"A Calling Plan That's Right for You"

My good doctor friend was working a hospital emergency room in Texas a few years ago when the Dallas Cowboys were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

He opens up the curtains and to find a patient with severe burns, like a flat bottomed boat, on the left side of his face. "How did this happen," he asks.

"Well doctor, I was watching the Super Bowl, and midway through the first quarter I hear the phone ring. I'm like a lot of Cowboy fans: once the game starts I'm in the zone. Nothing else matters. My wife knows this and every time the Super Bowl is on TV, and especially when the Cowboys play, she goes over to her sister's house and they spend the day griping how their husbands don't pay attention to them.

"Anyway, Troy Aikman had dropped back to pass and hit Michael Irvin and just as he was about to score a touchdown, the phone rings. I pick it up, but there's nobody on the other end. I keep saying, 'Hello, hello,' and there's still no answer. Then I realize my ears are burning like crazy. I look at what I thought was the phone receiver and then I realize I've had the steam iron up to my ear the past three minutes. Then I realized where the phone was and answered it. It was my wife, calling to remind me to turn off the iron."

My friend treated Mr. Burns and sent him home. That was halftime. Three hours later, he pulls the curtain back and there's his fanatical football fan sitting there with a familiar burn pattern on the other side of his face. He asks, "What in the world happened?" The patient says, "My stupid wife called back!"

Sometimes when God calls a man or woman, it is unmistakable. To some, the call of God is hot and urgent and pressing. Strike while the iron is hot. To others, the call of God is gentle and gradual; it almost has a leisurely feel about it.

Some people respond to the call of God immediately. They drop their nets and without any further thought follow Jesus wherever He leads. Others take a little more time.

Where were you when God first called you?

Sometimes that call of God takes somewhat of a circuitous route. God will use people and events and strange circumstances. Every year the American Academy of Science sponsors a contest for college students called The Rube Goldberg Games. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist whose shtick was inventing roundabout ways to complete a simple mechanical task. So every year the Academy presents a simple mechanical act and the students are to develop a simple series of mechanism and actions to accomplish.

Let's say the aim is to make toast. One possible Goldberg variation might be to drop a steel ball on a track that falls and triggers a lever which opens a cage which lets loose a mouse which runs onto a cylinder which turns another lever which opens a water pipe which lets loose a toy boat which jams another level which pulls up another level which activates a mechanical hand which pulls down the thing that activates the toaster.

In a sense, that's what happened with the first two disciples of Jesus. God had a roundabout way of working out the circumstances in their lives. God let loose a steel ball and they were born Jewish, which tripped a lever that introduced them to John the Baptizer which triggered John's finger to point to Jesus and say, "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world" which got them to following Jesus.

Other disciples were a lot different. Take Saint Matthew, the tax collector, Caesar's IRS agent. He's sitting in his tax booth one day doing an audit. Up to his elbows in money. Jesus walks by, looks his in the eye, says, "Follow Me," and Matthew drops his 1099 forms, schedules Es, Schedule SEs, his amortization charts and the abacus he uses to level interest penalties and does what? Follows Jesus. No argument. No dispute. Papers strewn. Direct. To the point. "Follow Me."

Andrew was on the beach. Matthew was at the booth. But where we you when Jesus first said, "Follow Me"?

Andrew and unnamed companion had been followers of John the Baptizer. Now they begin walking behind Jesus. Jesus senses this. He turns around and asks, "What do you seek?"

You will find in this life that there are important questions, and then there are important questions. As you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will find Jesus repeating these questions in holy redundancy.

"What do you want Me to do for you?" Sometimes the question is phrased a bit differently. "What do you want?" Sometimes He appeals more to the mind: "Well, what do you think? Who do YOU say that I am?"

These are simple questions, albeit ones which betray a deeper sense. It all has to do with what philosophers call "existentialism," a five dollar word meaning "what in the world am I doing here?"

Why do I exist?

And where were you when God called you?

Jesus asks Andrew and pal a pointed question. "What is it you seek?" This hints at what Andrew and friend were really after. A student would often ask a simple question, something like, "Rabbi, what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he talks about God's word not returning to Him void?" The rabbis were interested in providing the answers to these questions, but were far more interested in WHY the student asked the question. What is the motive? Why do you want to know the answer?

