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After Kent's last two sermons I feel like I should introduce my self.
Hi: my name is Savage and I'm a foodie.
Truth is I love cookbooks and food; I have my Grandmothers' Fanny Farmer,
Escoffier, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking; and I love to listen
to the Splendid Table on NPR.
Some of my closest friends think I have a calling to start my own brewpub.
That would be fun, but it wouldn't have the depth of meaning I find in being a
minister. Heart felt meaning is one way to test one's true calling.
All three of the Scripture readings in the lectionary for this week deal with
the calling to God's service of major Biblical Characters.
The Old Testament lesson, which wasn't read this morning, was the call of
Isaiah. Isaiah had a dream or a vision or a revelation, or some sort of epiphany
that was attributed to God.
Isaiah's experience was of seeing God on a throne, God's robe filled the temple
and two seraphim, the six winged angels, serving God. Isaiah describes one of
the seraphim taking a red glowing ember from the heavenly fire and touching
Isaiah lips with it. Having thus had his mouth cleansed he was able to preach
God's word.
Isaiah experienced the call of God to serve and preach and teach.
In the passage from 1 Corinthians that Janet read, Paul is talking about his
experience of call, and using it to justify his ministry. Paul reminds people
that he had personal experience of the resurrected Christ and that Jesus
personally called Paul to serve in a vision, epiphany or revelation. It was such
a powerful experience of the living word of God, according to Paul, that the
number one persecutor of the church did a complete about face and became the
number one proponent of the church.
Paul experienced the call of God to learn and teach and preach. Somehow the
Logos, the word that became flesh, was made real within Paul.
The scripture that holds the most power for me is the Gospel Lesson for today.
It is the story of the calling of fisherman. People who had spent all night
throwing out their nets and hauling them back in, trying to catch a few fish. In
today's world they might have been the nightshift at the local factory. And it
would have been a major imposition to have Jesus commandeer their boat. Listen
for the word of God: Luke 5:1-11:
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was
pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore
of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He
got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out
a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the
boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep
water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have
worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let
down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their
nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat
to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began
to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go
away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him
were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and
John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon,
"Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had
brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
These were just ordinary folks like you and me. Not like the educated Paul, nor
the poet and prophet Isaiah who saw visions, but hard working normal people who
heard Jesus preach. Through the person and the words they heard the call to
follow. Simon Peter, James and John became followers of Jesus.
Hearing the call and following it is not something limited to biblical times. It
happens still today.
There is the young man who thinking he is going on a date, finds him self in the
middle of a Christian fellowship meeting. Once there he hears about the patient
and kind love, the sort of love we heard about last week in 1Corinthians 13. The
young man hears about a God who gave a child out of love and how the child gave
up his own life out of love.
This young man, call him Sam, had only experienced anger and alcohol,
belittlement and emotional cruelty. He wanted what these people talk about and
demonstrated. He wanted love and heard the call to love and to be loved. He
answered by devoting his life to the Christ.
Years later Sam became a minister on the streets of Seattle. One day he met a
sixteen-year-old runaway girl. She was selling her body for food and a place to
stay. It was the only thing she had left since running away from an abusive
home.
Sam was the first person she had met who treated her with care and respect. The
first person she had met that didn't take advantage of her. He talked about
God's love as he showed her Agape, "Christian love and Charity". With his help,
she found away to make her parental home safe again, abuser free, and she
returned to pursue education. Today she is a social worker passing on the love
that had been shared with her.
We too are called to pass on the love as Sam and Val do. Here in this place, we
are called together to be church and we are called to pass on the love that we
have been shown.
Here we share the love by collecting food every month, by serving on boards,
writing budgets, we struggle to support OCWM, all the while feeding people were
we can. We give money to Haitian relief.
In this place we answer the call by serving as Stephen ministers and parish
visitors.
We teach and we preach. We are people who serve people in prison as Jesus called
us to.
We are not God's frozen chosen! We are a passionate people who seek to answer
God's call.
Our members travel to New Orleans to help others they've never met before. We
send our children to Mexico.
We are called people, called to serve and love as we have been loved. And we do.
And yet, since I have been here I have asked what does Bellingham need? And I
have asked: How can be better use this wonderful building in the service of
love?
Does Bellingham need an after school program for children of single working
parents?
Does Bellingham need a safe place for older adults to go while their care giving
children work, shop, or take a needed break?
Does Bellingham need an outreach to migrant workers or the Native American
community?
Does Bellingham need a service for the homeless, the job seeker, or the under
employed?
Does Bellingham need a ministry to the mentally ill?
WE have been called by love to love. How will we answer the call?
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