I Accept

All of us have experienced taking on responsibility and a title to go with it. Even as a young student in grade school, there were jobs and titles. You might have been a room monitor, chalkboard-eraser cleaner, or door-holder. These were rotating positions. Oh, and did you have a safety patrol? Similar to our school, Lizzie Brown Elementary, when your turn came did you have a belt that fastened around the waist and crossed diagonally across the chest, and over the shoulder? I recall on the front strap was a shiny silver badge. Among the duties, we helped the adult overseeing the crosswalk and traffic.

Since that time, within community service, at work, on committees, and in other ways, you have been variously hired, elected, appointed, called, named, or commissioned to special roles. Have you ever thought of your Christian conversion or sacramental baptism or confirmation as a calling? Do you think of the Lord as having called you to be a follower and disciple? This is not just preacher-speak, I am serious. When people are baptized, or when the baptismal covenant is reaffirmed or renewed, there are beliefs and action-promises. As Fr. Wismer recently pointed out in a sermon, within the rite of baptism we are asked thrice, “Do you believe” using the Trinitarian structure of the Apostles’ Creed (also called the Baptismal Creed). Then we are asked in the structure of five principles of action, “Will you”. Three times we attest, “I believe,” and five times we attest, “I will, with God’s help,” to do these certain things, and be these certain ways. You can review the covenant for yourself again in the Book of Common Prayer on pages 304-306.

That is the formal articulation of our calling in the context of the Sacrament of Baptism, but there could be significant ways you sense the inner, divine calling in your personal relationship with God. I hope you do. I hope you can cultivate your own sense of calling to the heart of God and appointment to the mission of God in the world. Our belief is the divine purpose means for all people of the world to perceive God’s glory, absorb the Good News of healing, i.e., salvation. You are part of the proclamation team for the News and God’s marvelous works. Look at the Collect for Sunday:

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works. Amen.

So, my question for you is, “Will you?” Will you open yourself to receive grace, and will you answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ? It means if we do so, that we will do our part to proclaim God loves all; the ongoing movement of the Holy One is to show to every creature glorious, marvelous, saving work. You might not readily answer the request to chair the board of trustees this year in the group you serve. Who’s got the time, right? But you are challenged and graced to answer readily the call of God. It will make a demand, not just a few hours here or there, but of every second of every minute you have. God wants it all. Every moment you have, every skill you have, every resource you have is given by God, and the Savior wants it all dedicated back to the purpose of love.

The Safety Patrol in elementary school had only a few narrowly defined roles. In the Body of Christ, the roles and possibilities are as varied and creative as the skills and intuitions of the members of Christ’s Body. You lend a completely unique gift of service to God’s work in the world. One clarifying commandment unifies all the varied efforts: let us permeate all that we do, and all that we are, and all that we believe with holy love.