3 Feb 2019 – Epiphany 4
(Find someone to marry who is kind)
movie About Time, men can return in time to ‘re do’ parts of their lives
Tim redoes his wedding reception because the best men keep botching the toasts,
We’ve all seen terrible toasts at weddings
So Tim asks his father who does a decent job
Father chooses to redo his, to say
Three men he’s loved, uncle, famous? And son, Tim, who he is proud to be the father of.
‘All the same, grow old and tell the same stories too many times,
But find someone to marry who is kind.
This is a kind man.’
Martin Luther talked about vocation.
That’s not like a vacation: it is what one does for work that works … for others.
To vocate, to vocalize with one’s doing, to be someone
That’s vocation.
Jeremiah
His Vocation: prophet, Jeremiah fears what will come… realistic fear … of people abuse, revenge
He says he is Too young,
God fixes that:
is and promises to be with him,
touches his mouth, cleanses it
and gives him the words
Jesus has a vocation: perfect redeemer for all sinners, for the whole world
Able to heal people, comes home to Nazareth,
Does no healing,
Tells how God repeatedly sends prophets and healers and miracle makers to people other than Israel, to its enemy neighbours, to the people they despise.
The people do not see clearly, do not even catch a glimpse of, do not even see dimly,
who Jesus is, and they are afraid,
Ready to throw him off the cliff,
but Jesus walks through their midst and away.
What vocations do we have? What great variety is there in the body of Christ?
In our congregation?
Care giver, listener, organizer, leader, musician who brings music to inspire and heal us.
Some may seem more important, but none are.
All depend on gifts from God, made possible by JC and imbued in us by the HS.
And no matter the gifts, if we do not exercise our vocations with love,
Then we are useless, just banging cymbals, or noisy gongs
Noise but no great melody, no rhythm. Just noise.
What is love:
What does love look like?
Love is patient, kind, not rude, not arrogant or insisting on it’s own way …
If one is loving, and no one is perfect, so our love is imperfect, but as we are able to be loving in all we do in our vocations, God is there blessing what we do.
All that we do …
What is it that we-you have as vocations, pastor, musicians, office staff, leaders, readers, fixer, teacher, builder,
It is God’s love
That makes it worthwhile
We will not see things clearly, but we can now already see dimly … enough to work on
To be loving with our family, friends, acquaintances and family, even enemies
Then what we do will be blessed to be a blessing.
We will give life to others.