Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-41
Psalm 40:1-10
"Come and See!"
Do you get the feeling that there could be a message for us this Sunday about being called? The choice of readings isn't very subtle, is it?
"The Lord called me before I was born," says Isaiah. "While I was in my mother's womb, God named me." Psalm 40 tells of the answer to the call: "Then I said, 'Here I am: in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God.'"
The gospel shows us what it meant for John the Baptist to answer that call. We already know that John was called "from the womb," like Isaiah-how the angel Gabriel announced his birth, and his name, before he was ever conceived. Now here is the grown-up John doing just what the angel predicted he would do: preparing the way for God's anointed, the one called by God to redeem the world.
Then, because of John's testimony, two of his disciples become curious about this Jesus. They ask if they may visit him: "Where are you staying?"-and they receive the most gentle kind of call: "Come and see." They go, and they see, and they become disciples, and bring others, too, to "come and see."
So those dramatic words in Isaiah, and in the psalm, and in the gospel, are about some really special people-prophets, apostles, John the Baptist, and ultimately Jesus, who fulfills all the Scripture. Right?
Well, yes. But then we heard Paul writing to his friends in Corinth, "called to be saints." Called to be saints? Now, in the next few weeks we will read on in this letter to the folks in Corinth, and "saints" is the last word you'd be likely to apply to them. They are arguing about who's smarter than whom, they are going to court against each other, they are bashing either other about sexual standards, they can't get straight what roles women should play in the community, they are up and down about what the resurrection means-in fact, if this letter started out "to those who are in the Episcopal Church in the United States," it would play out pretty much the same. The more things change, the more they remain the same, even in the church. And yet-"called to be saints."
Could it just be that you and I are called? It just could be, and in fact it is so. Otherwise there wouldn't be any point to our being here, and there wouldn't be any point in our listening to these Bible texts. If all you want is to hear some interesting stories about heroes of the past, you can watch the History Channel. When the Bible is read in the church, it's not about once-upon-a-time. It's about you and me.
It's what being church is all about. The original name for church, ekklesia, means "the people called." The Assemblies of God have the right translation in their name. It's who we are: God's assembly, the people God calls together.
We Christians know that salvation is not a do-it-yourself project. In these last days, in the fullness of time, God has sent us a Savior who is Christ the Lord. But salvation isn't a spectator sport, either. "Come and see" isn't an invitation to be couch potatoes watching the great events of salvation unroll through the church year, shouting "hallelujah" at Easter, and then changing the channel to the basketball game. To answer the invitation to "come and see" is to get up off the couch, to get curious about this Jesus, and to enter into a relationship with him.
Of course, you already know all this, because this is a Total Ministry church. For our visitors today, I should explain that Total Ministry, or Mutual Ministry, is a way of activating the ministries of all for the good of all. Our catechism tells us that "the ministers of the church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons," and Total Ministry takes that seriously. A team of people with specialized ministries is called out by the community, each with a special function, but it doesn't work unless everyone in the whole parish recognizes her or his role as part of the ministering community. The team offers support and needs support. Every parish member is called, every day, to "come and see" what Christ is calling his church to do that day, and to lend whatever kind of support he or she can offer.
And to support the whole group, in turn, there are a few who are called to "professional" priesthood-to put their whole lives on the line, you might say, to help others to see, to hear, and to follow their call. Following the call, for any of us, is first of all a matter of awe, and wonder, and helpless surrender to the God who has called us out of darkness into light, out of sorrow into joy-and out of passivity into acting for each other.
That is the feeling I get about John the Baptist-that when he says "Behold the Lamb of God!" he is caught up in awe and wonder at what his eyes behold, seeing beyond appearances to the truth of God Incarnate. The priests and bishops in the church are like John the Baptist for today: their part is to point to Christ so that others may see. Jesus says of John: "among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." And John says of Jesus: "he must increase; I must decrease." It is an awesome thing to be called to ministry-and that call is for all of us-; but those who are summoned to special roles need always to bear in mind that their calling is only for your sake: the more Christ increases in you, the less important they become. And they rejoice in their decreasing. In a sermon at the ordination of deacons last summer, Archdeacon Irma Wyman reminded us all that it is the shepherd who goes ahead of the flock, while the sheepdogs go behind. Jesus is the shepherd, walking ahead; those who are called out for special ministries take their places in the rear, and that is very good.
Do you think that you are too old, or too busy, or too young, or too something else-that "where you are" in your life right now means God could not be calling you? Forget that! I have seen people called in places and at times that most of us would think are just impossible. One of the women I met at seminary was in the hospital after a second bout with a life-threatening illness when her priest came to see her and told her he had submitted her name for the ordination process. "You've been called," he told her. She was no spring chicken, let me tell you. Another woman I met there worked every work-study job there was, just to make ends meet, and was being threatened with losing her house because under the terms of her mortgage she wasn't supposed to be renting it out-but she was called, and there she was, parsing Greek verbs and trying to pass the map quiz.
And it isn't just about priests, either. One man I just missed meeting, for he died right before I got to my field ed parish, Holy Apostles. Jimmy was a hard-working man from the docks who, when he retired, went looking for some volunteer work. He found a notice on a bulletin board, and before he knew it he was director of volunteers for the largest soup kitchen in New York City. He never was very sure about God and church and all that, but he dedicated his life to the people who needed help. He was called, big time. I went to his memorial service, and it was celebrated by a bishop!
Earlier this month we celebrated a feast for Julia Chester Emery. Her call? She was Secretary to the Women's Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was nobody at all, a tiny little laywoman, and yet she may have influenced this church more than any other single person in its history. If it hadn't been for her work behind the scenes, organizing women to raise money for the missions and using that money to pay the salaries of women missionaries and deaconesses and teachers, I don't think we would have women priests and bishops today. Thank God for her call, and that she answered it.
The call to "come and see" is for you. If you respond, I promise that your amazed eyes will behold God clothed in humanity, on fire with love for human creatures and for all the universe, and with only one desire: that we might become what Christ is. Called to be saints, the holy people of God. Oh yes. And to this calling let all the people say: Amen.