The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, January 16, 2011, Church of the Epiphany Sherwood & St Agnes’ Church Cowan

““The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me” (Is. 49:1).

Christians believe that God calls people to his service; and though we sometimes talk as if only ordained persons are “called,” that’s just not true. God calls each and every baptized person to serve him, to share in God’s work in the world. It’s not just Paul the Apostle who is called in our second reading today, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” but also the whole Corinthian Church and every Christian everywhere. So he says, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Cor. 1:1-2). When the prophet Isaiah says in our first reading that he was called before he was born, we Christians are meant to identify with the prophet and make his words our own. We are all called by God. God has called us to be his holy People, to serve and to be sent. That’s a high privilege, an honor we don’t want to miss. It’s not reserved for special people but is a call addressed to us.

The call from God is something we can count on. It comes with our baptism into the Church. It can be a different call from God for different people, because each of us has different gifts and a different calling. Remember, the prophet says “while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” Remember also that when Jesus calls the disciples in our Gospel today he gives Simon a new name in keeping with his call: Peter, the Rock. Each of us is uniquely “named” by God. Our identities are diverse and so are our different callings. But the common theme is service and our being sent by God into the world to do his will. The work you do, the relationships you have, the ways you spend your time: all of this is the realm in which you are called by God to serve him.

We can count on the call, but what cannot be counted on is our response to it. Make no mistake: the call has to be answered if it’s going to make any sort of difference. If you don’t pick up on the ringing phone you won’t know what the message is. If you listen to the message and then do nothing then you haven’t really answered it. This is why the Scriptures talk about obedience: “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5, 16:26) as St Paul describes it in the Letter to the Romans. Obedience is about doing God’s will, and is rooted in the notion of listening. To get the message we have to listen and respond.

So it is in our psalm today: “In the roll of the book it is written concerning me: * ‘I love to do your will, O my God; your law is deep in my heart’” (Ps. 40:9). But note what it says first: “you have given me ears to hear you” (Ps. 40:7). The phrase literally means something like “you have dug out my ears,” ears that were stopped up no doubt by lack of attention and indifference. But God has now given us new ears that need to listen attentively to the call. God has given us new hearts as well, through grace. That persistent ringing that we hear is God’s call to us in Christ Jesus. Can you hear it? Are you willing to answer the call? Jesus has been crucified and been raised from the dead by God: that’s the message. It means new life for us and for others if we will listen and respond to it.

So spend some time listening, unstopping your ears and opening your hearts. We can start with the Scriptures today. God is speaking to all of us together as a Church. There are folks here today who are responding to God’s call by becoming confirmed members of the Church, by reaffirming the vows made at their baptism, but all of us are capable of responding. God has called us and named us, and sent us forth to serve.

- The Rt Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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