Sometimes Jeanette will ask, "Why hasn't John Doe been coming to church?" And if I am particularly testy or in a bad mood I'll say, "Why? Did you hear something? Is he mad at me? Why do you wanna know that? What did I do this time?" And my dear will reply, "Whooaa, don't bite my head off. I found a book with his name inside, that's all."

Jesus wants Andrew and friend to think what it is they want from Him. So in the tradition of the rabbis, He says, "Well, let's sit down and talk about it. Come on over to where I'm staying and we'll try to find the answer together."

So they sit. And they talk. And Andrew and his friend ask questions. And Jesus asks questions. And in the process Andrew finds what he's after.

When you and I find something good, we generally have two ways of processing the discovery. Some people, upon finding something wonderful, will keep it to themselves. Michigan is blessed with a wonderful delicacy called the morel mushroom. This fantastic fungus grows in the woods and is very hard to find. There have been more Elvis sightings than actual findings of morel mushrooms. People will search for hours and, if lucky enough to gather a bunch, will not disclose their spot for anything in the world.

Other people, however, upon discovering a good restaurant will call you up, "Hey, I found a place with great grilled walleye. You gotta come with me." It is a given: once you discover something so grand, you've GOTTA share it everybody else.

Put Andrew in the latter day category. He goes home, finds brother Simon and says, "Simon, we've found the Messiah." Simon says, "I've got to see for myself." So Andrew brings his brother back, and before given the opportunity to introduce himself, Jesus looks at him and says, "You are Simon, son of John; you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter, which means rock."

Andrew's been asking questions. Jesus has been asking questions. Now it's my turn. Where were you when Jesus called you? And what name did He use?

Jesus moves on to His new base of operations and sees a gentleman named Philip. Again, no preliminary discussion. No questionnaire. It's a simple, "Follow Me."

Now, see Philip in action. He finds his friend Nathanael and says, "We've found the Messiah: Jesus. He's from Nazareth."

"Nazareth?" Nathanael says. "Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

One of Longville's greatest assets is that most people here are from somewhere else. And every place else always has a place where you'd rather not be from.

In West Virginia, the town across the river is called Nitro, which is 70 square miles of filthy, polluted, pungent air. In western Pennsylvania, the town down river from Pittsburgh is called East McKeesport, a place of closed steel mills and boarded up buildings. The town up the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore polluted with gangs, drugs, and the infamous sexual harassment of the Aberdeen Proving Ground is called Aberdeen.

Were Jesus to come to earth today, I am convinced He would live in Nitro or East McKeesport. (I'm not so sure about Aberdeen.)

Can anything good come out of Nitro? Can anything good come out of East McKeesport? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? "Well," Philip says, "there's only one way to find out. Come and see."

So Philip does an Andrew and brings Nathanael to see Jesus. And before Nathanael has even opened his mouth, Jesus says, "Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile."

Jesus knew everything about Nathanael. Jesus no doubt could have revealed Nat's mother's name, mother's maiden name, third cousin's birthday, and what his bank balance was. But for Jesus to get through to Nathanael, He had to reveal two things. The first was the condition of Nathanael's heart. Here was a guy who heart was an open book, not a dishonest bone in his body.

I have told you how I have, in the past, been the epitome of Guy Gullible. I believe in the good in people. I tend to take people at their word. I once wore a sign around my neck that read, "I am a nice guy. Walk all over me. Don't worry about the footprints." How could Jesus know this about Nathanael without Nathanael wearing a sign? It's because Jesus could see into his heart. It's as if He were saying, "Other people may take advantage of you, but not Me. And besides, I could tell what kind of guy you are. I saw you sitting under a fig tree before you came here."

To a Jew, a fig tree is a symbol of peace. It is under a vine or a fig tree that Jews liked to sit and meditate. The next time you are in the Longville Cemetery, you will find my fig tree in the form of a tall Norway pine just to the right of the stone gate.

Nathanael says, "Whooa. You ARE the Son of God. You ARE the King of Israel."

