Isaiah 49:1-7 Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42
One of the themes of the Epiphany season is the call of Christ. Our reading from the Gospel of the John includes the calling of Andrew and Peter to follow Jesus.
Historically, we have come to think of calling as referring to the ordained ministries of the church, like priests, deacons, and bishop or for those in the religious communities, those called to monastic life. There has been a tendency to limit such calls to a one time event and the validity of such calls often measured by the dramatic aspects like St. Paul's being blinded by lights and a voice from heaven.
For many years, the lay order of ministries were regarded as inferior orders and so they were not really recognized as being special.
Fortunately, since the liturgical recovery of baptismal theology in the last forty plus year, each person's baptism has come to be recognized as ordination to ministry. Holy Baptism is a confession that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been given to the baptized and those gifts are gifts of ministry for the church and the world.
I would invite for us to consider an embracing notion of the call of God in Christ, which is an always already call waiting to be responded to in each moment of our lives.
Holy Baptism is an event when we take on our Christian identity even while we embark on the journey of continuously being made Christian or more Christ-like.
At the cusp of being Christian and becoming more Christ-like lies the continuous call of Christ.
Names and identities work in very reductive ways. All of the occasions becoming in my life have been reduced to my singular identity in my name of Philip. This name for me is ironic, since it means "lover of horses" and I've never been around horses closely enough to know if I would be worthy of the great horse-lover Philip of Macedonia. So, I might be accused of not living up to my name in the actions of my life. Nothing in my life experience can verify that I am indeed a horse lover.
This is relevant for our Christian identity. In our baptism we receive the name or branding of Christ when chrism is painted on our forehead in the sign of the cross with these words: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever."
In baptism we are designated as "Christian," and it is one thing to be designated as such, it is quite another thing to constantly become Christian in living lives of continuous love and justice.
I would propose that the call of Christ resides at the place between ideal identity and our next future action. It is always with us beckoning us to our more Christ-like selves. It beckons everyone who is marked with the identity and name of Christian.
It is the encouraging and luring place between being Christian and becoming more Christ-like in time, in a new place and current life situation.
The call of Christ does not let us rest in having but a passive identity with Christ; the call is imploring us to be surpassing ourselves always in our future states. We cannot ever think that we have been enough Christian, or done enough in our practice of love and justice because we exist in time and the future of Christ-likeness is always beckoning us to surpass ourselves.
Today, let us not limit the call of Christ to the ordained ministries of the church. Let us not limit the call of Christ to one time events such as our baptisms.
Let us accept the call of Christ as a constant invitation to live lives of love and justice and in so doing we will be living up to the Christian identity of our baptism. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment