Can You Hear God's Call?

John 1: 43-51

Epiphany 2

January 18, 2015

After reading these stories, I always think,

“wow, the disciples had it easy.”

I mean it was Jesus, actually Jesus that called

them into discipleship.

From all accounts, Jesus had a certain something,

a way with words, a power and energy.

And his message was new and different.

When I was young, the church had been around

for 2000 years and we had Fr. O’Hearn to share it with us,

an older man who was not much for

conversation and would read his sermons

directly from his script without ever looking up.

But even if you have a pastor who does better at the sermon thing,

or better at interpersonal relations,

there are so many options out there now.

So many other things to follow.

So many more exciting, louder, more convincing voices to follow

than anything the church can come up with.

And the message of Jesus has been around for thousands of year.

Sometimes it seems to fall into the background

with all the rest of the noise out there.

So how do we hear the call today?

The call to come to worship, the call to serve,

to forgive, to help someone,

to start a project in God’s name,

To give our money,

to invest our time and energy,

The call to walk in that light that we’ve been given?

  

I’ve heard of some people hearing God’s voice,

like Samuel did in Eli’s house.

it’s a strong and clear call to action in God’s name.

Doing things with the absolute confidence,

knowing what God wants them to do.

But most of us just don’t have that experience.

For the rest of us, the call from God comes in more subtle ways.

Actually boring ways.

- Sometimes it’s a persistent thought that

keeps coming back in our heads.

- Sometimes it’s a nagging feeling in the pit

of our stomach that tells us.

- Sometimes it’s a story that we keep seeing repeatedly

in our conversations, or in the news.

- Sometimes it’s a persistent person that keeps asking

you to do something over and over

until you finally give in and agree to do what they want you to.

- Sometimes it’s the coincidence of circumstances that seems to drag us

to a certain place and time and we can’t avoid doing what

God wants us to do.

These ways might not seem as exciting as lights

or disembodied voices.

But these are just some of the ways that God works in our lives.

To call us to places that we never thought we would go.

This week we celebrate 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A person who certainly did some marvelous things in his short life.

He would change history, change laws,

change the lives of millions of people for years to come.

But his call to this particular 

position of service to God

was not glamorous, beautiful, or stunning.

It was actually some very boring common things that came together.

  

In 1954, Martin Luther King had already received a call from God

to be pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

in Montgomery, Alabama.

By then, the NAACP and unions had been working on the bus situation

for at least five years, trying to find the right person to back and

defend and trying to challenge of the law that

said that black people had to sit in the back of the bus.

In 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested, before her trial,

the organizers needed churches to support the boycott.

E.D. Nixon who was a union leader in Montgomery

and the organizer of the movement,

asked the newest pastor in town Martin Luther King

if he would support the bus boycott with his congregation.

And could they have the first meeting in King’s church.

King said he had to think about it and call him back.

Eventually he said that they would support it

and they could meet there.

After a one day bus boycott,

Nixon met with the Montgomery

clergy to talk about expanding it to all Montgomery.

But the ministers just wanted a low-key boycott that wouldn’t

upset the white power structure.

Nixon was indignant, he pointed out that poor congregations

worked hard to put money into the collection plates to keep

pastors comfortable but when the congregations needed

the clergy to stand up for them,

the comfortable ministers refused to do it.

Nixon threatened to reveal all the ministers cowardice

to the whole black community.

Now we don’t know exactly what happened there in King’s

mind or heart, but that speech by Nixon must have done something.

Martin Luther King spoke up and said that he wasn’t afraid.

  

And that was it.

King was elected as the chair of the committee.

he gave the keynote address at the next meeting

and the leader of the civil rights movement in the US

His call from God came through a phone call for support,

a space usage request, a committee meeting,

an angry speech by a frustrated union organizer,

and being elected to leadership because no one else would do it.

No lights, no disembodied voices necessary.

God’s call to one of the most important leaders

of the 20^th century, came through very practical,

normal, boring, some would even say annoying things.

Now, we may not be the most important

leader of the 21^st century.

We may never make any history books.

But God is calling each one of us to do some great things

in our communities, with the people around us,

We are being called every day to do our part in

making God’s Kingdom here on earth.

And God is calling us through those

normal, practical, even annoying ways.

A phone call, a committee meeting, an angry speech.

but we’re all doing our part to create the kingdom of God,

and God’s call to us happens in much the same way.

normal, practical, even annoying things

can spur us on to do things that

we never thought we could do.

God has seen you.

God has called you by name.

Hear God’s call and see what

great things you and God will do.