Called to Dream

Called to Dream

A sermon given by Rev. Jonathan Scanlon

Genesis Presbyterian Church

January 18, 2015 - The 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

          1 Samuel, chapter 3, begins very poetically with the words, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” The Hebrew word translated as “rare” means not only uncommon, but also precious. And God chooses Samuel to tell this rare and precious word to the people. If God’s word was considered rare in those days, do we question if it is borderline absent from the world today? Do we know what is it like to live in a world where hearing the word of the Lord is rare?

         This was a time of spiritual desolation, religious corruption, political unrest and social upheaval. In other words, bad things were happening at the time the young boy Samuel came on the scene in the Bible. It is Samuel who will be tapped as the prophet to make room for and identify the King both Saul and David. The people did not have a vision of how they were to live together and dreams of building the kingdom of God because they were not being lead. The leadership over ancient Israel was corrupt, and not doing their job. Of course, Israel cannot see God in and among the community if Eli, the main priest of the day, remains too blind to see how his sons are abusing power.

Eli's sons have been using their political status as priests to satisfy their own desires. They were considered scoundrels who had no regard for the Lord or for their duties to the people as priests. Israel cannot listen to God when the priests are using their positions of privilege to satisfy and fatten themselves. When the religious and political leaders of the day are blind to sin, the word of the Lord becomes more difficult for the people to hear and apply.

It was a time for a change. This priestly family of Eli's could no longer call all the shots and their poor choices were guiding the people farther and farther away from God. God chose to intervene and to look within the body of people for new leadership to preserve God's presence with the chosen community. The Lord took a woman named Hannah who could not have children and blessed her with a son who she named Samuel because God had heard her prayers asking for a child. Hannah allowed her son to study with Eli the priest because she was so grateful to God for giving her a child.

Samuel's call to be a prophet came one night when he was sleeping in the temple. This is a story of delayed recognition of God's call. Though he worked alongside Eli in the house of the Lord doing priestly things for the people of Israel, the scripture is quick to mention that Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Faith is not something we do but rather it is what calls and redirects our life to live for God. Working with a priest, working in the church and doing church work out in the community does not instill faith in us.

We may come to know more about ourselves; we may come to grow in our understanding of God, growing in our faith through working with others, but it must begin with a belief in a God who calls us to live for something greater than ourselves and to find our place in building the Kingdom to come. We must first respond to God's call in faith for direction in our lives.

To be called by God means that God knows one's name and, in knowing one's name, exercises a more personal and powerful influence on the person. Samuel could not hear and understand God's call for his life by himself, and needed Eli's help to listen and discern. Listening to God's call for our lives requires both the age and wisdom of Eli supporting the eager youth and energy of Samuel.

Without Eli's priestly expertise and years of personal experience with God, Samuel would not have come to know God and hear the Word of the Lord to share with the people of Israel.

Ours is a God who knows us each individually and wants to be made known to us. Earlier we heard the reading of one of my favorite of Psalms, number 139, which reminds us what it is like to be in relationship with God. The Psalmist describes what is like to know God and to understand how we are known by God.

It is only because God is universally present, ultimately powerful, and all-knowing that provides for such a profound sense of an immediate and deeply personal relationship with God our creator. God is our most constant companion with us at every moment. Transcendent enough to overcome any earthly power, immanent enough to be present in the midst of whatever happens, and gracious enough to care about the destiny of each of God's creatures.

God instructs Samuel first to listen. We all need some lessons in listening, and a prophet cannot speak for God unless he first takes time to be attentive and hear what he is to say. The name Sam-U-el literally means "God has heard". God has heard the cries of Israel and is ready to respond with a new direction in leadership. This narrative is full of symbolism like the mention of the lamp of God that had not yet gone out.

Sure, the actual temple’s candle may still have been burning at that moment but, more importantly, this texts reassures us God had not left the temple. God has not left the people to fend for themselves. God only seems to be sleeping. But God is much more present than we know. God calls many to speak truth to power and lead communities toward righteousness.

 This weekend we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unlike Samuel, Dr. King did not hear the voice of God call to him in a church, though God did have a plan for his life that was much different than what he imagined growing up.

It has been documented that originally Martin Luther King Jr. did not aspire to be a national civil rights leader. He had gone into the ministry mostly because his father was a pastor, and he always did what “Daddy” King wanted for him to do. Martin would have preferred a more quiet life as a professor, possibly aspiring to become President of his beloved Morehouse College someday. Through an odd turn of events, as a young pastor, he was thrust into the forefront of the Montgomery bus boycott. He came home late one night, tired and frightened.

He wasn't in a church, but rather in his kitchen when the phone rang. An angry and disgruntled voice on the other end said, "We're gonna get you!”

King stood in his kitchen, frozen in fear. He wanted to call Daddy King for reassurance and advice. But Daddy King wasn't there. Then he said it was like he heard a voice say, "Martin, you do what’s right. You stand up for justice. I'll be with you." He had heard his name called. He knew God wanted him to serve.

