Recognizing the Call

June 1, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Typed from audio transcript

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the time that I was 10 years old, maybe even younger than that, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life. I knew positively, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I was going to become an engineer of some sort. If you were to venture into my bedroom, you would have seen wires strewn everywhere. You would have seen radios taken apart, TV's dismantled over on one shelf. You'd have walked a certain place and an alarm would have gone off and lights would have flashed. I knew, at least from 10 years old, maybe even younger, that's what I was going to do. I set everything in my path so that I could accomplish that goal. When I was in high school, I took night courses at the Community College so that I could learn how to repair televisions and radios. I had a small electronic repair business going. That was my job. I knew. After high school, I planned on going to Michigan State Engineering Department. I put in my application and did everything that was necessary. I knew what I was going to do. And then God stepped in, and I never made it to Michigan State and I never became an engineer. It took Him two years to finally convince me that I wasn't supposed to monkey around with electronics anymore but that He was calling me into the ministry.

As I look back at that time, you know it wasn't all that difficult recognizing the call. It was always something in the back of my mind, something urging me in my heart. The difficulty was not recognizing God's call. It was accepting God's call, really believing and trusting that's what He wanted me to do.

This morning, we're going to commission our youth and adults that will be going down to San Rafael, Mexico, and some of them will be going over into Los Angeles. They will be sharing the love of God through their work and through their life, but I wonder how many of you two years ago, three years ago, back when I had you in confirmation, would you have ever thought that you were going to go to Mexico? Had you ever thought you were going to go to L.A.? That you would give up a week of your summer, not work, not do baseball, not do soccer, but do hard labor in a foreign country where you don't speak the language? But yet, you knew, didn't you? You knew that God wanted you to do something. The problem wasn't recognizing the call. It was accepting the call.

Every person in this sanctuary has a place in God's kingdom. Every single one of us carries the responsibility and the privilege of being a part of God's ministry together; and, if I were to guess, I would say that you know when God wants you to do something. You know when God is calling you to step out, when God is calling you to action, whether He's calling you to action to go off to Mexico or L.A. or whether He's calling you to action to be on the Governing Board or whether He's calling you to action to call upon a friend or whether He's calling you to action to speak about your faith to a coworker, you know the call. I would guess that the problem is not recognizing God's call in your life, but it's accepting the call. Really believing that's what God wants you to do. If that's the case, then all of us have a lot in common with the prophet, Jeremiah. It was no doubt that he could recognize the call that God had given to him. He appeared to him in a dream, and He said, "Jeremiah, before you were born, I knew you. I formed you in the womb. You're going to be my prophet." He recognized the call, but Jeremiah had trouble accepting the call. So God's word to Jeremiah was, "Jeremiah, be satisfied with who you are. I created you that way. Be available. Be available to me so that you can work in my kingdom and be confident. Be confident, Jeremiah, because I am with you and I will protect you." That's the same word that God has to us this morning. Be satisfied with who we are, to be available for work in His kingdom, and to be confident. Be confident that God will walk along side of us, that God will accomplish his purposes through us. Be satisfied with who you are. God said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart." Sometimes we hesitate to accept God's call because we hesitate to accept who we are. We're not satisfied with who God made us to be. It's easier to come up with all the things that we are not. So Jeremiah says to God, "God, you must be mistaken. Either that or can you come back and see me in about 10 years, maybe 15 years." Jeremiah is probably in his late teens, maybe his early 20's. He says to God, "I don't know how to talk. I'm just an infant at all this. I'm just a kid. Who's going to listen to a kid anyway?" God says, "No, Jeremiah, don't concentrate on what you're not but concentrate on who I made you."

I have to wonder what some of our young people are thinking. "What in the world are a bunch of teenagers going to do in Mexico or in L.A. of all places? How can somebody who is 17 or 16 years old really make a difference?" How can you really have an impact when you don't know the language? Or you really don't know how to build houses. You don't know how to mix cement. You don't know how to teach VBS. You could make a list a mile long of all the things that you can't do. Be satisfied who God made you, because that's who He's calling into action.

