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Call Waiting A sermon
preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at at Ebenezer UMC for the Ebenezer
Capitol Hill Congregation January 15, 2006, MLK weekend. Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-20, John 1:43-51 --------------- Even though I'm a relatively young person (though probably not as young as you think!), I tend to be kinda old-fashioned when it comes to technology. I prefer candles to electric light. I would rather have a voice to voice conversation than communicate by "instant" or "text message" (I don't know how to "txt"…). I still listen to some music on cassette tapes. I am committed to my Franklin-Covey planner, stubbornly refusing to use a "blackberry." And I cannot stand that so-called helpful innovation called "call waiting." It offends my sensibilities to have to put someone on hold in the midst of a conversation. And then, I'm frustrated even more when I refuse to pick up the "call waiting" and my conversation keeps getting interrupted by that annoying beeping sound. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled when this feature got automatically added to my calling plan. I don't like it. I don't like to be interrupted. I read somewhere that love is the willingness to be interrupted… You know, I could argue against that point-especially when it comes to technologies that encourage us to be available to anyone who can get ahold of our number at every single minute of every single day… But, after taking a deep breath, I must admit that there seems to be truth to the saying…love is the willingness to be interrupted. It doesn't take much for us to realize that relationships show this to be true. If we love our children, our friends, our partners…and they come to us with a real need, we will interrupt whatever we're doing to respond. One of the phrases that struck me in our Hebrew scripture today was that "The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread." (1 Sam. 3:1) God is silent. One way to respond to this would be to get upset with God for not speaking up (a response that gets lots of play throughout the Bible). However, before we get all upset because God's not acting like the ATM-God we so often want, spitting out words and money and answers on demand, perhaps we should pause to wonder why God would clam up. Keep in mind that the God we're talking about here is not some amorphous life-force that we can control or tap into with the right code. The God we're talking about is a person, a being with whom we are in relationship. So, what would cause a breakdown in communication? The thing that comes to my mind is that, when one person feels that she isn't being heard, she tends to stop talking. After all, what's the point? Reflecting on the context of the story of Samuel and Eli, we realize that, in those days, there was political and spiritual anarchy among God's people, Israel. According to the book of Judges, in those days, "every person did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6, 21:25) And the sons of the priest Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were "wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord" (1 Sam. 2:12). In other words, the context for the story we read today is that people weren't listening to God; they were blowing God off; they didn't want to be bothered to pick up the call of God. And so God stopped calling; God was silent. After all, what's the point if no one will heed the call? // Frankly, it's a chilling thought to think that God might grant humanity's request for autonomy or stop speaking as a consequence of our not listening. Can you imagine? What if God said to us, "I have answered your prayers and now grant you the horrible freedom you have craved. Since you are so disinterested as to not listen, I will no longer speak, so from now on the only voices you will hear will be your own." The other day, Anthony and I were having one of our regular theological discussions. I can't recall exactly how we got there, but Anthony ended up saying something about wishing that Christ would return. My response to his yearning caught me off-guard-I was immediately nervous and even sad. I found myself thinking, "Yes, I want Christ to come. But not yet…" I, of course, have studied these things; I've written and preached on them; I do anticipate and yearn for that day when (however it happens) all things will be made right and all will feast with Christ at the heavenly banquet. But not yet…You see, I hate to be interrupted…and I've got plans-plans for the church, for my life-I want a family of my own, I want to grow old with my spouse and to see where our years on earth will take us…and my plans are all within the way and in the service of God…so why do they need to get co-opted by God? Yes I want Christ to come, but not yet, because it may mean that I don't get the things I want… "In those days, every person did what was right in her own eyes…" Don't think the conviction was lost on me. Today our scriptures are about callings. God calls the boy Samuel; Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael. And like all calls from God these came while folks were going about their business. I think of the little boy Samuel, his whole life stretching out before him and here comes the Word of God-a Word that challenges and convicts his mentor, Eli; a Word that is so challenging that he's afraid to tell it. I think of the man Nathanael who thinks he's coming to find the Messiah, but who realizes that-even though full of small-town prejudice-he has been found first by Jesus and called into the most life-altering work of his life. These are interruptions, intrusions… Because the call of God can't be programmed. It doesn't function according to our well-planned policies and strategic plans. And, if we choose to heed the word, to pick up the call, it always means that we will have to change, that we will have to stretch, to open our small-mindedness and let go of our fears-and our control. It's easy-we all know it-to speak the words and do the things that make it look like we're responding to the call of God. We can point to all the ways that