Good Morning Friends,
Now you probably will not have an audible voice of God speaking to you telling you what assignment to carry out for the Kingdom. Still, we each have a purpose even without the thunder and blinding light. Christ’s purpose was to die for our sins. And maybe yours too has a price as well. But perhaps it is not nearly so challenging. Still, we ask, Have Our Lives Confirmed Our Callings?
Scripture: Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (NRSV)
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.
2 Peter 1:2-7 (NRSV)
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Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?” When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.
Mark 12:1-12 (NRSV)
Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
2 Peter 1:10-11 (NRSV)
Message: Friends in today’s parable we have the disturbing image of the People of God, the image of the Church and also the image of our soul. I do so love the parables of Jesus for they point to just how special we are but also sometimes how foolish. Here we discover that our relationship with God is to be the foundation and cornerstone upon which everything else is built. In today’s scripture Jesus addresses the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees with the parable of the murderous tenant-farmers. Jesus has just had a confrontation with these leaders about his authority and stumped them with his response. And now he begins to teach in another parable. It is an innocent story at first, sounding a lot like a passage from Isaiah. It is dealing with a common problem that everyone would have been familiar with, but then Jesus completes the story with a biting ending and a surprise. The tenants decided to revolt, insulting, beating, and killing first the servants the master sent to reclaim the land and collect his due, and then, at the climax of the drama, murdering the only son of the owner – wrongly believing that such an act could earn them a right to inherit the vineyard. The killing of the master’s servants and of the master’s own son is a Biblical image of the prophets and of Christ Himself. It shows an institution corrupted and closed in on itself, one not opened to the promises of God. It describes a people that fail to wait for the fulfilment of God’s promises, a people without memory of a proper tradition, without prophecy and without hope of an honest and healthy relationship. When God created us by grace, we were called to a salvation that is to be our life’s work.
But typically, our jobs are not the vocations God has called us to live. God requires a labor of a different kind that has a spiritual remuneration. Yesterday we had the election of elders and deacons at church, but today’s passage reminds me of another kind of election that can be related and hopefully is. Once an Elder, always an Elder is aligned with the reality that our election is really by God. The thing is that we all are called, but few listen and act on the message. So, know this, that we are all called to be loved and belong and become and to bless, and to share the message of life. This is the reason we exist. Sure, only some are called to be sent as missionaries off to lands far away, but all are called to share the Gospel in some fashion, for in so doing we grow. We are all called to understand that our lives have meaning and purpose and the call and the purpose are to be connected and shared. So, friends, our callings are not typically our careers. For most of us, we are to be bi-vocational. The Bible is filled with stories about how God is calling people to a purpose so others might have hope. Think about Moses, Paul and Mary and realize that our callings are gifts from God that will also open blessings for ourselves and others. We are called for God’s purpose and plan. We were not created for ourselves but by and for God. We were made for God as a masterpiece that was formed from the beginning as part of God’s plan. Yes, God chose our calling before we were born, and our life’s contributions have been shaped by God from the beginning. And even our sins and mistakes do not change the call. The calling is permanent. God makes it work. All of it. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. There is no plan B. No one can take the call from us. And your assignment and mine are connected to others. Calling and community are married. We are not to live or die alone. So, help others be as one body and with the same Spirit as part of a heavenly calling. We are better together for wherever two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, God empowers what we have been called to do.
And So, the beauty of it all is that when we are committed to our calling, God commits the resources. So, listen, enlist others in the challenge. Ask questions and accept corrections to remember and reinforce what we need to learn. Friends, there is a prize for living out our callings. We are to discover and live the call for the prize of salvation…. sharing in the power and glory of God. We are to share in the Kingdom through our calling. Friends, we are called to be servants in God’s vineyard recognizing that the Lord of the harvest will return. But know this, if we do not do the work, God will find someone else. Love always finds a way even in the face of pain and suffering. Only together have been given the ability and strength to carry our calling.
Pray we not reject Jesus. Pray we believe that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called to God’s purpose. Pray we become that person God has called us to be. Pray we are willing to accept the responsibility that God has laid on us. Pray we have a witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Pray we get it and give it away. Pray we commit to live the kind of life we were called to live and perform in the power of God. Pray we love and trust and serve. Pray the Lord give us the heart and work ethic of a servant. Pray we realize that there is great responsibility and eventually accountability when entrusted with God’s resources. Pray we do not lose the memory of our mission. Pray as gentiles that we serve if only to make other jealous of the divine in our lives. Pray we stand on the cornerstone of Christ for we live in an age of shifting sand. Pray we see that Jesus is the cornerstone that holds scripture all together. Pray we understand that Jesus is the cornerstone of the building blocks of life itself. Pray that even though we do not know what is over the horizon, we can trust that God knows. Pray we have hope in a better future as adopted heirs to a Kingdom that honors God…to a Vineyard that produces good fruit for God shared. Pray we have hope beyond the horizon. Pray we believe in the redemptive act of Christ for the world.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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