2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
January 18, 2015
1 Samuel 3:1-10; Psalm 139; John 1:43-51
At
the age of 26 I had my dream job: I was a missionary in Nicaragua. You see, I didn’t grow up wanting to be a
pastor; I grew up wanting to be a teacher and that was what I studied in
college. I used to be an elementary
school teacher. Because my family had moved
around so much while I was growing up, including living abroad, I had always
wondered about teaching in another country.
Twelve years ago this month, I started the Disciple II bible study. Disciple II goes in depth in Genesis, Exodus,
Luke, and Acts. Like all Disciple
studies, it has daily readings and the study book has space for you to take
notes. Only this time the facilitator
suggested we divide our notes into two sections: “What I Read,” a summary of
that day’s Bible reading, and “What God Said,” what God said to us through that
Scripture passage. Well, we got into
Acts, and all of my “God Said’s” were some variation of “Heather, can you do
this? Can you be like Stephen? Can you be like Paul? Can you be like Barnabas? Can you go where I send you? Can you proclaim the gospel with truth and
grace?” And, eventually, I got the point
and began exploring ways to serve God in another country.
The
United Methodist young adult program was on hiatus, and I searched through over
twenty different mission agencies, finally choosing a nondenominational one
based out of Phoenix called Food for the Hungry. They served in Latin America, which was good,
since I already spoke Spanish; they offered health insurance; and they had a
clear mission and vision of why they did what they did. Many mission agencies I looked at just had a
vague statement of we do this because we’re Christians, and that wasn’t enough
for me. Food for the Hungry had a much
more detailed statement of specific actions as a result of specific
beliefs. The one thing I was less sure
of was that they required a three year commitment. But, I was 25 and single, so why not? I signed a contract to teach with them for
three years in Nicaragua. The first two
years I’d teach in Nicaraguan schools; the third year I’d conduct teacher
training, since I’d studied methodology classes and how to be a teacher. Most Nicaraguan teachers I met had no
training in teaching, but I wasn’t going to tell them how to teach until I’d
taught in their classrooms.
I
LOVED Nicaragua. I fell in love with the
people, the culture, the land, the food.
My mom said she had never seen me so happy in my life. It was clear that I was where I was supposed
to be, where God had called me to be.
I’m not saying life was easy and I didn’t at times struggle with
unreliable electricity or a lack of hot water.
But I knew and everything affirmed that God had called me there. I thought about staying longer than three
years.
Just
shy of completing my first year, I developed rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor put me on bed rest so that I
didn’t damage my joints while they were so inflamed. I was house-sitting for an American family at
the time, and it was the best place to be on bed rest! I had air conditioning, cable tv, internet,
and their maid still came by every couple days to clean and to check on
me. It was not easy to sit, or lie down,
and rest. I was used to moving. So, I decided to look at the ten days of bed
rest as a personal retreat, and find out what God had to tell me while I was on
my butt that he couldn’t tell me when I was too active. I prayed a lot, read my Bible, journaled, and
talked with friends. The word that came
through was that it was time to go back to the U.S. Three years was not God’s number. Yes, I had been where he called me, but now
he was calling me somewhere else. He
wasn’t just calling me back to the U.S., he was calling me to go to seminary,
to become a pastor.
The
doctors’ best guess is that I would have developed rheumatoid arthritis anyway,
just not as young, and perhaps it was the dengue fever I’d had a few months
before that triggered the arthritis to start when it did. Either way, it’s what God used to get my
attention and redirect my life. God
didn’t call me in the middle of the night, like Samuel. I wasn’t sitting under a fig tree, like
Nathanael. The gospel of John says that
Jesus found Philip. Each and every call story is a little
different, and we’ll read a few more in the coming weeks. Each one’s a little different, and yet each
one has similarities as well. One thing
we can tell from these stories is that God
calls people at all different places and times. In fact, there is such a wide variety in
God’s calls that you could say he has better coverage than any of the cell phone companies!
