Called

January 14, 2024

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 1:43-51

Called

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our scriptural texts today center on being called. We meet the young boy Samuel who is awakened in the middle of the night. And we meet the two friends from Bethsaida, Philip and Nathanael.

How is God calling you? What are you being called into? These questions are especially relevant to us when we’re in our youth and young adult years. What am I to do with my life? But no matter how old we become, the questions remain with us.

Some people just know what their calling is. It’s very plain to them. They’re closer to Philip. Jesus simply says to Philip, “Follow me.” And suddenly, Philip knows that he has found the fulfillment of all scriptures in Jesus!

But I think more often, the discernment process involves considerably more struggle. We need some time to figure this out! We’re more hesitant, like Nathanael, before we reach a conclusion. Or we’re confused, like Samuel.

How have you been called? Too often, we limit our notions about who is called to religious vocations. We’re pretty sure that God calls ministers and other church workers. But God’s calling is much, much broader than that. God calls each and every one of us!

Theologically speaking, our calling is our vocation. The word vocation actually comes from the Latin word for calling! All of us are called into the world. Each of us can serve our neighbor through our abilities. As my seminary professor, Michael Rogness said, every job that works to build up and maintain society is a calling. Imagine a world of only ministers but no plumbers or electricians! Goodness, we’d be in trouble!

Martin Luther said it very plainly, “A Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

And we are called within the circle of family, too: mother, father, uncle, grandmother, child. We serve and build up one another in our families, too.

St. Teresa of Avila is well known for her saying:

Christ has no body on earth but yours;

no hands but yours;

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eye through which

the compassion of Christ looks out to the world.

Yours are the feet with which

he is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which

he is to bless others now.

This is our vocation, our blessed privilege, that we should be Christ to one another! In our words and actions, we go into the world as servants of Christ.

What we are called into changes over time and circumstance. When dire sickness strikes a family, your vocation can change instantaneously. After a lifetime career, newly retired people consider what their vocation will be in the next chapter of their lives. We can juggle several vocations at the same time, between work and family and community pursuits.

The story about young Samuel sheds light on the discernment process. Samuel is a young boy. His mother, Hannah, dedicated him to the Lord’s service after he was weaned. Samuel went to live with the prophet Eli.

One night, a voice calls Samuel by name and wakes him up. Samuel assumes that Eli has called to him, so he goes to Eli and asks him what he wants. “Nothing, boy! Go lie down again!” But the voice persists, and gradually, Eli realizes that the voice calling to Samuel is the Lord’s. “Go back to bed,” he says, “and the next time this happens, tell the voice, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’”

It's a small detail in the story, but it’s critical in discerning our call. Discernment requires that we listen to the voice calling us. In order for us to perceive how God is calling us, we need to have an open heart, an open spirit. Calling requires us to listen.

Nathanael did this, too. Although he was initially rather skeptical about Jesus, Philip invited him to keep an open mind. “Come and see,” Philip said. And Nathanael did. He trusted his friend Philip and so he was receptive to learning more. And when he encountered Jesus face to face, something inside shifted.

A call story that I find very moving is that of Mother Teresa. Although Mother Teresa aligned herself with a religious order, and you might think of her as following a religious vocation, her actions were directed in love for her neighbor. She didn’t fill her days in prayer and singing psalms. She dedicated herself to aiding the poorest of the poor, to ease their earthly suffering. That was her calling.