3 Pentecost, C p 8, June 26, 2022
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Gal. 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-62
Today the appointed readings from Scriptures provides an invitation for us to assess our relationship to the call from God, in Christ. What if you have a call from Christ and it requires that you cannot fulfill family responsibilities what would that mean?
If following Christ is bad for my family, why should I do it?
Today's lessons from Holy Scriptures encourages us to understand the difference between the general call of Christ and the specific call of Christ, but also to understand some misunderstandings that people might have about following Christ.
Elisha had the general call of God to love God and follow the Torah; but he also came to receive a specific call to succeed Elijah in having a lead prophetic role.
The departure of Elijah in the chariot of fire is a story about the changing of the guard. And this story is about the prophetic and ministerial process. Elijah was never going to be replaced. Why? No one is ever replaced because everyone is unique and different in their gifts, ministry, and personality.
The main issue for Elisha, the protege of Elijah was this? Can I be confident that my relationship with God will be like the relationship with God which Elijah had? "Elijah, please give me a double portion of your spirit, because it is going to take two of us to fill your shoes."
Symbolically, what does having a double portion of the spirit of Elijah mean? It means that the memory of the example of Elijah is the first portion of spirit that would always be with Elisha. And the second portion of spirit would be the new ministry that God would perform through Elisha. The past of excellent witnesses is a portion of spirit which we always have access to as we seek to emulate the models of best practices. The double portion of God's spirit comes when we are willing to go forward and let God do new things through our personalities.
A second point that I would present regarding the call of God, does not have anything to do with the ordained ministries of deacon, priest, or bishop. It is the essential call which we receive in Holy Baptism when the life of the Holy Spirit is invoked upon our lives. The Holy Spirit imparts the fruits of the Spirit which is the general call of God for everyone, and what are those fruits? Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, generosity, and self-control. And if we are allowing the fruits of the Spirit to work in us, we can be guaranteed that the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit will happen in our lives and for some they may be post-baptismal ordinations, but everyone has the ordination to ministry in Holy Baptism.
If we are worried about our gifts and our ministries, perhaps the real work of discernment begins with letting the fruits of the Spirit be primary and in so doing we will be doing ministry without even knowing it.
The Gospel words of Jesus present to us some insights regarding our relationship with the call to ministries.
One mistake is to think that our views are so perfect that God needs to punish those who disagree with us. "Jesus, shall we call down fire from heaven and nuke those non-receptive Samaritans?" Our views are never going to have universal acceptance, and if we resort to violence to force the reception of our views, we violate the love of God who wishes for people to come to persuasion in freedom.
Another mistake about our call and ministry, is having too much pride in our own gifts and abilities. Peter was sure that he would be faithful to Jesus, but he denied Jesus when Jesus was arrested. A potential follower of Jesus was quite sure too of his ability to follow Jesus, and Jesus responded, Aare you sure? "I don't have a home and even a fox has more shelter security than I do." The lesson, don't be too sure of yourself, but be very sure of Christ.
The next misconception of the call of Christ is that it will be bad for my family. I think for many years the church limited ministry to celibate persons because of the false belief that following Christ is incompatible with family life. Jesus was implying with exaggerated sayings, “if you think following me means that you have to leave your family for good and that you would not be free to take care of your aged parent, or even prepare their burials, then you have the wrong understanding of how my call can interweave every aspect of your life.”
Further, the call of Christ and the call of life itself is best lived looking forward and not looking backward. Why does the farmer plow looking ahead? The farmer wants to get the plow rows straight; to look back would cause the deviation from the best prepared field for the planting of crops.
To live looking back is to be caught in the tyranny of regression without a vision for how one might surpass oneself in the future.
So, what is the Gospel of the call of Christ for us?
We have the promise of the double portion of Spirit. We have the models and examples of best practices from people in our past. We have the promise of an active Spirit of God in our lives going into the future.
Next, the secret of finding our specific calls happens as the collateral effect of being true to the general call of the Holy Spirit, whose call to us provides us with the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity, and self-control. If we are activating the fruits of the Spirit, we will be finding specific ministry everywhere in our lives.
Further, our call from Christ is not the violent destruction of people who cannot yet accept our vision. And, the call of Christ is adaptable to our life situation in family, culture, and society. If we are proposing that the call of Christ cannot be interwoven with many family and life situation, then we do not understand the call of Christ or are looking for reason not to follow.
And last, the call of Christ is built on hope, looking forward continuously on how we can surpass ourselves in excellence in the future. Yesterday's virtue is not good enough for today, except as a model for us to build on in better ways.
Today, let us say, “Lord, here I am send me. Jesus, we accept your call today and we accept the aid of the Holy Spirit to fulfill it.” Amen.
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