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06.07.09

Trinity Sunday

SERMON SERIES: QUESTIONS FOR GOD

SERIES 3: VOCATION/FAITHFULNESS IN LIFE & WITNESS

PART 1: WHAT DOES GOD WANT?

ECCLESIASTES 3:9-14; 1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-13, 27-31

• Life Questions

A. Every Child’s Question

• In an episode of the sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray and Deborah are confronted with a question from their pre-teen daughter Allie
• Allie poses the question “Where did I come from?”
• Thinking that the time had come to talk to their daughter about sex, Ray gathers up a collection of parenting books to prepare to talk with Allie about “the birds and the bees”
• Sitting alone with her in her bedroom, Ray nervously begins the conversation
• “Allie,” he says, “you were asking about where you came from.  Well in order for a baby to be born, the parents have to do something.”
• Allie interrupts and says, “I know that parents have to do something, but that’s not what I want to know.”
• Ray breathes a hearty sigh of relief now that he’s off the hook about telling his daughter about sex
• But Allie continues, “What I want to know is, ‘Why are we here?  Why did God put us here?’”
• Befuddled by her theological question, Raymond begins frantically fumbling through his parenting books
• He had prepared for a discussion about sexuality, but he wasn’t at all prepared to discuss theology and religion
• Not knowing how to respond, but wanting something to say, Ray begins to try to answer her question
• Finally, after much stuttering and stammering, Ray responds, “Well, Allie, God put us here…God put us here…because heaven is crowded.”
• That’s a question everyone asks at some point during our life
• “Why are we here?  What’s the purpose and meaning of life?”
• How we answer those questions influences the direction of our life
• It is the basis for every decision we make
• A Question of Vocation
• As we return to our series, Questions For God, these types of questions will be our focus
• Over the next several weeks, we will be exploring two basic themes: Vocation and Faithfulness in Life and Witness
• Our question today relates to the question Allie asked her parents
• Allie’s question was “Why are we here?” and our question is “What does God want for me?”
• These questions are undoubtedly questions about vocation
• The word “vocation” comes from the Latin word vocare, meaning “to call”
• Calling is a word we use quite frequently in the church, especially in relationship to some special service such as ordained ministry or missionary service
• In the Roman Catholic tradition, vocation is specifically related to ordination into the priesthood, or serving the church as a nun or a monk
• In the Reformed tradition, of which we are a part, vocation is defined much more broadly
• Martin Luther taught that each individual was expected to fulfill his/her God-appointed task in everyday life
• John Calvin distinguished two different callings for each of us: we each have a general calling to serve God and a particular calling to engage in some employment by which one’s usefulness is determined
• From our theological perspective, our entire life is our vocation, therefore it is extremely important that we figure out what God wants us to do with it
• On Easter Sunday, those of you who were here heard my daughter Jennifer talk about her upcoming mission trip to China
• Jennifer serves in a helping profession, providing care for physically and mentally challenged adults, but she said to us that day that she was seeking to discover what more she could be doing with her life to serve God
• During that seeking, she was led by the Holy Spirit to go on this mission trip where she will be working with physically and mentally challenged orphans
• Her desire to live her life as a vocation from God has led her to this new opportunity for ministry and service
• This trip will allow her to use the gifts, talents, and skills she already has to serve God in a new way
• Determining Our Calling
• Related to the question, “What does God want for me?” is the question, “How do I discover what God wants me to do?”
• That is a difficult question to answer because God’s calling is different for each of us
• A young college student walked into his pastor’s office one day to seek the pastor’s guidance for the direction of his life
• The young man was disappointed at the pastor’s response because the pastor told him that every person’s calling is different and only God could tell him what he was to do with his life
• Desperate for an answer, the young man went home and picked up his Bible
• Not knowing where to turn in the Bible for direction, he closed his eyes, randomly opened the Bible and dropped his finger to the page, hoping the verses his finger landed on would give him some direction
• He opened his eyes and read these words: “And Judas went out and hanged himself.”
• Shaken by the words he read, he closed the Bible and closed his eyes to try it again
• This time, when he opened his eyes, he read the words, “Go and do likewise.”
• This is certainly not the best method for determining our calling in life
• Life As Daily Vocation
• Making Use of Our Gifts
