Pick Up, It’s for You

August 15, 2004

Matthew Brucker, Lay Leader

Montgomery United Methodist Church

I Samuel 3: 1-10

Jonah 1: 1-4, 10-17

Would everybody please rise?

If you have ever ignored a ringing phone because you saw who it was on caller ID, sit down.

If you have ever picked up the phone and said something stupid because you thought you knew who it was, sit down.

If you've ever “lost your religion” over the judgment call of a sports referee, sit down.

If you've ever fallen or dropped something trying to get to a ringing phone, sit down.

If you've ever stayed home from someplace you really wanted to go because you were expecting an important call, sit down.

I took you through that just as a reminder of the different kinds of calls that we hear, and just how important a call and communications can be to us. We've all experienced one sort of call or another. Today I'm focused on the most important call of all -- the call of God.

For those of us who choose to try to pay attention to our spiritual lives, we can often point to several "aha" moments on our spiritual journey. The one that usually propels us to begin the spiritual walk in the first place, especially if we do that as an adult, is usually the realization that the existence of God is a very real possibility.

Maybe we hadn't really considered that before, but something happens that makes us say there might actually be a God, in which case I had better get with the program. We might not be sure at that point. But at some point, God suddenly becomes real enough that we feel compelled to investigate even further.

For me, if there was any doubt, seeing our first son Mackinley arrive in the world was certainly an “aha” moment where I remember saying over and over with my wife Debra “Oh my God, my God.” And thinking about the miracle of life and God’s role in creating and maintaining it. Surely there is nothing else in this world that is a fraction as impressive as seeing a newborn’s eyes open to survey God’s world for the first time.

We usually move from there to a conviction that there is a God, and unfortunately a lot of people stop right there. They figure that they've reached the destination of believing in God. If you're there, I'm here to tell you that you haven't even left the driveway yet. I'll tell you about the second "aha" moment in the spiritual journey. That moment is when you sense that God is calling you, by your name, your phone number, your address, YOU specifically.

The one realization that I want you to take home today is, "God is calling me." It's not that God has put out a general call and I can respond if I please. It's not that God is randomly calling a pay phone and whoever happens to be standing there can answer it. God is calling you, personally, on your unlisted number.

Often when we talk about a calling we tend to focus on the work that God calls us to do. With ordained ministry especially, we are always talking about a "pastoral call," which is synonymous with talking about the particular work that Pastor Tony does, his vocation. But calling is only secondarily about a specific job or profession.

Calling is not so much about what you do as about whom you do it for. Calling is not logical without there first being a Caller. We are first and foremost called to be in relationship with God. If you think in work metaphors, you can say that calling is not about your job title. It is about your boss, whom you report to each morning. God is the employer who wants to have you on his staff, his team. God will provide all the training materials that you need. God wants to make you a lifetime partner in the firm. Guaranteed employment -- you will never be laid off, fired, or forced to retire. You're being called simply because God thinks you're worthy, and wants to have you around and on the team forever.

If we make the mistake of equating calling with a specific line of work, we run the risk of a huge loss of purpose and meaning if our circumstances change and we can no longer do that line of work. For instance, I believe that Pastor Tony is obviously called to preach the Word of God. And it's true that being in the pulpit trying to make God's Word accessible to people is a big part of Pastor Tony’s current job assignment from God. I have no doubt of that whatsoever. But it's misleading to say that that is his calling. His calling is simply to say “yes to God, what will you have me do to serve your will on earth as it is in heaven?” Then across the course of his life to do whatever specific tasks God asks him to do at whatever time.  “Be a faithful son to your loving mother….share your musical gift…serve as an ordained minister.” I personally am trying to hear my call every day, and am considering at some point in my life the vocation of ordained ministry. But for now, I am answering God’s call via the various vocations of father, husband, supervisor at work, and as a lay leader here with you good people.

Let’s look at those first ten verses of First Samuel 3 we read earlier. God calls the boy Samuel in the night, by name. Samuel is confused. He doesn't know who it is, and he keeps going back to Eli. Finally Eli recognizes what's happening and instructs the boy to go back, and when the voice comes this time to say, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

It may seem strange to encourage our children to listen for supernatural stuff. But I believe you get what you expect. As young children they can start expecting to hear from God even when the phone rings. That's the kind of expectation that I would love my two sons, Mac and Theo, and every child, to have. Because when they have it, when we all have it, even as adults, we'll end up knowing when the call from God finally does come.

