Call of God

THE CALL OF GOD

Some years ago, when I was still a student at King's College, London, I went on a course at the Army Chaplaincy Department at Bagshot Park, the current home of Prince Edward and his wife.

The course was designed to introduce one to the work of chaplains within the armed services, with a view to recruiting future chaplains.

I recall the Chaplain General of the Army, the then Venerable Iain Neil, saying that as a chaplain one meets a very wide cross section of chaps. "For instance," he said, "only last Sunday I was having drinks with a Major General, a Brigadier, a Colonel and a Major and.....", he quickly concluded, "yes, a very wide cross section of chaps".

He later went on to say that as we walked around the army barracks at Aldershot, or the Naval Base at Portsmouth, or the Air Force Station at Brize Norton, over the next three days, we should "cock an ear to see if God was calling us".

Using this mixed metaphor of trying to see with the ear, Archdeacon Neil was inviting us to consider the possibility that God might be calling us to exercise our future ministry within the armed forces.

In 1 Samuel 3.1-10, we read of the "call" of the prophet Samuel. It is a beautiful story and very well known.

Samuel was a young boy helping at the local shrine, which was administered by the elderly Priest, Eli, in whom "the lamp of God had not yet gone out". I love that expression, do you?

Both of them were sound asleep when Samuel thought he heard Eli calling him. "Samuel, Samuel" to which he answered, "Here I am". He got up immediately and ran to Eli, thinking he needed help and said, "Here I am".

But much to Samuel's surprise, Eli said he had not called him, and sent him back to bed.

This happened a second and a third time with the same response.

Finally, Eli suggested that it could be God who was calling him in his dream and that if it happened again he should reply, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening".

Thus Samuel responded to God's call to become a prophet.

A similar experience is recorded as regards God's call of the prophet Isaiah. He too was at work in the temple in Jerusalem. It is claimed that he heard a voice, which said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" To which Isaiah replied, "Here I am, send

me".

This same theme of the call of God is to be found also in John 1.43-52 concerning

Nathaniel.

But before we look at that, it is important that we go back some three verses.

In verse 40 we read of the call of Andrew, the fisherman. His response is to go and find his brother Simon and say "We have found the Messiah" and we are told he brought him to Jesus.

The following day, we are told that Jesus found Philip and invited him to "Follow me". Like Andrew, he also responded to the call of God as expressed through Jesus, by finding Nathaniel and telling him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth".

Now it is interesting just to stop for a moment and consider the character of those four whom God called to the apostolic ministry.

First there is Andrew who plays quite a subordinate role and is quite content to allow his brother, Simon, to play a leading part in the early church. Nevertheless, Andrew seems to have been one to whom men turned instinctively in times of need and perplexity. Hence, they turned to him when faced with the challenge of feeding the five thousand, or when the Greeks came looking for Jesus.

Then there is Simon, whom Jesus renamed Peter, meaning the 'rock' because it was to be upon his 'rock-like' faith that the early church would be built through his inspired leadership.

And then there is Philip who appears to have had a practical turn of mind. It is he who knew how much it would cost to feed a large number of people and it is he who demanded direct proof of the Fatherhood of God.

Finally, there is Nathaniel. His immediate response is one of scepticism. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Now Nazareth was close to Nathaniel's home village of Cana, and so these words reflect the prejudice which springs from a rivalry between two neighbouring villages.

Philip's response is to tell him to "Come and see".

I think we can assume that Nathaniel was quite a religious person, yet open minded, which led Jesus to say: "Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit".

This surprises Nathaniel who cannot make out how Jesus knows so much about him. However, Jesus tells him that he saw him under the fig tree before Philip ever called him.

Now fig and olive trees and grape vines offered rabbis suitable places in the shade to study and teach the law. One wonders therefore whether Nathaniel was reading

scriptures, meditating, praying when Jesus first saw him.

Incidentally, this is the only reference to Nathaniel in the whole of the Bible, which leads some to suggest that he is the 'Bartholomew', who often appears with Philip in the other three gospels.

I think you would agree with me that God, through Christ, called a wide "cross-section of chaps", to quote Archdeacon Neil, to the Apostolic ministry.

However, I doubt if any of them, Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, or even Samuel and Isaiah, would pass a selection conference for the ministry today!

The Archdeacon of Hertford remarked the other day, at our local Chapter meeting ,that parishes often complain when they are faced with a long interregnum between one Vicar leaving and another arriving. They seem to think, he suggested, that he can produce clergy like a magician produces rabbits out of a hat.

He went on to say that he always asks such parishes when they last produced an ordinand!!

Well, when did you, here in this parish last produce an ordinand?

When I was in training for the ministry, I was just one of thirteen candidates from the same parish in Ipswich.

And why was that?

Firstly, the Rector of the parish, Canon Brynly Jones was a first class role model of priesthood.

Secondly, it was a parish that valued the priestly ministry of the church, showed respect to it, and did not take it for granted.

Thirdly, it was a parish that prayed regularly that God would continue to call men to the priesthood of the church.

Fourthly, as a result, it was a parish where men were always open to the possibility that God might be calling them to the priesthood.

Finally, it was a parish where people were regularly challenged, through sermons and personal contact with both the Rector and other parishioners, to consider ordination to the priesthood.

In short, priesthood was high on the agenda of that parish, and, as a result, many other parishes have subsequently benefited from the ordinands it produced, including, for better or for worse, you here in this parish.

So I come back to the challenge of the Archdeacon: "When did you last produce an ordinand?"

After all, future priests can only come from those within the pews of the church today. The future of the ministry of the church is in your hands.

I cannot believe that God has ceased to call men and women to serve him as full time stipendiary priests or non-stipendiary priests, or as readers within his church.

And so, to quote the words of Archdeacon Neil's mixed metaphor, I invite you "to cock an ear to see if God is calling you". Like Samuel, I invite you to respond with the words "Here I am. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening". And like Isaiah, I invite you to reply, "Here I am, send me". Above all, I invite you all to pray regularly that God will continue

to call men and women to serve in the ordained ministry of his church.