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Church of the Crossroads
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 15, 2006
Neal MacPherson

“CALLED TO SERVE”

1 Samuel 3:1-10
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
John 1:43-51

This is the weekend we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is fitting, therefore, that I begin with words preached by Dr. King in his wonderful sermon, The Drum Major Instinct, in which he describes that which constitutes true greatness.

And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important – wonderful. If you want to be recognized – wonderful. If you want to be great – wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

That’s your new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it . . . by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Dr. King. Often, we think that greatness is to be associated with those who make a great impact upon life and history, men and women whose names are well known to us – Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. himself. But Dr. King reminds us that true greatness lies in the capacity to serve, and everyone, no matter what their background, or how much education they have, or how gifted they are, can serve. And that includes everyone gathered here in this place.

“There is a call to us, a call of service- that we join with others to try to make things better in this world,” said Dorothy Day, in the year 1955, at one of the Catholic Worker Friday-night “clarification of thought” meetings. We are called to serve, and our service will take different forms. For some, it will be expressed in a commitment to the common good, a passion for justice and peace in our world. For others, it will take less notable, quieter, but no less valuable forms: the caring for a loved one, or a friend; the act of generosity extended to a stranger; the practice of a life style that has a benign and less hurtful impact on the environment; the attitude of openness and spirit of attentiveness transforming the classroom, the office, or home into a place filled with love, growth, and healing.

As will come as no surprise, I think of my mother. Remembrances of her dominate my thoughts and feelings these days. As I shared with those who gathered a week ago at the Wolfville United Baptist Church to give thanks for her life, I recalled that Mum had her own way of serving. In the days of my childhood and youth, itinerant hobos used to travel up and down the Annapolis Valley in the late summer and fall looking for work in the apple orchards. We all knew that they had maps of their own making that indicated where every parsonage in each of the valley towns was located.

When we lived in Middleton and in Wolfville, every time Mum saw one of these hobos approaching the house, she would groan and express just a little irritation that her day would be interrupted by the knock on the kitchen door and the inevitable request for food. At the same time, knowing that God has called us to serve the needs of the neighbor, she would prepare a meal for each and every one of them, either what we were eating for dinner (they always arrived a mealtime, it seemed) or hot soup, homemade brown bread, cheese, apple pie – whatever was on hand. They didn’t eat with us, I recall. Mother had not yet arrived at a point when she could be comfortable with that. Yet, at the same time, Mum would always invite them to eat in the warmth of an entry way to the house.

I have wondered: what motivated her to engage in these small but significant acts of service? Was it because it was expected of her, she being the pastor’s wife? Perhaps. More so, however, I believe there were other reasons behind her loving service. For one thing, her own mother would have done the same thing. I remember Grandma Porter making brown bread (the same recipe I use – mine never seems as good) and distributing it to her neighbors. Mum grew up with her own mother’s example.

Also, there was the call of Jesus to follow, which meant to love God and one’s neighbor as one’s self. There was never a time in her life when she did not hear that call. Philip and Nathanael also heard that call, as recorded in the Gospel of John. That call countless men and women have heard throughout the centuries. “Come, follow me. Love God with all your heart and mind and strength and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. You were born to serve.”

The call can come to us in many ways. It can come to us through the created order. In a poem called Song of the Builders found in her newly published volume Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver writes:

On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God-

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.

Whether from the Spirit of God working through the voice of Jesus or the voices of creation, the call does come from outside ourselves. All we need to do is to hear the call and respond, as did my mother, as do each one of us, in large ways and small ways, each in our own way, no matter who we are. This is what makes us great.

The call comes from outside ourselves, and, at the same time, it has an interior dimension. The call must resound in the depths of the human heart. It comes from listening, not only to the voice of Jesus, or to the promptings of the Spirit of God, or to the voices of creation, but also to our own hearts and our deepest sense of who we are, of what makes us truly human.

Here, too, I think of my mother. She responded to the call to serve from the depths of her heart. She listened and she heard the call because in the depths of her being she understood that life must be lived not independently but interdependently. She knew that “being with” rather than “being apart” makes us truly human. The focus of her entire life was upon relationships. First, there was her relationship with us, her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was so concerned about our well being that we often teased her, saying that her middle name should have been “worry.” Then, there were the relationships she cherished and nurtured with her friends and with the members of the churches that our Dad served. Hearing the call of Jesus in her life, listening to the dictates of her own heart, her life was oriented towards serving others.

Our story today from the Hebrew scripture is instructive. At first Samuel thinks the voice is that of Eli. A second time he is mistaken. He must listen more deeply. Then as he really listens, listens from the depths of his being, he knows that the voice is that of God. “Samuel, Samuel.” And Samuel said, “Speak for your servant is listening.” Responding to the call will lead Samuel to engage in a prophetic ministry that will be far from easy

I suspect that what led Samuel to engage in his particular ministry is what also led Martin Luther King to engage in his nonviolent witness for justice and peace in our world. For if we do hear what God calling us in the darkness of the night, or through the voice of Jesus or the voices of creation, if we do believe that we were created to be in relationship with others and with the earth itself, there can be no room for injustice; there can be no room for violence against the neighbor or disregard for the needs of the earth or needless war making. There can be no room for independent living. There can be room only for service to others, both friend and stranger, service to the needs of all of God’s children, service to the needs of the earth itself.

The service to which each of us can give ourselves, then, whatever the form it may take, is what makes us great, the only thing that makes us great, as Dr. King reminded us so many years ago. May we always strive to be a people who serve. May we be a people who love God and neighbor. May we care for the earth as we would care for ourselves. May we be doers of justice and makers of peace. Then we shall be the people God created us to be.

Amen

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