Called

Luke 4: 14-21

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Carrefour, Haiti was once a comfortable suburb community situated on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.  It was a place that many people, who once worked in the capital city, came home to at night.  They came home to their spouses, their children, stores, schools, hospitals, and restaurants.  It held the places and people of their lives. On Tuesday, January 12 all of that changed, when the 7.0 earthquake hit.  Carrefour, which means crossroads, had at one time been a lush, trendy town on the Caribbean Sea, but had sunk into poverty over the last few years.  The earthquake knocked it down quite a bit farther by taking over 6000 lives, and any sense of hope and purpose away from those who were left behind. Survivors looked for water, food and help from anyone that showed up, including news media from around the world.   The sense of fear was overwhelming and unimaginable to us, as we sit in our comfortable suburban communities.  In Carrefour hope was found in the tiniest increments, such as generators and toothpaste.  A small generator retrieved from the police station provided a focused ray of light in the midst of the dark, and toothpaste was spread around people’s noses to help keep away the smell of death. [1] People around the world, including many here in this community, feel called to help in ways that they are able.  Watching the death and destruction on television brings out a deep sense of compassion and a forceful urge to do doing something.  Many feel called by God to help.

 Haiti is at a crossroads.  It is a significant time in its history and an unwelcome marker in time.    As the years go by people will look back to January 12, and the days that followed as an event that changed the course of the country.  There will be a before and an after. 

Crossroads are those intersecting, defining moments in life where a country or a government, a business, church, family or individual person sees the choices that lay before them.  By engaging in some process of evaluation, discernment or faith, they make a decision and choose which road they are going to take.   

We have crossroad moments in our history; December 7, 1941 September 11, 2001 and the recent Senatorial election here in Massachusetts.

A marriage, a divorce, death are crossroad moments in one’s life.  A near death experience for someone can be a crossroad moment.  Many people come away from coping with a long illness, or recovering from an accident by changing their life.  There was a before – and then there is an after. 

Choosing a college, changing careers by choice or by getting laid off - are also crossroad moments. There are crossroad moments in our faith life as well – times we make a decision one way or another. As people of faith, when faced with a decision or a direction, we turn to reliable sources to help guide us in our decision making.  We read the scriptures, consult with other like-minded Christians, and spend time in prayer listening for the voice of God. 

The scriptures are filled with stories of people who were called by God at defining moments in their lives.  They heard the call to do the work of God or to speak for God.  Moses, Hannah, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Paul. 

For example, Moses heard his call at the burning bush in Exodus 3 & 4.  Moses was standing at the crossroads.  Moses is minding his own business tending the sheep when he sees a bush over yonder that is on fire but not burning up.  He goes over to the bush and the Lord calls out to him.  Moses recognizes that is it the voice of God and promptly replies, “Here I am Lord.”  However the task that God asks Moses to do is a pretty big one and Moses is overwhelmed and fearful.   Moses is asked to go to Pharaoh and tell him that he’s going to take the Jewish people away from them and guide them to the Promised Land.   Moses is called to lead the people in a new direction – but the fear rises up from within him and he has pretty long litany of excuses why he can’t do it.   Four excuses, which reveal four very common fears that rise to the surface when one hears the call of God. 

            Moses said, “Who me?”…we lack self-esteem and feel inadequate.

            Moses said, “Who are you?” …..we question who God is in our lives.

            Moses said, “They won’t believe me.”….we worry about what others think.

            Moses said,   “I’m not good at speaking”…we are afraid of being misunderstood.

God had a good answer for all of those fearful excuses and responses from Moses to the call.   God reminds Moses that he will be with him always, reminds him of the power and strength of his very name, YAHWEH – I AM WHO I AM.  God also gave Moses signs that he was with him, and he sent along Aaron to help him speak.  And so after he worked through all those fears and excuses, Moses did what God asked him to do and led the people out of Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land.   Moses followed the call of God, but had to go through the process of discernment in order to get going.  It wouldn’t be the last time that Moses and God had to have some conversations and course corrections in their journeying. 

In our second scripture we hear about the response of the prophet Jeremiah, who also heard a call from God.  Jeremiah, who was apparently a mere youth, also had to get some things straight in his head, before he could proceed. 

