Session 2: Call

Hello and welcome to the second session of our Lent Course Journey to Freedom in which we are exploring some of the themes from the Book of Exodus. Last time we thought about slavery. In this session we are going to think about call.

To do that I’ve come to a church on the Skerton estate in Lancaster. This is St Chad’s church. It may be a modern building, but it is dedicated in honour of  a man who lived nearly 1400 years ago. Chad was a monk, a bishop and above all an evangelist. In other words he was called by God to declare the freedom we find in Christ and also helped many others hear their own call. So I want us to think about how God might be calling you to declare freedom in Christ.

I used to play cricket for a team made up entirely of priests. We had all the kit, we talked a great game, we were dead keen. The only thing we couldn’t do was win. In ten years we lost every game except one, and in that single triumph the opposition turned up with just five players, one of whom was on crutches.

After one especially humiliating slaughter when we had been bowled out for 18, we had a clear the air session and sat down in the pub to analyse what was going wrong. And after lots of argument and lots of beer we reached an important conclusion. The reason we never won any cricket matches was because we were no good at cricket. No one could bat, no one could bowl, no one could catch. 

And from that initial conclusion, we realised something else. If you want to win a cricket match, find some people who can play cricket. That’s a principle can be applied to many areas of life. If you want hot water, find someone who’s good at plumbing. If you want nice teeth find someone with skills in dentistry. It’s obvious, isn’t it?

Well it’s obvious to us. The thing is, it doesn’t seem to be all that obvious to God. In the Book of Exodus, God had a job he needed doing, one that was critically important in his whole plan for the world. He needed someone with the gifts to lead an enslaved Israelite nation to freedom in the promised land. This person would need to motivate an oppressed people into believing that freedom was a possibility. He would need the courage to stand up to the most powerful tyrant in the world. He would need the skills to build a new nation. He would need the cunning to lead troops into battle. God needed someone truly exceptional.

So who did God choose? A criminal on the run. A murderer. That’s who Moses was. He had murdered an Egyptian and rather than facing up to the crime, had fled Egypt for Midian. Hardly the courage required to lead Israel to freedom. In fact the more you dig down the more you begin to think it was hard to find a person less suited than Moses to this task. He was anxious and unsure of himself, constantly questioning God. He could barely speak and needed Aaron to be with him all the time to be his mouthpiece. And he was an old man, already in his 80s. Hardly the age, you might think, to take on such an extraordinary new challenge.

But God chose Moses. He chose him not because he was good at things, but simply because he was the one God wanted. He chose Moses not because he was worthy of that choice. Rather God made him worthy by virtue of choosing him.

If we look at the way God called Moses in Exodus, I think we can see three distinct stages. And by looking at those we can work out something of how God calls us. Because be sure of this, God is calling you. You might be 19 or 90. You might have left school at 14 or have more degrees than limbs. You might be a success in the eyes of the world or your life might be a mess. You might be as rich as Croesus or not have two pennies to rub together. It doesn’t matter. Right now God is calling you. He has a plan for your life, one that is ever new and ever changing. He wants you to play your part in leading men and women to freedom in Christ.

So the first stage is this. God prepared Moses. It is funny how all the disasters and catastrophes in Moses’ life left him uniquely prepared for the task that God would give him. Remember how we was brought up by an Israelite nurse in Pharaoh’s house? That meant he was able to speak both Egyptian and Hebrew which would be essential as he negotiated with Pharoah and led the Israelites. Remember how he had to flee to the desert after the murder? That meant he learnt how to survive in desert conditions, skills he would need as he led his people through the wilderness. God used all these incidents to ensure that Moses was prepared and had the gifts he would need for the part he would play in His plan.

Then second, God called Moses. He called him through the medium of fire. Moses was on Mount Horeb, probably the same mountain as Sinai which we will return to in session 5, when he saw the bush that was burning but which was not consumed and he needed to explore. And what is so striking here is that, having called, God will not take any excuses. Moses is afraid. God still calls him. Moses feels unworthy. God still calls him. Moses casts doubt on this being God at all. God still calls him. Moses questions his own ability to achieve the task set before him. God still calls him. Moses wants proof. God gives the proof and, despite all of Moses’ doubts and fears, still calls him. God’s call is his initiative, not ours. And he doesn’t get it wrong. And he doesn’t change his mind.

