19 January 2020
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11; 2 Peter
1:19-21; John 1:29-42
Both Isaiah and Jeremiah recognized they were not just
called to do what The Lord would call them to do; they both seemed to understand
their calling happened long before they were even aware (we Methodists understand
it as prevenient grace). Isaiah
spoke as one who had been claimed in his mother’s womb, but the prophet
Jeremiah added a twist; “the Word of The Lord came to me saying, ‘Before
I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated
you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (1:4-5).
Even though The Lord had commissioned each of these
prophets for a particular time in Israel’s and Judah’s history, these men – and
many others - would encounter nothing but resistance - not because The Lord did
not follow through or back them up, but because what they preached went against
everything the pop culture of their time had come to embrace. The essence of living, then as now, was this:
to each his own.
The world these prophets spoke of was counter-cultural. The very idea that The Lord’s “chosen people”
could possibly fall from grace and be removed from “The Promised Land” was
inconceivable. Surely they understood
The Lord as faithful, but reciprocity of faithfulness was not the
narrative. Because it was every man
for himself in a completely self-absorbed culture, these prophets were
rejected by the very people they had been sent to warn.
What escaped The Lord’s people amidst all this gloom
and doom – which makes the prophets very hard to read even for us today – was the
call to repentance. The Lord did
not judge and execute in a matter of days; He gave His people ample time over
generations and through more than one prophet to see the signs, repent, and be
spared the judgment. Sadly, it is likely
these prophets were not recognized as true prophets until after the fact, but the
culture’s rejection of these prophets in their calling did not change who these
prophets were born to be.
“The Word of The Lord came to [Jeremiah]
saying, “Before you were formed in the
womb, I knew you …” Standing
from the truth of Jeremiah’s commission as a prophet, you and I should recognize
The Lord’s prevenient grace in this proclamation; “Before
you were formed in the womb, I knew you”.
If this statement is true for one, it must be true for
all. Though Jeremiah would be commissioned
a prophet, not everyone is called to be a prophet. It is undeniable, however, that everyone “formed
in the womb” is known … and called to one task or another. This, I think, is an important element in the
Church which has been overlooked or neglected for a very long time. Decades, perhaps; even centuries.
The reason for this neglect is not necessarily because
of a wide-spread and wholesale rejection of The Lord. It is the narrative of the “call” which I
think has been so narrowly defined as to have virtually no meaning outside of a
call to pastoral ministry, whether as a church pastor, a chaplain, or a
missionary.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches seven sacraments, as
opposed to the two taught in the Methodist tradition. Among those seven sacraments is the one of “holy
orders”. As a young catechumen, I was
taught that this sacrament is reserved exclusively for those called to serve as
priests, nuns, and monks.
The textbook definition of “sacrament” is to be
understood as a sacred moment when The Lord gives fully of Himself;
baptism and Holy Communion certainly fit that criteria. In those two acts, we are “given” more than
we can really comprehend. We are
certainly given life through each, but “holy orders” recognizes each life as one
commissioned in service to The Lord, His Word, and His people.
Meaning? There
is not one baptized soul among us who is not “called” and commissioned to one
task or another. Even among those who have
yet to be baptized into The Lord’s Covenant, there is not one soul among them who
is not “known” by the Father even before conception. This, I think, demands more of our attention
than to only be “saved” so we can dismiss the threat of hell.
Think about it like this. As John tells it, the Baptizer came to
understand his calling in this way: “I came baptizing with water for
this reason: that [Messiah] might be revealed to Israel” (John
1:31). This makes a powerful declaration
about baptism itself, doesn’t it? And
since we continue the practice of baptism and Messiah has already been
revealed, we must come to understand baptism itself as much more than a simple
rite of passage. It should be better
understood as a moment of revelation.
Question, then: when the Baptizer said, “I
myself did not know Him”, was he referring to Jesus of
Nazareth as the One not known to him? Or
was he referring to Jesus as the Anointed One, the Messiah? Jesus and John were cousins. Though they may have not grown up together,
it seems unlikely they would not have at least known one another. Yet when Jesus came on to the scene, the
Baptizer proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world” (vs 29). That’s a
pretty bold declaration from one who claims not to have known Him.
The Father knows His creation; but somewhere between
the conception of life and the coming of age, we lose all sense of who we
really are. And if we live a life devoid
of faith and only get baptized as a matter of ritual, we never really gain the
sense of self necessary to serve our Father and His people. In a manner of speaking, we seek only to serve
ourselves. Faith and religion become
only incidental.
Somewhere through the historic teachings of the Church
and our own coming of age through baptism and confirmation, if the Church is
faithful in Her task, these young catechumens become much more than “saved”;
they become whom they were “known” to be even before conception. They are reconnected in a meaningful way to
the very Source of Life and Living.
Though the Church does rituals that are important in
the life of the Church, we must not get lost in being ritualistic without being
realistic. We are “known” from
long before, and we are – without exception – “called” to a task. It is time to connect to that task and become
who we have always been before education, training, and jobs distracted
us.
We are “known” by the Father. It is long past time for us to know
Him so we can finally know ourselves. Amen.
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