When
I ‘m Calling You-ou-ou-ou
June
30/13 6th after Pentecost 2 Kings 2:1-15
About thirty years ago I was student at Trent
University in Peterborough. It was
difficult time for me. It was the first real time on my own. I lived in
residence. I went through a wild time,
lots of drink, lots of late nights, lots of avoiding the school work. And about half way through the year, one
Saturday night, I reached the bottom , I have no memory about what started this
off – but I began to cry, and I cried and I cried and I cried, all night long
till one or two in the morning – I cried until there were no more tears
left. I cried because I was sad, I cried
because I was lonely – even though I was surrounded by people, I cried because something
was missing. I cried till I fell
asleep. The next morning I remember
waking up – and going to breakfast – it is a pretty quiet place Sunday morning
on campus – not many people around. A
couple of the people that I ran into that morning were going to church so I
went with them – to St. Andrew’s United Church – (Mike’s church if I am not
mistaken) I have no idea what was said
that day or what was sung or who the preacher was – what I do remember is that
it felt right being there – right enough to return the next week, right enough
to make church a habit for the rest of the year, right enough for it to be the
beginning of my journey with the United Church, and I have been a part of a United
Church congregation in each of the communities that I have lived in since. It was a call to me to return to the place my
mother brought me when I was a child. It was a call to find a place for me that
grounded me and connected me It not my first call and certainly not my last
call, but at the time it was significant enough to ground me in the presence of
God. It was my first call to religion, speaking
of religion in the truest sense of its meaning without all the baggage our
culture has attached to it.
The word religion comes from the word – re-ligare, which means to re-connect – to re-member what is
dis-membered: our own selves, the deep
life within us that is a strong “religious” impulse despite whatever our
outward lives may exhibit. Let me re – phrase this - to re-member our dis-membered selves – that
deep life that is within us that searches for a re-connection to that which is
bigger than ourselves – simply put – our reconnection to God. Call is listening
for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and
something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered. It is as psychologist William James meant
when he described religion as “the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen
order of things,” to remember what we already know. Becoming who we are at whatever stage of life
we are in – to learn to listen to God, and to hear God calling us to do and be
now in this time in our life. We as
human beings long for this connection, this re-membering. The church is part of what human beings have
developed to help facilitate re-connection – reconnection to
each other and reconnection to God.
Greg Levoy defines the purpose of calls to summon us away from our daily grind to a
new level of awareness, into a sacred frame of mind into communion with that
which is bigger than itself. And call
has nothing to do with how old we are because you can be 5 or 95 and God will
call, or whether we have been called before, because God calls over and over
again, and God calls out to everyone – not just those who are called to
ministry or missionary work or a religious vocation. God calls to ordinary
regular folks like you and me to live and work in the world in way that is
pleasing to God.
Now you may be sitting there saying – been there done
that –she is not talking to me this morning because I have done my time, or
what would God want with an old soul like me – but God does want and God does
call – there is no getting out of it because you are old or retired or finished
with all that - but that is not how it
works with God.
We as generation of human beings are very lucky. At no other time in our history have we had
so many options, and those of us in this part of the world, with so many
resources at our disposal have so many opportunities that our great
grandparents did not have. We are able
to not spend every waking moment of our days seeking the stuff that we need
just to survive – that is to say – we have enough wealth that we can have
leisure time, time to do things for the sake of doing them. I read a paper this week on call at a later
stage in life, the author indicated that this phenomena of many years of
retirement is new to our species:
“Historians note that retirement is a relatively
new concept. Until the
twentieth century, few people retired, in the
modern sense of the word.
Most people worked until they wore out. With an
increasing number of
people in our society today who can expect twenty
to thirty years of life
after retirement, and many of those years with
relatively good health, we
are faced with new questions about the meaning,
purpose, and tasks of
later life.
We have time, we have resources, we have opportunities,
we have choice, choice to be open to the voice of God and listen to where we
are called now. And we have choice -
choice to listen to the call and respond or not. Call is listening for the voice, the silence,
the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a
new direction is discovered.
Today
we meet Elisha on the verge of a new call – up until this time he has been the
student, the mentored, the observer of the prophet Elijah. Years ago he was plowing in his father’s
field the first time the call came to him, Elijah walked by and placed his
mantle on Elisha – who had in that moment the choice about whether to stay in
the fields and continue to plow following in the footsteps of his father – he
made the bold choice, to leave behind all that he knew and become someone else,
become the apprentice of the great prophet Elijah – who as you may recall,
defeated the 250 priests of Baal and had angered the queen. It was a dangerous choice to make, in a way,
going against the power of his day. But
today he has another choice to make – today he is called again, but this time
he is called into a leadership role – this time he has to leave behind his
known position as student and strike out on his own and become the prophet he
was meant to be.
We
join the story as Elijah realizes that it is time for him to die – time for him
to leave this earth. He knows it and he
tries to spare Elisha the pain of parting, so invites him to remain behind as
he journey’s to the next town – from Gilgal to Bethel – from Bethel to Jericho
and from Jericho to the Jordon, at each place Elijah give Elisha an out, and at
place Elisha remains firm with Elijah – I will go with you - even though the company prophet’s are
almost taunting Elisha – don’t you know- can’t you see, aren’t you aware –
Elijah about to go away– are you ready –be silent says Elisha – shut up – I
don’t want to talk about it – I don’t want to know –
I
wonder what Elisha is so afraid of – why he so instant on ignoring the
inevitable – pretending that this is just a normal day and he and Elijah are off
to do normal prophet things. And so they
come to the Jordan. Elijah rolls up his
mantle strikes the water, which part and off they walk across the river on dry
land – a Moses thing to do. On the other
side of the river– Elijah turns to Elisha and asks what can he give him as his
parting gift – what final words or actions can he receive from his teacher, his
mentor – Elisha asks for double what Elijah has – a hard thing says Elijah –but
possible – possible if – if he is able to watch what he is afraid of most –
able to watch as Elijah life on earth ends.
