Vacation Or Vocation?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
It's quite traditional for anyone past the age of thirty to worry about "the younger generation" and to fear for what will happen to the world when that generation takes over. News about college students seems to focus on aspects of college life like endless video gaming and excessive drinking, with a little time out to find a career path that will lead to a lot of money. The stories every year about wild spring vacations in Florida and other southern climes give a lot of people their picture of what the college generation is about today. And the response may be a very traditional one: "What's the world coming to?"
Well, the world may be coming to something rather different than what we fear because a lot of students take things more seriously than those stories suggest. Many of them are looking to something beyond a perpetual spring vacation. There has been recent talk of a "9/11 generation," young people whose picture of the world and their place in it was marked by the terrorist attack on America in the fall when they began college -- those who are graduating this spring. And for some of those students one result of that has been a sense of calling to public service -- of vocation. Here's a link to a story about this phenomenon that was on the CBS evening news last week: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/24/eveningnews/main697562.shtml.
When we turn to our readings for June 5 we quickly see that "calling" is a major theme. In the First Lesson, Genesis 12:1-9, God tells Abram to leave his home and his family of origin and go to a foreign land -- and Abram does. In the first part of the Gospel (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26), Jesus tells the tax collector Matthew to follow him, and Matthew leaves his job to do so. They are paradigmatic stories of vocation, of God's call to people and of faithful responses to that call.
It would be misleading to say that everyone who feels an impulse to some type of service is "called by God" in just the same sense that Abram or Matthew were. Those calls were quite specifically from YHWH ("the LORD") and from Jesus, not a generic deity or a simple hope for the general welfare of society. On the other hand we shouldn't separate off their "special" vocations from the "ordinary" ones of today's graduates too sharply, as if Abram or Matthew had heard miraculous voices from the sky telling them what to do. We can see connections between those different types of callings without simply conflating them into one common idea of vocation.
The story of the call of Abram is fundamental for the whole biblical story. (By the way, even though I use the name in our text here, it's probably too pedantic in a sermon to insist on calling him "Abram" rather than "Abraham.") After the creation of the world and the sin of humanity that has led to the destructive flood (last week's First Lesson), the confusion of tongues and the scattering of the peoples, God begins in Genesis 12 to get the world back on track. It's sometimes said that biblical history begins with Abraham. That shouldn't by any means suggest that everything from Genesis 12:1 on is accurate historical narrative (or for that matter that everything before that point is pure myth). But at this point we enter a world with places and people known to history and have stories that sound as if they're about real people. Perhaps more importantly, we begin a discernable story of salvation that reaches its climax in Jesus as the descendant of Abraham in the New Testament.
Abram and his family were introduced a few verses earlier (11:27-32), but nothing is said about any qualifications that he and Sarai had to be the ancestors of God's people. It's very natural to think that there must have been something that made him more deserving of this choice than others. There are several old Jewish traditions about how he had come to the realization that the pagan gods were false and that there was one true God. (Some of these are described in James L. Kugel's The Bible as It Was (Harvard, 1997), pp. 135-144. This is a fascinating book with many citations of views about the Pentateuchal stories from early Jewish and Christian sources.)
The fact that the Bible itself says nothing at all about this is significant. We should perhaps emulate Sherlock Holmes, who once found a critical clue in the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time" -- the curious incident being that "the dog did nothing in the night-time" (Arthur Conan Doyle, "Silver Blaze," in The Complete Sherlock Holmes [Doubleday, 1930], p. 347). God calls Abram not because he deserves this privilege but because God chooses to call him.
For all we can tell Abram hadn't somehow figured out that there was one true God before his call. "Your ancestors -- Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor -- lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods," Joshua (24:2) later tells the Israelites. What was notable about Abram wasn't that he'd figured out on his own who God was and how he should serve God, but that he trusted and obeyed when God called him. He didn't discover God, but God in a sense discovered him.
It's tempting to think of what happened to Abram and his descendants as the conferring of a privilege. Verses 2 and 3 of the text certainly sound like that, and that's the idea most people associate with the language about a "chosen people." Paul's statement in our Second Lesson that Abraham received the promise that he would "inherit the world" (Romans 4:13) certainly reinforces that idea. We should be disabused of it if we look at the following chapters of Genesis. After leaving home and living among foreigners, Abram and Sarai are brought to the point of despairing that the promise of descendants will ever be fulfilled. When it finally is, Abram has to go through the harrowing experience of almost sacrificing the promised child. And at the end, the only part of the promised land of Canaan that he ever really owns is -- a grave (Genesis 23).
That's also the pattern for Abraham's descendants. They are to be a blessing for all nations, not just recipients of blessings. Being called by God doesn't mean a promise of a free ride.
The story in our Gospel of the call of Matthew to be one of the Twelve (see verse 3 of the following chapter) has some features in common with the First Lesson. We might note first the ultimate mission of the Twelve given in the reading we had for Trinity Sunday, Matthew 28:16-20. They are to "make disciples of all nations," making effective the promise to Abram that his descendants would be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
And, like Abram, we're not told about Matthew having any of the qualifications that we might think necessary for this role. His occupation as a tax collector is almost synonymous with sinner. Jesus doesn't call someone distinguished for his righteousness but for his lack of it.
So why did this tax collector get up immediately and follow Jesus? As was the case with Abram, its seems natural to think that Matthew must have been prepared in some way for this call. Maybe he'd heard Jesus preach and had been impressed by his message. Perhaps he'd even had some prior conversation with Jesus, so when the call came to follow, he was ready. It's all very natural speculation but again there's nothing in the text to suggest anything like that. Matthew leaves the tax office and takes up a new life because Jesus calls him.
Matthew doesn't play a significant role in the Gospel stories after this and, unfortunately, we have no reliable information about what he did after Pentecost or how or where he died. "Pious Christian tradition" has of course been quick to provide details, including missionary activity and martyrdom. Those stories have little or no historical value but from what we know of the primitive church it wouldn't be surprising if he had had a tough time as an apostle. According to Acts 5:41 the apostles "rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name."
