Here I Am Lord?
Finding Grace in Being Called
1 Samuel 3 and John 1:43-51
This coming Sunday, church choirs and congregations will bellow out, “Here I Am Lord.”*
A series of declarations about the Lord will be made, and then the question will be asked, “Whom shall I send?”
Here I am, Lord
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night
I will go, Lord
If You lead me
I will hold Your people in my heart
“Send me, send me!” we will sing out to the Lord’s question.
“Send me to the people who live in darkness.”
“Send me when your people cry.”
“Send me to the poor and lame.”
This coming Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary readings are all about calling. 1 Samuel - the calling of Samuel, and John 1 - the calling and sending of Philip and Nathaniel after the calling of Andrew and Simon (you know him as Peter).
Scattered throughout the Bible’s grand story of the good news of Jesus Christ are stories of servants of the Lord being called into ministry. Abraham was called. Noah was called. David was called. The prophets were called. Mary and Joseph were called. The disciples (then and now) were called.
Today, the Lord is still calling people into ministry, into the service of the Lord so that the word of God is proclaimed, so that the people of God are cared for, and so that the kingdom of God is advanced across creation.
Being called by God is no small task. Being called into ministry can raddle the foundation of a person’s life, shaking them to their core.
I wish I had a seamless story of being called into ministry. I wish my call to ministry was like the song and my response was as easy as “Here I am, Lord.” That’s just not the case. Being called into ministry is tricky business, requiring the orientation of a person (the church word for this is repentance) to be squarely on God at that moment. A calling can be realized in an instant, can be realized over the course of a few years, or takes a lifetime to figure out. I am somewhere between a few years and (what seemed like) a lifetime.
Hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.
I now recognize what was my call to ministry when I was in high school. It took nearly 15 years to figure it out. And once you figure out you have been called there is a continual renewal - sometimes through an annual renewal service but also, at times, daily when we wake up and choose whether or not we will continue to serve the Lord.
The beauty of the Christian life is that all are called. All of us are called to ministry in one way or another. I was called to ordained ministry, while others are called to ministry elsewhere. A person’s call will change over the course of their life. Just look at the disciples. They were called to follow Jesus, and after the Ascension, their call was changed as they were sent out to spread the Good News.
And that is where we find the grace of God at work.
Because we are called and sent by God, the work of God does not end when we say, “Here I am.” The calling placed on each disciple is renewed, and we are renewed by the Holy Spirit as an act of grace so that we are not sent alone.