So here he is – the moment he has been dreading and he has to decide –
will he or won’t he -–will he or will he not face his fears- will he or will he
not leave behind the Elisha the student to Elijah – will he or will he not face
his fear of being alone, being responsible, making the decisions , having to
figure out what God is calling – relying on himself instead of Elijah –if he can watch Elijah go
– which is true biblical story telling fashion is quite a spectacular sight to
see with flaming horses and a chariots and whirlwinds – and he did – he faced
the fear of death to the old – faced the fear of being alone – faced the fear
of relying on himself – faced the fear of not being ready and not being enough
– and picked up the mantle of Elijah, walk back to the Jordon, struck the water
and walked through on dry land to the other side and his new life as Elisha the
prophet.
God calls...God calls people, young and old, male and
female, Christian and non-christian – Call is listening for the voice, the
silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred
happens and a new direction is discovered.
God called
Mary Delany, when she was 72 God called her to become
an artist. She was a paper cutter, she
cut and piled small pieces of paper on top each other to create the colours
that she wanted to make flowers. Her flowers were true copies of plant life. She made over 1700 prints in the 15 or so
years she was productive. Mary Delany
lived from 1700 - 1788, at a time when woman did not have careers, unless they
were in service. Yet not only did she reach popularity with her contemporaries,
her work impressed the king and queen
that they gave Mary a house to live in
and a pension of 600 pounds a year which was quite a sum in 1700’s. Some of her
paper flower mosaques as she called them still hang in the British Art Gallery. God called Mary to make flowers with paper to
share her gift of beauty with the world.
God calls us when we are 70, and God calls us when we
are seven. God’s voice can come in many
shapes and forms. Call is listening for
the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and
something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.
Janina Fialkowska (Yanina – Filoowska) call to play
chopin came from an thing. When she was
younger and exploring around in an
antique shop in Poland, she came upon a plaster mold of Fredrick Chopin’s hands. She picked it up and noticed right away that Chopin’s
hands were similar in size to her hands.
As she held them and looked closer she realized that that her hands
almost looked exactly like Chopin’s hands.
She said that when she made this discovery how could she not become a
concert pianist. Janina focuses much of
her life work playing Chopin. God called
to her in a plaster cast.
God calls, and calls and calls – and sometimes it takes
us years to listen. For much of her life
Siobhan Dowd, was called to write – what she focused on instead was helping
others write, she ran a prision writing program, for many years. When she was forty two she finally wrote her
first novel. Two of her first novels for
young adults received much critical acclaim.
She died at 47 of breast cancer after having written only four
novels. God calls at the beginning of
life and at the end of life too.
I have been reading:
The End of Your Life Book Club:
By Will Schwalbe. It is a memoir
about the final year or so of his mother’s life and the books that they read
and discussed together to pass the time as waited for her chemo
treatments. Will’s mother Mary Ann is a
great example of a woman who responds to a call in this the final part of her
life as she is dying from pancreatic cancer.
In spite of all the discomfort of her illness and treatment, Mary Ann is
called to create a library in Afghanistan .
One of the books that Mary Ann turns to in her final days for comfort
and support was Daily Strength for Daily Needs – a book of days that we
compiled in the late 1800’s. The final page had a quote from F. W. Robinson, a
18th century British novelist that speaks to the ability we all have
to listen and heed God’s call even when we feel all our resources are depleted.
F.W. Robinson writes:
“It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be
done, but by making the best of what we are.
It is not be complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using
well the tools we have. What we are, and
where we are in God’s providential arrangement, - God’s doing, though it may be
Man’s misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in
the face, and see what can be made out of them.”
God calls throughout our lifetime from the first tentative
calls as children on how to live in the world, about caring and kindness and
treating all people with respect, to our calls in teenage hood and adulthood
around choices we make from careers to partners, from life directions to
lifestyle choices, God calls. God calls
and calls and calls until the final call home.
The final few months of my mother’s life were
physically difficult for her. Her breast
cancer had metastasized in her liver.
She choose to try another round of chemo but after first dose, it was
obvious that the chemo was making her sicker than her illness so she stopped
taking chemo, knowing that the cancer would finally win and win sooner rather
than later. July and August of last year
was her time of rapid decline. And in the midst of this God called – God called
my mom one last time and said – your time is short – get ready for what is next
and do what you need to do. My mom was
called to prepare for her death. And so
she did.
We planned her funeral – her family loved to sing, so
she planned a hymn sing in the middle of the service – fifteen minutes to sing
a couple of verses of 15 hymns – favorite of hers. She handpicked her choir – she handpicked the
minister, and had both the choir director and minster out to speak with her
about the service in August. She even
decided on the menu for the post funeral luncheon. We talked as a family about her wishes, she
made a living will, she had the funeral director out to discuss plans – she
spent time that summer with everyone in the family –my mother answered her
final call with courage and dignity.
God calls – you and me – from the time of our first
breath until our last – God calls. Listen for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when
God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered. God calls - listen
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