Phone Rings. It’s God he want to talk to you. It’s not uncommon for us religious types to talk about being called by God. What we mean by that may differ from person to person. Some may talk about having had an inner compulsion, a particular vision or dream that made them wrestle and restless until they paid attention to or eventually did something about this inner prompting.
In the story of Moses we are told that the call came in a rather unusual manner. It came in the form of burning a burning bush that was not consumed. Now that is rather foreign concept to us and therefore it is probably much easier understood if we were to compare it to a burning desire. Or a heart warming experience or passion one might have for something.
However before we get away from it that easily I must confess that whenever I hear this story I am reminded of the rather funny story I heard sometime ago. It goes something like this. When Moses retired he decided to make his home in Washington DC. So one day while sitting on his deck basking in the sun the phone rang. It’s for you sir his servant said as he handed him the phone. Who is it Moses wanted to know it’s the President sir. He says he’s name is George Bush. Oh no said Moses the last time I talked to a bush I was in the wilderness for forty years. Upon which he politely hung up the phone
Yet no matter how much we try to avoid the call it is something that does not easily go away. It has a tendency to hang on to linger in the unexplored areas of our unconscious mind. In fact it even has a tendency to haunt us until we give in to it. Here I can speak from personal experience because for years I knew that I was called to enter the ministry but as most young people did at the time I avoided it.
I wanted to have fun. I had other plans. Yet no matter how I avoided it, there came a time when I could not run anymore. Finally said here I am Lord send me. Look where I am today.
Has something like that ever happened to you? Have you ever felt called, pulled tugged to do something with your life or for others that you have ignored or avoided? Perhaps it is time to pay some attention to it again, especially if it is still making its appearance. It may be leaving you ill at ease or emotionally and spiritually dissatisfied.
Just yesterday I read an article that appeared in last weeks New York Times that confirmed the fact that many individuals seem to find themselves no longer happy or deeply satisfied with the work that they doing these days.
As a matter of fact, I have often wondered why so many second career people are now entering the ministry. Whatever the reason is it is stories like these that remind us that God has work to be done. God will do whatever it takes to get our attentions in order to get it done.
Several years ago I heard of a school teacher who was sitting outside her classroom having her lunch and supervising the children who were outside having fun during their break. As she finished her sandwich she threw the leftover crust to a dog lying nearby. To her surprise one of the children in her own class room ran and grabbed the crust of bread eating it as if he obviously had not had anything to eat for days. As a result of this exposure she decided to start a feeding scheme for children in her school.
We don have to go far or look far because the burning bushes of need, poverty, hunger, aids, terrorism, loneliness dissatisfaction, child abduction are burning all around us. It makes its appearance on our headlines each and everyday. But sometimes we become so use to it that we don’t see it anymore. We deny it, fear it, flee from it, or like Moses find every conceivable reason why we are not qualified, why we cannot do what has to be done because we have found some flaw, some shortcoming some impediment in ourselves or just do not have the time or the talent to do what God wants us to do.
Can you imagine what would happen to us and to our world if everyone God called, especially those who are already so head over hills involved for caring for others said the same thing? Our lives and this world would be in a sorrier state of affairs to say the least.
In addition, there are times as Matthews gospel makes very clear that the call is also accompanied by a cross. Something we don’t like or like to hear about but happens anyway. Perhaps one of the reasons Moses wanted to shy away from the call was the fact that he saw cross or the cross roads in it. After all he was a wanted man in Egypt. Who in his or her right mind would just go and put yourself in harms way. Sometime the harm may come in the form of anger or ridicule and other times it may come as more than.
But when the fire of Gods spirit has touched us and transformed us and is burning in our bones there is nothing or little to stop us. Therefore Moses could do no other than go because both he and God knew that he was the one that no one else was as equipped for the task at hand. No one knew Pharaoh or Pharaohs house hold as well as he did, because there was a time when he was once an integral part of it.
You see God knows that we are capable of much more that we often give ourselves credit for. Yet, having said all that we may still wrestle with the Who am I to teach in the Sunday school? Sing in the choir? Serve on the town council? Run for state senator?
In his inaugural address Nelson Mandela quoted the following, which I think is very apropos to us as well.
Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are we not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people may so that other people may feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone, and as we give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. What and who is God calling us you and me to be for one another and to the wider world? We will explore that together over the next few weeks.