There are a number of things that keep us from being able to respond to God's calling. They're represented in that story of Samuel, and also in the story of Jonah. The obstacle in Samuel is that Samuel doesn't recognize the voice of God. He doesn't have that experience. One of the most common questions put to a pastor is some form of, "How do I know that God is speaking?" Unfortunately, the only way to answer that is by getting to know God personally.

So if you haven't heard God's call on your life, it could just be because your antenna needs readjusting or putting up. Maybe God is calling and you're just not hearing. Talk to somebody who has some experience in hearing from God, to see the kinds of things that you should be listening for. You might be surprised at what you discover, what they help clarify and “bring into focus” with you.

The second thing that often interferes with hearing God's call is an unwillingness to hear, rather than an inability to hear. Or sometimes more accurately, an unwillingness to respond. Sometimes we're unwilling to respond because we don't feel worthy or able to do what's asked. But sometimes we're unwilling because we simply don't want to, or we think that what God is calling to us is going to be awful, we won’t be able to pay the bills, or be an effective leader or meet our family commitments or whatever.

That's nowhere better illustrated, I think, than in the story of Jonah. If you've never read the Old Testament book of Jonah, it's only a few chapters long. If you were in Sunday School as a child, chances are you know the story about the guy who gets swallowed by a whale.

It starts out with God's call to Jonah. Not a general call. A specific call to Jonah. "Hello, Jonah, I want you to go to the city of Ninevah and straighten them out. Tell them to get right with me or I'm going to wipe them out. I've had enough." Pretty simple. So what does Jonah do? Jonah boards a ship and sets sail -- in the exact opposite direction!

Why? We learn later that Jonah doesn't like the people of Ninevah. Having God destroy them, not help them, has been at the top of Jonah's prayer list. He does not want to do this.

Now you would expect that Jonah would then be un-called, have his number removed from God’s phonebook, and that that call would go out to somebody else.

But it doesn't. Jonah is not “off the hook.” God follows after Jonah, sends a storm that threatens the ship, gets Jonah thrown overboard and swallowed by a giant fish. After three dark slimy days, even the fish finds Jonah repulsive --  and throws him up on the shore.

Now imagine that you're Jonah. Imagine what you feel like as you lie in this disgusting mess on the beach. And what is the first thing that you hear, once you're out of this fish?

"Hi, Jonah, God here again. How’s your week going? Let’s try this again. I want you to go to the city of Ninevah and straighten them out." Probably Jonah's first response here was not appropriate for Sunday morning. But with the memory of darkness and fish innards, he decides this time maybe it's smart to go to Ninevah. He does what God asks and he calls for Ninevah to repent. They do, and the city is saved.

Does Jonah celebrate the generosity and grace of God? No. Jonah gets so mad at God that he wants to die. Because he still hates the people of Ninevah and he hadn't wanted them to listen. He was sure that they would reject God and that God would have punished them severely.

Now surely you would think that Jonah's going to get fired by God. Who can possibly put up with this guy’s attitude? He's rebellious, he’s a pain in the neck, and he could undermine the whole company. He objects to the company's mission statement and it should be a pink slip for him. But God was the one who called, and God takes the time to teach Jonah why the people of Ninevah are important. God is patient with Jonah, and Jonah's calling is never revoked.

In the face of the story of Jonah, I hope you can see how useless our objections to the call of God are. We can go in the opposite direction if we want to. But at some point life is finally going to throw us back up on the shore, back where we started, and then we'll hear that the call has never gone away. It's still there waiting for us. We haven't escaped it after all. And if somehow we think that we're too useless or worthless to be used by God, we'll find out that God uses us anyway, despite ourselves.

God is calling you by name. Can you hear it? Bob, Jason, Debbie, Kay? Will you hear it? It's the call that will change your life. It won't go away. If the line is busy, God will call back. If the phone is disconnected God will knock or Instant Message you. Have you ever really answered, talked to him in the quiet of the morning as the house is still, the dew sparkles gently on the lawn and the kids are asleep and you can think straight?

Have you ever finally stopped the chaos, been still, and said,

"Speak Lord, for your servant is listening."

Don't wait.

Pick Up. It’s for you.

Answer yes to your Lord.

Have a blessed week, and may peace be with you.

Amen.