And whether Matthew's life ended in martyrdom or not, what Bonhoeffer said holds true: When Jesus Christ calls someone to follow him, he calls that person to die. The call to follow Christ is a call to take up the cross.
Now, none of this year's college graduates, and none of the rest of us, is called to be an apostle or the ancestor of the people of God. But these stories have a good deal to say about the whole idea of vocation in today's world. God calls unlikely people and equips them for the tasks they're called for. And their calling is, first of all, for the benefit of others. While it may carry with it some privileges and rewards for the one called, it isn't like election to an honor society.
We really need to make a distinction, though, for there are two important aspects of God's call. There is, first of all, the fundamental call to faith in the God revealed in Christ, a call that normally takes place through Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit's invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to put our trust in him and thus to be part of the community of God's people.
Then as part of that community we are called to various tasks. This is what the idea of "vocation" (from the Latin vocatio, calling) usually refers to. In some traditions it has the special sense of a religious vocation, including one to the ordained ministry. The sixteenth-century reformers saw all the ways of serving God and neighbor as being vocations, whether they were distinctively religious or not. We shouldn't downplay the importance of work done specifically for the church, but those who teach, those who provide needed goods and services, those who ensure the safety of the public, and others are also doing God's work when they carry out those tasks honestly and faithfully.
But what about those graduates who feel called to different types of public service? Some of them aren't Christians. Can we still talk about a call from God in their cases? The fact that Second Isaiah (45:1-7) could speak of the pagan king Cyrus as God's instrument, and even his "anointed," and that Paul could say that Roman officials were "God's servant[s]" (Romans 13:4) suggests that the answer is yes. The religious beliefs of Abraham Lincoln were ambiguous, but I have no problem with saying that he was called by God to play the role he did at a time of national crisis. Similar things can be said of other people in non-governmental roles. The activity of the Holy Spirit is not limited to believers.
But that kind of calling is not to be confused with, or considered a substitute for, saving faith in Christ. That would amount to a kind of works-righteousness. We are called to faith, and then as believers we are called to work.
A sermon on either of these texts, or both of them together, could focus on either of these aspects of God's call -- the fundamental call to faith, or the call to believers to particular types of service. Today many people have become Christian without any serious suggestion that they might have to give up anything. The fact that Abram was told to leave his home and Matthew was told to leave his job reminds us that we are called to give up anything that would keep us from putting our full trust in Christ and living as believers. The early church was a lot more serious about this than most churches today are, and while we don't have to follow all their rules, we need a healthy reminder that not all occupations, for example, are compatible with a Christian life. (A list of prohibited occupations is given in The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, around A.D. 215, in Lucien Deiss, Springtime of the Liturgy [Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1967], p. 138.)
Or the sermon could focus on vocation in its usual sense, the understanding that God calls us to service in the church and in society. Here stories about the 9/11 generation might be useful illustrations. But the point should not be to try to move everyone to leave his or her present job and become a teacher in an inner city school or something of that sort. That might be the case for some, but many Christians need to be told that the work they're doing now should be seen as a calling from God. That may not change the way they do their jobs very much, but it's likely to bring about a change in the attitudes with which they do them.
It might also be helpful to reflect on how a person might receive a call to some particular occupation. The very language of "a call from God" may suggest to many people something mystical or miraculous, perhaps a voice from the sky. (Think of Bill Cosby's old "Noah" comedy routine. You can find a transcript at http://www.skatedc.org/pipermail/skatedc/2003-May/005683.html .) If that's the way we think of it, a call is something extraordinary that few of us can ever expect to hear. And if we think only in terms of some supernatural summons, we'll miss a natural one.
We're told nothing about how God delivered his call to Abram in Genesis 12. Matthew, of course, was told "Follow Me" by Jesus, but that wasn't a voice from the sky: Jesus was fully human. God generally works in the world through creaturely agencies, and calling people to carry out God's work will generally happen in the same way. That has generally been the understanding of the church in connection with pastoral ministry. People can't just set themselves up in the pastoral office because they feel that they "have a call." Instead, God's call comes through the church. (And that doesn't just mean candidacy committees, bishops and so forth. It includes the people in someone's congregation who say, "You'd be a good pastor. Why don't you think of going into the ministry?") The call to any vocation may come through conversations with other people, awareness of the needs of the world in the daily news and evaluations of ones own, among other things. A specific calling might require specific abilities, but it also requires prayer and openness to ways in which the Spirit may be leading a person by such means.
Finally, it's good for all of us to remember that Abram and Sarai, and Matthew (and the other disciples), were called from stable situations where they understood what was expected of them to journeys into unknown territory where they were confronted with new situations. We are not called to sit still but to move toward God's future, at times seeing nothing but (by faith) the risen Christ who goes ahead. One of the closing prayers from Morning Prayer in the Lutheran Book of Worship (Augsburg, 1978), p. 137, expresses this very well.
Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Genesis 12:1-9: Abe sat at the picnic table in his backyard, sipping cool lemonade. He wiped his brow with the torn T-shirt he was wearing, and looked out over his freshly mown lawn.
Sara was of the opinion that he shouldn't push the lawnmower himself, at the age of 75. They could certainly afford a lawn service. But Abe enjoyed pushing the mower up and down: tracing the same, familiar patterns around the trees and shrubs. He loved the smell of the grass-clippings. He loved even more the sense of accomplishment that came with that smell: one more job completed, and completed well.
For Abe, life was good. He'd had a successful career; a long and happy marriage, of over fifty years; money in the bank, always more than they needed. Abe and Sara owned their house, free and clear (it had belonged, in fact, to Abe's father before him).
If Abe had any disappointment in life, it was that he and Sara had never had children -- but they did see a lot of the nephews and nieces who lived in town (especially that fine young man, Lot, who lived just around the corner).
Sara was seated at the kitchen table, leafing through a pile of real-estate brochures. Each of them depicted one of those "55-and-over" adult communities down south. Maybe this was the year, she told herself, they'd actually do it. Maybe this was the year they'd pound a "For Sale" sign into the front lawn and simplify their lives. Those glossy photos in the brochures looked awfully tempting: golf course, swimming pool, clubhouse -- all the outside maintenance covered by the membership fee. Maybe this was the year they'd make the move.
Sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, nursing that lemonade, Abe hears the Voice. "Go!" says the Voice. That's all it says: just "Go!"
The Voice doesn't say where he should go -- although Abe is quite sure this has nothing to do with retirement. The Voice only informs him where he should depart from: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
You will be a blessing. That's the heart of the Voice's message. Adult-development theorists such as Erik Ericsson have long taught that middle-age is the time when "generativity" -- crafting an enduring contribution to the next generations -- becomes a major life goal. Yet increasingly, members of the younger generation are seeing their lives in terms of service. It's something we in the church -- who have always taught that God's call is more a matter of giving than receiving -- should applaud.
The Hebrew verb-form is the most emphatic possible: it's like writing the word "Go" in block-capital letters, with half-a-dozen exclamation marks following after. God isn't making a gentle suggestion, here, but is rather issuing a stern and solemn command.
When Abram hears the command of God, he's living in the city of Haran -- in the southeastern corner of present-day Turkey. He's lived in Haran a long time, but not all his life. As a young man, Abram traveled with his father, Terah, on an epic journey from their hometown of Ur. Ur was located near Baghdad, in present-day Iraq.
So Abram is no stranger to long journeys. Yet even so, the trek of many hundreds of miles he undertook as a young man is not one that a typical person of his advanced age would be eager to repeat. Travel, in those days, meant walking -- or, if you were lucky, riding a camel or ox-cart. For a man like Abram (already a veritable world-traveler) to pack up everything he owns a second time, and set out on another, equally arduous journey -- at the age of 75 -- is unheard of.
God doesn't even tell Abram where he's supposed to go. God simply says, in that super-duper, triple-imperative tense: "Go, to the land that I will show you." It could almost be a scene in a grade-B spy movie: "Your mission, Agent 12 -- should you choose to accept it -- is to go the railway station in Bucharest. There you will receive further instructions."
The story of Abraham and Sarah is the tale of a journey -- one of the greatest journeys in all of scripture, let alone world literature. When these two set out, for the second time in their lives, on an arduous trek to an unknown land, somehow they journey for all of us.
Marshall Johnson responds: A couple of decades ago a nurse in Iowa, in her late twenties, failed to return to her apartment after work. She simply disappeared without a trace. Her co-workers and relatives were frantic, and the authorities had no leads. Then, some five or six years later, she reappeared in the same Iowa city to tell her tale. While waiting at the bus stop to go home after that day of work at the hospital, a man in a white robe had strolled by and said, "Follow me." For some inexplicable reason, she did just that. She wound up in a cult that seemed to provide something she was looking for. Eventually she came to herself, rejoined her former circle, and told her strange tale.
Not all urgings are from God, and when we consider our vocation we are to make use of the tools and opportunities that our society provides -- to say nothing of our common sense. We can't know exactly how the call of God came to Abram, nor how much Matthew knew of Jesus when gave up his job to follow, but these men presumably were aware of the basic nature of their task and that they were to be involved in something good. And their decision to follow had world-historical consequences.
At the end of his classic The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer draws a parallel between Jesus' call of his disciples in Galilee and his call of us. Schweitzer asserts that the titles that the earliest Christians applied to Jesus -- Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God, and so on -- have become for us historical puzzles. These terms no longer have the powerful meaning that they had 2,000 years ago. How then do we come to know who Jesus is for us, and how can we express it? In the last paragraph of the book Schweitzer suggests that our situation is not completely unlike that of Matthew and the others of Jesus' time:
He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside he came to those persons who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks that he has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings that they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.
Related Illustrations
Life is often likened to a journey. It's a theme that has fascinated novelists and storytellers the world over. Centuries ago, the Greek poet Homer wrote The Odyssey, tracing the Trojan War hero Odysseus' twenty-year return home. One of the earliest surviving works of English literature is Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales: a collection of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the holy city of Canterbury. In more recent times, Mark Twain has given us Huckleberry Finn, a journey on a homemade raft down the Mississippi; and Jack Kerouac has published the semi-autobiographical novel, On the Road, the tale of Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise, two young men roaring across America in an old car. "Beyond the glittery street," writes Kerouac, "was darkness, and beyond darkness, the West. I had to go."
Abram, too, feels he has to go -- but it's more than mere wanderlust that propels him. Abram and Sarai set out from Haran for parts unknown, because God has called them to do so.
***
Robert Raines, in a little book called Going Home, tells of how he received a call from God when he was in his forties:
"A call may come as a nudge, glimpse, touch, glance, fresh insight, or tearing sorrow. It may come in the earthquake of anger, grief, sexual energy, or in a still small voice. However it comes, the initiative of an alien/friendly power strikes us with surprise and disruption. I was taken by the scruff of my life and shaken loose from the securities and identities that had served me or that I had served for forty-four years. I was mugged in the night by a strange inner assailant!"
***
Remember the old-time school librarians? Back before libraries became "media centers," they were places where people sat and read books. To read books you had to have quiet. Remember how, in that quiet place, a single human conversation could assault the ear like a cannon? And do you remember how the whispered voice of the librarian had that magical power to strike terror into the heart of even the most unruly student? The football coach might shout and scream and jump up and down, but the librarian needed no such dramatics. Within the hallowed confines of the library, a whisper was all it took.
That's the way it is with the call of God. When Abraham heard the command to go, it probably wasn't like the clear note of a trumpet. More likely, it was a murmur deep within his soul, an experience such as Henri J. M. Nouwen describes, in a little Christmas meditation:
"The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices."
***
Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
-- C. S. Lewis
***
When you follow your bliss, doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.
-- Joseph Campbell
***
It comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a man is called to by God.
There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren't helping your patients much either.
Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
-- Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973), p. 95
***
Do not be merely good. Be good for something.