He knew God wanted him to dream. His life was forever changed and through his life, used so well by God, the world was forever changed.

Like Samuel, we may be set apart for service, participating in the life of the church and having some years of religious instruction without really knowing the Lord in a direct and personal way. And, like Samuel, we too may be sleeping. We do not fully sense the divine all around us. Exhaustion has so dulled our hearts, minds and souls that we can work all day, even in the temple, but never hear the one God who has heard us. But the voice of God calls our lives to live for something more and will not allow us to hide.

Like Dr. King we are called to dream. We are to allow ourselves the time to listen to God's Word for us through scripture, through prayer, through our worshiping in community and through what we experience in our broken and fearful world. We are to speak truth to power and execute the kingdom and righteousness here on earth. We, too, are called each in our own individual way.

We are called to listen for the voice of God and to hear what disruptive and dangerous direction God's call may, and will, lead. God's voice is one that creates life as well as changes life, forever.

Dr. William Willimon, a Bishop in the Methodist church, once received a phone call while he served as the campus minister at Duke University. An angry father of one of his students explained how upset he was with Willimon and held him personally responsible for the poor choice the father felt his daughter was about to make in life.

"Me?" Dr. Willimon asked.

As it turns out the girl's father was upset because his graduate school bound daughter had just informed him she planned, from his perspective, to throw it all away and go live with Presbyterian missionaries in Haiti. "Isn't that absurd!" the father shouted over the phone. "She earns a degree in mechanical engineering from Duke and all she plans to do with it is to go dig ditches in Haiti."

Willimon quickly quipped, "Well, I doubt she's received much training in the Engineering Department here at Duke for that kind of work, but she's probably a fast learner and will get the hang of ditch digging in a few months." This only irritated the already fuming father even more.

“Look,” he said, “this is not a laughing matter. You are completely irresponsible to have encouraged her to do this. I hold you personally responsible.”

As the conversation progressed, Willimon pointed out that both her well-meaning, but obviously unprepared, parents were the one who started this ball rolling in their daughter’s life. They were the ones who had her baptized as an infant, read Bible stories to her as a child, took her to Sunday school and church, and let her attend the events of the high school youth group. William Willimon reminded the father, “You’re the one who introduced her to Jesus, not me.”

The father meekly responded, “But all we ever wanted her to be was a Presbyterian.”

Where and to what is God calling you in this world where the word of the Lord is rare? Where and to what is God calling this church? Do what’s right. You stand up for justice. I'll be with you. Speak Lord, for your servants are listening. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. May it be so? Amen. 

Adopted as Children of God
A sermon given by Rev. Jonathan Scanlon
Genesis Presbyterian Church
January 5, 2015
The 2nd Sunday of Christmastide 

Ephesians 1:3-14   3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.  5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,  6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace  8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight  9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,  10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,  12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.  13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;  14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.

5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,  6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  

I could preach a whole sermon on just the first half of Ephesians 1 verse 5. God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ. How do we unpack such a statement? First off, what does it mean to be destined? Often when I am meeting someone new and they hear I am a Presbyterian, their mind immediately goes to dark side of Calvinism and their staunch opposition to the idea of predestination. I first like to respond with the fact that John Calvin never preached on the doctrine of election, or what we consider to be predestination, like I am doing right now, but rather Calvin only wrote about what he called election to explain texts like this and what Paul wrote in Romans. This information is normally received as a surprise to such individuals. 

Secondly, Calvin did not dwell on the negative damning side of election. For Calvin, this concept was something much more positive. In Calvin’s commentary on Ephesians, when describing today’s text, he writes, “We were chosen because we were worthy, and because God foresaw that we would be worthy… for if we are chosen in Christ, it is not of ourselves. ” Calvin goes on to say, “No doctrine is more useful, provided it be handled in the proper and cautious manner, of which Paul gives us an example, when he presents it as an illustration of the infinite goodness of God, and employs it as excitement to gratitude.”  In my experience, those who complain the most about predestination are not thinking about it in such a proper and cautious manner. 

Do you, like I, believe that God is all powerful and good? Do you believe God lives somehow outside the confines of time and space? Do you believe God knows what decisions we are going to make before we make them? If so, then the concept may not be much of a problem for you. Maybe you disagree or struggle with these ideas. And there is nothing wrong with that either. The point this text is getting at is how God created each of us for a purpose, however it was destined to be.

We now come to this Greek word Huiothesia (hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah), translated as adoption. The same word is used in Romans and Galatians. This is a compound word from the Greek huios—for "son," and thesis— meaning "to place." Huiothesia literally means to "place as a son". The word “adoption” does not appear in the Hebrew Old Testament because legal adoption was not prescribed in Jewish law or practiced by the Israelites. Sure, there are stories of surrogate parental figures taking in children and rescuing baby Moses from the sea of reeds, but doing so was only following the commandment to care for widows and orphans. To best understanding Ephesians, we need to think with a Roman mindset. Romans recognized that when a baby was born, you basically got what you got, whatever came out, if you will. Whether you liked the baby or not this child was yours, including the child’s gender, mental capacity, deformities, birthmarks, or any other random trait. 

