Trinity Sunday Sermon - The Call of God - for all believers.

Sermon Preached in St. Senan's Inniscarra  on Sunday 27th May 2018

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always be acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen

The Call of God ... The niggle that he might be asking us to do something ... the uncertainty that things are not how they should be and we need to do something

However you define it, however you explain it is something that doesnt get talked about that much within churches ... but this morning I’d love to open it up and do a little bit of pondering about this.

This mornings message is challenging but I hope helpful

This pondering is based upon a few things in our readings

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’

Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.

In John’s Gospel there is the call to re-birth ... to be living in the knowledge of our relationship with the Triune God

Simply this morning I would make 3 points ... one from each of these readings

- Knowing that the future is secure

- we can be led by the spirit

- To Go

Point 1 - Knowing that the future is secure – From John 3

Within my 9 years of ordained ministry and about 10 years before that , I’ve had the opportunity to encourage people to step out of their comfort zones and discover what God can and does with people who place themselves in situations where they need to depend upon him in many and varied ways. - Whether that be on Mission Teams to Zambia, Uganda – whether that be new work positions, a move to another place, or just into the uncertainty of decisions that need to be made.

My understanding of call is dependent upon at a foundational level of the love of God ... John 3:16

God loves the world so much that he gave us his son, that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life – For those who are in Christ... The future is secure - knowing that we have a future is fundamental to the decisions we make, the relationships we build and the investments we are willing to go all out for.

The love of God is for all people – and who so ever believes and trusts in Him will have eternal life – therefore if we believe this deep down then the other decisions we make will take on even greater significance – the decisions we take about life, relationships, work, friendship, leisure, health, day to day living...

This day to day living, and big picture thinking are incredibly important – when we think that we have a limit in which to live in time and space here in our earthly life – leads to the question what is important? - This is when the call of God challenges us.

It challenges our priorities

It challenges our decisions

It challenges our direction

But also rather than limiting us – as the world sees it – it actually

empowers our purpose

empowers our identity

empowers our values

When we grapple with the call of God we begin to realise that fully living with his Holy Spirit, in relationship with his Son and being identified as a son or daughter of the father is incredible – its a privilege and also a responsibility.

This future being secure is the foundation but then is being built upon by our response to the Holy Spirit – This is challenging

Especially if we have not grappled with this question before – We may have heard hundreds of sermons on the topic – but have they moved from head to heart

This day to day living, and big picture thinking are incredibly important – when we think that we have a limit in which to live in time and space here in our earthly life – leads to the question what is important? - This is when the call of God challenges us.

In the Film Gladiator there is a quote which is a strapline for the posters – ‘What you do on earth echoes in Eternity’. For us as Christians what we do in our day, what we believe about Jesus is directly affecting eternity, for us and for others. We have the daily opportunity to impact eternity positively or negatively – this is a huge responsibility.

There’s a prayer in our prayer books

Grant us, Lord, the wisdom and the grace

to use aright the time that is left to us here on earth.

Lead us to repent of our sins,

the evil we have done and the good we have not done;

and strengthen us to follow the steps of your Son,

in the way that leads to the fulness of eternal life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

We have tremendous opportunities in light of knowing God, and our future hope.

Which leads me to my second point - When we are confident that the future is secure we can know that it’s OK to rely on the spirit in the everyday

- Knowing that the future is secure

- we can be led by the spirit

This I’m very clear upon, especially in the church of the 21^st Century in Ireland today.

Yesterday I woke up and switched on Sky News as exit polls on the referendum were being discussed ... I was greeted by the Sky News Ireland Senior Reporter who was claiming that that the Republic Ireland was a different place than it was 20 years ago – to us that might seem obvious but he was saying that ‘in light of the different referenda that have occurred over the past years it is very clear that times have changed ... the Catholic Church has lost the power it once had over the ethical issues of the day.’

Some might say that’s good, others might be mourning that loss. But it is a fundamental shift and it challenges us as church. It challenges churches but we can either say all is lost or we can say ... actually it gives the churches of all denominations an opportunity – no longer are churches seen as establishment or connected fundamentally with government – this is a move that provides opportunities that were not open to it in Europe since 4^th Century.

In Ireland today the church has the opportunity to proclaim the love of God boldly and without fear – we have a freedom to be salt and light in our communities – we dont need to fear, we don't need to be timid, we do need to be very sensitive to the culture but we have the opportunity to be creative in our witness, true to the identity of our small community and simply bearing witness to what God has revealed to us as individuals and resting assured God’s love.We need to be present in our communities.

Yes we do have the baggage of history, but every church on this island does as well. There are so many people who are searching, wondering, pondering about what it means to be human, how to make the right decisions, what life is about. In light of this how are we to shine brightly.

Tomorrow Bishop Paul has invited members of our vestry to meet with him and a few of our local parishes to look at the report – Charting a Future with Confidence – I’m excited about this ... because I do believe we do need to have a renewed confidence as a church – in light of the changes and the shifting sands of culture about us. We need to have a confidence in the Gospel and in God.

This is an exciting time to be a Christian in Ireland, it might be a perplexing time but when in world history was it not?

The Final bit ... from the Old Testament – is from Isaiah’s call – to Go

  Isaiah tells us that it happened “in the year that King Uzziah died.”  That date can’t be established absolutely, but it probably was 739 BC.  The significance of the death of Uzziah for Isaiah is not hard to discern.  Uzziah had been an extremely solid ruler.  He was a good administrator and military leader.  Judah thrived during Uzziah’s reign (2 Chron. 26:1-15); and the people naturally focused their hopes on him.  Then Uzziah died at a time when Assyria was gaining fresh strength and was once again looming on the horizon as a serious threat to Judah.  That made the time of Isaiah’s experience a fearful time, and Isaiah connected his call and commission to prophetic ministry with the national crisis of the death of Uzziah. 

For the Kingdom to be advanced ... we need to know that God wants to use us ... every one of us ... are we willing to be used by him? Not for nationalistic or political ideals but for the Kingdom of God? As we chart a future together ... as we change priorities in our lives, in this nation.

It is also unsettling as we think these things as old boundaries begin to come down and we look for kingdom of God priorities to be established. There will be healing needing done.

This task is great

God wants to use every one of us. We all have this higher calling of the Lord. The Bible says we are the ambassadors of Christ.  In 1 Peter 2:9, we read that “we are the royal priesthood”.  If our ears are tuned properly, even today we can hear the voice of the Lord “Who will go for us?

To Go, Led by the Spirit knowing that our future is secure

I want to make this personal and practical -

This is of vital importance as we go forward

This is challenging – it will involve change, it will involve problems but I do believe God’s spirit will be before us and guiding the way.

Where will you Go this week ... how will God’s Kingdom be advanced in your life, in your work,

what words of encouragement will you speak?

Where is God calling you to speak up? , where is he calling you out of your comfort zone?

Knowing that our future is secure

we are led by the spirit

To Go