Introduction: The elusive experience of completion
Throughout my teenage years I had a Golden Retriever dog named Genny… tennis ball was her life focus… and when she retrieved it… retuned… proud… wagging… her calling was complete.
Birthday party for her.. a friend brought an entire box of tennis balls he’s collected and poured them out across the lawn…. The result was a frantic dog who could find no completion.
> Many of us may feel our lives are like that… too many balls spread out across our path… never able to feel the joy of completion.
> It’s hard to find rest in the vast sea of potential ‘shoulds’ we’ve created.
We do well to reconsider the type of rest that Jesus offers. Jesus is offering us a new way of life… which he is intending to live through us.
John 17:1-4 (NIV)
Jesus … looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. [2] For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. [3] Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [4] I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
“Completion”… an unqualified sense of all encompassing completion…
> Such a sense of completion may be the most elusive key to experiencing peace in life… for how often do we enjoy that sense of fulfillment?
‘How could Jesus talk about a "completed" work? His three-year ministry seems painfully brief. One prostitute at a banquet was given forgiveness and a new life, but many others still ply their trade. For every withered muscle that flexed into strength, hundreds remain crippled.
The blind, maimed and deceased abound throughout the country. Yet on that last night, with many urgent human needs unmet and useful tasks undone, the Lord has peace.
The answer to our question lies in the words that follow: "the work you gave me to do”
Jesus did not meet all the human needs he encountered-many urgently desired by family and friends, and by others along his path. But he completed the mission his Father gave him.’
-Charles E. Hummel-Freedom From Tyranny of the Urgent: Page 23+
Critical…. to realize that this experience of completion… of fulfillment…. Came in relationship to his CALLING.
Jesus’ sense of completion isn’t in relationship to some endless list of needs… but in relationship to a more defined sense of calling… priority… focus.
Jesus found fulfillment through a sense of focus that came from His Father above.
The life which God our Father has for us, through the life of Christ in us, involves a sense of calling that offers our days to be defined with completion. What is Christ imparting to us about this life of calling and completion?
7 things about the nature of Christ’s calling that can help us grasp how God intends us to live out our lives.
Some were difficult to state as simply as I’d like, but I think you’ll grasp them as I explain them.
1. Our calling transcends the life circumstances we have often considered necessary for personal fulfillment (i.e. marriage, parenting, and work.)
In our culture we often direct our sense of personal fulfillment to marriage, parenting, and work.
> Jesus had no marriage, no children, and no regular job during the very years by which he defined his sense of fulfillment.
When Jesus claimed fulfillment…. Completion… it reflected something that transcended such circumstances and roles.
Luke 19:10 (NIV)
“…the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." > The redemption of creation.
> Every one of us is connected to that calling in a unique way.
· It will involve our life circumstances (marriage, parent, job, etc) but isn’t simply them. (i.e. ‘through’ them not ‘in’ them).
Critical distinction… If not married… If dating… not fulfilled in ‘result’ but the process… love
….if getting married … if struggling.
If unemployed… underemployed… prestigiously employed.
2. Our calling is to become internalized into our daily reality… a qualitative priority that can be fulfilled in the present more than just a quantitative project that is fulfilled at the end.
John 4:34 (TEV) Context: Jesus stops to get water… Samaritan woman…
"My food," Jesus said to them, "is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do.”
“Food” = My satisfaction… fulfillment… inwardly he was feeling full.
> Yes he had a sense of the fact that more may lie ahead… but he was enjoying the fulfillment of the moment… faithful participation. = faithfulness > success.
Illus – Clarence Jordan… ‘faithful…. Not successful”
Luke 12:42-43 (ESV)
And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”
How can such a manager / servant know if they fulfilled their responsibility?
> Note: not what the master has found the servant has ‘done’… but is ‘doing.’
Obviously the master isn’t looking for a certain quantitative fulfillment… but one who is faithfully active.
> If we’re to be the wise managers of life, we may do well to change the way we think about the word “watch.” The definition of a timepiece is a late and secondary meaning. Root meaning is “to be awake in order to guard what is entrusted.” (i.e. might refer to ‘taking the night watch.’)
As a culture we often think about being faithful to our watches… but what about our watch? It can change our sense of what completion means. If we can end the day knowing we were faithful for our watch… we can end the day with the kind of completion God intends… regardless of whether every potential on the ‘to do’ list got checked off…. whether every need was met.
