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"God is Calling" Jeremiah 1:4-10; Matthew 25:14-30
by The Rev. Clancy Nixon
May 29, 2005
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
I wonder how the story of the call of Jeremiah in the Bible would have been
different with a little modern technology thrown in. What if Jeremiah had Caller I.D.?
Brinnnng. Brinnnng. Jeremiah pulls out his cell phone, checks the screen, sees who it is,
... he might have let it roll over to voice mail, like the prophet Jonah did. Because when
God calls, it can be a problem. Sometimes we may feel like saying to God, "Don't call
me, I'll call you." You see, one problem with God is that His thoughts are not our
thoughts, and God's ways are not our ways. So when God calls, it often means going
somewhere you'd just as soon not go, and doing something you'd just as soon not do.
Jeremiah found that to be true. Jeremiah was a young priest in the town of
Anathoth, just outside of Jerusalem about the year 626 B.C. He was the son of a priest,
preparing for a quiet life of devotion to God, when God came calling. As Jeremiah
himself tells us his story, the Word of God came to him, sought him out, and found him.
God told Jeremiah to take extremely unpopular stands on the hottest political issues of
the day in the nation of Judah. Jeremiah screamed "repent! For the end is near!" with
annoying frequency in the city streets and in the halls of power. He droned on and on
about idolatry bringing impending doom for the nation. His word from God that Judah
should surrender to the Babylonians caused his countrymen to brand him a traitor, and
made him a pariah. Jeremiah's obedience to God got him thrown to the bottom of a deep
cistern to die. Jeremiah complains to God about what God has asked him to do, but even
so, he obeys God anyway. The Lord frequently reaffirmed to Jeremiah his
commissioning as a prophet, which gives Jeremiah great courage to continue to speak
unpopular things.
Look with me in Jeremiah 1:5. Let's read it together. "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." God makes it clear that He is the chief actor in this celestial
drama. Before Jeremiah was, God knew what Jeremiah was for. Before he created
Jeremiah, or you or me, God had an idea, a plan for that person to play a role in the stage
of life. You and I were made for the fulfillment of that plan. God is the playwright in the
drama of life; Jeremiah is not the script writer, he is only one character in the drama. We
characters get in trouble when we try to rewrite the script for our parts. God declares that
He knew what he was doing when He knit Jeremiah together in his mother's womb, and
God announces that Jeremiah must now live into that role of prophet.
The Apostle Paul picks up this same idea in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them." This inspired scripture takes the principles of Jeremiah's
call and applies them to the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ. Like God's Holy
Spirit, God's call is no longer limited to particular individuals for the sole purpose of
leading God's people. God gives each one His Spirit, and God calls each one. God calls
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every believer in Christ, indeed each baptized person, to do certain specific things that
God decided in advance of our birth.
Before the Reformation of the 16th century, the church had this idea that the
human universe was a two-tier system: the sacred and the profane. Only priests, or nuns,
or monks were considered to have callings or vocations, and they lived a hero-athlete
kind of faith. Everybody else just had jobs, and they moved in the ordinary, profane,
secular world. Martin Luther exploded that idea. Luther said that every Christian has a
calling, and we respond to that calling by living by faith and exercising our gifts. So the
cobbler who makes his shoes "as unto the Lord" - exercises his calling. So now there
was no distinction high or low, sacred or profane now every believer had a calling.
This truth changed western civilization. If you do your work as unto the Lord, then more
likely than not, you'll succeed. That became the basis for the Protestant work ethic.
Os Guinness teaches us that calling is not the same as work. Calling includes
work, but it is far more. Before the fall of man, work was positive, constructive, and
creative. In Genesis 3 we learn that work has a curse with it, so that it's not an
unmitigated blessing. We deal with thorns in the garden and earn our keep by the sweat
of our brows. Since Adam, work is fallen. Calling is work redeemed. In the case of the
Apostle Paul, tent-making was his work, but it wasn't his calling. It was part of his
calling, but not the heart of this calling. Paul was a missionary; he was a church planter;
he was theologian. But I think his call was bigger than any of those. I have in mind what
I think Paul's calling was. What do you think it was? Speak up and tell us how you
would describe Paul's calling in a simple phrase.... I think Paul's call was to be the
Apostle to the Gentiles. That encompasses all the others.
Here is a definition of call: You might want to write this down: A call is a
spoken summons given by God to each person to fulfill the particular destiny He has
assigned them. Responding to a call isn't like taking a job or signing an employment
contract. It's more like a voyage to explore the East Indies; it's like taking a hike up a
mountain to go fishing. Responding to a call is like falling in love. The Bible speaks of
three distinct callings for every believer: first, the call to find our identity as children of
God, members of His family; second, the call to live for the glory of God, which is
expressed in holiness and sanctification; and third, the call to particular work to glorify
God in the world. These three calls are the calls to belong; to be; and to do. Notice that
being comes before doing. Mark 3:14-15 says that "Jesus called the twelve designating
them apostles that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons." The call to be with Jesus never goes away,
even when our call to particular work changes.
The one Christian doctrine which has had the most profound influence on
American culture is probably the calling of every Christian believer. This idea was
central for the Puritans who came to Massachusetts almost 400 years ago. But it's almost
lost today. The church has recovered the idea of the priesthood of all believers; we've
recovered the idea of the ministry of all believers; but we have not fully recovered the
idea of the calling of all believers. William Perkins, the great English Puritan writer,
said this: "As soon as a person comes to Christ, one of the first things they must be taught
is to discover their own individual calling." That idea is simply not a part of how most
churches follow up new believers. We address it at CHS in our core curriculum, Class
102, Network, which we just completed, and I commend that class to you.
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The Parable of the Five Talents (Matthew 25:13-30) shows us that our calling is
not for ourselves. We are stewards of the gifts God has given us, and the Lord is
returning soon to settle accounts with us. Our life's work our unique gifts have a
dynamic and a direction to them that are not for ourselves at all. Calling is so much more
than maximizing your gifts or releasing your full potential. Those ideas are easily
misapplied, because the human potential movement has used these ideas to enthrone the
self, to exalt the self above God. Some people have seen God as a fetter to releasing their
potential. If Larry Flynt's goal is to become rich by selling internet porn, then he will see
the God of the Bible as a drag on his potential. On the other hand, maximizing your gifts
for the glory of God is a Christian idea, because then it's all about God it's not about
you at all. Your gifts and your passion are important clues to your calling. Most often,
your call will be about the things that you care most deeply about, and involve what you
are best at. That's why calling is like falling in love; there is something inside of you that
just is drawn to this work, this project, these people, this way of life, and won't let go.
When you find your calling, you experience an inner "oughtness" (Greg Ogden); and it
typically brings great satisfaction and joy. Often your calling is something that goes
against what you've been told that you should do, or what others expect of you. I am the
son of a lawyer and grandson of a judge. After I had practiced law for many years, my
Father was not at first thrilled that I was leaving the law. Since then, he has been
supportive. Your calling keeps on calling you until you respond to it.
Sometimes your call is not about your gifts or passion; it's about something that
God wants done at a particular time in history. Abraham may not have wanted to leave
his kindred in Ur of the Chaldees and go to a place unknown to him; Moses may not have
wanted to go back to Egypt to confront Pharaoh; it appears that Jeremiah really did not
want to do what God called him to do, to counsel surrender to the Babylonians. Jonah
clearly did not want to preach to the Ninevites. The resurrected Jesus told Peter that
there would come a time in his life when he would go where he didn't want to go. This
Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives for our freedom in this country,
and we thank God for them. Soldiers are sometimes called to battle; some are called to
die in the battle. Most soldiers don't want to kill or be killed. At their best, they answer
the call of their country and their God to fulfill his purpose in history. Calling isn't
necessarily about what you want to do; it's about what God wants to do through you.
