Response to the call
Commentary
Object:
All three of this week’s texts address how a person of faith responds to a calling God has given him or her. For example, a young person believes he or she is talented in the performing arts. His or her friends and family warn that they will not be able to earn a living unless they achieve “rock star” status. There is even more stiff opposition to this idea by the parents. Is the investment in money and time worth it if he or she ends up waiting tables or working in a factory? Another person feels called to an occupation where the credentialing is constantly being upgraded to higher levels of education. Is there a way of fulfilling their calling without the official credentials of the normative occupation? Another person hates their job and feels gifted to become a landscaper. But they realize they will only be able to do this as a hobby, and their time of physical strength will be limited in years. How does one respond to a calling from God when it seems like the cards might be stacked against them? Elijah has the henpecked King Ahab’s wife to confront in a high-profile, no-holds-barred, confrontational matter. St. Paul has to inform a congregation that they are headed down the wrong path based on apostolic authority, not like the original disciples who walked with Jesus. Finally, a pagan Roman centurion wants healing for his beloved slave from a prophet and teacher who is potentially an enemy of his employer, the Roman empire.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
What happens when one knows their calling from God will result in inevitable conflict with strong-willed people or influential elites who are used to having their own way? This could even be a close relative who holds much financial or family connectional control. This text argues that one cannot worship more than one God, even if the local powers of the day opt for the false deity. Eventually a person needs to make a decision as to which God will be the source of their loyalty and meaning in life. Possibly in some cultures the elite can afford more than one source of faith, but not in the basic agricultural working society in Israel. Elijah sets the conditions for a contest on the legitimacy of gods between that of Baal and the God of the Hebrew Bible.
The contest consists of a pile of wood, and slain bulls are to be set on the pile of wood. The priests or prophet who can get the fire upon the wood is the one whose god is real. Both parties (Elijah and the Baal prophets) agree. Elijah gives the Baal prophets any advantage he can in terms of allowing them to go first. Despite their best efforts, the prophets of Baal are unsuccessful at making the wood turn to fire. They might have even had a cheering section saying, “Give me a B, and an A, and another A...” etc. Still, there is no fire on the wood and slain bull.
The prophet Elijah places twelve stones around his altar to represent the tribes of Israel. He soaks the wood four times with water (v. 33). “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back” (vv. 36-37). Soon there are immediate results: “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench” (v. 38). The prophet did get some converts: “When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God’ ” (v. 39).
For preaching, one can simply narrate this text. It tells a story of a competition where the popular Baal team is soundly defeated if not skunked during their “homecoming” event. Queen Jezebel will not admit that “I was wrong and Elijah’s God is right.” She will become even more vengeful and seek further retribution upon the prophet. He will flee and seek God’s voice and help. Elijah followed his calling in life. He succeeded, but there was no ticker-tape parade for this victory. This is the price of a calling. In the 2005 biopic Walk the Line, Johnny Cash found it difficult to get affirmation from his father, despite any fame he earned as an entertainer. However, sometimes the elders and teachers of the community can be right on target.
A pastor or teacher tells some students that sports will not make them as successful as academic studies. However, the popular local religion in that community is indeed high school sports. The pastor or teacher tells the students and their parents that they are only one injury away from losing their sports career, and that academic discipline is more reliable. In their minds, many students and parents know this to be “right on.” But they prefer to worship at the altar of high school sports. Then a cheerleader is thrown into the air and falls. She sustains a back injury. She will never be able to walk without a brace for the rest of her life. However, her grades in school will get her into a college in the area. A cheerleading scholarship is difficult to win for young women athletes in her community, and it is now impossible for her. The pastor and teacher who warned of this possibility might be likened to Elijah. But the athletic department may still have the hearts and minds of the masses, because that is their “god of Baal.”
Such texts as this one also remind people of faith that being “right” will not ensure popular support. One has to have a calling to know that what he or she is doing is right based on its own merits. Actually, no contest will ever change the minds of Jezebel and her followers. Why is this? Elijah and Jezebel did not personally meet here. However, the prophet faces the impersonal empire or power brokers people feel burdened by in any time or age. When a person is called for a cause, has a passion for a dream, will they be able to continue after they have left home and are now in a wilderness? Jezebel did not even believe Elijah was worth her presence.