Ephes. 5:15-16 (NLT)
So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. [16] Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.
3. Our calling involves a defining focus of influence.
Matthew 15:24 (NIV) - He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
May be surprising… “God so loved the whole world”… and though Christ that salvation has come to all… YES, BUT JESUS GRASPED A SENSE OF DIVINE PROCESS…. and with it, his priority.
Not an issue of prejudice, but of process and priority.
Later… Paul and Peter… re their respective calls to Jews and Gentiles.
Many of us may also discover that God’s calling involves a focus of influence… a particular subculture, the poor, the entertainment community, the academic community, children, and the like. While such focus hasn’t been the case with all of Jesus’ disciples… we do well to keep our senses open.
4. Our calling involves a defining focus of role.
Was Jesus a healer? Only as part of a more central calling. If healing had been the core of his identity… it would have been the consistent … the constant …the center of all he pronounced.
> Not a healer… but a savior who came to proclaim the in-breaking reign of God… which involved manifesting such power through healing.
His core role is that of savior… it’s the constant role which every secondary role must support.
How does that distinction matter? Because it serves to define what’s central and what’s secondary.
… and therefore what completion involves.
· Myself re Psychology > Healing community… rather than clinical. If I didn’t recognize that distinction… I’d be trying to fulfill the calling of a psychologist and pastor… and countless other roles… and in turn never find fulfillment.
5. Our calling offers a guiding priority that integrates with the various diverse needs around us… rather than fully excludes us from them.
Common tension we can face is to feel we have too many roles and responsibilities. One way to resolve that is simply to embrace our focus and exclude ourselves from anything else… any other needs.
But I see in Jesus a more integrated way of living out our calling.
Jesus washed his disciples feet … it was an act that was normally done by a servant or the owner of a home when the guests arrived. Jesus began by simply taking up a need and using it as a means of fulfilling his focus. He didn’t make feet washing his vocation or become a house servant…. But he integrated it.
· In the same way some of us may be pastoral leaders but help set up chairs.
· “My primary role is to children…. therefore I really need to refrain from any involvement with outreach to the poor.” > Having children make lunches for the homeless who have little to eat.
> We can fulfill our focus through other facets of life and ministry. Focus is not a matter of total exclusion… but an integrating priority.
6. Completion doesn’t mean every possibility at hand is fulfilled.
CEMETERY FULL OF PEOPLE WHO NEVER FINISHED THEIR WORK
A business man, harassed and discouraged from overwork, took his problem to a psychiatrist who promptly told him to do less work. "Furthermore," prescribed the doctor, "I want you to spend an hour each week in the cemetery." "What on earth do you want me to do that for? What should I do in the cemetery?" "Not much. Take it easy and look around. Get acquainted with some of the men already in there and remember that they didn’t finish their work either. Nobody does, you know."
When Jesus declares a completed life… so few had been healed… and even fewer had received his sacrifice on the cross. It’s hard to imagine that any real list of potential needs had even begun to be completed. > But of course he makes no reference to any such list… rather he states… ‘I completed the work you (father) gave me to do.’
· He completed all that was needed to fulfill his calling…. And His calling couldn’t be contained by death..
· MLK – life was ended short in 1968 by a bullet… he was in the midst of planning new ventures for unorganized city workers and poverty programs. His list of possibilities may never have been fulfilled… but he fulfilled his calling. His dream lives on.
7. Completion involves an investment into others.
Jesus never intended to complete what he could conceive of… only to cast it into motion.
Completion meant passing on the unstoppable… it meant entering human history as the light of the world… and soon beginning to pass on the mantle of the kingdom as he declared to his followers that they were the light of the world… the salt of the earth… a city that cannot be hidden.
Whatever your particular calling… whatever part of Christ’s calling you discover as your own… it’s never just your own. As you share it with others… it will carry on.
Conclusion:
· “Well done good and faithful servant… come and share in your father’s happiness.”
Ø Jesus was describing not only what awaited him… but what awaits all who faithfully follow.
Is your life defined by needs… or by calling? If your life / day is defined by needs… you may never rest… smile at what awaits at the end of your life. But Christ has come to define your life with a calling… so that your life / days can find completion… and the fulfillment that comes with it.