-- Henry David Thoreau
***
The desert world accepts my homage with its customary silence. The grand indifference. As any man of sense would want it. If a voice from the clouds suddenly addressed me, speaking my name in trombone tones, or some angel in an aura of blue flame came floating toward me along the canyon rim, I think I would be more embarrassed than frightened -- embarrassed by the vulgarity of such display. That is what depresses in the mysticism of Carlos Castaneda and his like: their poverty of imagination. As any honest magician knows, true magic inheres in the ordinary, the commonplace, the everyday, the mystery of the obvious. Only petty minds and trivial souls yearn for supernatural events, incapable of perceiving that everything -- everything! -- within and around them is pure miracle.
-- Edward Abbey, Abbey's Road, cited by Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes (Oxford, 1998)
***
Do not limit your children to your own learning, for they have been born in another age.
-- Jewish proverb
Worship Resources
By George Reed
OPENING
N.B.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"Here I Am, Lord." WORDS: Dan Schutte, 1981; MUSIC: Dan Schutte, 1981. (c) 1981, 1983, 1989 Daniel L. Schutte and NALR. As found in UMH 593; Hymnal '82; TPH 525; AAHH 567; TNNBH; TNCH; CH 452.
"Lord, You Give The Great Commission." WORDS: Jeffery Rowthorn, 1978; MUSIC: Cyril V. Taylor, 1941. Words (c) 1978 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1942, renewed 1970 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 584; TPH 429; CH 459.
"God Of Grace And God Of Glory." WORDS: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; MUSIC: John Hughes, 1907. (c) words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs. As found in UMH 577; Hymnal '82: 594, 595; LBOW 415; TPH 420; TNCH 436; CH 464.
"I Am Thine, O Lord." WORDS: Fanny J. Crosby, 1875; MUSIC: William H. Doane, 1875. Public domain. As found in UMH 419; AAHH 387; TNNBH 202; TNCH 455; CH 601.
"Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing." WORDS: Robert Robinson, 1758; MUSIC Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. Public domain. As found in UMH 400; Hymnal '82: 686; LBOW 499; TPH 356; AAHH 175; TNNBH 166; TNCH 459; CH 16.
"Jesus Calls Us." WORDS: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1852; MUSIC: William H. Jude, 1874. Public domain. As found in UMH 398; Hymnal '82: 549, 550; LBOW 494; TNNBH 183; TNCH 171, 172; CH 337.
Songs
"Make Me A Servant." WORDS & MUSIC: Kelly Willard. (c) 1982 Willing Heart Music. As found in CCB 90.
"Seek Ye First." WORDS & MUSIC: Karen Lafferty. (c) 1972 Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB 76.
"As We Gather." WORDS & MUSIC: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes. (c) 1981 Coomesietunes Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB 12.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Rejoice in God!
People: Praise is our calling!
Leader: Praise God with instruments and voice.
People: With all our beings we praise our God.
Leader: The word of God is powerful and just.
People: By the word of God, we are led.
Leader: Happy are we when we follow God.
People: God leads us to joy eternal.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, whose word created all that is: grant us the wisdom to listen to you and to follow you to a life that is full, abundant, and joyful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to praise you, God, for your word has created us and all the world. We come into your presence not only to sing your praises but to listen to your word. Help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives as you call us into life. May we discover more fully that in following your word, we find true happiness. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: We come together as disciples of Jesus. Let us confess to God and before one another our failings in following him.
People: We confess to you, O God, that we are a people who have wandered and strayed from the path you have set before us. We are quick to accept the title of Christian but we are not so quick to accept the path you call us to follow. We want to be known as daughters and sons of the Most High God but we don't want to be reminded that the example Jesus set for us was the cross. In you love and grace call us back once more to be your faithful people. Grant us your Spirit that we might find the courage to follow you into places that look scary and threatening. Give us the courage to speak for justice and peace. Give us the courage to act in love to others even when they do not act in love toward us. Amen.
Leader: God is always calling us and rejoices when we respond. God does love you and takes you under the wing to walk with you in the ways of righteousness and life.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
O God, who called creation into being, who called Abraham and Sarah, who called Moses and Miriam, we worship and adore you. You have called us to be your people and to be your image.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not heeded your call. We have turned a deaf ear, we have ignored your word, we have followed our own hearts. Forgive us for failing to listen to the words of invitation and life that you have offered us. You have called us to a full and abundant life and yet we have gone after things that are worthless and empty. Forgive us and call us once again to life eternal and abundant.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have called us to your eternal presence and life. We thank you for creation and the opportunity and responsibility to care for it. We thank you for its beauty and the way that it recalls us to you. We give you thanks for all the ways you call us to yourself through the love and care of our sisters and brothers. We thank you for the celebrations of life and love we enjoy together.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
Because of your great love, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. We know that you care for those we are concerned about and we ask that you would join our love and care to yours. As you reach out in love to those who are sick, dying, and lonely, we ask that our spirits might join yours in caring for those in need.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
A Children's Sermon
He followed Jesus
Object: play "Simon Says" (or "Follow the Leader")
Based on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
How many of you know how to play "Simon Says"? (let them answer) That is a fun game. Would any of you like to play it this morning? (play a brief game of "Simon Says")
I wanted to play that game today because there are many people who will tell us to do many things. Some things we want to do, like when we want to play "Simon Says." Other things we will not want to do because they might not be good for us. Can any of you think of things we would not want to do? (let them answer. Answers will likely be "not go across a busy street by ourselves," "not enter someone's house without knocking," "not do what a drug pusher might say," or "not take candy from a stranger," and so forth)
Now, who are the people we would want to follow? (let them answer. Answers will probably include "parents," "teachers," "pastor," "police officers," and so forth)
One day Jesus came up to a man who was a tax collector. In those days that was not thought to be a very good job. The tax collector made lots of money, but it was a dishonest job that everyone looked down upon. Who knows the tax collector's name? (let them answer) His name was "Matthew." How do we know Matthew today? (let them answer) Matthew wrote the book of the Bible called "Matthew." We got today's reading from Matthew.
Jesus said to Matthew, as he sat in his office, "Follow me." From that time onward, Matthew followed Jesus. We call a follower like that a "disciple." Anyone who follows Jesus -- even today -- is called a "disciple."
