This was the final sermon of our "Calling All Disciples" preaching series. In the bulletin, people were given a page with five categories to take notes: Gifts I Have; Training I Need; What Is God Calling Me to Do; Where is God Calling Me; Obstacles to My Call. I probably would not separate the What and the Where categories, if I did the sermon again.
It felt like a good end to the sermon series.
“Your Next Call Story” Matthew 17: 1-9; Exodus 24: 12-18; SAPC, Denton; February 19, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp
Matthew 17: 1-9:
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Introduction: Moses has a story to tell, a story about God’s call for his life.
Peter, James, and John have a story to tell, a story about God’s call for their lives.
Imagine sitting around with Moses, Peter, James, or John and listening as they tell their call stories.
a. Moses
1. Up on Mt. Sinai.
2. Like I was in the clouds.
3. 40 days and 40 nights - all a blur.
4. God gave me instructions for building the tabernacle that would travel with us.
5. Moses now has at least two call stories to tell - the story of a burning bush talking to him and now this mountaintop story.
b. Peter, or James, or John
1. Up on the mountain.
2. Jesus a dazzling white.
3. Would you believe, I saw Moses and Elijah.
4. Voice from the heavens - “this is my son, the Beloved”
5. Like Moses, they have at least two call stories - Jesus calling them from their boats to follow him and now this mountaintop story.
c. Imagine your own call story this morning.
1. Maybe your story is not quite as dramatic.
2. You can tell the story as a historical story, about how you have felt called, but it is also a forward-looking exercise and we consider our next call story.
this morning, I invite you to use the sheet at the back of the bulletin to write down some of your own reflections.
Because I am Presbyterian, I have provided structure for your creative thoughts, but you are not bound by the structure.
the structure is just there to guide if you need it.
Move 1: Consider Gifts you have that help you as you live out your calling.
a. Notice the assumption - you have gifts.
1. Not a question of whether God has given you gifts - God has;
but of your recognizing and claiming those gifts.
2. Examine.
3. maybe your gifts show up in what you like to do.
4. maybe your gifts show up when you are challenged, and your gifts help make those challenges meaningful.
b. b.What do people tell you about yourself?
Good listener?
Excellent teacher?
Great at pastoral care?
Leadership skills?
c. Explore the gifts you have and see how they fit with your sense of call.
1. Friend who was a math major in college.
she went off to work on a Ph.D. in math.
I remember talking to her at that time, and she told me she was giving up the pursuit of the Ph.D.
“Why? I thought you loved math?”
“I do. But I just spent a semester working on a paper, and there is hardly even a number on the pages. Just Greek letters.
I love math, but I have learned that I want to teach students and interact with students and see how math works in practical ways, not just theoretical ways”
so, she shifted gears, got a Masters in math related to teaching it, and has spent her career teaching students and mvoing into administration where she still engages with students.
2. Gift of math ability could have been lived out in different ways.
scribble a few notes, if you want, about the gifts God has given you and see the trajectory they might give you toward your call.
Move 2: Training you might need:
a. As you discern your call, you may recognize the need for training to develop a particular skill to help you live into your call.
1. You discover your passion is for something, but you don’t have the skill set yet.
2. you need training.
b. we believe not only in the God who calls us, but the God who equips us for our calling.
1. some of you may remember Dr. Jim Spivey.
2. Terrific Presbyterian minister who retired here in Denton and was engaged in the life of St. Andrew in a variety of ways for many years.
3. I remember one Sunday morning I was visiting, Dr. Spivey was the last-minute sub to preach due to the preacher getting ill the day before.
As he began the sermon, I thought, “well, it’s great that a retired minister has an old sermon he can pull out of his files.”
Then, he preached a wonderful sermon with illustrations from the current state of affairs in our world - no old sermon that morning.
4. I was home for a visit when he was close to 90 years old.
I went over to visit him.
He told me he had to leave in a little bit.
Where are you going?
to Stephen Ministry training.
Why are you doing Stephen ministry training?
I want to improve my pastoral care skills.
5. Lesson learned for me - training and developing our skills never ends, just as following God’s call for our lives never ends.
Move 3: What is God calling you to do?
a. As you put down some thoughts in this quadrant, imagine and dream.
1. your reflections are not a contract. You are not bound to your thoughts.
2. Just an exploration of what God might be calling you to do.
b. Look for signs.
1. Are you feeling that tug toward something.
2. Do you keep having conversations with different people, and they all lead to the same suggestion for what you should be doing with your life.
3. Is it the dream that will not let go of you?
c. Test the signs. Sometimes they are hard to discern.
1. When I arrived in Mt. Sterling, KY, for the interview weekend, it was the third visit I had to different churches.
2. I was not only concerned with the interview with that particular Pastor Nominating Committee, but also with the whole process.
3. How would I know which church God was calling me to serve?
4. it was not until the second day of the interview that I had a tour of the church.
5. When I went into the sanctuary, a feeling came to me and I knew, this was the place where I was called to preach and minister.
6. As so it was.
7. Fast forward six years or so, and I am interviewing with a church in OH.
8. I could not wait until they took me into the sanctuary because I knew that would be where I would get the sign.
9. I walked into the sanctuary, and it was the first sanctuary I had ever been in with a pattern on the carpet.
A very busy pattern.
I looked down and my first thought was not “I am called to serve here, but if I served here, I would get dizzy every Sunday leading worship!”
10. I ended up hearing a call to serve that congregation, but the signs were very different than what I was expecting.
Move 4: Where God is calling you?
a. As you ponder that question, remember, it is always into the world!
1. Moses had to come down off the mountaintop
2. Peter, James, and John had to come down off the mountaintop
3. the mountaintop moments are often the places we discover our dreams about our calling, but we live out our calls in the world around us.
b. No surprise, because God is the God of incarnation.
1. God chose to live among us in the particularity of our lives in Jesus Christ.
2. God still lives among us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. God calls us to live out our calling in the real world.
move 5: Final category - Obstacles
a. Sometimes, as we imagine our call, we see the challenges that come with it.
1. Moses knew when he came down off the mountaintop, he had to lead a group of scared people who were in the wilderness and wondering about God’s presence among them.
2. it did not change his sense of call, but he had to be ready to account for that obstacle.
3. His leadership of the Israelites in the wilderness is shaped by the challenges he encountered.
b. As you live into the call God has set before you, there may be obstacles you see as well.
1. You might jot them down, not as a reason to turn away from your call, but as a way of discerning how to best move forward in your call.
2. in fact, sometimes as we work through the obstacles, we find a further definition of our calling.
3. And the God who calls you, is also the one who helps you deal with those obstacles.
Conclusion: Reflect on God’s call for your life.
Live into your call.
tell others about it.
I bet your next call story is going to be a terrific story to tell.
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