Today you are Appointed

 

 

February 3, 2013 Today you are Appointed

Old Testament Jeremiah 1:4-10

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. Then Jeremiah started with excuses…a normal human trait.  What does it mean to be called by God?  What does God generally call people to do? To whom does God issue this call? These are questions many Christians deal with every day. Or, Is God calling me to this particular ministry?

Psalm- 71:1-6

The psalmist declares : “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.  Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.”

Epistle- I Corinthians 13: 1-13

Some people go into ministry for various reasons. Some are called, some are self- appointed. If one is in it for the money then they are in it for the wrong reason. If they are in it because they are control freaks and want to control the church that is the wrong reasons.  We and that’s all of us are called into ministry to love God and love one another. The message from Jesus when questioned was to Love God with all our heart mind and soul and to love our neighbor as our self.

The message Paul has for us is about the best gift of love.  “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…..Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…..Love never ends.

And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Gospel Reading ( Please Stand if Able) Luke 4:21-30

Today’s text is the second part of the Luke passage begun last week.  Invited by the local officials , Jesus is teaching at a Galilean synagogue.  At first he is welcomed, but by the end of his teaching, the crowds are so angry at Jesus proclamations they are intent on murder!  The Galileans greet Jesus as Joseph’s son, not as the SON of God; the man they reject is the Messiah.  Jesus reminds his listeners that prophets of old were sent to Gentiles instead of Israelites, implying that did not recognize the messengers of God.

The text addresses God’s concern for persons and God’s liberating activity in very concrete sociological categories.  Lukes beatitudes and his corresponding woes are expressed in concrete and precise ways in Luke 6.  The poor, the hungry, those who weep, and so forth include the underprivileged and marginalized society. As Christian/ministers we are to offer hope to those less privileged as pointed out. So we are appointed today to LOVE as God Loves us.

So where does appointed ministry begin? Right here in our local community. We start right where we are sitting. Loving each other on either side of us and letting this love flow out of this church into our community, into the local area, and on out into the world.

Jesus came into the synagogue in our midst and declares that the Scriptures have been fulfilled in Him. Through the Scriptures we see new indicators for the new and renewing narratives that God is unfolding with or without us, and usually in spite of us. God gives us an opportunity to respond..

We can listen but not hear; hear but not respond, respond but not follow. We can be filled with wrath, as were those in the temple who heard the young, upstart Jesus when he came home and spoke of the new narrative.

We can be quietly indifferent.  Or we can – accept that we are called to – follow, and by following contribute to the renewing,--- redeeming the narrative that is God’s relentlessly powerful story, come alive on the edges of the human family and the faith community.

In our creative participation in framing this new narrative we also know the fullness of life…

The depth of god’s promise spoken through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jesus, and all those who have had the audacity  believe that God is indeed creating a new narrative of hope and justice.

It is to know the fullness of the Love of god and the overwhelming power of God’s narrative even in our own time.

Jesus stands before us not just yesterday, or in some longed-for tomorrow, but TODAY.

TODAY we are appointed-  to be and continue to be the Messengers of Gods Love.