Someone said that the Puritans acted as if they had swallowed gyroscopes. They
had inner bearings. They weren't worried about what other people thought they had an
audience of one - the Lord alone was their North Star, their reference point. Everything
they did, they explained in reference to the Lord Jesus. In this, let us be Puritans, too.
Amen? Modern Christians all too often act as if we'd swallowed Opinion Polls by
Gallup or Zogby.
What promise there is in this notion of call, and what peril. The promise is that
each of us can indeed discover the reason we are here on this planet, the thing we are
made to be and do; and we can do it. I can attest that peace comes from living in
harmony with God's plan and purposes for your life. I used to practice law; now I
practice grace. The law was never a passion for me; it was a job, not an adventure. The
longer I did it, the more I saw that I was created to do something else. I thank God that
he revealed his purpose for me at age 32 and not later. The promise is that we can fulfill
our destiny in God.
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There is also peril in neglecting our calling. You can miss your destiny. One
day, each Christian must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of
himself to God (Romans 14:10-12). Since God has plans for us, deciding beforehand the
good works we are to do, we are right to consider that day when we will appear before
the Lord on His throne in glory, to give our account of our activities. Things done, and
those left undone, won't determine our eternal salvation; we are saved by grace alone
through faith alone. In the parable, the wicked servant's deeds showed his heart. Jesus
uses the servant as a veiled reference to the scribes and Pharisees. Their buried talent
was a figure for how they would not consider that God might add to and complete the law
by sending his Son. It was because the Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was Lord that
their future was dark. Our deeds don't determine our eternal salvation; our deeds do
determine our eternal reward. If you use your talents well, you will have crowns in
heaven.
Young adults have a natural developmental desire to discern their calling in life.
Teenagers, don't delay this quest to discern your calling. Find it when you are young,
and your entire life will be a crown of glory for God. Even so, people of all ages and
stages of life have come to me with a burning desire to discover who they are and what
they are called to do. Call is not limited to work-related pursuits, but encompasses such
questions as marriage or singleness, who to keep as friends and where to live. It is never
too early or too late to look at your calling. The prophet Samuel heard his calling very
early in life, while he was a boy in the Temple on Mt. Zion with Eli; Jeremiah heard his
while a young priest in Anathoth; Moses learned his calling very late in his life, at the
burning bush in Midian. Finding and responding to your calling is a lifelong process, and
many people never begin thinking about their call until later in life. Your calling may
change and grow; God may reveal your call to you over time. For most people, finding
their calling does not usually come fully formed on a scroll from the hand of an angel; it
requires effort to discern your call.
I'd like for each of us to respond in an unusual way. I ask you to turn now to find
one other person, other than someone in your own family, introduce yourself, and take
one minute to tell them your understanding of your calling in life right now. What has
God called you to do and be? After one minute, I'll tell you to switch, so you each get a
chance to share. Everybody got that? Go ahead and do that.
I hope you learned something about another person today, and perhaps you
learned something about yourself. If you're not sure of your call, now is a great time to
press in to discover it.
I close with a story. Peter, [not his real name,] a successful Christian
businessman in his 70's, was curious about my call to ordained ministry. I explained to
Peter how I asked God to show me the purpose I had been created, and then I waited in
silence to listen to God. God revealed to me my call to preach, to lead a congregation, to
plant churches, and then the wider body of Christ affirmed that call. Then the elder man
was asked what his call in life has been. Then Peter fell silent, and soon a tear fell down
his cheek. "I don't know," he said, "I never asked." [pause] Learn from Peter's
experience. Ask God now to show you your calling in life. It's never too late to be in
God's will. You can't get back the years that you missed, but you can use the remaining
time you do have for His purposes.
There's a call coming in, and the phone is for you.
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