Are you a disciple? (let them answer) I am. I am so glad that Jesus called me to follow him. That is why I want to go to Sunday church school, worship, read the Bible, and learn everything I can about Jesus so that I can follow what he wants me to do. I am glad you are a disciple, too!
Dear Lord Jesus: Thank you for calling us to follow you. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 5, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Well, the world may be coming to something rather different than what we fear because a lot of students take things more seriously than those stories suggest. Many of them are looking to something beyond a perpetual spring vacation. There has been recent talk of a "9/11 generation," young people whose picture of the world and their place in it was marked by the terrorist attack on America in the fall when they began college -- those who are graduating this spring. And for some of those students one result of that has been a sense of calling to public service -- of vocation. Here's a link to a story about this phenomenon that was on the CBS evening news last week: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/24/eveningnews/main697562.shtml.
When we turn to our readings for June 5 we quickly see that "calling" is a major theme. In the First Lesson, Genesis 12:1-9, God tells Abram to leave his home and his family of origin and go to a foreign land -- and Abram does. In the first part of the Gospel (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26), Jesus tells the tax collector Matthew to follow him, and Matthew leaves his job to do so. They are paradigmatic stories of vocation, of God's call to people and of faithful responses to that call.
It would be misleading to say that everyone who feels an impulse to some type of service is "called by God" in just the same sense that Abram or Matthew were. Those calls were quite specifically from YHWH ("the LORD") and from Jesus, not a generic deity or a simple hope for the general welfare of society. On the other hand we shouldn't separate off their "special" vocations from the "ordinary" ones of today's graduates too sharply, as if Abram or Matthew had heard miraculous voices from the sky telling them what to do. We can see connections between those different types of callings without simply conflating them into one common idea of vocation.
The story of the call of Abram is fundamental for the whole biblical story. (By the way, even though I use the name in our text here, it's probably too pedantic in a sermon to insist on calling him "Abram" rather than "Abraham.") After the creation of the world and the sin of humanity that has led to the destructive flood (last week's First Lesson), the confusion of tongues and the scattering of the peoples, God begins in Genesis 12 to get the world back on track. It's sometimes said that biblical history begins with Abraham. That shouldn't by any means suggest that everything from Genesis 12:1 on is accurate historical narrative (or for that matter that everything before that point is pure myth). But at this point we enter a world with places and people known to history and have stories that sound as if they're about real people. Perhaps more importantly, we begin a discernable story of salvation that reaches its climax in Jesus as the descendant of Abraham in the New Testament.
Abram and his family were introduced a few verses earlier (11:27-32), but nothing is said about any qualifications that he and Sarai had to be the ancestors of God's people. It's very natural to think that there must have been something that made him more deserving of this choice than others. There are several old Jewish traditions about how he had come to the realization that the pagan gods were false and that there was one true God. (Some of these are described in James L. Kugel's The Bible as It Was (Harvard, 1997), pp. 135-144. This is a fascinating book with many citations of views about the Pentateuchal stories from early Jewish and Christian sources.)
The fact that the Bible itself says nothing at all about this is significant. We should perhaps emulate Sherlock Holmes, who once found a critical clue in the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time" -- the curious incident being that "the dog did nothing in the night-time" (Arthur Conan Doyle, "Silver Blaze," in The Complete Sherlock Holmes [Doubleday, 1930], p. 347). God calls Abram not because he deserves this privilege but because God chooses to call him.
For all we can tell Abram hadn't somehow figured out that there was one true God before his call. "Your ancestors -- Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor -- lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods," Joshua (24:2) later tells the Israelites. What was notable about Abram wasn't that he'd figured out on his own who God was and how he should serve God, but that he trusted and obeyed when God called him. He didn't discover God, but God in a sense discovered him.
It's tempting to think of what happened to Abram and his descendants as the conferring of a privilege. Verses 2 and 3 of the text certainly sound like that, and that's the idea most people associate with the language about a "chosen people." Paul's statement in our Second Lesson that Abraham received the promise that he would "inherit the world" (Romans 4:13) certainly reinforces that idea. We should be disabused of it if we look at the following chapters of Genesis. After leaving home and living among foreigners, Abram and Sarai are brought to the point of despairing that the promise of descendants will ever be fulfilled. When it finally is, Abram has to go through the harrowing experience of almost sacrificing the promised child. And at the end, the only part of the promised land of Canaan that he ever really owns is -- a grave (Genesis 23).
That's also the pattern for Abraham's descendants. They are to be a blessing for all nations, not just recipients of blessings. Being called by God doesn't mean a promise of a free ride.
The story in our Gospel of the call of Matthew to be one of the Twelve (see verse 3 of the following chapter) has some features in common with the First Lesson. We might note first the ultimate mission of the Twelve given in the reading we had for Trinity Sunday, Matthew 28:16-20. They are to "make disciples of all nations," making effective the promise to Abram that his descendants would be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
And, like Abram, we're not told about Matthew having any of the qualifications that we might think necessary for this role. His occupation as a tax collector is almost synonymous with sinner. Jesus doesn't call someone distinguished for his righteousness but for his lack of it.
So why did this tax collector get up immediately and follow Jesus? As was the case with Abram, its seems natural to think that Matthew must have been prepared in some way for this call. Maybe he'd heard Jesus preach and had been impressed by his message. Perhaps he'd even had some prior conversation with Jesus, so when the call came to follow, he was ready. It's all very natural speculation but again there's nothing in the text to suggest anything like that. Matthew leaves the tax office and takes up a new life because Jesus calls him.
Matthew doesn't play a significant role in the Gospel stories after this and, unfortunately, we have no reliable information about what he did after Pentecost or how or where he died. "Pious Christian tradition" has of course been quick to provide details, including missionary activity and martyrdom. Those stories have little or no historical value but from what we know of the primitive church it wouldn't be surprising if he had had a tough time as an apostle. According to Acts 5:41 the apostles "rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name."
And whether Matthew's life ended in martyrdom or not, what Bonhoeffer said holds true: When Jesus Christ calls someone to follow him, he calls that person to die. The call to follow Christ is a call to take up the cross.