The good news is that the God who provides the call remains at the side of believers, re-commissions them, and often points them to new life in other areas. God’s integrity is intact. Baal needs an authoritarian monarch to pull a power play (from Queen Jezebel) in order to stay in the limelight. Finally, how many mothers name their daughters “Jezebel” these days? [Sources: Marvin A. Sweeney, The Old Testament Library: I & II Kings (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007); Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (Yale University Press, 1952)]
Galatians 1:1-12
A young man is told that he cannot be considered for his local college’s public education teacher’s program. He has a strong passion for teaching and imparting knowledge to younger minds. However, the college notices that this young man has a speech impediment, and also is not academically competitive in his grades to get into their teaching education program. Does he allow this to stop him from following his calling or passion? Paul in Galatians would remind him that he is just as much of an apostle as the disciples who followed Jesus while on earth. But Paul’s calling came in the form of what some call an “apocalyptic vision.” He reminds the people in Galatia that he is every bit as much of an apostle as Peter or Thomas would claim be in terms of calling.
The letter to the Galatians uses all arguments possible as a counterattack upon those who seek to discredit the gospel message Paul has proclaimed to this community of faith. Such tactics include: personal experience, biblical interpretation from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), personal appeals, and apostolic tradition.
Paul has been piously accused of preaching an incomplete gospel by those who add other requirements for salvation above and beyond faith based on God’s grace. Jewish Christians did have circumcision, ritual calendar observances, and other Old Testament practices as further requirements toward the road to salvation, beyond simply trusting in what Jesus as Christ has done.
As this relates to the illustration about the young man seeking to become a teacher without the support of the college teacher education program, Paul insists that his calling is not from humans, “but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (v. 1). Some have seen this as a possible early church confession that leads to a creedal statement.
The apostle dispenses with the usual greetings he opens with in other letters and comes out “slugging,” so to speak. There is no transition, but a blunt counterattack upon his opposition. He views the gospel message of what Jesus has done as being rooted in Isaiah 53:6 (“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”). This is a “full gospel”! It was the will of Father God. This gospel message is rooted in core Jewish beliefs. In Paul’s view of the two “apocalyptic” eras this is the present age of evil, to soon give way to the coming age of Christ’s fuller reign.
This gospel is not Paul’s personal possession, but has divine origin. He makes no apologies for not crediting a link with Moses or other such traditions. It is indeed a calling from the risen Jesus Christ! It is a direct revelation. He is to share with it with other people as a life calling.
The church has always been a place where people can try their hand at something that the usual credentialing systems of the community do not necessarily affirm. For instance, a young man has always wanted to play catcher in baseball. Yet his school’s team will not take a risk on a heavy-set, slow-running person. But while at church camp, there is a need for a catcher at a camper baseball game. This young man grabs the catcher’s mitt and tries it out. While he does not like stooping down on the ground, he basically likes this position. He will never be the catcher at the public school’s sports events. But that summer at church camp was his initiation, and during the next summer guess who was drafted to be the team’s catcher? A calling does not have to be always validated by the official powers of the day.
As a follow-up, the young man rejected from the teaching program in the illustration above became a mentor and manager for employees at a corporate franchise store. Many younger people have learned much from this man who was rejected by the college’s teaching program. He became the franchise trainer for the other stores in the area. God’s calling is real!
Paul’s message of the gospel can rest on its own integrity. This theme ties this text to the 1 Kings 18 passage. The God of creation continues to create new life. That which creates life for its own self-glorification or the interests of other power brokers will be exposed and later discarded. Judaism actually lived much longer than the religion of Baal. Paul’s missions to the Gentile Christians did flourish. A message of integrity can withstand open scrutiny and further moral reflection in future ages, and it will live with the consequences of the content of its positions.
