We Are Called
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
January 23, 2005

Growing up as I did in the fairly early days of telephone, you didn’t get many calls on your land-line, as we would now say, and when you did, it was usually a nice thing, from somebody you really wanted to talk to—a friend, family member. It was kind of exciting to hear the phone ring. That was back in the days when phone numbers had beautiful names in them. Our number was Windsor 3-5716. Now it’s all numbers and animated voices. You can rarely call somewhere and talk with a person. And when your phone rings you’re pretty sure in advance that it’s not anyone you want to talk with.

So, we resort to answering machines and cell phones, which, so far, are fairly protected from unwanted intrusions or better yet, email and instant messaging. They are all electronic and all text. No voice. No call.

But if we’re always protecting ourselves from unwanted calls, how are we going to know when there’s someone calling us and our life depends on hearing that call? How are we going to hear the call of Jesus? How will we hear him calling us by name, saying “come, follow me”? How will we hear the voices of those who show us the way to developing our true selves, the best of who we are and can be?

Those important calls in our lives come in the form of a person. Some among us have been blessed to hear a kind of call on our lives through a great teacher. The best teachers know their students so well that they can see beyond the present moment to the real potential of the boy or girl, young man or young woman. It is often a teacher who suggests a career not imagined, who provides support to achieve a goal, or who provokes growth by refusing to settle for mediocrity in us. Thank God for those teachers, and there are many in our midst here this morning, who help their students hear a call to a life beyond what they have yet imagined.

There are coaches who do the same for the kids on their teams. Coaches who help us learn that there are more important things than winning that have to do with teamwork and character and integrity. Coaches, scout leaders, mentors who are friends, yes, but more, who out of their own experience and maturity and wisdom
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"We Are Called" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, Jan. 23, 2005

push us to reach beyond our limitations and shortcomings. There are coaches and scout leaders and youth counselors here in our midst this morning. Thank God for you all.

Last week, I was talking with Allan Young, the great director of the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica. We were talking about a kid who had shown no potential for anything for all his years in grade school and high school. He hated school. Nothing they tried reached him. But now, as a young adult, it’s clicked. He’s working two jobs and taking night classes four nights a week. He’s finally connected with a purpose and goal and he’s ready to do what he needs to do to make it happen.

Allan said that he’d learned early on never to give up on a kid, ever, and he tells parents that all the time. Because someday, he said, it’s going to get through, and that kid needs to know that you’re there for them when they’re ready.

As Christians, we believe that life is purposeful and that we are given a role and a place in that purpose. Church is always about hearing our call. We believe that God has a claim on us and a place for us in the kingdom. We believe that in our baptism we are each named and called into ministry, into service, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his church, for the sake of his kingdom. We are called, each and all of us.

The great preacher, Will Willimon, now Bishop Willimon, said: “The Bible is not so much a record of our search for God as it is a record of how God searched for us…You are here [in church],” he said, “not because you are searching but because you have been sought, called and summoned. You are here because God has reached in, grabbed you, put you here, enticed, wooed, allured you here…you have been found [by God].”

That fits real well with the story we heard in Matthew’s Gospel. Andrew and Peter weren’t looking for Jesus that day. According to the story, they were doing their work that day, being fishermen, casting a net into the sea. Jesus found them, then two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, in the boat mending their nets. “Follow me,” he said to them all. Finding them. Calling them. Inviting them into a new venture, a new vocation, and the kingdom of God.

Even this morning, God, in Christ Jesus, wants to find us. There is a desire within us to let ourselves be found and claimed by a higher calling. There is a huge hunger in our hearts to know that our lives are important and have meaning and purpose, to know that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, something lasting and enduring, something holy and beautiful and true.

One indicator of this is the popularity of the book, The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren,
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