Now, none of this year's college graduates, and none of the rest of us, is called to be an apostle or the ancestor of the people of God. But these stories have a good deal to say about the whole idea of vocation in today's world. God calls unlikely people and equips them for the tasks they're called for. And their calling is, first of all, for the benefit of others. While it may carry with it some privileges and rewards for the one called, it isn't like election to an honor society.
We really need to make a distinction, though, for there are two important aspects of God's call. There is, first of all, the fundamental call to faith in the God revealed in Christ, a call that normally takes place through Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit's invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to put our trust in him and thus to be part of the community of God's people.
Then as part of that community we are called to various tasks. This is what the idea of "vocation" (from the Latin vocatio, calling) usually refers to. In some traditions it has the special sense of a religious vocation, including one to the ordained ministry. The sixteenth-century reformers saw all the ways of serving God and neighbor as being vocations, whether they were distinctively religious or not. We shouldn't downplay the importance of work done specifically for the church, but those who teach, those who provide needed goods and services, those who ensure the safety of the public, and others are also doing God's work when they carry out those tasks honestly and faithfully.
But what about those graduates who feel called to different types of public service? Some of them aren't Christians. Can we still talk about a call from God in their cases? The fact that Second Isaiah (45:1-7) could speak of the pagan king Cyrus as God's instrument, and even his "anointed," and that Paul could say that Roman officials were "God's servant[s]" (Romans 13:4) suggests that the answer is yes. The religious beliefs of Abraham Lincoln were ambiguous, but I have no problem with saying that he was called by God to play the role he did at a time of national crisis. Similar things can be said of other people in non-governmental roles. The activity of the Holy Spirit is not limited to believers.
But that kind of calling is not to be confused with, or considered a substitute for, saving faith in Christ. That would amount to a kind of works-righteousness. We are called to faith, and then as believers we are called to work.
A sermon on either of these texts, or both of them together, could focus on either of these aspects of God's call -- the fundamental call to faith, or the call to believers to particular types of service. Today many people have become Christian without any serious suggestion that they might have to give up anything. The fact that Abram was told to leave his home and Matthew was told to leave his job reminds us that we are called to give up anything that would keep us from putting our full trust in Christ and living as believers. The early church was a lot more serious about this than most churches today are, and while we don't have to follow all their rules, we need a healthy reminder that not all occupations, for example, are compatible with a Christian life. (A list of prohibited occupations is given in The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, around A.D. 215, in Lucien Deiss, Springtime of the Liturgy [Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1967], p. 138.)
Or the sermon could focus on vocation in its usual sense, the understanding that God calls us to service in the church and in society. Here stories about the 9/11 generation might be useful illustrations. But the point should not be to try to move everyone to leave his or her present job and become a teacher in an inner city school or something of that sort. That might be the case for some, but many Christians need to be told that the work they're doing now should be seen as a calling from God. That may not change the way they do their jobs very much, but it's likely to bring about a change in the attitudes with which they do them.
It might also be helpful to reflect on how a person might receive a call to some particular occupation. The very language of "a call from God" may suggest to many people something mystical or miraculous, perhaps a voice from the sky. (Think of Bill Cosby's old "Noah" comedy routine. You can find a transcript at http://www.skatedc.org/pipermail/skatedc/2003-May/005683.html .) If that's the way we think of it, a call is something extraordinary that few of us can ever expect to hear. And if we think only in terms of some supernatural summons, we'll miss a natural one.
We're told nothing about how God delivered his call to Abram in Genesis 12. Matthew, of course, was told "Follow Me" by Jesus, but that wasn't a voice from the sky: Jesus was fully human. God generally works in the world through creaturely agencies, and calling people to carry out God's work will generally happen in the same way. That has generally been the understanding of the church in connection with pastoral ministry. People can't just set themselves up in the pastoral office because they feel that they "have a call." Instead, God's call comes through the church. (And that doesn't just mean candidacy committees, bishops and so forth. It includes the people in someone's congregation who say, "You'd be a good pastor. Why don't you think of going into the ministry?") The call to any vocation may come through conversations with other people, awareness of the needs of the world in the daily news and evaluations of ones own, among other things. A specific calling might require specific abilities, but it also requires prayer and openness to ways in which the Spirit may be leading a person by such means.
Finally, it's good for all of us to remember that Abram and Sarai, and Matthew (and the other disciples), were called from stable situations where they understood what was expected of them to journeys into unknown territory where they were confronted with new situations. We are not called to sit still but to move toward God's future, at times seeing nothing but (by faith) the risen Christ who goes ahead. One of the closing prayers from Morning Prayer in the Lutheran Book of Worship (Augsburg, 1978), p. 137, expresses this very well.
Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Genesis 12:1-9: Abe sat at the picnic table in his backyard, sipping cool lemonade. He wiped his brow with the torn T-shirt he was wearing, and looked out over his freshly mown lawn.
Sara was of the opinion that he shouldn't push the lawnmower himself, at the age of 75. They could certainly afford a lawn service. But Abe enjoyed pushing the mower up and down: tracing the same, familiar patterns around the trees and shrubs. He loved the smell of the grass-clippings. He loved even more the sense of accomplishment that came with that smell: one more job completed, and completed well.
For Abe, life was good. He'd had a successful career; a long and happy marriage, of over fifty years; money in the bank, always more than they needed. Abe and Sara owned their house, free and clear (it had belonged, in fact, to Abe's father before him).
If Abe had any disappointment in life, it was that he and Sara had never had children -- but they did see a lot of the nephews and nieces who lived in town (especially that fine young man, Lot, who lived just around the corner).
Sara was seated at the kitchen table, leafing through a pile of real-estate brochures. Each of them depicted one of those "55-and-over" adult communities down south. Maybe this was the year, she told herself, they'd actually do it. Maybe this was the year they'd pound a "For Sale" sign into the front lawn and simplify their lives. Those glossy photos in the brochures looked awfully tempting: golf course, swimming pool, clubhouse -- all the outside maintenance covered by the membership fee. Maybe this was the year they'd make the move.
Sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, nursing that lemonade, Abe hears the Voice. "Go!" says the Voice. That's all it says: just "Go!"