• In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about the church as the body of Christ and each person’s place in the family of God
• What Paul says is that we are all connected and that none of us are more or less important to God than anyone else
• In God’s eyes we are all equal, and since we are all equal, each of our gifts are equally important in fulfilling God’s will in the world
• While Paul lists several of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives, this list is not exhaustive
• Not all of us are apostles or prophets or teachers, not all of us can bring healing, be strong administrators, or have gifts for service
• But we can all do something—we are all called to faithful service—and whatever it is that God gives us to do, we serve God well when we do it to the best of our ability
• As you seek to understand what God wants for your life, the first place to look is at the gifts and talents God gave you
• As you are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will discover how you can use what you already have to do the work of God in your world
• Offering Life As a Daily Gift to God
• The great King Solomon, despite all his wisdom, struggled with this question as well
• Although ordained by God as king over Israel, Solomon still struggled to find meaning and purpose in his life
• He chronicles his struggle for us in the book of Ecclesiastes
• After his beautiful poetic words about the seasons of life, Solomon raises the question, “What does the worker gain from his toil?”
• That’s his way of asking, “What does God want for me?”
• He says that he knows that God set eternity in the human heart, but this eternity Solomon speaks of isn’t the hope of life beyond this life
• By eternity, Solomon simply means that God has given to us an awareness of the passing of time, with the knowledge that our life in this world will ultimately come to an end
• So Solomon’s concern isn’t about “What must I do so I can make it to heaven when I die?”
• Instead, his concern is, “How can I best live my life in this world so that I might serve God with my living?”
• Solomon goes on to say, “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.” (vs. 12-13)
• With these words, Solomon is certainly not advocating a “grab all the gusto you can” mentality; instead he is advocating for us to measure our days, to take life as it comes, and use each moment God gives to the best of our ability
• What Solomon discovered in his quest for meaning and purpose is that the human vocation—the human calling—isn’t necessarily to do something great that will be remembered in history
• The human vocation is to live an ordinary life, and in that ordinariness, to do our best to do the best we can
• We serve God most faithfully when doing God’s will is an ordinary part of our ordinary days
• Too many of us live our lives as if we are in a holding pattern, waiting for that big moment in which we will live out that great mission that is ours
• If we wait for the perfect moment to serve God, we may end up waiting forever
• When we think like that, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus spent thirty years of his life as a child, a neighbor, and a carpenter
• From that we can certainly draw something about the importance of ordinary life
• When we discount the life of Christ prior to his ministry or his redemption on the cross, we tend to lose sight of the fact that our unique vocation may not have all the drama as his
• Our vocation may be far more subtle by earthly standards, but it still has eternal significance
• It might simply be a conversation we might be in a position to have with another person
• The Beauty of a Committed Life
• A beautiful story about discovering one’s vocation and using one’s gifts to serve God is the story of Nellie Elvidge of Fairfax County, VA
• Her story was reported in the Washington Post on October 4, 1999
• Nellie was affectionately known as the Sock Doll Lady
• From first snip to final stitch, in just two hours, Nellie could turn a boy’s crew sock into a cute-faced cuddly, a miniature, slimmed-down cousin of the Pillsbury Doughboy
• She could easily complete thirteen such dolls a week, each of them delivered to the Inova Fair Oaks Hospital where they were given to the excited big brothers and sisters of newly arrived babies
• What makes this story remarkable was Nellie’s age
• At 99, 100, 101, 102, and 103, Nellie continued to crank out these cuddly creatures in about two hours, and continued to average about thirteen each week
• Two days before her 104th birthday in 1999, her total hit 1,847 dolls
• And that milestone was celebrated at the nursing home where she lived with a party and a cake for a job well done
• That’s what her sewing was all about—it was intended to bring joy to the lives of children as they adjusted to a new sibling in the family
• And as sweet as the image of little children hugging dolls handmade for them by an elderly volunteer is, the far more poignant picture is that of a tiny, quiet lady, nearly alone at the end of her life, whose days found structure and purpose in the combination of yarn, sock, and stuffing
• “This is what she does,” noted a long-time volunteer at the nursing home where she lived.
• “It keeps her sane, it keeps her viable, it keeps her going.  It’s her vocation.”