You don’t get to choose God.
You don’t get to decide what God is like.
You don’t get to pick your role in the story.
Your life is not of your choosing.
Your salvation is not of your doing.
Instead
God calls.
God is who God is.
God invites.
God make yours life possible.
God saves.
That’s been the recurring message as we’ve look at the call stories of
Abraham, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
The Bible calls us to re-write our biographies,
with God as the subject of every sentence.
This is not straightforward
because we are taught to believe
that every sentence should begin ‘I.’
Most of our lives are centred around ‘I’.
We have accepted the narrative that we get to make our lives up,
that we are the author of our stories,
we are the creator of our destinies.
We have come to believe that we can be anything we want to be,
we can do anything we set out to do,
if we desire it enough, if we want it enough.
This is the formula for almost every Disney movie:
whether you’re a panda, a rat, a snail or a car. [i]
The Christian gospel helps us to see our place.
We arrive in the middle of a much bigger story,
which didn’t begin with us and will not end with us.
This is a story that begins with God:
‘in the beginning God …’
and this is a story that will end with God:
‘then I saw a new heavens and a new earth …
and God’s dwelling place is now among the people,
and he will dwell with them.’
We live in God’s creation,
and ‘all the world’s a stage’ to quote Shakespeare,
for God to share his life with us.
This is a story in which God is closely involved,
a God who speaks and acts
and in Jesus becomes flesh.
Talk about God and predestination (Rom 8.29, Eph 1.4-5),
is to see that God’s intention for creation
and for humanity does not change.
We are created and called for fellowship with God.
This is Plan ‘A’ and there is no Plan ‘B’.
God’s intention before creation and God’s goal
is that we might share in the life of God.
Of course we’re not sure we like the language of predestination.
We’re not sure it is good news.
It is too often heard as bad news, because predestination has meant
that human beings have been foreordained either to be either sheep or goats,
and mostly goats.
Rather than being good news this sounds like very bad news.
It condemns those who are not elect, who not chosen,
by God to a life without God in eternity.
Why would God will some to reject him?
What has gone wrong here is to associate predestination and election with eternity,
when in the Bible, the focus is on mission.
Abraham is elected to be father of a nation and means of universal blessing.
Jeremiah is elected to be a prophet to the nations.
Peter is elected to be an apostle to the nations –
‘I will make you fish for people’
The church is elected to praise God and bear witness
to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul says those who are called are called according to God’s purpose (Rom 8.28),
that is, his intention, his mission.
And that purpose is to ‘conformed to the image of his Son’ (Rom 8.29);
that is we are to be, in the words of Nick Lear,
‘free samples of Jesus.’
To say we are called does not mean we are the chosen few destined for heaven.
Our calling is not a separation from the rest of the world,
but a calling for and to the world.
The creation mandate to be God’s image-bearers does not change,
and in Jesus we are given the template
and in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are given the power and the promise.
When God calls it always includes a command to witness to the mercies of God.
God has entrusted us with an enormous responsibility.
In the language of the Baptist Union’s Declaration of Principle,
‘it is the duty of every disciple to bear witness
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and to take part in the evangelization of the world.’
That it what it means to be called.
When we consider that responsibility it may feel more like a burden.
We live in a time in which
‘we are in danger of worrying ourselves into extinction
because we seem less the players in a great drama of redemption
than the last remnants of a great experiment.’ [ii]
We live after Christendom,
we live in a world in which everything is changing,
and the church is not sure where we fit,
and at times we seem desperate to embrace any fad that might end up
boosting our numbers
(at the moment it seems to be something called Pokomon Go!)
We living in challenging days –
no more challenging than previous generations, but challenging none the less.
I wonder if instead of cowering before the challenge, we see also the opportunities.
Perhaps like Esther, we have been called for such a time as this.
This is the opportunity, which is also a challenge:
to live lives where God matters. [iii]
You might be feeling a bit short-changed by that six-word suggestion,
but I would offer that to live lives where God matters
is not straightforward,
in fact I’d go as far as to say that to live lives where God matters is impossible
without God.
This the opportunity for the church,
this is the calling of the church,
to be a people who live lives where God matters.
The other week, the children of year 1 at Hamstel Infants School visited the church. There are five classes, so it took three visits.
On one visit I asked the question: I wonder what you think is most important in this church?
Different answers were given – the screen, the drum kit (!), the Bible, the cross, the windows, the people, and one teacher even said me!
These were good answers.
All of these things, perhaps even the drum kit are important in this church.
Thinking back on that occasion, and thinking about what I’ve said this morning,
I wonder if I missed an opportunity to say that of course what is most important in this church is that God matters.
Everything else is a gift of God.
Ministers – hopefully are a gift.
The Bible is definitely a gift for it is revelation.
The screen and drum kit aid our singing.
The windows are gift because they allow light into our space,
We gather not in the shadows or in secret,
but in the light.
The cross is a gift because it is a reminder of God’s eternal love.
You – the people – are a gift because our lives are enriched and encouraged
by one another
Bread and wine are a gift because they are means of communion,
of sharing in the life God in Christ.
Each of these gifts are a means of enabling us to live lives where God matters.
You have been called
to make God the subject of your life.
for the glory of his name,
for the sake of his kingdom,
through the power of the Holy Spirit
and the grace of the Jesus Christ.
[i] William Cavanaugh, Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World, p.74.
[ii] Colin Gunton, ‘The Church in the World’ in Theology Through Preaching, p.140.
[iii] This is the title of a book by Herbert McCabe. I also borrow it from John Rackley who likes to ask churches three questions: 1. What matters here? Does God matter? Do the things that matter to God matter?
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