The Voice doesn't say where he should go -- although Abe is quite sure this has nothing to do with retirement. The Voice only informs him where he should depart from: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
You will be a blessing. That's the heart of the Voice's message. Adult-development theorists such as Erik Ericsson have long taught that middle-age is the time when "generativity" -- crafting an enduring contribution to the next generations -- becomes a major life goal. Yet increasingly, members of the younger generation are seeing their lives in terms of service. It's something we in the church -- who have always taught that God's call is more a matter of giving than receiving -- should applaud.
The Hebrew verb-form is the most emphatic possible: it's like writing the word "Go" in block-capital letters, with half-a-dozen exclamation marks following after. God isn't making a gentle suggestion, here, but is rather issuing a stern and solemn command.
When Abram hears the command of God, he's living in the city of Haran -- in the southeastern corner of present-day Turkey. He's lived in Haran a long time, but not all his life. As a young man, Abram traveled with his father, Terah, on an epic journey from their hometown of Ur. Ur was located near Baghdad, in present-day Iraq.
So Abram is no stranger to long journeys. Yet even so, the trek of many hundreds of miles he undertook as a young man is not one that a typical person of his advanced age would be eager to repeat. Travel, in those days, meant walking -- or, if you were lucky, riding a camel or ox-cart. For a man like Abram (already a veritable world-traveler) to pack up everything he owns a second time, and set out on another, equally arduous journey -- at the age of 75 -- is unheard of.
God doesn't even tell Abram where he's supposed to go. God simply says, in that super-duper, triple-imperative tense: "Go, to the land that I will show you." It could almost be a scene in a grade-B spy movie: "Your mission, Agent 12 -- should you choose to accept it -- is to go the railway station in Bucharest. There you will receive further instructions."
The story of Abraham and Sarah is the tale of a journey -- one of the greatest journeys in all of scripture, let alone world literature. When these two set out, for the second time in their lives, on an arduous trek to an unknown land, somehow they journey for all of us.
Marshall Johnson responds: A couple of decades ago a nurse in Iowa, in her late twenties, failed to return to her apartment after work. She simply disappeared without a trace. Her co-workers and relatives were frantic, and the authorities had no leads. Then, some five or six years later, she reappeared in the same Iowa city to tell her tale. While waiting at the bus stop to go home after that day of work at the hospital, a man in a white robe had strolled by and said, "Follow me." For some inexplicable reason, she did just that. She wound up in a cult that seemed to provide something she was looking for. Eventually she came to herself, rejoined her former circle, and told her strange tale.
Not all urgings are from God, and when we consider our vocation we are to make use of the tools and opportunities that our society provides -- to say nothing of our common sense. We can't know exactly how the call of God came to Abram, nor how much Matthew knew of Jesus when gave up his job to follow, but these men presumably were aware of the basic nature of their task and that they were to be involved in something good. And their decision to follow had world-historical consequences.
At the end of his classic The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer draws a parallel between Jesus' call of his disciples in Galilee and his call of us. Schweitzer asserts that the titles that the earliest Christians applied to Jesus -- Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God, and so on -- have become for us historical puzzles. These terms no longer have the powerful meaning that they had 2,000 years ago. How then do we come to know who Jesus is for us, and how can we express it? In the last paragraph of the book Schweitzer suggests that our situation is not completely unlike that of Matthew and the others of Jesus' time:
He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside he came to those persons who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks that he has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings that they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.
Related Illustrations
Life is often likened to a journey. It's a theme that has fascinated novelists and storytellers the world over. Centuries ago, the Greek poet Homer wrote The Odyssey, tracing the Trojan War hero Odysseus' twenty-year return home. One of the earliest surviving works of English literature is Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales: a collection of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the holy city of Canterbury. In more recent times, Mark Twain has given us Huckleberry Finn, a journey on a homemade raft down the Mississippi; and Jack Kerouac has published the semi-autobiographical novel, On the Road, the tale of Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise, two young men roaring across America in an old car. "Beyond the glittery street," writes Kerouac, "was darkness, and beyond darkness, the West. I had to go."
Abram, too, feels he has to go -- but it's more than mere wanderlust that propels him. Abram and Sarai set out from Haran for parts unknown, because God has called them to do so.
***
Robert Raines, in a little book called Going Home, tells of how he received a call from God when he was in his forties:
"A call may come as a nudge, glimpse, touch, glance, fresh insight, or tearing sorrow. It may come in the earthquake of anger, grief, sexual energy, or in a still small voice. However it comes, the initiative of an alien/friendly power strikes us with surprise and disruption. I was taken by the scruff of my life and shaken loose from the securities and identities that had served me or that I had served for forty-four years. I was mugged in the night by a strange inner assailant!"
***
Remember the old-time school librarians? Back before libraries became "media centers," they were places where people sat and read books. To read books you had to have quiet. Remember how, in that quiet place, a single human conversation could assault the ear like a cannon? And do you remember how the whispered voice of the librarian had that magical power to strike terror into the heart of even the most unruly student? The football coach might shout and scream and jump up and down, but the librarian needed no such dramatics. Within the hallowed confines of the library, a whisper was all it took.
That's the way it is with the call of God. When Abraham heard the command to go, it probably wasn't like the clear note of a trumpet. More likely, it was a murmur deep within his soul, an experience such as Henri J. M. Nouwen describes, in a little Christmas meditation:
"The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices."
***
Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
-- C. S. Lewis
***
When you follow your bliss, doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.
-- Joseph Campbell
***
It comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a man is called to by God.
There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren't helping your patients much either.
Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
-- Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973), p. 95
***
Do not be merely good. Be good for something.
-- Henry David Thoreau
***
The desert world accepts my homage with its customary silence. The grand indifference. As any man of sense would want it. If a voice from the clouds suddenly addressed me, speaking my name in trombone tones, or some angel in an aura of blue flame came floating toward me along the canyon rim, I think I would be more embarrassed than frightened -- embarrassed by the vulgarity of such display. That is what depresses in the mysticism of Carlos Castaneda and his like: their poverty of imagination. As any honest magician knows, true magic inheres in the ordinary, the commonplace, the everyday, the mystery of the obvious. Only petty minds and trivial souls yearn for supernatural events, incapable of perceiving that everything -- everything! -- within and around them is pure miracle.
