The Confusion of Calling

This is a reflection and place for dialogue on my sermon and related themes from the second Sunday of Advent, on the Gospel text from Mark 1:1-8. 

“I feel called to become a priest.” This is not unfamiliar language to Christians. For many, it is merely churchy code for, “I want to become a priest.” The problem with this gap in understanding is that Biblically, many people who were called by God, wanted to do anything but answer that call. Moses protested God’s call because he wasn’t a good speaker. The prophet Jeremiah said he was too young. Before his conversion, Paul had been persecuting Christians and the last thing he wanted, one could imagine, was becoming one of them.  The idea of a call has embodied within it the idea that God compels you, urges you or invites you to do something. Yes, you have to respond in the affirmative (as Blessed Mary did), though in the case of the prophet Jonah, sometimes saying no to God is difficult.

Traditionally, an individual’s call must be recognized both by the individual and the community. So it isn’t enough for Jane to say “God is calling me to be a priest. Ordain me already!” The community must also, through a careful process of discernment and prayer, affirm that sense of call. In some cultures and situations, it is actually the community that identifies the individual as having a calling. In most Christian Churches, both the individual and the community must recognize that call in order for the person to be ordained. Also, training requirements vary greatly across denominations, with some Churches emphasizing calling and the equipping power of the Holy Spirit well over training (and thus their training requirements are quite minimal or non-existent) and some Churches emphasizing preparation and professional training over a sense of spiritual call. For most denominations, the actual practice is somewhere in the middle.

Confusing and complicating all of this are questions of “what constitutes a sense of call?” Does it mean a man or woman simply enjoys helping other people? Does it mean that having some mysterious spiritual experience of call is necessary? These are all questions that have been debated and defined over the centuries. A more global concern is whether calling is the special province of clergy. It is not. All Christians receive callings. Indeed, people of no faith or other faiths will often express a sense of calling. The language being less churchy, “I felt this is what I should be doing.” “Things kept leading me to this field.” Even in secular literature and the experience of people who live without explicitly religious faith, many experience a sense of “things they should be doing” or “burdens that came to them” or “life missions.” I always encourage people to find a calling, not just job or a career. For many people, this sense is found in marriage and family life, and less so in their job which helps to support their genuine sense of calling to family life or a particular passion.

What did you hear in the sermon, in the text, or this reflection? What would you challenge, what would you add? What are you still wondering about?  

Keep Awake!

This is a reflection and place for dialogue on my sermon and related themes from the first Sunday of Advent, on the Gospel text from Mark 13:24-37.

This passage, is which is known as the little apocalypse, has inspired much speculation, anxiety, and creative interpretation over the centuries. The Bible has several books or sections of books that feature apocalyptic writing, mostly famously, The Book of Revelation. This genre of Biblical literature deals with difficult subject matter like heaven, hell, judgment, and upheaval of the established order. 

Advent is an apocalyptic season of the Church year. This seems entirely strange and alien to the general spirit of “holiday cheer” going on around us. However, if you have ever seen a group of children tearing into their Christmas presents, with the wrappings flying in the air, and much “weeping and gnashing” of teeth over presents received and not received, you can find plenty of apocalyptic moments in the “most wonderful time of year” (never mind holiday traffic!). 

Advent readings, like Mark 13, put the Christian out of step with the pace of the world. We’re invited to “Keep Awake” and be ready for the return of the Savior, while the world is getting ready for Santa Claus, Christmas cookies and lots of holiday parties --- some with inappropriate drama, some with tippy toe family drama. For some, being awake this time of year is painful, because they are all too aware of what other people have and they do not. 

Mark 13 is a reminder to “Keep Awake,” which suggests, that perhaps many of us are, for all intents and purposes, sleep walking our lives away. It might also suggest that we need spiritual lasik surgery in order to truly see what matters in life. Jesus’ return or our return to Jesus will put everything in our lives in perspective. One woman facing breast cancer put it this way:

“You take a long look at your life and realize that many things that you thought were important before are totally insignificant. That’s probably been the major change in my life. What you do is put things in perspective. You find out that’s like relationships are really the impost things you have -=-- the people you know and your family – everything else is just way down the line. It’s strange that it takes something so serious to make you realize that.”

In a sense, cancer is an unwanted apocalyptic event. It upheaves a life. It brings fear of death and whether from God or a person’s own conscience, brings judgment. This comparison can be pushed too far, but certainly, the idea of Christ’s return or our own return to Christ should carry with it a force that rouses us to reflection and not merely morbid anxiety.

What did you hear in the sermon, in the text, or this reflection? What would you challenge, what would you add? What are you still wondering about?