An alternative direction one can pursue is that of which popular piety of the day can detract from an otherwise authentic mission. Reinhold Niebuhr shares personal accounts regarding an industrial Detroit full of dangerous workplaces where workers were being injured for very low pay. The city’s air and grounds were being polluted, resulting in lack of fresh air. As people lost limbs on their bodies and workers spent long hours for poor wages in inhumane working conditions, the popular religious movement of that time was obsessed with protests in women’s use of tobacco products. This might be one example of misdirected piety. [Sources: Stephen L. Carter, Integrity (Basic Books, 1996); Edgar Krentz, John Koenig, and Donald Juel, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: Galatians, Philippians, Philemon, 1 Thessalonians (Augsburg Fortress, 1985); Reinhold Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990)]
Luke 7:1-10
Luke in his gospel and Acts is a master of reversals of predicaments in the most unusual places. This text is another example. Jesus follows the Elijah tradition of the prophet and healer with a widow at Nain in 1 Kings 17:17-24. A similar pattern is reported with Elisha with the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:32-37. The healing is from a distance, and it is for the service of a Gentile family. The centurion in Luke 7 is another example of this pattern. Jesus is doing ministry beyond Israel’s borders.
There is a contested textual variant as to whether the people summoned, asked, or requested Jesus’ presence. A “request” made of Jesus (rather than summoned command) is the preferred reading despite other textual variants. Thereby Luke is equating the centurion’s helplessness with that of the woman whom Elijah and Elisha assisted in 1 and 2 Kings.
The centurion is a leader of 100 armed soldiers. Luke usually portrays Roman soldiers in a positive light. There are both good and bad Roman citizens in Luke-Acts. They can be seekers and open to Jesus’ ministry; Luke 1:3-4 suggests that Governor Theophilus has such open-mindedness.
This text also shows how bridges of faith are built because the people speak highly of this centurion, “for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us” (v. 5). Here is a centurion who views his calling as more than simply keeping the Roman authorities happy; it also includes becoming part of the community he serves and assisting in its development. Such a called person also is aware how orders are initiated and carried out. He is willing to shatter traditional boundaries if it helps other people in the community he serves as a Roman soldier.
This Roman (pagan/Gentile) centurion has so much faith in Jesus that he acknowledges Jesus’ authority and considers himself unworthy to have Jesus in his home. Jesus’ words have their own integrity (this theme could tie into the Galatians 1 text about the “integrity” of the gospel message). The Roman centurion reports that his soldiers follow his orders when given, so he trusts that Jesus’ words carry similar power (if not more). Jesus proclaims, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (v. 9).
Some themes one might pursue from this text might be: 1) Use of power. Is it to be hoarded/saved as “grace points” for another day, or shared immediately? 2) Building community strategies. While no one person can solve all problems at one time, what are some incremental steps to be taken? The Roman government could have taken lessons from this centurion who helps build synagogues and honors the healing leaders of the community. 3) Do leaders or caregivers have to be present at every project, or can they delegate servants and be assured that words of instruction will be executed properly? For example, a therapist gives a patient some instructions on how to do a physical exercise. Does the person have to be prodded by the therapist do what will heal them, or are the words of instruction enough?
In the Galatians text, as soon as Paul left those who followed him entertained other teachers rather than persisting with Paul’s message of grace. In this Luke text, there is a distant physical healing involved. In 1 Kings, even when the prophet Elijah made his case in an almost “in your face” manner, Queen Jezebel persisted in promoting false gods. All such questions bring us back to the “calling” one has as a person of faith. Is the calling so strong that they do not care who opposes them? Can a person carry on, even if the “official credentialing” agency does not approve? Are they willing to allow others carry their words and have faith that they will be followed? How does the church provide a community of support for people’s callings in life? [Source: John T. Carroll, New Testament Library: Luke (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)]
Application
During the Pentecost season of the Church’s mission, these texts might be a time for congregations to revisit their call as both a collective group of Christians and individuals with gifts for ministry. A pastor receives a phone call from a church family who rarely attends worship. Their son and daughter-in-law live in another state due to his military service. They request that their infant be baptized in the pastor’s church the following holiday weekend when they come to visit their parents at home. What is the mission (or calling) of the church here? Do the pastor and church council leadership have faith that the family will raise their child in the values of the church, as a parental calling? (Note: other faith traditions can use the terms of “christening” or “dedicating,” as the denominational polity applies.)