And then third, God sent Moses. Having been with God and been strengthened by God, Moses is sent by God back to Egypt, back the country he had run away from and still feared, back to his own people whom he had left behind. Moses is sent to the place where God wants him to go in order to lead his people to freedom.

So those are the three stages in the way God deals with Moses. Prepared. Called. Sent. Let’s think what those three stages might mean in your life. And before we go on, don’t think for one second that you have not been called or that all this talk of call is only for people like priests and lay ministers. If you’ve been baptised, you’ve been called. And if you’ve not been baptised, well it’s nearly Easter Day and that’s a lovely day for a baptism so ring your vicar now!

First, God has prepared you. I was speaking to someone who was exploring Ordination a few weeks ago and she had had a really hard life. Family breakdown. Massive struggles with mental health. An abusive relationship. Hardly any qualifications. But then she had met with Jesus and was exploring his call.

At first she struggled because she felt that all her negative experiences rendered her unworthy. But over time, she came to see that through all those difficult experiences, God was preparing her and she now has an amazing ministry precisely because the negative things she went through give her an empathy for others and an ability to listen.

Now of course it was not God’s plan that she should have endured such hard times. But as Christians we know there is no such things as wasted experience. In the grace of God everything we do and endure contributes to the person God is making us into. So in every experience you have had, positive or negative, God has been preparing you for whatever work he wants you to do.

Maybe your previous experiences mean you can cook, or pray, or teach, or organise, or listen, or care, or make people laugh, or offer hospitality. Well God has been preparing you through all of that for whatever work he has for you next. And don’t think that age gets in the way here or that God stops calling you when the pension begins. Moses was over 80 when God called him to something new. All those years of experience meant he was even better prepared.

Then second, God has called you. Remember how so much of what we see in Exodus is fulfilled in the New Testament? Well it’s true of that burning bush which is pointing us to the ever-burning fire of the Holy Spirit of God. When you were baptised, you were baptised into the Holy Spirit. When you were Confirmed, that gift was stirred up in you as the Spirit was poured out upon you in the laying-on of hands. Just like Moses, you have met God in the fire. That is where he called you.

So don’t think you are unworthy of that call. How can you be? It’s God who does the calling not you, and he doesn’t got it wrong. Don’t try and run away from the call. Because God will get you in the end. Don’t be afraid of the call. Because this is how God is saving you and preparing you for a life of joy. Don’t think you haven’t got the gifts, because of course you haven’t. God’s spirit will give you those gifts once you say yes.

And then third, God sends you. For Moses, that sending was very dramatic and extreme. For many of you, the sending may be closer to home or rather more domestic. But the heart of the sending is the same. God wants you to lead people to freedom. The freedom we find only in Jesus.

So maybe he’s sending you to share your faith with a family member or a friend and issue an invitation. Maybe he’s sending you to be more confident about speaking up for what you believe in your workplace or in your family. Maybe he’s sending you to be much more determined in prayer for those you know, that they may come to know Jesus. Maybe he is sending you to serve the vulnerable or challenge injustice.

Or it could be that he wants you to declare that freedom through a different ministry in the Church. He could be sending you to be a Lay Minister, perhaps ministering to the young or vulnerable or teaching or leading worship. He could be sending you to be a deacon or a priest and declare that freedom in ordained public ministry. Maybe he is sending you to a different place, a different country, to different people who need to hear the freedom song of Jesus Christ.

What if you are confused at this point? What if you are not sure where God might be sending you? Well first of all, pray and pray with determination. Then speak to someone, perhaps to your priest or to Christian friends because it as part of the Church that we are called. Then think about what excites you and challenges, you because every call comes with a buzz of excitement. But in your heart you probably know where Jesus is sending you to proclaim freedom. Often the issue is naming it to yourself and to others.

I’m told it is a proven fact that Christians live longer lives than those who profess no faith. On one level I suppose that’s obvious as, in Jesus Christ, the life we live is eternal. But we also live to an older age. Maybe that’s because the Christian life is never dull. We have a God who, whatever our age, shakes us up, challenges us, moves us on and gives us a job. He’s prepared you, called you and wants to send you. Listen to his voice, and then go to sing his song of freedom.