First preached as a sermon at Choral Evensong in Croydon Minster on the Second Sunday of Epiphany, 20 January 2019.
‘It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him’
(1 Samuel 3.18b)
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‘Oh,
you can’t possibly mean me’.
That
is the reaction that many people give when someone else suggests that they
might be just the person to take on some sort of role or to undertake a
particular task, especially in the church.
Of
course sometimes you’re being asked to do something, or to be something, just
because no one else can be thought of or you’re the last person left to be
asked, and so the ‘call’ to you is hardly flattering and you might feel totally
misjudged and begrudge the request.
Sometimes
though the ‘call’ is very much thought through: it’s not just that there’s no
one else to do it; the person calling or asking has looked long and hard into
your heart, weighed your gifts and talents and pondered who you really are in
relation to a role or task.
I’ve
used the word ‘call’, and the smart church word would be ‘vocation’, from the
Latin vocare, meaning ‘to call’.
Reflecting
on the need for the church to be more attentive to calling and vocation, the
now Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, has written:
Many churches will need help
in moving from an ethos of volunteers
to an ethos of vocation. Often as a
visitor to a congregation I see in the notice sheet or hear in the notices
fervent appeals for people to offer their services to this or that area of
church life. To ask for volunteers for many ministries is often to diminish
their importance and the gifts of the people who may be called to do them. We are
actually saying ‘anyone can do this.[1]
Bishop
Steven goes on to describe an ethos of
vocation in a church that ponders and identifies the gifts and qualities of
particular people and giving prayerful consideration to what is an important
ministry rather than ‘anyone can do this job’.
An ethos of vocation takes seriously the
role that needs to be undertaken and takes seriously the person who might
undertake it.
So
what might the call of Samuel be described as in our first reading this
evening?
Presumably
Eli could have given the notices at the end of the Temple sacrifice and said,
‘The LORD God is looking for
someone to volunteer to do his will. No one has been doing this for a long
time, and if we don’t find someone then the lights will have to be turned out
permanently. Whoever volunteers will have to say some very tough things to some
very important people. Come and speak to me after the sacrifice if you’re
interested.’
Had he
done that I don’t imagine he would have had people falling over themselves to
volunteer. He would have been deploying manipulation, a bit of threat and
couldn’t be said to be inspiring.
No, it
is God’s call! A call that Samuel came to understand through Eli. A little like
St Paul had to understand more through Ananias who accompanied him immediately
after his call and conversion.
Volunteerism
can get us so far, but vocation is what touches our hearts and shapes our
lives. The challenge then is for us to listen out for God’s call in our lives
and discern it in the lives of others.
Eli
was negligent, lazy and corrupt and his wayward sons were little better, but he
did know when God was at work, that’s why he said to Samuel, ‘It is the Lord;
let him do what seems good to him’.
This
ethos, or perhaps better, culture of
vocation needs fostering in the life of the church in general and this church
is no exception.
In a
culture of vocation what we want to foster is looking at one another to see in
each other gifts and talents - not to plug gaps, for God will provide all that
is needful for his church – in service of both of the local church and parish, perhaps
as someone trained and licensed, like a Reader or Southwark Pastoral Auxiliary
or, in a more local way, leading prayers or reading or being an advocate for
social justice, challenging injustice and promoting the common good.
In a
culture of vocation what we are looking to foster is a real intent to identify
those who might serve the church even beyond this place, perhaps as deacons and
priests, and in the spirit of the call of Samuel, you are never too young for
that call.
What
we are looking to foster is a deep sense that to be a Christian day by day is
itself a calling from God. To be a
Christian is the highest of calls, from which others flow! Baptism is the
point of initiation into that life which is shaped by feeding on Christ in the
Eucharist, the proclamation of his word, regular repenting and returning to the
Lord and a depth of prayer that searches out God’s purposes as much as he
searches our hearts.
As we
know from Samuel you are never too young, or indeed too old, for that call, but
in response we need to channel the spirit of Samuel who did not say ‘Oh, you can’t
possibly mean me’ but rather, ‘speak, Lord, for your servant is listening’.
©
Andrew Bishop, 2019
[1]
Steven Croft, Ministry in Three
Dimensions: Ordination and Leadership in the Local Church, Darton, Longman,
Todd, 1999, 2008. p.176.
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