Concerning God and Angels and Our Call

Concerning God and Angels and Our Call

December 24, 2017

We don’t really understand love. Love is a mystery. Love is a great unknown.

Last fall, I saw a therapist. I knew God was calling me away from my ministry in Sylvania, and I didn’t like it. I worried about my family and what this would mean. I worried about my ability to lead. I fretted about having to learn new names when I just got a handle of all the names at the church. It only took six years, I didn’t want to start over.

We don’t really talk too much about mental health in our society. Usually conversations around mental health follow some tragedy, some mass shooting. Yet I have heard a metaphor that has changed my thinking on mental health. When we get a cut to our body, we find a band aid and stop the bleeding.  Yet when we are called stupid either, by ourselves or someone else, or when the circumstances leave us mentally and spiritually wounded… what do we do to stop that bleeding? Anything?

Last fall, I was mentally bleeding. I was short with my family. I was tired all the time. I felt unsteady and I realized I didn’t like who I was. So I sought the help of a therapist. It is something I recommend for everyone. We should all get check ups at least twice a year.

I had to face the fact that I was being called somewhere else. In therapy, I was able to talk things out with a great sounding board. My therapist held up a mirror and reminded me of my ethics, values, and my love for people. My therapist reminded me of my calling.

Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel who brings news of a birth. The birth of not just A baby but THE baby. The long-awaited Messiah, the heir to the throne of David, the great political and military leader who will free Israel from the Roman Occupation and lift the nation to be a light to the nations, the bearer of God’s salvation to the world. And Mary says, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord: let it be done to me according to your word.”

To say yes to THE baby. To risk losing your fiancée, your family, and your community… that’s is what was at stake for Mary. She would be a scandal, an unwed woman. And who would believe her story about an angel?! Yet Mary says yes. Let it be done to me according to your word. Mary knows about calling and purpose. The Messiah had to come into the world somehow, and she was ready. She accepted the call.

I believe we are each called. Some of us are called to be parents, but not everyone. Some of us are called to a certain profession, but not everyone. Some of us have a sense of that call, but not everyone. I like how Theologian Frederick Buechner defines call. He states that “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Callings are something that you can’t help but do. I recently heard a podcast that reviewed the work of Stephen King. King is a writer. He is called to do it. He has tried to retire. He couldn’t do it. When he was hit by a van and thought he was going to die, he thought he’d stop writing. He didn’t. Stories seem to pour forth from the man; scary stories, beautiful fiction like Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me, and nonfiction like his writing novels. Maybe you’re a writer. You might not get published, but maybe others will look to your journals to see what life was like when you were writing.

Maybe your calling is musical. Or quilting. Or maybe you just have this urge to do something big but don’t know what. God will send you a messenger, an angel. One day it will be made clear to you. It will be where your deep gladness and a deep hunger in the world meet. It might be something that doesn’t feel like much, like making candy… but one can employ candy-making to the work of God like Shirley Krcmar and how she raises funds for St. Jude’s hospital.

Sometimes a call will come and it will feel overwhelming. It will uproot you, unnerve you, and dismay you. It might feel like God is asking too much of us. Yet God is with us, every step of the way. Mary had that sense of call. And as Christians, we have a similar call. Mary’s call is our call. Each of us are called through our baptism and profession of faith to bring Christ into the world; each according to our ability.

Last Christmas was a Christmas of goodbyes at my last congregation. This Christmas is one of hello’s. And love surrounds me. Love from the last congregation and from you. Ever since the congregational vote on my Candidate Sunday, a peace has settled and I have felt no doubt that this is the place for me. Therapy did it’s work. And these past 8 months have only confirmed and deepened my sense of call here.

I am thankful for your support and the clear reminder of this new call and the affirmation that it was the right one. And I am conscious that we can lose sight of our call. Our vision can become cloudy. The holiday season can be a cloudy time; it can adversely affect our mental health. There can be strained relationships. This season can be blue for many of us. This season can heighten political disagreements and religious division. I face these things too and I wonder at how to address such division.

Over the past few months, I’ve tried to practice the art of asking good questions. To enter into perplexity. To wonder about others. On Facebook, I asked questions like “What is your favorite and least favorite Christmas song?” “What are you thankful for?” or “What is making you happy? Where are you finding joy?” These questions have elicited amazing responses from all across the political spectrum, all across my life from friends old and new, and amazing discussions have happened. No one argued in these threads. No one was disrespectful. No one sewed division. I don’t think this was an accident for I believe that leadership hinges on the art of the question and less so on strident stances.

If someone wants to hop on a soap box and make things awkward, ask a good question. And then listen. I think questions are a good way to help bring love into a place. For our call is love. Our call is to bring light. Love is the mission and the goal.

Even though we don’t really understand love. Love is a mystery. Love is a great unknown. Love has generated countless poems and pop songs, yet we’re still singing about it. Still trying to capture it in words. Love is a mystery. And a mystery is not something that we know nothing about. Mystery is something we know but can’t explain fully. There are so many ways to love and each of us are called to love, each according to our ability. May we each treasure the love we will see in the coming days, and ponder these things in our hearts. Amen.

 

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