Epiphany 2

Epiphany 2 “CALLED TO BE…” 1/13 & 16/05

During the genocidal slaughter in Rwanda a few years ago, countless people sought refuge in churches. Even the sanctuaries of the churches did not protect them, as thousands were murdered in those huddled masses. A French priest, who survived the massacre, was asked if these experiences had shaken his faith in God. His reply: “Absolutely not, but what happened in this country destroyed my faith in humanity forever.” The 20^th century was likely the bloodiest century of all of humanity. And then, during the first year of a new century, there was September 11^th, the destruction of the World Trade Center, the attack on our Pentagon, followed by large scale bombing and the dying continues. English novelist and Nobel Prize winner, William Golding, wrote: “I have learned that humanity makes evil the same way that a bee makes honey.” When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was given the Nobel Prize, he said during a subsequent interview: “The only difference between an ordinary person and Attila the Hun is that Attila had an army. All our little, daily meanness and viciousness is enough to fill one with shame.”

St. Paul said it so simply, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate.” (Rom. 7:15) We are sinners, all of us. We can, as never before, witness the magnitude of sin on an international scale, but most of us sin in much less spectacular, but equally hurtful ways. Our little lies, our cuts, deceits, and hurt of others, as Paul writes, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There is sin aplenty, enough to go around!

Against this backdrop, in our Gospel lesson John the Baptist calls Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn. 1:29) As we read our Epistle lesson, from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we are reminded that we…each of us…have been “called to be holy” (1:2) and “called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”(1:9) Can any of us miss the dramatic contrast between how God calls us to live and our actual manner of living in this world?

Those of you who have Bibles with you, turn to 1 Corinthians 1:2----locate the wording used to describe the lifestyle to which God has called us. I’ve quoted the New International Version, which reads “called to be holy.” Might some of you stand and read loudly the variety of versions before us?--------------------

For some, like St. Paul, following Jesus involves doing something dramatically different, or diametrically opposed to what we might currently be doing. For most of us here, following Jesus and fulfilling God’s call upon our lives does not involve doing different things, but doing things differently or in a different way! When Jesus calls a disciple long ago, and perhaps this very morning, he offers little description of discipleship. “Follow me” is about all the individual initially receives in the way of detail. There is no other program for a way of life, no other goal, no other ideal after which we are to strive than what we know in these two simple words of invitation: “Follow me.” Perhaps why so few actually accept this simple call is that to do so is to willingly leave the relative security of familiarity and proceed into a life of absolute insecurity…to leave a life we know and enter a life about which we faithfully say, “God only knows!” Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote: “The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead…out of the realm of the finite into the realm of infinite possibilities.” We are called, not so much to a lifestyle as to a leader, and his name is Jesus!

Our highest calling is indeed this call to be saints…to be holy…sanctified in Jesus Christ. If we scrape off the “stained-glass” image of this faithful and fruitful lifestyle, we learn that a “saint” is a sinner, forgiven and faithfully following Jesus! That word “saint” is used in the Bible as descriptive of each and every Christian, not the elite few. We are not saints because we have worked hard at being holy; we are saints because Jesus called us to follow Him! One author writes: “As Christians, we are not teachers or doctors or store clerks or students, but disciples of Christ and saints of God cleverly disguised as teachers, doctors, clerks, and students.”

Amidst the vast scene of the world’s problems, any one of us may feel our own ministry seems so small, so insignificant, so concerned with the trivial. But consider: the glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small group, the godly couple, the faithful woman/man/and child are of infinite worth to God. We cannot make a difference, we cannot lead holy lives, all by ourselves…that’s the bad news. God never expects us to…that’s the good news! We are not called by Christ to go our own separate ways. We are called to be “followers” of Christ, called to follow him each step of the way. Amen.

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