According to Roman law, a naturally born baby could even be disowned from the family. But men adopting a son knew exactly what they were getting. By law an adopted child could not be disowned. He was permanently added to the family. 

During Paul’s day, adoption was part of the Roman law and world. Girls were not adopted under Roman law, because women could not own property. Only sons inherited property and adoption was a legal mean though which a man could bequeath his estate.  The Caesars adopted sons frequently, in order to leave them their grand inheritance. The focus of such adoptions remained on the Caesar.  It was the will of the Caesar or wealthy man that was important; not the will of the adopted son. All legal rights were with the father and none with the son.  It was the father’s will which controlled everything. In the Roman culture, the adopted son experienced four major changes: a change of family, a change of name, a change of home, and a change of responsibilities. Initially, the son’s ties to his biological father were severed. This allowed the boy to come under the full control of the adoptive father. 

This is all well and good, but where is the child’s voice and agency in the matter? The fact is the will of the young Roman boy didn’t matter much in the day. The child did not have the ability to refuse such a legal transaction. Are we okay with that? 

All of this talk of adoption goes to say, we have been chosen for a relationship with God. By specifically using the word “adoption,” Ephesians emphasizes that salvation found in Christ is permanent. Each of us, the children chosen for us a special relationship become permanent members of the family of God, forever sealed in Christ. This adoption is not the result of any merit on our part, but solely the outworking of God's love and grace. Our being adopted as children by God was not a result of our doing. Our being adopted was by the good pleasure of God’s will. By our nature we are not the sons or children of God but only earthly creatures. 

Parents who care for their children, and who are able to do so, will make provisions for their children’s future, as much as they reasonably can. Wills are written to lay out a plan in the case of death, not only for financial support, but also considering their nature and care, should the parents die before their children reach an age of maturity. 

As children of God, we have an inheritance along with Christ. We have an eternal destiny in the will and purposes of God, and so when difficulty or opposition comes our way now, we need not keep our eyes fixed purely on the trials of the present: we can look into God’s great future and remember what our Creator has willed for us. And when we do that, we receive the love God has been longing to pour out on all. We are adopted, because God so wants us in the family, and we can now take risks for faith because we understand such great security. The fact we are guaranteed an inheritance, strengthens us to the point we can cope with the setbacks and the resistance to our faithful living, because we know what God’s love has for us. This vision is God’s, the initiative is God’s, and the power by which it will come to pass is God’s. God creates, God destines and blesses, God wills, reveals, and accomplishes according to God’s good purposes. Acknowledging who God is, proclaiming what God has accomplished through Christ and is actively doing in the world today, allows us to know who we are, what we were created for and what we will be doing in the end. 

It is because we are the ones chosen for a relationship with God that we are chosen to praise God. Our purpose is to praise, and God is the one to whom, for whom, and before whom our praise is given. This text is not only meant to be read and understood by its readers; this is a text that is also meant to be performed by the faith community. This text encourages worship and praise. It is only truly understood when it forms our individual lives and our life together.

The letter to the Ephesians is a call for us to live in peace, to love and respect those whom we initially despise, and to live together into God’s good future. Ephesians is written for first-century Christians who remain uncertain about their identity. This letter reminded them of their baptism and gave assurance that by God’s grace they have been given a new identity in Christ and made into part of a new community and new humanity. Ephesians can remind us too of our baptism. This is a letter that reminds us of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that has established this new social reality of which God graciously make us a part. It can remind us that our identity as Christians is a gift, a very gracious and at times very challenging gift, but a gift of God nonetheless. 

God’s grace was there existing before the foundation of the world. The funny thing about grace is that it remain there whether we choose to fully accept the change or not. Like the young Roman boys being placed as sons of other men, the transaction is completely out of our control. Adoption is a comprehensive and total transfer of one’s passions, love, and allegiance from the world to God. God is both the free initiator of adoption and the recipient of our lives. Our praise of God is the end toward which such adoption is directed. We are therefore not only chosen for a relationship with God, but also entrusted to convey the gospel message of God’s love to the world. Through our faith and relationship with God we become the storytellers, the harbingers, the messengers of the truth of the world to come.

We traverse through, trying to hold ourselves together, through all of life’s struggles, carrying on as best we are able.  We dare not ask for help or show any vulnerability. And like all of God's embattled children, who long to be gathered up and loved and told that we are safe and that, despite the pain, and the loss, and the anguish of this world, there is something better coming for us, something better coming from us, if we will only keep dreaming. And best of all, someone better coming to us--if we will only live toward a reality that so far is only promised, but which, in the power and mystery of God, is sure. Remember, before any of this existed, God’s plan encompassed us and the human story of faith. May it be so?