Sermon for
July 17, 2005
9th Sunday after Pentecost
“Never Out of Calling Distance”
Genesis 28:10-19a; Ps. 139:1-12, 23-24; Matthew 13:24-43
It must have been a
strange yet exciting sight three years ago, this orphaned 12 foot long
1200 pound killer whale swimming alongside the
Puget Sound passenger ferry as it made its way to
and from
Seattle
. For at least six months that 2-year-old female orca
whale, affectionately named Springer, who had gotten separated from her
family pod and wandered some 400 miles south into the Puget Sound, had
become so friendly with boaters in the area she raised fears she could
capsize a small vessel as she grew. If you want an
example of wheat among tares, of a good plant caught up in a bunch of
weeds, she was one! Her condition was deteriorating
and her prognosis was poor. She was lost, so out of
place, and so far out of calling distance.
Calling distance.
You see, Springer was a part of a family pod of orca whales.
Sound is very important to whales. Each family
whale pod uses distinct sounds to call to one another and communicate.
That is how they recognize each other and stay together.
I believe it is true that once a whale is out of calling distance
it is lost and alone, left to fend for itself. That’s
what happened to Springer. It was dangerous for her,
dangerous for the vessels she swam along with, dangerous for the people
aboard those vessels. That’s why scientists were so
anxious to return her to her native waters. So three
years ago they did exactly that. If you remember the
story, Springer was taken by Catamaran those 400 miles to her native
waters near
Vancouver Island . As soon as
she was released from her pen she must have picked up the distinct sound
of her own family whale pod nearby. As scientists kept
track of her she made it through her first winter. She
was spotted again this time last year having returned following the
migration pattern of her family. The watch is still on
this year. For whales is it so very important to be
within calling distance.
Calling distance.
That’s a problem for us. Are you out of calling
distance from God? It seems so doesn’t it as often as
God calls to you and calls to you and you seldom or never answer?
The essential truth of the Christian faith is that the only way to
be safe, secure, happy in life is to always stay within safe calling
distance of God so we can always be guided and directed in our lives to
the fulfilling and joyous places. Jesus has it right
as he describes life in this parable as a place full of so many
weeds—there is so much in life that is unfulfilling, distracting, and
inappropriate. You can easily lose your way as you
follow after these things, drifting farther and farther away from God,
farther and farther away from your true identity, until you find yourself
desperate, lost, and alone. It gets harder and harder
to hear God calling your name among all those weeds, doesn’t it?
Calling distance.
That was a problem for Springer. It is also a
problem for us.
Jacob, the son of
Isaac, son of Abraham, after he is blessed by his father, Isaac, as the
heir of the family promise, also seems to have a problem.
You remember that God promised to his grandfather, Abraham, that
his family would be led to a land flowing with milk and honey and that the
whole world be restored to relationship with God through them.
There it is—the promise of safety, security, happiness.
His father, Isaac, had just bestowed on him the blessing of the
family to be the standard bearer of that promise, a birthright he had
bought from his older brother for a bowl of stew. Now
there is more to this story than we have time to share this morning but
suffice it to say that he had good reason to wonder about the call of God
in his life since he had rather deceitfully acquired that blessing which
was the original right of the eldest son. His father
had sent him to make a life in the land of his uncle.
On his way he spent the night out in the wild, using a stone he found
there as a pillow. As he sleeps, Jacob has a dream.
In his dream he sees a great ladder, a stairway, a ramp that
extends form earth all the way to heaven. This was a
familiar image to people at that time. A stairway or
ramp from earth to sky was a favorite myth of the time—to the ancient mind
this stairway was attached to the to the temple towers where the gods
lived. The stairway was how the gods communicated with
people by sending “beings” to travel down and up providing communication.
In a world believed to be ruled over by so many gods it was
important to understand what the gods wanted to keep them appeased so that
life would go well—so that you would have adequate grazing land, fertile
soil, sufficient rainfall, protection form enemies, and a growing family.
You always wanted to stay within calling distance of the gods or
things could go very badly for you indeed. You never
knew where you stood with all these gods. You had to
do all you could to keep them happy or they surely would turn on you.
So this vision that
Jacob has in his dream is a familiar one to him. But
there is something very different about this ladder.
On this stairway “beings” do not travel as messengers from the gods, for
even though Jacob’s ladder has angels ascending and descending on it, it
is God who uses it to come down to Jacob! And God
speaks directly to him:
And the LORD stood beside (Jacob) and said, “I am the
LORD, the God of
Abraham your father and the God of Isaac…Know that I am with you
and will
keep you wherever you go…
When he awakens, Jacob is stunned. God comes down
here? God speaks directly to people?
God speaks directly to me? His mind is so full
of bewilderment and joy that he finally bursts out:
Surely the LORD is in this place…and I did not know
it!
Here is the next step
in humanity’s young relationship with God. One I hope
you have taken already in your own walk of faith; and yet one with which
you and I unfortunately struggle with every single day.
As humanity grew in relationship with God, humanity slowly began to
realize that God is so different from all the gods believed to be in
existence at the time. This God is not a far off
adversary who needs to be appeased. This God is not
one of so many impersonal forces which whimsically control the courses of
life. This God is a personal being who wants a
relationship of trust with humanity. This God’s
deepest desire is for humanity to be safe, fulfilled, and happy.
This God reaches out and initiates a relationship of love with one
special family on earth so that through them this God can bring the whole
world a life of peace, justice, and love.
Jacob gets just the
barest taste of the greatness of this God in his vision.
It will be awhile yet before humanity begins to learn that God is
the only God. It will be longer yet before humanity
learns the real depth of God’s abiding love and presence, expressed by the
Psalmist:
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down
and when I rise up….Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee
from your presence? If I ascend to heaven,
you are there; if I make my bed
in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings
of the morning and settle at the
farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right
hand shall hold me fast.
And it will be longer yet before humanity learns just how far God will
come down to earth, when God actually becomes a human being in the person
of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, ministers among the scribes,
Pharisees, fishermen, women, and the poor, is killed on Friday, and rises
up on Sunday to establish once and for all a life of peace, justice, and
love forever. Yes, Jacob gets just the barest taste of
the greatness of this God in his vision. But it stuns
him nevertheless.
Jacob learns something
new in his dream. What he learns is that God has
always been present with him. In that knowledge he
vows to follow this God in keeping with the promise already given to him.
He takes the rock he used for a pillow and marks this ordinary
place where he found God to be and calls it “
Bethel
” (Hebrew for ‘house of God’). He goes forth from
there not knowing exactly where he is going but trusting in the call of
God to lead him every step of the way.
The watch is on.
They are on the lookout for Springer to see if she again returns
with her family to their summer migration spot….. They
are waiting to see if she is still with her family, still within calling
distance.
The watch is on for
you. Are you out of calling distance from God?
I have such good news
for you today. What Jacob was just beginning to learn
way back then you have known for a very long time—you just keep
forgetting. Sisters and brothers, you are never out of
calling distance from God. I don’t care where you go,
how many distractions you follow after, how many weeds grow up around you,
you are never out of calling distance from God. Nov
matter how many times you pretend not to hear, God still calls your name.
God, you see, is never far away. That image of
God in which you were created, that bit of God’s grace planted at the very
beginning in your heart, always resonates with that distinctive sound of
God’s love, calling you to be the person you were made to be, calling you
back to a life of promise, fulfillment, and joy, calling you and all of
creation to peace, justice, and love just the way you were made.
No, you are never out
of calling distance from God. Just listen, listen for
that familiar, distinctive sound of the calling of God’s love.
You don’t’ have to listen very hard before you hear God calling out
your name.