Jeremiah speaks:

 ⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

 ⁵ "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
       before you were born I set you apart;
       I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

 ⁶ "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

 ⁷ But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

 ⁹ Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Jeremiah heard the call of God and was standing at the crossroads.  He tried to get out of it by protesting that he was too young and was not a very good speaker. But the Lord sees his fear and responds by saying; “don’t say that.  You must go and remember this, do not be afraid for I am with you and will rescue you.”   The Lord reaches out and touches Jeremiah’s mouth, empowering him to answer the call and go forward.  

This symbolic act of the Lord touching his lips is similar to the call of Isaiah, who also responded with one hesitant objection before he said “yes.”  Isaiah had quite a magnificent vision of the Lord, and his mouth is touched by a burning piece of coal.  Following that symbolic act, when he hears the voice of the Lord ask “whom shall I send,” Isaiah responds, “Here am I! Send me.”

Jonah hears the call of the Lord to go to the city of Nineveh, but he turns and runs the other way, which get’s him into a whale of trouble.   Mary hears the call and sings.  The Apostle Paul’s very life and direction are changed dramatically on the Damascus Road.  It was a defining moment for the new Christian faith and the future church.  All of these men and women were everyday people, who heard the call of God at a crossroad moment of their life, went through a process of discernment, evaluation, questioning and fear, but then went forward in faith. 

Today’s reading from Luke 4 is sometimes considered the call of Jesus.  Luke places this story at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, right after he had spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil with power, riches and authority.   Jesus returns to his home town of Nazareth, goes into the synagogue, as was his custom, stood up to read and was given the scroll of Isaiah.  It was a crossroad moment as all eyes were upon him.  Jesus chooses to read a portion of Isaiah 61:1 &2, but he leaves something out.  He reads:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Because he has anointed me

To preach good news to the poor,

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To release the oppressed,

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  

 ²⁰Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. 

There before this hometown crowd Jesus states his calling.   Jesus has been anointed or called to work with the poor, the prisoners, the infirmed, the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 

In the scriptures, the year of the Lord’s favor refers to the Jubilee year, a period of fifty years time where all debts are forgiven and slaves are set free.  This Messiah was not going to be who they expected, he is going to teach and preach forgiveness, and not vengeance or violence.

It is interesting to note something here about Jesus’ call to ministry.   Jesus chose to read from Isaiah and link the scripture to himself.   But Jesus also chooses to leave out and does not read Isaiah 61:2b which reads “the day of vengeance of our God.”  His is a ministry of forgiveness and love to the hurting and oppressed people of the world.   This is the calling of Jesus Christ.  

Carol Lakey Hess states that “in today’s passage we learn what Jesus came to do; insofar as we measure our lives against this, we are following Jesus’ ministry” and “the implication of this text is that if we are going to study, interpret, and follow the gospel we should keep coming back to this text to measure our own work.” [2]

It seems that it is another crossroad moment in the life of our church.  A time to do a check-in and a check-up on how we are doing as a community of faith, and how we are doing ministry together.    It’s time to check on our calling as a church and choose again a road that we are called to take. 

• As we stand at the crossroads – will we come back to this text that defines the ministry of Jesus and check it up against our own ministry?
• As we stand at the crossroads together – will we come back to this text and check it up against our varied expectations of what church should be?
• As we stand at the crossroads together – will we check our emotions to see if we are a people of compassion, a people of forgiveness and a people who refrain from violence – both external violence and that internal violence of spirit that the Rev. King reminds us to leave outside the door? 
• As we stand at the crossroads – will we listen for the call of God to this particular congregation and ask God “what can we do for you?” Or will we turn the other way because of fear?

Remember that God notices and knows our fear intimately just as he did with Jeremiah and the other prophets and disciple in scripture.  God’s response to Jeremiah was this, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.”  It has been said that the most frequently used commandment in the Bible is “fear not.”  [3]

Today this community of faith stands at the crossroads once again, something it has most likely done countless times since its formation in 1822.  Let us faithfully listen for the call of God and remember to fear not – for God is with us.

Amen. 

Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard