Calling
Isaiah 61:6 and Luke 1:26-38
We long to have our lives matter. It starts as children and our fascination with super heroes. And in our 20’s and 30’s, we try to answer who we are and why we are here. It’s not enough for us just to exist, we need our life to mean something. And then we hit mid life and the supposed crisis which comes with it as we consider the lives we’ve led and the impact we’ve had. It’s why we’re drawn this time of year o watch the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” the story of a man named George who feels worthless and is ready to commit suicide only to discover the impact his life has had on so many people. We want to know we have been created with meaning and purpose. And the Good News is that we find both of these things in the birth of the One we will celebrate this week, Jesus.
In order to connect with the true meaning of this time of year, we’ve been looking at the purpose and meaning of the Messiah, why he came in the first place. When Jesus started his ministry, he went to his hometown synagogue and opened up the Scriptures to read Isaiah 61. Through this Scripture, Jesus announces his mission statement but he also give us our mission statement as well. This passage would have been one of the favorite Scriptures of Jesus’ day and more than likely, those who heard it had it memorized. In verse 6, it says, “And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God..” You are a priest. Priests of the Lord is important in understanding our mission and purpose in life. Most likely, when you hear the word priest, you think of full time ordained clergy. But in the Old Testament, the priest served only part time and was considered to be the mediator between God and His people. God would pour his blessings on the priest as a result of his sacrifices on behalf of the people and then the priest would extend those blessings to the people. So according to Isaiah 61, you and I are priests of the Lord. We are vessels through which God works and moves in the world.
The first time the word priest is used is not to describe an individual but to describe the whole nation of Israel. In Exodus 19:6, it says “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” To be a part of the people of God is to be a vessel through which God’s blessings flow.” The New Testament writers agree with this. I Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The mission of God is not the work of a few people but all the people who claim Jesus because you are a royal priesthood. You are a priest.
Paul says, you are not only a priest but a temple of God as well. According to Jewish thought, the temple was the place where heaven and earth overlap. I Cor 3:16 , Paul asks “Did you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” The temple was considered to be the place where you encounter the holy. What’s he’s saying is, you are the place where heaven and earth meet and when people meet you, they encounter the holy. You and I both individually and corporately, are walking and talking places where heaven and earth meet. That’s a calling.
For the remainder of this message, I want us to look at the calling of Mary which will teach us four keys to receive our calling. The first thing we need to accept is to embrace that God wants to do great things through our lives. When God called Mary, the angel said to her, “You have found favor with God.” Granted, Mary played a key role in God’s plan of salvation. Not all of us are going to give birth to the Son of God. The problem is that we never think God can or will do something significant through us. Sometimes, it’s a lot of easier to look at other people and see that they are highly favored. But it is quite another to look at ourselves and claim that we are highly favored or that God wants to do great things through us. And yet, that is what God wants you to embrace. It’s so easy to get mired in the boring day to day activities of life and the drudgery of the same routine of work, eat, take care of the kids, do housework and then sleep that we forget how to dream. A lot of times, we’re just trying to hang on and make it through just another day. It’s not that we can’t pursue our calling amidst our daily lives and activities, in fact that’s one of the places we’re meant to live that out. But when the normal day to day activities becomes the totality of who we are and the drone of routine can drown out the voice of God, then we miss God’s call for our lives. We were created for so much more than just getting by. We are meant to be priests, God’s holy vessels and agents in the world. What would happen if we embraced that?
Second, remove the excuses. Mary asks the question which would have been on all of our minds: I’m a virgin, how can this happen? I think Mary’s questions reveals what happens to us so often when God calls, we’re so quick to disqualify ourselves from being used by God. We think we’re not smart enough, gifted enough, strong enough, mature in the faith enough, talented enough, or good enough, digging up all of the baggage and sins of our past. When we listen to these voices (the voice of the evil one), we deny the witness of the Bible from the first pages of the Old Testament to the ends of the new that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. If God’s plan of salvation totally depended on you and I, it wouldn’t and could not happen! But listen to how the angel responded to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” It’s not you and what you bring to the table. It’s about God who works through you. God gives you two things to accomplish his will: The guidance of the Holy Spirit and the divine power of God to accomplish his will. With God, you can do far more than you could do on your own. Too often we try to do it all by ourselves and it isn’t going to happen.
Third is complete and total surrender. Mary is going to face charges of adultery, the dissolution of the her marriage and possible stoning to death. Not only that, she has to explain to Joseph she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, right! There is a very real chance that Joseph is going to leave her to raise this child as a single parent in a culture where women didn’t work and depended almost entirely on men to provide for them. In the face of all this, Mary says to God, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your Word.” Mary says yes to God and it is in saying yes, that we begin to embrace the calling of God in our lives. Paul writes in Colossians 1:9, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work…” Now the word ‘fill’ literally means overflowing, filled to the brim, and packed full. Think of how you feel after Christmas dinner. The question we need to answer is do we really want that? To pursue God’s will with everything we have and to seek to be filled by him, means we surrender everything of ourselves and our lives to God. But are we really willing to do that?
I think one of our fears is that if we do that, then we think will have to give up all of the passions, dreams and desires of our heart, the things that make your heart beat faster. We almost have in mind that God is some kind of cosmic killjoy and if we surrender to him, we’ll face only drudgery in doing so. What we fail to understand is that God has laid your desires on your heart and the things that align with His will and His purpose, He will not only use but will empower you with his Spirit to pursue for His sake. The angel told Mary two things: first, she was going to give birth to a son. Even though these are not the circumstances that she would have chosen under any situation, the news of this birth would have tapped into the longing and desire of Mary and every woman of her day to be a mother. The second thing the angel said to Mary was that this child would be the long awaited Messiah. This would have tapped into a deeper desire as an Israelite for freedom that dates back through 700 years of captivity and occupation by foreign forces. This is the desire to see God defeat evil and liberate her people. It was Mary surrendering to this deeper desire and longing that enabled her to look at all of the fear and uncertainty she faced.
It’s in this tension between God’s great desires and our own desires that our calling comes to us. Our calling is revealed where our inner passions and God’s greater purpose meet. What happens is that we tend to dismiss our longings and desires because we think since that’s what we want to do, it can’t come from God or be blessed by God. Psalm 139:13-14 says “For you created my inmost being (that’s where your passions and desires are formed)… that you and I are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” So we need to embrace these personal and longing desires as a gift from God. That being said, we also have to be sure that these personal desires are in line with the Word of God and being guided by that deeper desire for God’s plan of salvation. The worst thing we can do is to consciously or unconsciously believe that God exists to bless our plans. Our culture has led us to believe that we are to pursue our greatest desires in life are for our enjoyment and that’s the path to happiness and fulfillment. Every commercial these days is about receiving presents and the joy they bring and the one with the most toys wins! Nothing could be further from the truth. Because when you buy into that thinking, you begin to move away from the deeper desires of the heart and God’s greater purpose and all of our passion gets poured into things that don’t really matter like shopping, updating our Facebook, or managing your fantasy football league.
The problem with these distractions in our lives is that they start to make us think that it’s OK that things aren’t really OK. If we really want to discover true meaning, purpose and God’s calling for our lives, we’re going to have to live really close to the broken heart of God. Real purpose and meaning comes for a deep passion and love for God’s children who are broken, hurting, without hope and separated from the love of God. That’s what moved God to send his only son to come on this earth and eventually be crucified for the sins of the world. We cannot separate the birth from his death because if there was ever a man who was born to die, it was Jesus and it was all because of God’s broken heart for his rebellious children. Part of Christmas is to hear our calling which occurs at the crossroads of our passions and the heart of God. You’ve got to find something of God’s plan worth giving your life to. And then give your life to it.
Our calling becomes more clear as we live into it. If we follow Mary’s life, she lives with this constant uncertainty of Jesus’ mission, not his identity but his mission. And who could blame her? There were so many royal and military expectation of the Messiah and Jesus didn’t fit any of them. I don’t think she got it until after the resurrection. We’re not going to be given all the answers at the start of the journey. But as we go, more and more will be revealed and it will become clearer to us. A lot of times, we can use that lack of certainty as an excuse to not do anything.
Don’t wait for clarity, just start serving! Join in what God is already blessing. As you do, you will find your calling and pursue it with everything you got. Get involved. Sometimes, it takes serving to see if that’s where your passion lies. And if it isn’t, think of Thomas Edison who failed more than 100 times in inventing the light bulb. And as his friends were riding him about what a failure he was, he said, I’m not at all, I now know 100 things which don’t work. So if you serve and it’s not where your passion lies, go serve somewhere else until you do find it. You were created for so much more.
You are priests, a holy people, a chosen priesthood, a holy nation. You are God’s specials vessel through which he wants to bless others so that you may declare the praise of him who called you out of darkness and into a new life.
