Waldorf
College Chapel: January 25, 2012
Jesus says
“Follow Me”. Are you Listening?
Hymns
#793
“Be Thou My Vision”
#574
“Here I Am, Lord”
Scripture Readings:
Mark 1:16-20 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--
for they were fishermen. 17
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for
people." 18 And
immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he
saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending
the nets. 20 Immediately he
called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men,
and followed him.
Mark 2:14 14 As he was walking along, he
saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him,
"Follow me." And he got up and followed him.
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Vocation &
the Unknown
The very first time I
spoke in chapel my topic was vocation and so I think that it is fitting that I
am going to speak about vocation this final time.
Vocation is something
that you hear a lot about at Waldorf, and it also is not necessarily an easy
thing to figure out. Listening to a call
from God is not always obvious and takes a great deal of trust in Him.
And in the last few
months, I have learned a lot about what it means to really trust God with my
life. I can’t say it has been easy,
because it hasn’t been, but it has been very rewarding and as difficult as it
can be, I would hope that everyone would be able to experience that reliance on
God at some point in their lives.
Having had to totally
trust God in the last few months has not changed me in any obvious ways that I
can describe well, but I do sense that it has changed me in smaller ways. I feel more at peace with knowing that my
life is not under my control and my desires, and that is something new for me;
I like control and I want to do what I want to do.
I have a book called The Coach’s Wife and in it, the author
talks about submission and says that when we coaches wives choose to let our
lives “be guided by his career and his plans” that we “will actually obtain
more of what [we] want and need” and that “the earlier [we] agree to submit,
the sooner [we’ll] get more of what [we] need” (17). I don’t particularly like reading that,
because when I do, the independent feminist part of me gets fairly worked up,
offended, and irate.
However, as much as I
hate to admit it, this advice has proven true in my life. Having Greg follow his career has led me into
places I would not have chosen for myself and has opened up
opportunities—callings—that I would never have anticipated. If you had told me six years ago that I would
be leading worship services and giving sermons I would not have really believed
you; after all, I was terrified of
public speaking. Yet, here I am, doing
exactly that.
A couple of years ago I
decided to take Steve’s “Senior Religion” class for fun and one of the topics
that we discussed at one point was the idea of multiple vocations. This
idea that there isn’t necessarily one thing we are each meant to do in our lives
really resonated with me, because there isn’t one thing, one particular job that I have done or have had a goal of
doing (I’m a terrible goal-maker anyway so that doesn’t help). I’ve had multiple callings in my life so far
and am now waiting to find out what the next one is.
And, we see it with the
disciples that Jesus called too.
The fishermen were no
longer fishermen after Jesus called them.
Levi the tax collector left his job.
They now had something new to do.
The vocation that they had always thought they’d be doing with their
lives was now over and they were starting a new and unknown journey.
The people that Jesus
first called did not know what was ahead of them. They just followed him when he called them. It reminds me of God calling Abraham in Genesis
12, when it says
“Now the LORD said to
Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the
land that I will show you.’” (Genesis 12:1, NRSV)
and Abraham does it,
without question. Now, there are also
examples of people not wanting to do what God says right away, and I probably
fall into that category more often than not, but right now I’m identifying with
the people who just go.
Abraham and Jesus’
disciples were both setting out to do something unknown. We aren’t told how they felt about it, only
that they did it. We see that Jesus took
ordinary people, out of their ordinary lives, just like you and me, and
transformed them to do what he was calling them to do.
Jesus asks them to follow
him, to fish for people, and to proclaim the message.
And in Mark 3:14 we are
told that they will be “sent out”, but, again, they don’t know where.
Not knowing what the
future will bring and only relying on what is happening in the present is a
very scary thing.
But if we call ourselves
disciples of Jesus; if we claim to be his followers, then I think we have to
actually do it. Even—or maybe especially—when
it makes us uncomfortable.
So. Here I go.
I’m leaving the place that I have called home for the last 5 ½ years to
follow God’s calling on both Greg’s and my lives and yet I have no idea what is in store for me. Some days I am ok with that. Some days I wonder what the heck I am doing and
I want to have a tantrum about it and say I’m not going to go; I feel safe and
content here.
Something that you hear
at Waldorf is that vocation is where your passion meets the world’s needs. The world may not be the entire earth; your
world is the world in which you live each day—your dorm, your department on
campus, the town in which you currently live or where you spend your college
breaks. Your Facebook and Twitter
world. Your Farmville world. Your world is both limited and unlimited, and
there are unlimited opportunities for you to discover what you are called to do
in your world, whether it is a calling for a day or a calling for a year or a
calling for a lifetime.
In my very first homily,
I spoke about what I learned from a book by Os Guiness titled The Call (which Steve has finally
promised to read this summer to see if he wants to use it in Senior Religion) and
the main point that I took away from it was that our primary calling is that of being a disciple of Jesus. That
is what is first and foremost in our lives.
Everything else is secondary.
Guinness says that “A
sense of calling should precede a choice of job and career, and the main way to
discover calling is along the line of what we are each created and gifted to
be. Instead of “You are what you do,”
calling says “Do what you are.” (45)
In this book, Guinness ends
every chapter with “Listen to Jesus of Nazareth; answer his call.” It is a beautiful repetition of words, quietly
whispering a reminder to us to be all
that God calls us to be.
When we “do what we are”,
the world can open up for us in ways we may not have imagined—but God sees
quite clearly.
Willing to Listen
A lot of times we expect
that God will speak in big, miraculous, audible ways. But so often, it is the opposite: He speaks to ordinary people in ordinary
circumstances. How many people heard
Jesus’ voice calling to them in the sermon on the mount or when they were in a
large crowd and were fed, or when they witnessed something that he did?
Jesus often says “let
anyone with hears to hear listen” so let’s be open to listening. God can speak to
us all he wants but if we are not willing to listen, what good will it do? Listening might require silence, as it did
for the prophet Elijah. It might mean
hearing something and then asking questions, as we see with the disciples
asking questions about Jesus’ parables.
It might mean pondering Jesus’ question “who do you say that I am?” and
coming to a realization of who he is. But
we have to be willing to listen. If
Jesus is calling us to something and we are standing there like a little child
with our hands over our ears and our eyes shut, then we are missing out on what
he has in store for us.
It’s important for us to learn
to listen, because the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, the One that
Jesus sent to guide us today, is like a breath—we can’t see it—yet we can know
it’s presence.
Take Home
For some people here
today, it might be that it is the first time you have heard Jesus call to you
to follow him. For others, it might be
that Jesus is calling you to follow him with a deeper commitment than you have
been. Whatever the call, I urge you to
step out in faith and listen.
Know that He will prepare
you for the future. Let Him be your
vision.
Be open to where God is
calling you. Tell him “Here I am; I have
heard you”
Trust Him.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own
insight. 6 In all your ways
acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.--Proverbs 3:5-6