The Passionate Faith: A Call Sunday June 22, 2008 Rev. Ken McKenzie Jesus said, in our Gospel Lesson for last week, "I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly." That is one of the most popular phrases in all of Scripture, but also one of the least taken seriously. Most folk, if asked on Sunday morning about their experience of abundant life, will probably say something about the "peace that passes understanding." But, come Monday morning, they may well refer to, "the pace that passes jet planes landing." That is part of the dichotomy of our day. We are striving to grasp the brass ring of true fellowship with God and each other, but our merry-go-rounds are spiraling out of control and it is all we can do to hang on. I don't believe that this is the "abundant life" of which Jesus was speaking, and I don't believe that you do, either. Not in the depths of our souls nor the core of our hearts. So, today, we are continuing to examine what I have come to call the Passionate Faith. This is a faith which is alive, flourishing, exciting, victorious and contagious. It is a faith which is available to each of us, regardless of our pre­supposed spiritual acumen. You see, the Passionate Faith is not something we attain, it is something that is already within us, just waiting to burst out when we partner ourselves with God's holy Will and listen for His holy Word. Last week we explored the concept of the Passionate Faith as a gift of God. I proposed the idea that the germ of faith is implanted in each of us by Almighty God. When the time is right, the seed germinates, but its continuing nurture is up to us and God working together, much like Adam and Eve tending the Garden of Eden with God ordering and watching nearby. The gift is there. We need only to accept it and nurture it. Today we shall take the process a step further. Along with the Gift, comes the Call. Once you have accepted the gift of faith, you are called to live into it. Many folk are wary of the term, "called of God." They tend to envision some starry-eyed religious fanatic who suddenly feels that they have been put on a mission by the Most High which will be troublesome, tiresome, and perhaps tacky. Maybe even embarrassing to some religious sensitivities. I don't know about you, but when I encounter folk on the street who tell me that they have been called of God to do something, I generally hold tightly to both my tongue and my wallet. My own understanding of God's call has historically been equated more with deployment than with hearing a voice or seeing a vision. I am constantly examining where I am and asking God to reveal to me what I am supposed to do. Why am I here? What brought me here? What is happening at this place at this point of history that I am meant to address? I believe that God often calls us to do something by first deploying or placing us where he wants us to be. And when that task is done, He calls us someplace new. Now, I want you to think about that for a moment. What brought you here today? What brought you to this community of Rome, GA?   What are you doing now that fulfills you and is part of your personal identity? What do you feel that you would like to do that you haven't done yet? I don't know the answer to those questions, but I know the One Who does. It is God. The same God Who, in our Old Testament Lesson last week, called Abraham to go to a land which he knew not, and there He would make of him a mighty nation. God deployed Abraham to Canaan and the rest is holy history. And you better believe that Abraham had a lot of questions about it. If he didn't, you can bet that Sarah did. All of us who have been married for any amount of time can imagine some of the conversations which probably occurred. "So, where is it that we are going?" "I don't know yet." "And how are we going to know when we get there?" "God will tell me." "What are we going to do when we get there?" "I'm not sure, but I think that our having babies has a lot to do with it." I imagine that there was a long silence after that one! And so, they went on across the desert and into the pages of Holy Writ. An old couple with a passionate faith, even if they did not have the words to frame it. They had hitched their wagon to the star of God's call and there was no going back. Part of the Passionate Faith and the call that comes along with it, is the knowledge that God will be there to help us all along the way. Few passages capture this knowledge better than Psalm 121. "I lift up mine eyes to the hills. From whence shall my help come. My help comes from the Lord, Who has made heaven and earth." Now the Old Testament concept of "help" was not exactly the way we think of it today. If I am operating my computer and get confused, (an almost daily and sometimes hourly occurrence) then my first reaction is to press the "help" button. Usually this results in more confusion, frustration, and the utterance of words and phrases not befitting the reverend clergy. The reason that this result happens is because the software program assumes that I am more computer savvy than I really am. In reality, we have no common denominator, no common language. It does not really know what I need and, truth be told, I don't know how to say what I need. We see another example in disaster response. People are already asking "what do the residents of the Midwest states need?" Assuming that they know what the victims need, truckloads of clothing are already arriving. Winter parkas, snow boots, sweaters, mittens and gloves.   