Our Personal Calling

February 8, 2004 (Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany)

by Victor Sarrazin

- Judges 6:11-24a
- Psalm 85 or 85:7-13
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
- Luke 5:1-11

(From The Lectionary Page)

My sisters and brothers, today our Lord has a personal calling for each of us. Just as God called the people we heard about in our scripture readings.

In the first reading we heard about Gideon and how he is commissioned by God to champion the oppressed Israel. The rest of the story, told in Judges 6:25-40, goes on to tell us about his struggles. Gideon is frightened and hides undercover of darkness to tear down the altar of Baal and rallies the people when the deed is discovered the next morning. Just before the great battle with Midian he expresses his fears again and actually tests God twice. First he puts a fleece on the ground and asks God to settle the morning dew on the fleece but not on the ground around it. The next day he asks God to reverse the test and allow dew to fall on the ground around the camp but to keep the fleece dry. God gently works with him until he is ready.

Now that Gideon is ready, it's God's turn to put him to the test, by reducing the number in Gideon's army. First he is to send home those fighters who are afraid and he does. Then, the individuals who don't use their hand to drink water from a stream, but lap it up like an animal, are sent home. Finally all is ready, the campaign begins and succeeds!

In the second reading we heard, Paul alludes to his calling as he encourages the reader to hold fast to the faith passed on to them. Paul as you may remember, actively persecuted Christ's people and even took part in killing some. But, our Lord called him very dramatically by appearing to him wile he was traveling to Damascus and striking him with blindness. Yet, Paul responded to God's call and became Christianity's most famous missionary.

In the gospel we heard today, Jesus personally calls the apostles Peter, James and John. He wanders over to them, asks to preach from their boat and they happily go along with it. Then he directs them to push out into deeper water and lower the nets. It's easy to imagine how these experienced fishermen look at Jesus, the carpenter turned Rabbi, and are simply humoring him as they push out. When that miraculous catch of fish happens, Peter immediately realizes that something Divine is happening and remembers his personal unworthiness. He begs Jesus to pass him by. Jesus simply encourages them to follow him and promises to make them more than they thought they could be. They follow him! Throughout out the gospels we can read the rest of their story, the ups the downs and their finally going out to all nations.

My sisters and brothers, If Paul is not too sinful to be called personally by God, if Gideon is not to mistrusting and the crude fishermen Peter, James and John, are not unworthy of a personal calling - neither are we. Like the stories we just heard, some of us may consider ourselves too fearful, unspiritual, sinful or just plane too busy for a personal calling. Christ however, has a completely doable realistic and fulfilling call for each of us.

Wherever we are in our walk with Christ, is the right place to be. None of us are unworthy in the eyes of God. Some of us already know our calling and are living it fully this vary day. Some of us are just recognizing that Jesus is looking for a more personal relation with them. Some, like myself, knew and lived their call, stepped away for a while and are now finding themselves called again. But we each have God given gifts, that "thing" we were meant to do and be.

Our possible callings are as varied as we human beings are uniquely individual. Some callings are obvious wile others are not. Obvious callings include: clerics, readers and cup bearers, acolytes, musician and singers, Vestry members, religion teachers, etc., etc. Not so obvious callings include: PARENTING OUR CHILDREN, school teachers, polices officers, lawyers, carpenters, electricians, sales people, business managers, secretaries, etc. In all cases it is a work we do as a service to others and an expression of our Christian faith.

Today we each need to take advantage of this opportunity, to be rededicated to following Christ and living out our calling. At reconciliation time let us each, in the privacy of our own hearts, present our reservations before God and receive God's healing forgiveness. Then at Communion let's each come forward and receive Christ's self as spiritual nourishment for the discovery and living out of our calling. Finally, in the days ahead, let's be rededicated to deepening our personal relationship with God through daily prayer (even if its only five or ten minutes a day). So we can grow in our callings, both in understanding them and in living them out. My sisters and brothers, let us hear the voice of God and say "yes!"