Jesus calls and four men, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, stop what they’re doing and follow him. As we listen to this story today, from our vantage point of having read ahead in the story, we hear the call that changed the life of these four men. We don’t know much about what happened that day. We don’t know if Jesus has been hanging out with these men, talking about his hopes and fears, sizing them up as traveling companions, preparing them to set out with him. We don’t know if this is their first encounter with him. And we certainly don’t know what is going on in their minds as they listen to his words, put down the nets and walk away with him. Because we know the rest of the disciples’ journey, we hear in this story that the men hear Jesus’ call and immediate reorder their lives to follow him. Maybe so. Or perhaps—perhaps they simply hear him inviting them to an afternoon walk with him. Two thousand years later, we have no way of knowing what happened that day. What we can know is that every single one of us has a call. What we can know is that Christ is still calling people to follow him.
Yesterday, I—and a good many other folks—were privileged to hear the call stories of two people. The first story belongs to the Rev. Zane Wilemon, who was ordained to the priesthood yesterday at Trinity Cathedral. The preacher was a deacon who is also an ear-nose-and-throat physician. According to him, Zane’s story began with a sinus infection when he was a pre-med student at the University of Kansas. Over the course of his treatment, the preacher got to know Zane pretty well, and he was impressed by the passion Zane has for helping people improve the quality of their lives. His motivation seemed different than that of other pre-med students the preacher encountered, and one fine day, he asked Zane if he’d ever thought about becoming a priest. He certainly had not, but the seed was planted. Sometime later, Zane went to Kenya to serve as a missionary for a year. And yesterday he stepped into another phase of the journey that began in a clinic exam room years ago.
The second story belongs to Joanne Crary Farlow. Joanne died on New Year’s Day and her memorial service was at St. Francis Church yesterday. At least 400 people gathered to celebrate Joanne’s life—a life filled with joyous service. The preacher was a priest who has known Joanne since the early 80’s, and as he described her ministry over the years, her call story emerged. Joanne heard her call from two sources—the things she loved to do and the invitations people extended to her—which encouraged her to do more of what she loved. She loved to sing and was active in the choir and in the Cursillo music group. She made her Cursillo in the early 80’s and responded to the invitation to become part of the team. As her ministry grew, she became a leader in the community, encouraging others to hear and follow their calls.
Zane’s and Joanne’s stories are very different but they have two things in common—and with the most of the call stories I’ve ever heard. First, it’s very unlikely that either Zane nor Joanne knew in that moment of call how their lives would change. In fact, most of us don’t recognize the moment of call when it happens. Usually, it’s only as we look back along the path that we’re able to say, “Oh, I remember when someone first mentioned that to me. Who knew I’d end up doing this some day?” The second thing that’s common to Zane and Joanne is that their calls came in the voices of the people around them. Although some folks do hear God’s voice speaking directly and clearly about what God wants them to do, most of us don’t. Most of us hear words in simple sentences from the people around us—people who invite us to a new activity—people who invite us to consider a new perspective—people who notice our gifts and call us to use them in a way that helps to bring the reign of God a little more firmly into the world.
These two characteristics of call—our lack of awareness of the moment when God is calling us more deeply into a new direction and the fact that God seems to use real live people to deliver that call—have two implications for our lives.
The first implication is that we need to pay attention to the people around us. The second implication is that we need to pay attention to the people around us. As individuals in community, we are called to support each other in identifying the gifts God has given us and in growing those gifts in ministry to the world. Usually that’s fairly easy. If—and that’s a big word—if we are paying attention to the people around us—if we are noticing what is actually happening, their gifts become apparent to us, and there’s joy in sharing our impressions with them.
Living into the other implication isn’t quite so easy. Obedience to God’s call means we need to pay attention to the people around us—to listen to what they are saying to us. As part of the Body of Christ, as individuals living in faithful community, we are called to listen carefully to the discernment of the communities in which we live. We are called to remember that God speaks to us through the people who see us every day—through the people who can see us as we may have difficulty seeing ourselves—through the people who may not see in us the gifts we would love to have—and through the people who see gifts in us that we can’t begin to imagine in ourselves. Discerning our gifts and hearing God’s call to us always takes us out of our comfort zones—even when we’re doing what we love—because stretching our limits, growing into the people God calls us to be, requires us to take a big risk. Growing into our call requires that we trust in others. Growing into our call requires that we risk stepping away from our fear—risk stepping away from our pride—risk stepping away from the things we think we know. Growing into our call requires that we risk trusting God. And that’s a scary thing.
The good news is that God can be trusted. The further good news is that when we trust God’s deepest hope for us, the path leads to joy.
Thanks be to God.