Alternative Application
Who in the community is worthy of good health care if they are on the bottom rung of the social ladder? For example, a group of migrant workers has a child who is seriously ill. The local EMS is called and the child taken to the local hospital. They in turn refer the child to a major metropolitan hospital facility, which will cost much more money. Is this child as worthy to be healed as a hometown son or daughter of the community?
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
What happens when one knows their calling from God will result in inevitable conflict with strong-willed people or influential elites who are used to having their own way? This could even be a close relative who holds much financial or family connectional control. This text argues that one cannot worship more than one God, even if the local powers of the day opt for the false deity. Eventually a person needs to make a decision as to which God will be the source of their loyalty and meaning in life. Possibly in some cultures the elite can afford more than one source of faith, but not in the basic agricultural working society in Israel. Elijah sets the conditions for a contest on the legitimacy of gods between that of Baal and the God of the Hebrew Bible.
The contest consists of a pile of wood, and slain bulls are to be set on the pile of wood. The priests or prophet who can get the fire upon the wood is the one whose god is real. Both parties (Elijah and the Baal prophets) agree. Elijah gives the Baal prophets any advantage he can in terms of allowing them to go first. Despite their best efforts, the prophets of Baal are unsuccessful at making the wood turn to fire. They might have even had a cheering section saying, “Give me a B, and an A, and another A...” etc. Still, there is no fire on the wood and slain bull.
The prophet Elijah places twelve stones around his altar to represent the tribes of Israel. He soaks the wood four times with water (v. 33). “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back” (vv. 36-37). Soon there are immediate results: “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench” (v. 38). The prophet did get some converts: “When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God’ ” (v. 39).
For preaching, one can simply narrate this text. It tells a story of a competition where the popular Baal team is soundly defeated if not skunked during their “homecoming” event. Queen Jezebel will not admit that “I was wrong and Elijah’s God is right.” She will become even more vengeful and seek further retribution upon the prophet. He will flee and seek God’s voice and help. Elijah followed his calling in life. He succeeded, but there was no ticker-tape parade for this victory. This is the price of a calling. In the 2005 biopic Walk the Line, Johnny Cash found it difficult to get affirmation from his father, despite any fame he earned as an entertainer. However, sometimes the elders and teachers of the community can be right on target.
A pastor or teacher tells some students that sports will not make them as successful as academic studies. However, the popular local religion in that community is indeed high school sports. The pastor or teacher tells the students and their parents that they are only one injury away from losing their sports career, and that academic discipline is more reliable. In their minds, many students and parents know this to be “right on.” But they prefer to worship at the altar of high school sports. Then a cheerleader is thrown into the air and falls. She sustains a back injury. She will never be able to walk without a brace for the rest of her life. However, her grades in school will get her into a college in the area. A cheerleading scholarship is difficult to win for young women athletes in her community, and it is now impossible for her. The pastor and teacher who warned of this possibility might be likened to Elijah. But the athletic department may still have the hearts and minds of the masses, because that is their “god of Baal.”
Such texts as this one also remind people of faith that being “right” will not ensure popular support. One has to have a calling to know that what he or she is doing is right based on its own merits. Actually, no contest will ever change the minds of Jezebel and her followers. Why is this? Elijah and Jezebel did not personally meet here. However, the prophet faces the impersonal empire or power brokers people feel burdened by in any time or age. When a person is called for a cause, has a passion for a dream, will they be able to continue after they have left home and are now in a wilderness? Jezebel did not even believe Elijah was worth her presence.
