Following the call of God

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 8th March 2009
Lent 2, Year B, but with a special reading from the Parish Lent Course. The Parish Lent Course follows the book Life Calling by Robert Warren and Kate Bruce (London, Church House Publishing, 2007).

Readings: Genesis 1: 26-31 Mark 9: 1-2-9

Many of you will be familiar with the Life Calling course used by the Parish Lent Groups this Lent. In week two of the Lent the course encourages us to reflect on the relationship between our creation and God’s calling to us. To do this the course invites us to listen to the part of the creation story from Genesis 1, which we heard as our first reading today. This creation story does not provide many details about the way in which humanity was created, but it does offer some profound reflections on what human beings are, and on how they relate to God. Above all, the story affirms that human beings are created in the image of God. Created in the image of God! What does this mean?
Well it means that there is something about us which is like God, or at least has the potential to be like God. I once read a fascinating commentary on this passage which noted that in verse 26 of the story, God resolves to make humanity in his own image and likeness. But when God actually creates human beings in verse 27 we are told that they are created in the image of God, but nothing is said about the likeness of God. The commentator’s explanation of this point was that although humanity was created in the image of God, we still need to be nurtured and to grow and to develop in order to attain the likeness of God. It is a bit like a baby, who is born the image of its parents, but who still needs to grow up in order to become the likeness of his parents. Or perhaps it is like an apple pip, which already contains the blueprint or DNA of an apple tree, but still has to be planted and watered and to grow, before it attains the likeness of an apple tree.
I think this understanding of our creation has much to commend it because it suggests that there is a profound link between what we are now, as we have been created, and what we are destined to become. It recognised that God is always calling us, drawing forward, seeking to move us forward towards our destiny in the likeness of God. This call of God is uniquely personal to each one of us. Importantly, it reflects both the person we already are, and the person we shall be.
For example, let’s think about God’s call to Abram or Abraham, as he later becomes, in Genesis chapter 12. God calls Abraham to leave his country and his father’s house and to go to a new land that God will show him. God promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation and to bless him richly, such that through him all the families on earth will be blessed.
Now this call of God to Abraham reflects many aspects of who Abraham already is. It reflects the fact that Abraham’s father Terah had already moved his family away from their origins in Ur and to Haran, which is half way round the fertile crescent, towards the land of Canaan, the land that God promises to give to Abraham. God’s call to Abraham also reflects that fact that Abraham is already master of a household, so he has the freedom to make the kind of choice that God is requiring.
On the other hand this call of God is also about what Abraham is destined to become. Abraham is called to be the father of a great nation. Now at the moment when God makes this call to Abraham it has to be said that being the father of a great nation looks very unlikely. Abraham has no children. He is seventy five years old. His wife Sarai is not much younger and she is barren. Abraham’s anxiety about his lack of children becomes an on-going theme of the story, but we know, that in the end that Abraham does in deed become the father of several great nations. God’s call brings new dimensions to Abraham’s life, dimensions which would have been quite impossible to predict at the time of his call.
Notice however that while God’s call draws Abraham forward towards a wonderful destiny, it also requires Abraham to leave certain things behind. He has to leave behind his father’s house and all the securities of Haran. Later in the story he has to leave behind his nephew Lot, and later still his slave wife Hagar and his son by her Ishmael. These are costly losses to Abraham, but it is characteristic of God’s call that we have to leave things behind in order to take on the new things that God wants for us.
Now it is unlikely that any of us have a calling as important as Abraham’s, but we can all be certain that God does call us. The call is directed to us, exactly as we are right now, with all our sins and weaknesses and failings as well as our few good qualities and our particular talents. The call draws us towards the fullness of life in heaven, where we will be more in the likeness of God, more like Jesus (1 John 3: 2).
So how, in practice, do we follow God’s call? Well I believe that the best way to do this is to always practice following God’s promptings in each present moment of our lives. God prompts us through his commandments, especially his commandment to love other people. Growing in love is, after all, growing in the likeness of God. Sometimes God prompts us through the things people ask us to do. Sometimes, if we listen, we can hear God prompting us deep in our hearts. In most present moments of our lives the things that God want from us are very simple; to concentrate properly when driving, to listen properly to those who speak to us, to help with household jobs, to set aside time for prayer, to take care of our bodies and rest properly. However by doing these things well, for love of God and for love of the people around us, we build a discipline of listening to the prompting of God and following his call, moment by moment through are lives. And if we do this in all the small things of life we can be confident that we have the training and discipline to do it when the bigger decisions come.
Our gospel reading today was the story of the transfiguration. Jesus’ disciples saw Jesus in his heavenly glory. This is the glory which we are called to share (Romans 8: 17, 2 Thessalonians 2: 14). Let us try to follow the promptings of God in each present moment of our lives. In this way, moment by moment, we follow God’s calling and will realise the great destiny he has promised us.