There’s a great scene in Dead Poets Society when all the boys are gathered in the chapel while the Mr. Nolan, the headmaster, begins to deal with a disciplinary problem. Suddenly he is interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone. A mischievous boy answers the phone from a pew, stands up, and says, “Mr. Nolan, it’s for you. It’s God. He says we should have girls at Welton!” The student body erupts in laughter. The boy pays a steep price for his prank in the end. Literally and figuratively.
God rarely makes such calls. That is, God rarely makes calls that are so clearly heard. Nonetheless, God is always calling. Whether we hear it or not is the issue. The Hebrew Testament story of Samuel, to whom God calls in the night is an example. At first Samuel thinks it must be Eli calling him, but Eli catches on to what it is and tells Samuel to listen for God the next time it happened. That, of course led to Samuel becoming an incredibly important prophet in the story of God and God’s Chosen People.
When was the last time you heard God calling you? Notice I didn’t ask when was the last time God called out to you? It’s more accurate to ask when you heard it or were listening for it. Some of us are good at discernment, the process of listening for God, while others of us will struggle our entire lives to hear God. Either way, the actor that connects us to God is the Holy Spirit. We believe that in prayer and meditation the Spirit can bridge the communication gap between God and us, allowing us to discern a sense of what God is saying or what God is calling out to us to do.
In my sermon on Sunday, I talked about the need to make a turn from an inward focus to an outward focus, as individuals and a community. That process is partly about discernment: listening for God’s call in the midst of everything else that swirls around us. The story of the Prophet Jeremiah we heard Sunday was a case in point. If he would only have listened to what he heard inside him, he would not have been able to be the prophet to the nations, as God intended. He had to hear God calling to him to fill that role, and assuring him he had the gifts he needed to fulfill it. If God truly calls us to do something, God will always equip us.
We are most often used to hearing about calling around ordination, although God calls most of us to things other than ordination. We learned last night that Becky Dorrell has been made a Postulant for the Deaconate in this diocese. Her discernment IS one towards ordination; having heard God calling her to serve as a deacon, she tested that call with our clergy and with a discernment committee of folks from the area, and then tested it again before two diocesan committees. That call was affirmed, and now she can officially begin studying to be a deacon. But what if we’re not hearing a call to be a priest or a deacon? What does a calling look or sound like? How do we affirm it?
A calling can be as simple as a yearning. We might have a thought or experience that is followed by a strange feeling or like something or someone has just come very close to us. Sometimes we might hear a voice; it’s fairly common, believe it or not. It can often come to us in prayer or stillness, yet it can also happen in the busy-ness of a moment or during a church service. Sometimes we become aware of something that has been on our mind a lot when we didn’t initially realize it, but then notice a pattern of thought around doing something or going somewhere. Affirming such things can come through discussing them with others, like spouses, friends, or clergy. Or we can act on the calling, trying out a new behavior or ministry to see if it feels right and good, or whether we meet God or Jesus through it.
God can call us into relationships, leadership, service, vocations – all sorts of things. Sometimes the best way to hear a calling is to spend time learning what our spiritual gifts are; we all have them. Often, we find that God calls us towards things we have been given gifts for. Not always, though. Sometimes a calling unveils a surprising truth about us we didn’t know. Or one we didn’t or couldn’t admit. It is not uncommon for people to admit they sensed God’s calling and that they didn’t act on it for years.
So, when was the last time you heard God calling you? How might you listen for that calling? How will you respond? I often speak of the broken world in one of my go-to blessings at the end of the eucharist, reminding us that the broken world is waiting for us to help mend it. How long will we make the world wait for what God has placed inside us? The world pays a steep price when we don’t align ourselves with God through the Spirit, as God keeps building that kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. God’s calling. How will you answer?
Tom+
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in allour doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may saveus from all false choices, and that in your light we may see
light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Photo Credits: Screenshot from Dead Poets Society, God Calling, Milkovasa, via Dreamstime.com subscription.