The good news is that the God who provides the call remains at the side of believers, re-commissions them, and often points them to new life in other areas. God’s integrity is intact. Baal needs an authoritarian monarch to pull a power play (from Queen Jezebel) in order to stay in the limelight. Finally, how many mothers name their daughters “Jezebel” these days? [Sources: Marvin A. Sweeney, The Old Testament Library: I & II Kings (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007); Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (Yale University Press, 1952)]
Galatians 1:1-12
A young man is told that he cannot be considered for his local college’s public education teacher’s program. He has a strong passion for teaching and imparting knowledge to younger minds. However, the college notices that this young man has a speech impediment, and also is not academically competitive in his grades to get into their teaching education program. Does he allow this to stop him from following his calling or passion? Paul in Galatians would remind him that he is just as much of an apostle as the disciples who followed Jesus while on earth. But Paul’s calling came in the form of what some call an “apocalyptic vision.” He reminds the people in Galatia that he is every bit as much of an apostle as Peter or Thomas would claim be in terms of calling.
The letter to the Galatians uses all arguments possible as a counterattack upon those who seek to discredit the gospel message Paul has proclaimed to this community of faith. Such tactics include: personal experience, biblical interpretation from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), personal appeals, and apostolic tradition.
Paul has been piously accused of preaching an incomplete gospel by those who add other requirements for salvation above and beyond faith based on God’s grace. Jewish Christians did have circumcision, ritual calendar observances, and other Old Testament practices as further requirements toward the road to salvation, beyond simply trusting in what Jesus as Christ has done.
As this relates to the illustration about the young man seeking to become a teacher without the support of the college teacher education program, Paul insists that his calling is not from humans, “but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (v. 1). Some have seen this as a possible early church confession that leads to a creedal statement.
The apostle dispenses with the usual greetings he opens with in other letters and comes out “slugging,” so to speak. There is no transition, but a blunt counterattack upon his opposition. He views the gospel message of what Jesus has done as being rooted in Isaiah 53:6 (“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”). This is a “full gospel”! It was the will of Father God. This gospel message is rooted in core Jewish beliefs. In Paul’s view of the two “apocalyptic” eras this is the present age of evil, to soon give way to the coming age of Christ’s fuller reign.
This gospel is not Paul’s personal possession, but has divine origin. He makes no apologies for not crediting a link with Moses or other such traditions. It is indeed a calling from the risen Jesus Christ! It is a direct revelation. He is to share with it with other people as a life calling.
The church has always been a place where people can try their hand at something that the usual credentialing systems of the community do not necessarily affirm. For instance, a young man has always wanted to play catcher in baseball. Yet his school’s team will not take a risk on a heavy-set, slow-running person. But while at church camp, there is a need for a catcher at a camper baseball game. This young man grabs the catcher’s mitt and tries it out. While he does not like stooping down on the ground, he basically likes this position. He will never be the catcher at the public school’s sports events. But that summer at church camp was his initiation, and during the next summer guess who was drafted to be the team’s catcher? A calling does not have to be always validated by the official powers of the day.
As a follow-up, the young man rejected from the teaching program in the illustration above became a mentor and manager for employees at a corporate franchise store. Many younger people have learned much from this man who was rejected by the college’s teaching program. He became the franchise trainer for the other stores in the area. God’s calling is real!
Paul’s message of the gospel can rest on its own integrity. This theme ties this text to the 1 Kings 18 passage. The God of creation continues to create new life. That which creates life for its own self-glorification or the interests of other power brokers will be exposed and later discarded. Judaism actually lived much longer than the religion of Baal. Paul’s missions to the Gentile Christians did flourish. A message of integrity can withstand open scrutiny and further moral reflection in future ages, and it will live with the consequences of the content of its positions.
An alternative direction one can pursue is that of which popular piety of the day can detract from an otherwise authentic mission. Reinhold Niebuhr shares personal accounts regarding an industrial Detroit full of dangerous workplaces where workers were being injured for very low pay. The city’s air and grounds were being polluted, resulting in lack of fresh air. As people lost limbs on their bodies and workers spent long hours for poor wages in inhumane working conditions, the popular religious movement of that time was obsessed with protests in women’s use of tobacco products. This might be one example of misdirected piety. [Sources: Stephen L. Carter, Integrity (Basic Books, 1996); Edgar Krentz, John Koenig, and Donald Juel, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: Galatians, Philippians, Philemon, 1 Thessalonians (Augsburg Fortress, 1985); Reinhold Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990)]
Luke 7:1-10
Luke in his gospel and Acts is a master of reversals of predicaments in the most unusual places. This text is another example. Jesus follows the Elijah tradition of the prophet and healer with a widow at Nain in 1 Kings 17:17-24. A similar pattern is reported with Elisha with the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:32-37. The healing is from a distance, and it is for the service of a Gentile family. The centurion in Luke 7 is another example of this pattern. Jesus is doing ministry beyond Israel’s borders.