we're following the rules and honoring the tradition and attending to the time-honored ways of serving God. But the real test comes when we're doing all that stuff and our carefully planned path gets interrupted by a new Word, a new call. The test for Samuel included getting over his fear and the fact that he was just a child (he was too young to challenge his elder, his mentor, Eli!). The test for Nathanael included getting over his prejudice. Maybe my issue is just my issue. Maybe it's just me that doesn't want my good work and my good intentions to get interrupted. But maybe this is the Word that God has given me to speak among us today. Maybe in these days we tend to do what is right in our own eyes and fail to heed the Word-the Call-of the Lord. While we go about our lives, having conversations that we believe are important, there's a call waiting for us. A more important call. A call from God. A new call. And so the question becomes: are we willing to put our other stuff on hold and respond to the call of God? Now, we could say a simple "yes" to the question and move on. But let's be real. Even people who are trying to be faithful are brilliant excuse-makers. So let's just allow ourselves to think about this for a moment-what excuses might we use to keep God waiting? Well, we've named a couple of things already from the stories we've heard today: fear and prejudice. Our fears get played out when we sense that the new call is too hard or too much for us to handle. Or when we sense that the call will bring us to a place in which others will harm, judge, or abandon us. After all no one wants to be blown off, ostracized, or beaten up. Our prejudice leads us to say, with Nathanael, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" "Can anything good come from the Catholics? The progressives? The conservatives? The feminists? The whites? The middle east? The west? The blacks? The Hispanics? The gays and lesbians? The Asians? The people of Capitol Hill? The people of Ebenezer?... (I'm just trying to keep it real…) Fear and prejudice keep us from answering the call that is waiting for us…but there are other things, too. There's our sense that we know everything, that we've got God all figured out. There's our often ignored need for control. There's our laundry list of insecurities and perceived shortcomings. William Sloane Coffin suggests this: "Nothing separates us more from God and our fellow human beings than our grievances. If you want to avoid God, concentrate on money, status, health, but most of all on your grievances." And perhaps the most oft-quoted excuse to keep God waiting: our overwhelming sense that we're too busy…that we've got other plans… We've got other plans… I wonder how the world would be different if Samuel and Philip and Nathanael and prophets and teachers and apostles and healers through the ages had used these excuses to keep the call of God at bay… How would the world be different if Cesar Chavez had been too busy to respond to the call to work for justice through nonviolent protest for migrant farm workers? And what if Rosa Parks had allowed fear or insecurity to convince her to move to the back of the bus instead of resting her weary body up front? And how would our lives be different if Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Sojourner Truth had bowed to the voices of the world that told them that, because they were women, they couldn't be learned or strong? And how much would our store of spiritual wisdom be diminished if Catholic monk, Thomas Merton had allowed prejudice to keep him from studying and sharing the rich spiritual tradition of the East? And how would our lives and our world be different if Martin Luther King, Jr. had decided that he was too busy or had more important work than to be a leader in the civil rights movement…if he'd allowed his fear and his grievances to keep him from responding to the call of God? Today, God calls us to the work of reconciliation as Ebenezer and Capitol Hill United Methodist churches. We are called to explore what it means to be a cooperative parish. And while there is much that we don't know or understand about what this means, I can't help but believe that this is a call to embody what Human Relations Day is about. Martin Luther King, Jr. accused the church in his day of being "a weak, ineffectual voice; with an uncertain sound," an "archdefender of the status quo," and (if things didn't change) "an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century." While we have important work to do in our two congregations, there is a call waiting for us: the call is bigger than just Capitol Hill and Ebenezer…it's about more than what will happen to our well-meaning, well-known-even faithful-ways of being "church." The dream is bigger than the local or parochial. The call-the dream-is about what we will do together, how we will serve together-with histories and cultures and gifts and resources working in tandem-to meet the needs of a hurting world, to meet the needs of a broken city, to meet the needs of wounded lives. The call of God for us today is to be the church that MLK dreamed. Not a status quo social club with a weak, ineffectual voice, but a church united in concrete ways to love and risk and serve and change and stretch and forgive and witness to our faith in a God who lovingly clamors on the other line waiting for us to pick up and answer the call. Will we be interrupted? Do we love God enough to take the call? What happens if we decide that the call is too difficult? Or scary? What happens if we decide that we've got other, more important plans? Who will lose? What would have happened if Jesus had chosen to go about his business, to live long and prosper as a parochial Jew, an honored teacher, a quiet participant in the status quo, instead of following the call of God to proclaim and live the Reign of God? Who would lose? The call is waiting. Will you answer?
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Sermons from other years:
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Capitol Hill United Methodist
Church is a Reconciling Congregation. |
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