It doesn’t matter whether you’re sitting under a fig tree or on the
couch, whether you’re asleep or awake, whether you expect a call or not,
whether you’re young or old. God’s not
done with you yet, and there is nowhere you can go that he cannot. As our psalm this morning said, “If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the
world of the dead, you would be there.
If I flew away beyond the east or lived in the farthest place in the
west, you would be there to lead me, you would be there to help me.”[1]
God’s
got the coverage; the reception is up to
you. How has God called you? What call has he placed on your life? And how is he calling you now? Is he calling you to teach Sunday school? To feed the homeless? To work with children? To serve on a committee to make our church
more effective at making disciples of Jesus Christ? To become yourself a better disciple of Jesus
Christ? God’s not done with you yet,
which means there is still a call on your life for you to live into.
Or
perhaps you know what God’s calling you to do.
Perhaps you have an idea, something that’s been laid on your heart, that
keeps you up at night, that excites you and terrifies you at the same time. It may not be Jesus right there in your face
saying “Follow me,” it may be a little more subtle and so you can try to ignore
it. But if you know what God’s calling
you to do next, if you’ve received it and have prayed and discerned what your
new call is, if one thing is done and it’s time for something new… well, that
can be scary. Some calls are easier to
live into than others. Some involve
leaving the country; others involve crossing the street. If you know what God’s been calling you to do
and you’re dawdling, it’s time to get up off your butt and do it. Bed rest is over! Procrastination is over. What’s
God laying on your heart? And what are
you going to do about it? Samuel was
afraid to tell Eli what God told him, because it was something Eli wasn’t going
to hear. But with Eli’s encouragement,
Samuel shared it, and Eli accepted it.
Nathanael was skeptical that Jesus could really be the Messiah. He had his doubts about following someone
from Nazareth, he didn’t think too highly about Nazarenes. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “You want me to do what, Philip? Are you crazy? Don’t you know that town’s reputation? Nothing good can come from there.” Philip simply invited him to come and see,
and Nathanael did, and was pleasantly surprised.
Whether
you’re afraid of sharing your call or have your doubts about it and how it’s
going to work out, if it’s from God, that’s good. Don’t be afraid to share it. Yes, people are going to call you crazy. It happened to me when I told people I was
going to Nicaragua. And if you have
doubts, that’s good, too, because it means only God can work it out and you’ll
have to rely on him. I had to raise all
my own funds to serve in Nicaragua. I
was nervous about it. Who likes to ask
people for money? But you know
what? I had no problems raising funds
and prayer partners. God provided, and
then some! When I left, after only a
year, there were enough funds in my account for my Nicaraguan colleagues to buy
a new car, which we desperately needed.
If it’s a call where you have to rely on God to carry it out, it’s
something you cannot do by yourself, it’s scary, but it’s good. It means living by faith and not by sight. It means God’s about to do something
awesome!
At
Cowenton I keep hearing bits about children.
This church was started as a Sunday school for youth. And children and youth seem to be one of the
important core threads of our identity.
Even at finance this past week, it came up again about doing something
with children in the old Terrific Tots room above the Fellowship Hall. I sense that children are important here,
it’s one of the reasons I want to get a nursery going, which we will be in the
next few weeks. And I could be wrong,
but I sense that we want to be in ministry with children in some way. So, the question is how is God calling us to go about it? What’s God calling us to do about it? What’s God calling you to do about it? It may
not be for you to sit and read stories with a child, it may be for something
completely different, and that’s ok.
God’s got some wild dreams, beyond what we could imagine. If we can grasp hold of this call, of this
vision, then we can start living into it.
I don’t think God’s done with Cowenton yet, I think he’s calling us to a
new thing. Has he laid on your heart
just what that is? Do you have a glimpse
of it?
And
how about individually, not just as a church, but for yourself. What’s going on in your life? Is God calling you to a new thing? Or have you been ignoring an old call? Please know that I am praying for you, and
the altar is always open if you’d like me to pray with you. God’s
calling. What is he saying and what are
you going to do about it?
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