There is a contested textual variant as to whether the people summoned, asked, or requested Jesus’ presence. A “request” made of Jesus (rather than summoned command) is the preferred reading despite other textual variants. Thereby Luke is equating the centurion’s helplessness with that of the woman whom Elijah and Elisha assisted in 1 and 2 Kings.
The centurion is a leader of 100 armed soldiers. Luke usually portrays Roman soldiers in a positive light. There are both good and bad Roman citizens in Luke-Acts. They can be seekers and open to Jesus’ ministry; Luke 1:3-4 suggests that Governor Theophilus has such open-mindedness.
This text also shows how bridges of faith are built because the people speak highly of this centurion, “for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us” (v. 5). Here is a centurion who views his calling as more than simply keeping the Roman authorities happy; it also includes becoming part of the community he serves and assisting in its development. Such a called person also is aware how orders are initiated and carried out. He is willing to shatter traditional boundaries if it helps other people in the community he serves as a Roman soldier.
This Roman (pagan/Gentile) centurion has so much faith in Jesus that he acknowledges Jesus’ authority and considers himself unworthy to have Jesus in his home. Jesus’ words have their own integrity (this theme could tie into the Galatians 1 text about the “integrity” of the gospel message). The Roman centurion reports that his soldiers follow his orders when given, so he trusts that Jesus’ words carry similar power (if not more). Jesus proclaims, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (v. 9).
Some themes one might pursue from this text might be: 1) Use of power. Is it to be hoarded/saved as “grace points” for another day, or shared immediately? 2) Building community strategies. While no one person can solve all problems at one time, what are some incremental steps to be taken? The Roman government could have taken lessons from this centurion who helps build synagogues and honors the healing leaders of the community. 3) Do leaders or caregivers have to be present at every project, or can they delegate servants and be assured that words of instruction will be executed properly? For example, a therapist gives a patient some instructions on how to do a physical exercise. Does the person have to be prodded by the therapist do what will heal them, or are the words of instruction enough?
In the Galatians text, as soon as Paul left those who followed him entertained other teachers rather than persisting with Paul’s message of grace. In this Luke text, there is a distant physical healing involved. In 1 Kings, even when the prophet Elijah made his case in an almost “in your face” manner, Queen Jezebel persisted in promoting false gods. All such questions bring us back to the “calling” one has as a person of faith. Is the calling so strong that they do not care who opposes them? Can a person carry on, even if the “official credentialing” agency does not approve? Are they willing to allow others carry their words and have faith that they will be followed? How does the church provide a community of support for people’s callings in life? [Source: John T. Carroll, New Testament Library: Luke (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)]
Application
During the Pentecost season of the Church’s mission, these texts might be a time for congregations to revisit their call as both a collective group of Christians and individuals with gifts for ministry. A pastor receives a phone call from a church family who rarely attends worship. Their son and daughter-in-law live in another state due to his military service. They request that their infant be baptized in the pastor’s church the following holiday weekend when they come to visit their parents at home. What is the mission (or calling) of the church here? Do the pastor and church council leadership have faith that the family will raise their child in the values of the church, as a parental calling? (Note: other faith traditions can use the terms of “christening” or “dedicating,” as the denominational polity applies.)
Alternative Application
Who in the community is worthy of good health care if they are on the bottom rung of the social ladder? For example, a group of migrant workers has a child who is seriously ill. The local EMS is called and the child taken to the local hospital. They in turn refer the child to a major metropolitan hospital facility, which will cost much more money. Is this child as worthy to be healed as a hometown son or daughter of the community?