I don't know about you, but for me it's easier to list all the things that I'm not good at. I can tell you all the things that I can't do, all the things that I do a poor job at, even the things that I do a mediocre job on; but, if you ask me to list the things that I do well, that's when I'll struggle and that's when I'll get embarrassed. Do we concentrate on who we are not instead of who God made us? Do we concentrate on all the things that we can't do, so we hesitate to answer God's call? I'm no good at speaking in public. I don't know the bible all that well. I don't know how much time I have. I don't know that I can really give that much of my resources, this and that. We can concentrate on all the things that we are not, but God says, "Be satisfied with who you are," He says, "because I made you." Before you were born, God knew you. God formed you in the womb. The Psalm that's in Psalm 139 finally comes to that recognition. He says, "You knit me together, God. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You knew me when I was in the secret place." God knew you when you were in the secret place. God knew you, and He shaped you, and He formed you, and He made you the unique person that you are so that you could fulfill a unique function in His kingdom. God won't ask you to do anything that He hasn't equipped you to do. God doesn't ask you for your resume. God doesn't ask you for your qualifications. God says the point is not who you are not but who you are, who He made you to be. Be satisfied with who God made us. St. Paul picked up off that in Romans 12, and he says, "We have different gifts according to the grace given us. And whatever that gift is, use it. Don't try to use something you don't have. If it is in serving, then you should serve and you should serve well. If it's teaching, then you should teach and teach well. If it's contributing to the needs of others, then you should give generously. If it's leadership, then you should govern diligently." Whatever it is that God made you to be, that's what God will ask you to use. Whatever way in which God has gifted you, those are the gifts that He will employ in His kingdom. Be satisfied with who you are because you're fearfully and wonderfully made. And if you're satisfied with who you are, then make yourself available. Be available for God's work in His kingdom so that you can answer that call. You can accept that call to action when He comes to you. Open up your heart and be accepting of what God is asking you to do. Look for the opportunities and the doors that open up that God will place before you so you can work in His kingdom, so you can make His kingdom grow, so you could fulfill the responsibility that He left with His disciples and He left with us when He ascended up into heaven. He says, "The kingdom is yours to grow." It's yours to work in. Be available and then be confident. Be confident and know that God is with you. He said to Jeremiah, "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and I will rescue you," declares the Lord. Now Jeremiah had every reason to be scared. Here he is, late teens, early 20's, pretty much everything is going okay under the reign of Josiah in the kingdom and you know what Jeremiah needs to do? He doesn't need to go out and say, "Hey, everybody, the Lord is so happy with you. The Lord is so pleased He's just going to pour on abundant blessings to you." No, Jeremiah was to go out and speak a word of judgment, to call the people to repentance. So this kid, calling himself a prophet, is supposed to go out and preach gloom and doom to the people of Israel. Was he afraid? He should have been, and he was. But God says, "Don't be afraid. I'm with you. I'm going to protect you. This isn't about you. It's about me."

You know, tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m., I'm going to jump on a plane. About 14 hours later, I'm going to step off in Tokyo, Japan, and I have to tell you I'm scared. I'm going to a foreign land that I can't read the language. I can't speak the language. I don't know the cultures and, on top of that, I don't like the food. And I'm worried. I'm worried about how I'm going to do. I'm worried if I'm going to represent our church well. I'm worried that I might offend somebody. I'm worried about preaching the gospel to them. You know what God says to Ron Burcham. He says, "Don't be afraid. I'm with you. I'm going to protect you."

When God calls you to action that sometimes frightens you, that sometimes scares you, when God is calling on your heart and you recognize that call but it's hard to accept it because you're afraid about what the future may be, you see I'm convinced that God is calling some of you into full-time church work. He's calling you to leave one career behind and to go into the ministry full time, and that's scary and that's uncertain. But if God is truly calling you, if God is issuing that out to your heart, you don't have to be afraid because God's going to be there with you. God may be calling upon some of you to teach this summer in the camps. He may be calling upon some of you to put your name down for the Governing Board. He may be calling upon some of you to witness to your neighbor who's having a tough time. He may be calling upon some of you just to reach out to the person who's next to you, and that can be scary to do that, going into unchartered waters. But God says to you, "Don't be afraid. I'm with you to protect you." Wasn't one of the last things that Jesus said to us, "Lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age." Doesn't scripture tell us that we can do all things through the power of Christ in our lives? We don't have to be afraid. We can be confident. When God calls us, we can accept that call with confidence. You can go to Mexico. You can go to L.A. And you go with confidence that God is with you, that the most important resource that you have is Christ in your heart and the power of the Holy Spirit, and the same is true for all of us when we accept his call. The greatest asset that we have is our relationship with Christ, and the greatest power we possess is His holy spirit in our hearts. We can be confident, confident that when God calls us we can accept that call and walk out in boldness and do the things that He's asking us to do. The problem, I'm convinced, is not recognizing the call. It's accepting the call. But just like for Jeremiah, before you were born, God knew you. He shaped you, and He formed you, and He made you the unique person you are so that you can fulfill your unique place in God's kingdom.

Be satisfied with who you are. Be available for service. Be confident. Accept God's call. Amen.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church