Father Gary’s
Sermon
I am guilty, as
charged. I am given to the tendency to go on periodic jags. My latest is a
dramatic TV series called JAG.
This series is about an elite wing of military officers who are trained as
lawyers to investigate, prosecute, and defend those accused of military crimes.
Much of its allure for me is the depth that each of its characters has as they
not only deal with the serious matters before them, but also how these matters
affect them.
One of the lead
characters is Commander “Harm” Rabb, one of the top legal beagles in the JAG
office, who is also an ace fighter pilot. He is always torn between his love
for flying and the challenges of his legal career. Each has a strong “pull”
upon his life.
In a recent
rerun, Harm is taking a break from the law to fly jets off of a carrier in a
nearby location. In the jet that he is flying is another pilot, a female naval
officer whose career Harm saved in a previous episode. In the beginning scene
of this episode they are lifting into a rugged sky filled with thick storm
clouds and lightning. Not long afterwards the aircraft develops mechanical
problems, which forces the pilots to evacuate. The female pilot is quickly
rescued, but Harm is lost in a torturous sea without benefit of the rubber raft
that accompanies such ejections. For several minutes the story keeps us in
suspense as Harm struggles against hypothermia, while rescue teams continue
their desperate search in the most inclement of weather.
Finally, back
at the JAG office, his closest legal colleague, the alluring, cute, and smart,
Lt. Col. “Mac” Mackenzie, uses paranormal capabilities to locate him. When Harm
is finally rescued and seemingly safe in the hospital, the systems of his body
begin to shut down. Physicians and staff shout out to him to awaken, for lie
can only be saved if he remains conscious. All of these attempts are to no
avail, however, until the female pilot who flew with him leaves the cot next to
his in the emergency room, where she has been receiving her own medical care.
Brushing the rest of the staff away, she climbs up onto Harm’s reclined body,
and begins whispering for his awakening. What the yelling physicians could not
accomplish was achieved by the still small voice of his companion pilot whose
life he had earlier saved. Her voice was like a “call,” a call from
another dimension to wake up and live—a calling to which Harm responded.
On deeper reflection,
I think this is why this dramatic series appeals to me, for each episode seems
to have one of its characters struggling with a life’s calling. Perhaps
because it takes the concept of calling so seriously, JAG is one of the
few television series that I have watched that takes the role of clergy
seriously, without turning them into bumbling idiots. As a member of the
clergy, the issue of calling is also a nagging one, for no one in their
right mind would seek the ministry without a sense of calling from the
Divine. Calls are challenges, challenges that move us to higher
dimensions of consciousness.
Though not
always recognized for such these days, calls have historically been
linked to the religious quest of our deeper beings. The Scriptures are replete
with story after story of persons being called to a greater destiny by a
God who loves in earnest. The same is certainly true of our Gospel reading this
morning that tells of Matthew’s call to discipleship. Jesus’ call of Matthew to
be his disciple was also a call to bring him from the point of death to new
life.
You see Matthew
was a tax collector, literally a pariah among the Hebrew people. When the
Romans conquered Palestine in 63 B.C., they developed an indigenous system by
which to collect taxes. They would sell “franchises” to local Hebrews living in
a community, giving these persons the authority to collect taxes. The way that
these neighborhood IRS offices were established was for these local citizens of
the conquered people to prepay to Rome the tax quota that was expected from the
community. Then during the coming year these tax agents were licensed to
collect taxes, as much as they could collect. More often than not, these local
tax collectors collected far more than they prepaid to Rome, often making them
very wealthy. However, this wealth also made them very unpopular among their
countrymen. They were hated, despised, and for all practical purposes removed
from participation in Hebrew society. To the Hebrews they would be synonymous
with the gangsters, crooks, or the Mafia in our society.
Yet, here is
Matthew—one of these hated tax collectors—and Jesus calls him! Furthermore, we
are given no reason why. However, the context of this story may help our
understanding. This particular story is sandwiched in between an extensive
series of healings by Jesus. Indeed, after calling Matthew to be his disciple,
Jesus is next seen at a dinner, perhaps at Matthew’s home, for we are told he
was with tax collectors and other sinners. The religious elite of that day soon
discovered this irregularity and called Jesus to task on it. “How can you be
eating with this scum?” they asked. To which Jesus answered, “Those who are
well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” And so, there we
have it, the calling of Matthew in this context was evidence of another
type of healing being performed by Jesus. Just as the female pilot’s call to
Harm was to bring him from the point of death to new life, SO Jesus’ call of
Matthew to be his disciple was also a call to bring him from the point
of death to new life in Christ.
As revealed in
the calling of Harm or the comic strip character of Jeremy Duncan, calls
are not limited to religious or clergy types. God’s calling is there
for each and every one of us, for we all have need of healing, we all have a
need for forgiveness, we all have need to be all that we can be.
As exciting as
these callings may be, they are not often desired. Indeed, they are
often sorely resisted. It is very much like a recent Zits comic strip,
in which Jeremy Duncan—a 15-year-old aspiring rock musician, riddled with
angst, boredom and parents who don’t understand anything—is in the midst of a
great adventure. Suddenly, he hears the call of his name and the scene he is in
begins to disintegrate. In the next frame we see Jeremy in another adventure,
this one too is interrupted when he hears his name. Several more frames go by
in which more adventures are interrupted and destroyed, when we are brought to
the last frame. Here we find that Jeremy was in bed, struggling to awaken to
the morning hours by the stern calling of his mother, trying to bring him to a
greater consciousness so that he can get off to school. Calls tend to
take us where we would prefer not to go.
However, it is
not just ourselves that are affected. They also affect those closest to us, for
fulfilling a calling often places higher demands on the lives of others.
It is somewhat like the young minister who was being interviewed by a church
board for the position of pastor. One old hardworking Irishman who was on the
board looked at the young man sternly and asked, “Young
man, did God send you here?” He replied, “Well,
I don’t know if God sent me here. I am here trying to find the will of God and
find out if you would like me for your next pastor.” The board member
replied, “Young man, did God send you here?” The
young minister was somewhat at a loss for words and came back again, “Well, I just stopped by to talk with the board, . . .”
The board member interrupted again and said, “Young
man, did God send you here?” Finally he screwed up his courage and said,
“Well, I guess God didn’t send me here. I just
stopped by to see about whether we could get together.” The old board
member leaned back in his seat and said, “That’s good.
The last four said that God had sent them, and we have had nothing but trouble
with all four of them!”
Dealing
with God’s claims of love upon our lives is part of the human condition. None
of us are immune. God’s calling is always there, always calling each of
us to a greater consciousness, always calling for our ultimate healing and
wholeness, always calling us to be all that we can be, to be what God
originally had in mind when we were first conceived in God’s mind. In essence,
we are all continuously being called by God to live out and fulfill our true
spiritual DNA. The question is, “What will it take
for us to listen? What will it take for us to respond?”—for a true calling
will never go away.