Sermon for Year B, Epiphany 3: "Called To Serve"

Sermon preached on Sunday, January 25, 2009 at Christ & Saint Stephen's Church. Lectionary texts this sermon is based on can be found here.

Has anyone ever said this to you: “Oh, you know, I don’t go to church on Sundays. I just don’t get that much out of it.” Our business-oriented consumer society values above all else – well, value, return on investment, discernible gains for time, money and energy invested. We want our time to be well spent and our money to be well spent. We use the same words to describe our outflows of money and time because we view them similarly. We want to get good value for our money, to make good use of our time.

Even when we describe those things we do for others, we often explain that, “Oh, I don’t do that much really, and besides I get so much out of it myself.” Which is true, I suppose, but not really the point, is it?

What is interesting about these figures of speech is their point of focus. They emphasize what we get rather than what we give or what we share. I always want to say to those ‘I don’t get that much out of church” folks,“Well, did you ever think that you might have something to give the church, something to share? Maybe there’s something you have to offer that is sorely needed. Maybe this whole church thing is about what you give, not what you get?”

Can you imagine, if Simon, Andrew, James and John had said to Jesus, “Oh, thanks, really for asking… That would be so great to be your disciple, really. I’m flattered. But you know, I really don’t have time for that right now. I am so over-booked, what with the fishing and everything! It sounds exciting. But truth be told, I’m not really a people person. Give me fish any day! And besides, I’m not really a joiner. Yeah, not my thing, I don’t think I would get that much out of it…”

Thankfully, they didn’t react that way at all. They were called and they followed. And at some price to themselves. In Luke, Peter is said to own his own fishing boat, and in today’s gospel text, it seems that Zebedee is the owner of the fishing business that James and John and the ‘hired men’ work for. These four disciples were business owners or nearly so, and in walking away from the shore of the Sea of Galilee to follow this Jesus fellow they did indeed forgo quite a bit of economic and social security.

For most of us, however, God’s call is not quite so dramatic as all that. Most of us are not called to be full-time disciples. But we are called, each of us. We are called by God into the church where we pledge to strive for justice and peace, to respect the dignity of every human being, and to serve Christ in all persons.

Paul tells us in our reading from First Corinthians that it matters not who or what we are or were, whatever our manner of life or station in society -- whoever is called by the Lord belongs to the Lord. No matter what the other considerations of our lives may be; we are to make use of our present condition for the glory of God and in service to the people of God.

That famous turn of phrase that Jesus uses in today’s gospel is one that is very familiar to us –probably more so in the King James translation: “I will make you fishers of men.” That phrase would have sounded quite odd in Jesus’ day. Most people were much more closely connected to the sources of their sustenance in first century Palestine. Most families would have grown their own food or at least some of it, they would have made their own clothes to a large degree, built or repaired their own homes, drawn their own water. There were traders and merchants and other ways to make a living; but for the most part, families were closely connected to the sources of their food, drink and shelter. There was no social services sector in the Palestinian economy, no social workers, no ‘helping professions’. So to hear that you were being called to be a fisher of people would have sounded odd indeed. What would such a life entail? How exactly was one to eat or drink or cloth oneself as a ‘fisher of people’?

God’s call to service to us today may seem equally confounding. Often we are called into paths that we would never choose on our own. Sometimes we are called into roles that we have never pictured ourselves in.

There are people from my past who have been quite literally aghast, nearly speechless, when they find out where my life has led. But others that will say to me, “Oh, I’m not surprised that you’re now a priest.” Which always ticks me off a little bit, because I sure didn’t see it coming!

God may call us to do extraordinary things -- fishers of people, indeed -- or God may call us to do the most ordinary of things.

I spent one Holy Saturday afternoon sprucing up the church for the Easter Vigil with my friend and fellow parishioner Daniel. Daniel has led an interesting life. He comes from a town in northwest Arkansas, from a family of Missouri Synod Lutherans. I don’t know if any of you folks know the Missouri Synod, but they are fairly conservative, fairly exclusive bunch of Christians. Daniel’s mother is the church organist and his father, a small town businessman, is deeply involved in the church as well. Daniel left home for college, eventually earning a master’s degree with a thesis on the history of the Tulsa Opera… After college, Daniel moved to Memphis, that oh so cosmopolitan city, where he came out and met his first boyfriend.

Over the course of his life, Daniel has had many jobs, waiting tables, as a network administrator, and most recently as a director for an AIDS service organization, and along the way becoming an Episcopalian. On this one Holy Saturday, as we were polishing the pews with Murphy’s Oil Soap, Daniel said, “I really love doing this. My father does this every year. This feels like what being a man and serving the church is supposed to feel like, I think.”

God called Daniel into an entirely different life than his own father has led, a bit like John and James in today’s gospel. But in his service to the church, he has trod the same path as his father. Because I am certain that the same faith that lived in Daniel’s grandfather, and in Daniel’s father, now lives in him. And that same faith has led them all to service to the church.

God might be calling you to serve the church and the world in ways that might feel very comfortable to you, or very uncomfortable. Perhaps you will find yourself doing something you could never imagine. Perhaps you’ll find yourself serving the church in ways you thought better suited to your parents or grandparents, and that is something you hadn’t ever imagined.

Beginning with today’s Annual Meeting, and over the next weeks and months, I invite you to consider what form of service God might be calling you to. It might be as a Church School teacher or Altar Guild member. Maybe this is the year you will join our AIDS Walk or Crop Walk teams. Maybe this is the year you’ll fill out your first pledge card. Maybe God is calling you to a renewed life of prayer, and we’ll see you soon at one of our Daily Offices. Perhaps God is calling you to some time off from ministry; maybe it’s time to refresh yourself for further service a bit later on.

One thing I am sure of is this, God calls all the baptized to service. We are called to serve God though service to God’s children. Listen for the call, really listen, and I’m sure you’ll hear it. And welcome the call. God’s arms of love are open wide to all his children. What less can we offer in return but open hearts and minds, and willing hands?

+Amen.

© The Rev. Mark R. Collins