Jesus says "Nathanael, you aint seen nothing yet. You will see the heavens opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Andrew and his friend (some commentators believe him to be the Apostle John). Simon Peter. Philip. Nathanael: all different people. Just as a parent must deal with the individual characteristics of her children, God the Father calls each of His children in a different way. But there is a surprising sameness that happens when God calls people.

First of all, those who hear God's call get connected. Jeanette and I once had a running argument. She would ask me to call someone. Later, she would ask if I called.

"Yep."

"What did he say?"

"But you said you called him."

"I said I called him. I didn't say I talked to him."

The basis of the argument is what constitutes a call. Jeanette's version is that a call means getting hold of the other party. My conception was in the actual phone dialing, listening, and then hanging up when no one answered.

There is a sense in which God makes a general call to everyone. It's like being in the airport and hearing "Everyone who wants to go to Heaven, the plane is now boarding at Gate Number Seven." You'd be surprised at how many people don't make a move. Their minds are somewhere else. They are strangely disinterested. They are there for some other purpose.

But there is the time when God makes that call, that personal, one-on one call. The call goes through and there is a response. "Will you follow Me?" If the answer is "yes," a lever is pulled, a gate is opened.

I believe a yes to God's call triggers the need to share it with others. Those who respond to God's gift of Jesus Christ share it with others. They invite others to come and see. Andrew was always bringing people to meet Jesus. Philip was always bringing people to meet Jesus.

I often hear that religion is a personal thing, and I agree to a point. But salvation is a gift. And any gift God gives is meant to be shared.

And that pulls the trigger on the third thing. That those who respond to God's call and share it with others are genuinely changed people. Christ makes a difference. There is a noticeable, appreciable difference in their lives. There is a change of names.

Take Simon, Andrew's brother: the name Simon means "he who hears." Simon HEARD God's call. After responding to the call, his name was changed. For a name is not something solely in which to distinguish your kids apart. A name in the scriptures carries a power, a spell. It identifies the nature of the person. Simon is changed from him who hears, the lever is pulled, he responds affirmatively, the gate is opened and he becomes the rock. Rube would have been proud.

After that, a fourth thing is sure to follow: those who are changed are changed in an instant, but they are also begin a long course of change. Those who respond to God's call become disciples. The word disciple in Greek means "a learner." One cannot learn without discipline, which is what puts the "in" in disciple. (Disciple - in)

But why? Why drop your nets? Why the discipline? Why the name change? It's because those who respond to God's call are always seeking something. What do you seek? What is it you want? Do you want Jesus for what He can give you? Is He a Galactic genie? Is He an asbestos ticket to heaven? Is He someone who will answer all your questions?

All relationships have, at some level, ulterior motives. A wife expects something from her husband, and vice versa. Teachers expect things from their students, and vice versa. Parishioners expect certain things from their pastors, and ditto again. All the disciples, I suspect, had ulterior motives at first. Perhaps new fishing beds. Perhaps new ways of getting richer. Perhaps getting the Roman soldiers out of Israel.

But what about you? What is it you seek? Why are you here?

A woman about my age died and appeared at the gates of heaven. She was met there by an angel.

"Who are you?

"I'm a housewife."

"But who are you?"

"I'm Bill's wife."

"But who are you?"

"I'm Sam, Michelle and Jessica's mother."

"But who are you?"

"I'm a registered Democrat."

"But who are you?"

"I'm a 1971 graduate of St. Albans High School."

"But who are you?"

She had to think before gaining entrance, for it's not "who are you" but "WHOSE are you?"

You see, those who respond to God's call are those who seek HIM. Sometimes when He calls, the response is gradual. The steel ball triggers the lever that pulls the gate which releases the mouse. But in the end, it's all about seeking God simply for who He is.

Sometimes His call is urgent and immediate, hot and intense. Cleopas and friend, after the crucifixion, encountered Jesus on the Emmaus Road. As He spoke, though not recognizing the face, they somehow made connection with the voice that called them to comfort. "Did not His words burn within us?"

Perhaps your ears burn at His call. But don't worry: if it's really important, He'll call back.

© Rev. Duane Brown, 2003