, twice, before he realized it was the Lord. It wasn't Samuel who realized it was God's voice, but Eli. This troubled leader, this challenged voice, was the one who would name it for Samuel. A surprising revelation and advice from Eli. If yous hear the vox over again, Eli tells him, say, "Speak, Lord, for your retainer is listening."
Our first action in discerning our call, our invitation from God is to listen. It'south something we learn from Samuel truthful, but it's really throughout Scripture. We pray, we listen for God's vox leading us. And nosotros heed for the voice of God through others. That was true in my life as I discerned my call. I had the Franciscan sisters telling me they could meet God moving in my life. I had my Methodist pastor downtown who encouraged me to follow God'southward leading. Even today, I hear God's voice in prayer and more than frequently than not in the vocalization of those effectually me. Which is another piece of this whole concept of calling. We think we discern a phone call, that is i phone call, our big calling, and then nosotros're done, but I have found that's not the case. You and I are invited to always exist discerning, that is, listening to God and seeking God's path and way for our lives. It might be in that you hear or experience God calling. It might be that someone tells you or invites you to listen to how God is calling y'all to this or that. Nevertheless, it could exist a friend proverb, "Nosotros have found the 1 Moses wrote about in the Police force, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Those were Philip's words to Nathanael, "We have found him," after Jesus' simple invitation with two words, "Follow me." Philip had seen Jesus' confront, heard Jesus' words, and he set out to find Nathanael. Philip doesn't launch into a theological argument or even quotes Scripture; except he refers to Scripture in the one Moses and the prophets wrote about. Instead, Philip wants to testify Nathanael Jesus' face. Even with Nathanael's skepticism, I can motion picture Philip taking him by the manus saying, "Come and come across." As Pastor James Howell put it, it's "Not a sledgehammer of truth, but an experience that makes you lot sure that if somebody else simply saw, it would exist plenty." Our calling is always to come and see.
Pastor Howell shares this groovy illustration about how there was a rich donor who was visiting Calcutta and met Mother Teresa once. The donor immediately pulled out her checkbook and asked, "How can I aid you in your work?" Female parent Teresa pressed the checkbook back into the woman's purse, took her by the manus and said, "Come and meet." She led the woman into an impoverished barrio, and found a hungry, delicate child. "Care for her," Mother Teresa said. The woman took the kid in her lap, wiped her forehead, and fed her. Transformative. Female parent Teresa was right when she said "When we care for a child, we are caring for Jesus. When nosotros beloved the unloved, we are loving Jesus." We are all called past God. Every single one of united states of america.
Those words keep coming back to me from Wesley, "To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill." Just as the Lord called Samuel by name, just as Jesus invited Philip past maxim "Follow me," and Philip asking Nathanael to "Come and come across," we are invited today to serve the present age. Last calendar week nosotros remembered our baptisms. Our baptismal call is not to stay in the moment of baptism, because of course we can't, simply to move from the font to the world. Call up that in our baptismal vows, we commit to resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Nosotros put our whole trust in Jesus, as our Savior, as nosotros do this work.
This is a difficult age to live out our faith and our baptismal call. Like Samuel, information technology feels similar God has to speak three times earlier God gets my attention. Like Nathanael, I question and doubt whether these words are the best or if I should speak to this or that. Even so, only every bit the Lord already knew Samuel, just as the Lord already knew Philip and Nathanael, God knows each of us and invites us to follow Jesus in this present historic period.
I was on a clergy telephone call this calendar week with interfaith clergy from around South Bend. We were reflecting together on the events of the previous week where Majuscule edifice in Washington DC was attacked, all happening amongst the unrest, the anger, and the continued pandemic. We all shared our own shock, acrimony, and sadness at all of it and became silent, until one pastor broke the silence by saying, "For such a time equally this we have all been chosen." Yes, she might have been more optimistic than me, but she was correct. For this present age, you lot and I have been called. Merely as those prophets from Scripture were chosen for that time, forth with the prophetic voices such equally Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was chosen for his time, we at present are called to continue the work.
This weekend, our nation pauses to remember the life and legacy of Dr. King. His wife, Coretta Scott King said that "God called Martin Luther Male monarch, Jr. to be a fisher of men, to triumph over poverty, racism, war and violence." I know that I take referenced Mother Teresa and now Dr. King this morning, merely I don't believe we are called to be them. God knows us by name and calls us by name. You lot are called to be you. I am chosen to be me. For this present historic period, you and I accept been called to be people of faith, to exist people of justice, working to bring justice and equality for everyone, to bring us closer to the Kingdom of God, where everyone feels loved and valued. We are called in this present age to be people of reconciliation in a fourth dimension when everything brings division. We are called to be people of beloved and kindness in a time when violence and demeaning rhetoric rule the day. You and I are beingness called to be people of faith, to live out our phone call; may our response be, "Hither I am."
If yous await at Scripture, Samuel was not the only person to say, "Here I am" to God. In Genesis 22:1, Abraham said, "Here I am" and called him to the mountaintop with Isaac. Jacob said, "Here I am" in Genesis 31:11 and God called him home to face Esau. In Exodus iii:4, Moses said, "Here I am" and God called him back to Egypt. In Isaiah half dozen:eight, we find that the prophet Isaiah said, "Hither I am" and he spoke sentence, which wasn't an easy thing to do. In Acts 9:10, Ananias said, "Here I am" and God called him to heal Saul, the persecutor and torturer of the church. While Nathanael and Philp didn't say "Here I am" verbally, they told Jesus "Here I am" with their lives. They followed. They followed to the point of decease.
It'south clear that when someone says "Hither I am" with their lives, they are called to a journey that is likely not like shooting fish in a barrel. Into this Biblical narrative of the greats saying, "Here I am," Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ananias, and the disciples, enters you and me in this nowadays historic period. The globe is calling, the nation is calling for u.s. to be authentic followers of Jesus in a time that is fraught with uncertainty, division, and violence. God is inviting u.s.a. and calling us to serve this nowadays age, our calling to fulfill. May we answer with "Hither I am."
Our prayer practise this morning is to hear again the words of Dr. Male monarch. On February 4th, 1968, Dr. King delivered his terminal sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The sermon was titled, "The Drum Major Instinct" and was inspired by Mark ten:43 (NIV): "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant." Dr. Male monarch, inspired from this passage, said these words that I invite you to receive as a prayerful video benediction or sending. I thought about reading them, but we should hear Dr. King's voice this morning. (SHOW VIDEO)
"If you want to exist important, wonderful.
If you want to be recognized, wonderful.
If you want to be great, wonderful.
Merely recognize that he who is greatest amid you shall be your servant.
That's a new definition of greatness.
"And this morning, the thing that I like most information technology:
past giving that definition of greatness,
it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
"Yous don't take to have a college degree to serve.
You don't take to make your discipline and your verb agree to serve.
Y'all don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
Yous don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
Y'all only need a middle full of grace, a soul generated by dearest.
And you can be that retainer."
Amen.
bennetteenesuatims2001.blogspot.com
Source: https://thefranciscanmethodist.wordpress.com/2021/01/17/sermon-for-mlk-weekend-to-serve-the-present-age/
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