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    Mar 05, 2017

    Call

    Passage: Luke 5:27-32

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: Gospeled Lives

    Category: Discipleship

    Keywords: call, discipleship, responding

    Profound encounters with Jesus usually included a call.

    [During this Lenten season, the meditations are based on our devotional/study book, John Indermark, Gospeled Lives: Encounters with Jesus.  Copyright © 2008 by John Indermark.  Publisher:  Upper Room Books.  Along with 6 other United Methodist Churches in our area, we will be gathering for lunch/supper on Wednesdays to discuss the week's theme.  Should you wish to join us, see the information found at https://goo.gl/i0GUSv]

    Today we begin our Lenten worship series. I offered a brief introduction on Wednesday at our services, but for those who weren’t able to be here then, this is what I said in the few paragraphs:

    Gospeled is, admittedly, a strange word to those of us who speak English. “The Greek of the New Testament, though, often uses a verb form of the word we translate as gospel. Gospel can express action. ‘Gospeled lives’ are profoundly affected by an encounter with Jesus.”  (Indermark, page 11)  Profoundly affected by an encounter with Jesus.

    Over these next few weeks, we will be delving into the lives of biblical people that were profoundly affected by an encounter with Jesus. All of the preaching that I do, all the reading that we do as our homework, all of the devotions and discussions that we have over lunch or supper, however, will be for naught if it’s only about the people who met Jesus 2000 years ago. It will be useless time spent if we don’t recall or experience how we ourselves are profoundly affected by an encounter – or, hopefully, encounters – with Jesus.

    Most Gospeled Lives – lives shaped by the gospel – begin with a call of some kind or other. So, I got to wondering about how you “see” the stories of call in the scriptures. What do you imagine when someone begins talking about Jesus calling the disciples? How do you see the story playing out?

    Today we are going to look at 2 call stories, and I hope that they bring you a bit of a new perspective on what it means to be called by God.  The first story is found in the fifth chapter of Luke:

    27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me." 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him. 29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" 31 Jesus answered, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."

    Sometimes, I see the disciples kind of like the guy in Welcome Back Kotter – “ooooh – oooh – pick me!” Wasn’t he Arnold Something? I’m sure that impression comes from later stories when the disciples want to secure their special place by Jesus’ side.

    The story above isn’t like that at all. Tax collectors in Jesus’ day were in a social class with thieves. And a Jewish tax collector had an especially horrific reputation since they were stealing from their own people. The lowest of the low. Avoided. Shameful.

    Oh - and, good people just did not eat with people like that. Their shame could – well, rub off!

    Jesus walks right up to this guy Levi (or Matthew) and invites him to follow. Can you even begin to imagine the looks on the faces of those in line to pay up? Or what about Levi himself? He had to be in shock! I wonder how long it took for him to recover his senses? Recover, he did because the very next thing it says in the story is that Levi invited other tax collectors for a great banquet. So, I don’t think this could have been like Zaccheus where he just invited Jesus over for lunch and all those people just happened to be there. With all of our social media and modern appliances and paper plates, we can’t pull off a great banquet with a big crowd lickety split! Even in 2017 we couldn’t do this on the spur of the moment.

    The good peoples’ horror was just multiplied. He’s not eating with just one scoundrel, but a whole houseful!

    I was deeply moved by John Indermark’s insight into this passage as he articulated what he believe is truly the point of this story:

    “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” I confess some uncertainty about how satisfying Jesus’ answer was then – and is now. It might be hard to justify his recklessness with a missional perspective; that is, Jesus ate with these people because he came to help the sick and the sinful. Like the chaplain of a downtown rescue mission working with addicts and derelicts, Jesus ministered to the down-and-out. The problem with that explanation is that in worldly standards his tax –collector dinner companions were hardly the down-and-out. Preaching at them might seem the more respectable thing to do than eating with them. But is the point her respectability; or is it call? I myself am not convinced Jesus’ words alleviated the concerns of respectable and righteous Pharisees – or their kin among us today. I am not sure his words were even intended to do so. Jesus’ response to them – and to us – entails admitting our need for grace.

    Grace was the basis for Jesus’ call of Levi…Ironically, such grace that calls Levi and practices table fellowship with those other characters is the same grace that aims to include the offended righteous. Self-avowed states of righteousness can close us off from recognizing the need for grace in our lives. Jesus was not disinterested in good and righteous folk. Rather, his overarching concern was – and is – to reach those in need of grace.

    Call finds response from those who recognize their need for gracious acceptance. (Indermark, page 24)

    Lent requires us to take a look inside – to examine who we are and to evaluate our walk with God. Truth is, most of us carry around a mixture of traits, and there are days when our inner Pharisee shines through – and other days when we are all Levi. Jesus is calling us – all of us – the Pharisee in us and the Levi in us – to respond to God’s grace. As Rev. Indermark is helping us to see, we have to recognize our need for grace or we are powerless to answer the call.

    The second scripture we are focusing on this week is Mark 10:46-52.

    46They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” 52Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

    In this passage, the call comes from a blind beggar. The man was literally calling out to Jesus. “Have mercy on me,” could have meant give me money or heal me, so Jesus may have been looking for clarity when he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” He wasn’t being sarcastic. He was clarifying the man’s request.

    Last Sunday I teased you all (the 10:30 crowd) a little bit when I asked for a little bit of feedback and the crowd was still – no heads nodding and not a peep! I said something like, “You DO realize that preaching is actually a 2-way street, right!?!” Well, call is like that, too. When we are in a place of knowing what we need, both the call and the response may just be a lot clearer.

    Indermark quotes Frederick Buechner:
    Vocation – or calling – is “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

    He goes on to say: Let me also suggest that empathy for and even awareness of those deep needs of the world require a prior recognition of our own deep needs. Otherwise, our calling becomes a doing for others what we somehow deny about ourselves.

    Beloved, this passage calls us to make a confession – not of sin but of our own need. What is it that you truly need? What is your heart hungering for? Do you long to shed your cloak of self-righteousness? Are you desperate to be healed of your blindness?

    Jesus is asking: What do you want me to do for you? Where do you need to know deep down the grace of God – that God’s grace is there for you? I fear that we cannot truly access the power of the gospel until we understand our need for God.

    Paul put it this way: The Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

    What do you want me to do for you? Knowing the answer to that question just may turn your life around!

    Quotations within the text are from John Indermark, Gospeled Lives: Encounters with Jesus.  Copyright © 2008 by John Indermark.  Publisher:  Upper Room Books.  Page 11.