"To be called ... having the courage to respond ..."
One of the things that is central to our theology as a Church is the concept and idea of call. Call undergirds everything we do, everything we say, everything we think and yet, I doubt we EVER think about it more than with a passing notion …
When our congregations are looking for a new minister we talk about call. We will call a new minister rather than hire.
In modern language, call refers to a myriad of things from calling someone on the phone to seeing them on the ski hill and calling to them. Yet, in the Church call is a very clearly defined set of ideas and concepts.
When we call a minister we are asking someone to come and minister with us who is bringing the gifts and talents and enthusiasm we have discerned spiritually to be what we need and want and can use.
In broader church concepts when we begin a discernment process with someone who is feeling CALLED to minister we are seeking to ascertain if they have been called to ministry, and what ministry they have been called too. It’s not a popular thought in Church circles, but I’ve heard elders say to us repeatedly that we must do a better job of assisting in the discerning of call. One Church elder I once knew boldly said at a Conference AGM that not everyone who is ‘called’ is being called to Ordained or Commissioned leadership – some, he said ‘may be simply called to deepen their commitment to their congregation rather than standing in the pulpit and leading a community of faith …”
He was not popular, but he was in many respects right. He lived and worked in a Presbytery that has been a hotbed of settlement for decades. Every year somewhere in the presbytery at least one, and often more newly ordained and commissioned folks land from their training at Theology College and begin ministry. Many are gifted and committed people who are starting out on what could be long and rewarding ministries in the Church, others likely should have been committed, while still others were never called to the ministry of leadership in the first place, but should have simply deepened their involvement in the Church …
The process of discernment is difficult and fraught with challenges, but it is central to everything we do and everything we are about as a Church. Without Call, we have nothing to motivate us – nothing to encourage and nourish new leadership – nothing to move us from where we are to where God wants us to be … Call is the heart of our faith.
We are ALL called. The challenge and the task of the Church is to help each of us to discern what our call is …
In the United Church we have, on paper, done a good job of celebrating and lifting up the many ways in which we are called, and we strive to honour the diversity of the gifts, talents and enthusiasm that are NEEDED to keep a healthy active community of faith functioning in its ministry. The concept we live is very much based from the Biblical text to the Church at Corinth where Paul celebrates the many gifts of the body, and notes that not every one can be an arm or a leg, or an ear or an eye, but together we form the body, and no gift is really better than another, simply different.
A healthy functioning church needs a myriad of callings … from the leadership in the pulpit to the Sunday School teachers, to the volunteers who put together dinners and worship services, to the folks who bring cookies and casseroles, to the people who take fifteen minutes to pray … ALL of these gifts are valuable and important, and we could not function long without them.
Yet, the vast majority of gifts and talents shared in the Church are seldom thought about in the context of call … we don’t think of our Sunday School teachers being ‘called’ … we don’t think of dear Mrs McGillicutty brining her tuna casserole and chocolate chip cookies as “called” … yet, they are. The gifts we bring and offer are part of that call that draws us together and celebrates the commonality of faith in this place.
We are called as certainly as Samuel was called that day in Bethany.
We are called as clearly as Nathaniel and Philip were called.
We are called to come and share our faith – our talents, our gifts, our treasures, our time, our enthusiasms and our interests. Whatever it is, we are a community built on the things that each of us brings and shares in response to the call from God asking us to be part of THIS …
And, that is the moment when we can stop and look around and instead of lamenting what we may fell is lacking, we can instead celebrate what we HAVE and what we SHARE.
Whether we see it or not, we are a community of faith based around the proverbial kitchen table. Food and beverage and the fellowship they represent are CENTRAL to what we do and who we are. Our mens’ fellowship is ALL about food and coffee and conversation around the table. Almost everytime we have a gathering or a meeting somebody puts a pot of coffee on. We even sell the coffee as a means of awareness and conscience raising.
Our calling begins with fellowship. Meals, coffee time, gathering in the kitchen to chat – we DO IT ALL THE TIME – it’s who this community is, it’s what we do … it’s OUR CALLING, and that casual form of fellowship colours the rest of what we’re about as a community of faith.
The knitting circle, the prayer circle, the Sunday School, our worship, our various outreach activities, the use of our building – ALL OF THE THINGS WE DO emanate from this casual fellowship based on the kitchen table. The heart of our communion as a Church is not the formal tables that sit in our sanctuary, but rather the worn tattered tables where we have coffee, cookies and the occasional sandwich or bowl of soup.
We may break bread formally up here – but the real bread that we break happens other times downstairs!
It’s ALL about celebrating our Call to ministry. A call that brings us to the table, then sends us out into the world to welcome in others who are hungering for something more …
When I first began talking about Fair Trade Coffee, I cited the tag line – we will change the world one cup of coffee at a time. The implication of this is that through Fair Trade we can better the lives of producers in the third world regions where our coffee, tea, chocolate and other products come from.
By paying a fair price for our product here in Canada, the producers in places like Ethiopia, Columbia and India get more money in their pocket, which means a better standard of living, more opportunity for their kids and their community, and an overall improvement in the lives of those who are growing coffee, tea and cocoa for far away lands.
But that notion of changing the world flows the OTHER way too. Our community is changing one cup of coffee at a time when we live our faith openly and by sharing our calling.
In the case of coffee, we have not only provided folks in our community a good quality product, THEY KNOW WE’RE HERE. I’ve said it many times that I’ve lost count of the number of people who have picked up a bag of coffee at the farmers’ market and looked at the tags we staple to them and said “Wow, there’s a Church in Eugenia/Flesherton! I didn’t know that …”
People know we’re here. People know we’re not ashamed to be the Church – we no longer have to whisper that we’re part of this community of faith. We are out and about telling people we exist and THEY are welcome to come and share in the activities and outreach we embrace by living out our calling.
One cup of coffee at a time, we make people feel welcome in our buildings and in our circle of community, and we share our call.
That is the heart of our faith – our call. Samuel grasped that idea when he went back to his bed that night and waited to once again hear the voice calling to him in the darkness and he dared to say “Speak Lord, your servant is listening …”
Philip and Nathaniel grasped that when they responded to Jesus’ invitation to come and join in the ministry he was sharing throughout Galilea.
We can not only graps this idea, but share it when we respond to the call in our life to live our faith in this wonderful community we call Church.
We ALL have gifts, talents, abilities, enthusiasms and interests to share – and we are gathered together in this place with the opportunity to do just that – to share in faith who we are with one another and with our community and our world …
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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