-- Edward Abbey, Abbey's Road, cited by Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes (Oxford, 1998)
***
Do not limit your children to your own learning, for they have been born in another age.
-- Jewish proverb
Worship Resources
By George Reed
OPENING
N.B.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"Here I Am, Lord." WORDS: Dan Schutte, 1981; MUSIC: Dan Schutte, 1981. (c) 1981, 1983, 1989 Daniel L. Schutte and NALR. As found in UMH 593; Hymnal '82; TPH 525; AAHH 567; TNNBH; TNCH; CH 452.
"Lord, You Give The Great Commission." WORDS: Jeffery Rowthorn, 1978; MUSIC: Cyril V. Taylor, 1941. Words (c) 1978 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1942, renewed 1970 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 584; TPH 429; CH 459.
"God Of Grace And God Of Glory." WORDS: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; MUSIC: John Hughes, 1907. (c) words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs. As found in UMH 577; Hymnal '82: 594, 595; LBOW 415; TPH 420; TNCH 436; CH 464.
"I Am Thine, O Lord." WORDS: Fanny J. Crosby, 1875; MUSIC: William H. Doane, 1875. Public domain. As found in UMH 419; AAHH 387; TNNBH 202; TNCH 455; CH 601.
"Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing." WORDS: Robert Robinson, 1758; MUSIC Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. Public domain. As found in UMH 400; Hymnal '82: 686; LBOW 499; TPH 356; AAHH 175; TNNBH 166; TNCH 459; CH 16.
"Jesus Calls Us." WORDS: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1852; MUSIC: William H. Jude, 1874. Public domain. As found in UMH 398; Hymnal '82: 549, 550; LBOW 494; TNNBH 183; TNCH 171, 172; CH 337.
Songs
"Make Me A Servant." WORDS & MUSIC: Kelly Willard. (c) 1982 Willing Heart Music. As found in CCB 90.
"Seek Ye First." WORDS & MUSIC: Karen Lafferty. (c) 1972 Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB 76.
"As We Gather." WORDS & MUSIC: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes. (c) 1981 Coomesietunes Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB 12.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Rejoice in God!
People: Praise is our calling!
Leader: Praise God with instruments and voice.
People: With all our beings we praise our God.
Leader: The word of God is powerful and just.
People: By the word of God, we are led.
Leader: Happy are we when we follow God.
People: God leads us to joy eternal.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, whose word created all that is: grant us the wisdom to listen to you and to follow you to a life that is full, abundant, and joyful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to praise you, God, for your word has created us and all the world. We come into your presence not only to sing your praises but to listen to your word. Help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives as you call us into life. May we discover more fully that in following your word, we find true happiness. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: We come together as disciples of Jesus. Let us confess to God and before one another our failings in following him.
People: We confess to you, O God, that we are a people who have wandered and strayed from the path you have set before us. We are quick to accept the title of Christian but we are not so quick to accept the path you call us to follow. We want to be known as daughters and sons of the Most High God but we don't want to be reminded that the example Jesus set for us was the cross. In you love and grace call us back once more to be your faithful people. Grant us your Spirit that we might find the courage to follow you into places that look scary and threatening. Give us the courage to speak for justice and peace. Give us the courage to act in love to others even when they do not act in love toward us. Amen.
Leader: God is always calling us and rejoices when we respond. God does love you and takes you under the wing to walk with you in the ways of righteousness and life.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
O God, who called creation into being, who called Abraham and Sarah, who called Moses and Miriam, we worship and adore you. You have called us to be your people and to be your image.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not heeded your call. We have turned a deaf ear, we have ignored your word, we have followed our own hearts. Forgive us for failing to listen to the words of invitation and life that you have offered us. You have called us to a full and abundant life and yet we have gone after things that are worthless and empty. Forgive us and call us once again to life eternal and abundant.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have called us to your eternal presence and life. We thank you for creation and the opportunity and responsibility to care for it. We thank you for its beauty and the way that it recalls us to you. We give you thanks for all the ways you call us to yourself through the love and care of our sisters and brothers. We thank you for the celebrations of life and love we enjoy together.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
Because of your great love, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. We know that you care for those we are concerned about and we ask that you would join our love and care to yours. As you reach out in love to those who are sick, dying, and lonely, we ask that our spirits might join yours in caring for those in need.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
A Children's Sermon
He followed Jesus
Object: play "Simon Says" (or "Follow the Leader")
Based on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
How many of you know how to play "Simon Says"? (let them answer) That is a fun game. Would any of you like to play it this morning? (play a brief game of "Simon Says")
I wanted to play that game today because there are many people who will tell us to do many things. Some things we want to do, like when we want to play "Simon Says." Other things we will not want to do because they might not be good for us. Can any of you think of things we would not want to do? (let them answer. Answers will likely be "not go across a busy street by ourselves," "not enter someone's house without knocking," "not do what a drug pusher might say," or "not take candy from a stranger," and so forth)
Now, who are the people we would want to follow? (let them answer. Answers will probably include "parents," "teachers," "pastor," "police officers," and so forth)
One day Jesus came up to a man who was a tax collector. In those days that was not thought to be a very good job. The tax collector made lots of money, but it was a dishonest job that everyone looked down upon. Who knows the tax collector's name? (let them answer) His name was "Matthew." How do we know Matthew today? (let them answer) Matthew wrote the book of the Bible called "Matthew." We got today's reading from Matthew.
Jesus said to Matthew, as he sat in his office, "Follow me." From that time onward, Matthew followed Jesus. We call a follower like that a "disciple." Anyone who follows Jesus -- even today -- is called a "disciple."
Are you a disciple? (let them answer) I am. I am so glad that Jesus called me to follow him. That is why I want to go to Sunday church school, worship, read the Bible, and learn everything I can about Jesus so that I can follow what he wants me to do. I am glad you are a disciple, too!
Dear Lord Jesus: Thank you for calling us to follow you. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, June 5, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
