I was talking with someone this week who believes that we must tell each other how we came to be followers of Jesus in order to build real trust in Christian community. Anyone who participates in the Education for Ministry program—which a number of you have—must write a spiritual autobiography and revise it each year they are in the program. Anyone who applies for a professional ministry degree program at a seminary must answer a question or questions that get at the same information. Ordained folks have to share how they came to their faith and why they believe they are being called to ordained ministry with their rector, the vestry of their church, their discernment committee, the Commission of Ministry, and the Bishop. I heard a priest once say that a Diocesan committee (not here in Delaware) told her she seemed to be focusing too much on herself. Her response to herself was to think, but you've been the ones asking me to explain this or that about myself for several years now!
What we notice in the scriptures we heard this morning are people called into a relationship with the Holy One and with the Holy One who became human. Why should we be concerned about this at all? We no longer feel pressured to attend church to avoid hellfire as people did in the Middle Ages. Most of us no longer live in small communities where all our neighbors would know if we “skipped” church. No longer are there restrictive “blue” laws that kept Sunday morning set apart for church attendance. In fact Sunday morning has become a time when lots of important activities happen unrelated to Christian practice.
Yet despite all the potential distractions this morning, each of you felt a pull to be present and to worship. Did you make a conscious decision, or was it out of habit? Or did you feel called to come, pulled by a desire to know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit just a little more fully than you did a week ago. And not by reading the Bible or a religious book on your own, not praying by yourself—but by gathering with others who are seeking the Holy One as well?
If you did, you were much like Andrew and one other unnamed disciple of John the Baptist who responded to Jesus' query about what they were looking for by staying and talking—and then following Jesus. And in the case of Andrew—he brought his brother Simon to meet Jesus, too.
Yes, there was an element of belief in their following Jesus: “We have found the Messiah,” but mostly it was about building a relationship—“and they remained with him [Jesus] that day.” Richard, Bishop of Chichester in 13th century England, wrote about his developing relationship with God. He wanted to “see Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly.” The use of “thee” in indicated familiarity, not divinity. You spoke to your relatives and close friends using “thee” and “thou.” St. Teresa of Avila in 16th century Spain wrote that “unoccupied” or silent prayer time was spending time with God as you would with a beloved friend—you didn't need a lot of words, perhaps none at all, to build a relationship—just time together. In Teresa’s monasteries friendship with God was lived out through friendship with each other. The nuns living in the reformed Carmelite communities she established were to treat each other as friends—even if they did like each other personally.
God's gift of a call into relationship and our response in following God's call to us may begin before we are even born. Isaiah explained his call this way: “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.” The writer of Psalm 40 saw his call as happening in the midst of his life: “I waited patiently for the Lord . . . He made my steps secure . . . He put a song in my mouth.” Paul expressed his call from and the call of God to the Christians in Corinth theologically: [I was] “called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” and to the Corinthians , , , “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”
Indeed, we understand ourselves as called by God into relationship, to be close friends with the Holy One and to gain wisdom we need so we may help others discover the love of God, available to all. As Christians we have encountered God through Jesus' life, death and resurrection. When we share our journey to faith and listen to others' journeys, we will gain community. Then through this community we will find strength to continue our journey in Christ—no matter what the circumstances.
Seeing or hearing about someone's righteous choices can give us the courage to follow a call to work for justice. Meeting at Mt. Zion Church, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others considered Rosa Parks' strength in facing down discrimination on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and the success of the one day bus boycott in that city on December 5, 1955. They decided to act and provide leadership for social justice. This movement sought to change the unjust practice of making African-Americans stand up on a full bus in order to give a white person a seat. At that meeting King accepted leadership of the Montgomery Improvement Association rhat managed the bus boycott. King's call to leadership in this non-violent movement eventually cost his life. He gained strength from Rosa Parks' story of courage for what he must have known would be a difficult journey. Her story, told in a memoir she published in 1995 called Quiet Strength, described the role religious faith played in her life. Parks' faith-in-action inspired King to follow God's call to him and still continues to inspire others to work for justice.
While we may not have such wide impact in fighting injustice as Parks and King had, our faith story can become an important tool in helping others understand God's call to them. Don't fail to share it when an opportunity arises—and ask God to help you find those opportunities.
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