It will, as always, be piled up in a shopping center parking lot until a dump truck and a front end loader can be spared from relief work to haul it all to the landfill. We call this the Second Disaster. Again, the wrong kind of help at the wrong time. In the Old Testament, help came not only by way of advice and supplies, it came in the form of a commitment to do whatever needed to be done for the welfare of the one needing help. It might be in the form of money, food, water, medicine, military assistance, the administration of justice. It was designed to restore the Arabic/Semitic concept of Salaam or Shalom, which means a state of wellness, joy, and peace. It was far more than the idea of de-personalized assistance which is so common today. It was holistic and holy. God knows what we need before we know it. He knows how we need it, when we need it, and why we need it. "He will not let your foot be moved, He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He Who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. God is always aware of and attentive to our need for His help. And His help is always more than we dreamed of. The Passionate Faith rests in that knowledge. I may not always get what I want or even what I think I need, but I can be sure that I will get what I really need as I really need it, and when I really need it. And my personal peace will be the result. So, why does He do this for us? I believe that the principle reason for God's provision of help lies in His adoption of us as His heirs. St. Paul, in his passage today from Colossians, positively exults in his words, "May you be made strong with all strength that comes from His glorious might and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience while joyfully giving thanks to the Father Who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light." God strengthens us with His help because He has adopted us as His own; we are the children of His Kingdom. One of the not-so-well kept secrets of the Passionate faith is that we need to claim that kinship. We have worth, potential, and purpose not because of what we have done or who we are, but because of Whose we are. We are children of the King and we need to live out of that reality. By way of example, I would direct you to a story which I recently read where a gentleman in Kentucky won a sizeable lottery. I've forgotten the exact amount of his winnings, but after taxes, they were in excess often million dollars. He had read so many horror stories about the difficulties which other winners had encountered, that he took his winnings, changed his name, moved to another state and resumed his career as a framing carpenter. He was terrified of the winnings and never spent a dime except to replace the transmission in his 1995 Ford F-150. He later said he felt so bad about spending that money that he gave the truck away and bought another out of his regular savings. He died about two years ago, living alone in a trailer in South Dakota. He leaves two children and a former spouse to "mourn" his passing. I believe that the term for that is "laughing heirs." He had all that wealth, but he refused to live out of it. As is true in the physical world, so in the spiritual world. Refusing to live our lives on the basis of our adoption by God is to cut ourselves off from the Passionate Faith. And the ultimate result is that we never hear our call and never participate fully in God's Kingdom. So God is faithful to help us. He is faithful because He has already adopted us. Then, when He is ready and knows that we are ready, He sends us out. He deploys us. Often it seems that He is sending us out to do things that are irrational, unfathomable, and sometimes even seemingly impossible. To Simon Peter, it seemed irrational, unfathomable, and even absurd to put out into deep water. The fishermen of his day were afraid of the deep water. Leviathan lived there, the great sea monster. Other unspeakable horrors waited there, ready to devour the unwary sailor. No wonder one of the thinnest books in the world is, "The Great Naval Victories of Israel." But, of course he did it. Then, wonder of wonders, Jesus tells him to put down his net for a catch. You can almost hear him thinking to himself, "Wait a minute, I'm the professional here! Who is this guy, obviously without any knowledge of the trade, telling me where and how to fish. OK, I'll show him.. .but first I'll just set him up..." "Sir, not to put too fine a point on it, but we've been out here all night casting and hauling and we don't have enough for a shrimp scampi. But, since you are so all-fired determined, here we go!" You heard the rest of the story in the lesson. We have a long and honored history of questioning God. Job was pretty good at it. Moses came in a fairly distant second. Jeremiah, Isaiah, the list goes on. Even Jesus on the cross cried out to know why God had forsaken Him. Today we often do the same thing. We assume that we have insider knowledge of God's plan. When things don't work out as we assume they should, we tend to think that something has gone wrong; the plan has gone awry. It could be that God has simply de-railed our assumptions so that He can show us His true designs. Part of the Passionate Faith is to not only accept mid-course corrections when they come, but to actually be excited about them. Someone once said that God is sometimes like Ford; He has a better idea. Being able to accept the correction with grace and excitement shows that you have learned a bit of humility, trust and joyful expectancy. Yes, God calls us. Often when we don't expect it, least understand it, and are going about our business thinking that we are somehow God's cab driver. But that is the way of God. Just ask Abraham. Or Moses. Or Jeremiah. In fact, ask any of the saints of God and they will probably all tell you the same thing: The Passionate Faith is always one surprise after another. For me, at least, that is a good enough reason to keep on going. In fact, it may be the best reason of all! Next week we will be looking at the Passionate Faith as Response. We've received the gift and heard the call. Now, what are we going to do with it? The question of our lives!