Church of the Holy City

God’s Call to Communion

God’s Call to Communion
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 12, 2010

Exodus 3:1-12 Mark 1:14-22 Psalm 65

As we begin our regular church season this Sunday, I thought I would reflect on what a church is. So I selected Bible readings about God calling people into community with Himself. For a church truly lives when it is a people called together by God for God and in God’s name.
In our Old Testament reading, we heard about the call to Moses. Moses was tending the flocks of his Father in law, Jethro on the Mountain of God called Horeb. Here, Moses sees the burning bush, and God calls to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses.” Moses responds positively to this call, “Here am I.” It is only later, when God commissions Moses to lead Israel out of bondage that Moses begins to hedge in his response to God’s call.
In our New testament passage, Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John. Jesus calls these Apostles immediately upon beginning His ministry. They are fishermen, and when Jesus calls them, they immediately leave their nets to follow Him. In this story, we don’t see the reluctance that Moses exhibits. But then, again, they are not called to be the sole deliverer of an entire people.
What I wish to focus on is the call of God, and the response of those called. The call of God in both our stories is the beginning of religions. When Moses is called, it is the beginning of Judaism. And when the Apostles are called, it is the beginning of Christianity. And when God calls to us, and when we respond, it is the beginning of religion in our own hearts.
What I find significant in these stories of God’s call, is that they happen in the everyday life of the people called. There is no special preparation that the person goes through. Moses is tending his father in law’s flocks and the Apostles are fishing. They are both at work, in their day-to-day lives. God’s call to us can come wherever we are. It can come to us at the workplace. It can come to us in our family life. It can come to us as we are driving in our cars. It can come to us anywhere.
What is the essence of God’s call? First, it is one of understanding. As God tells Moses, He has, “heard their cry,” “I know their suffering,” and, “I have come to deliver them . . . and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” When God calls to us, He knows intimately our lives, our worries, our concerns, and our joys. God calls to us with full knowledge of our needs. And God comes to us to deliver us from our problems and to bring us into a good place. This happens when we follow God’s call, as the Apostles did. They immediately left their worldly concerns behind and followed Jesus. So God calls us from complete understanding of where we are in life, and asks us to follow Him. And when we follow Him, He will bring us to a good place.
God’s call to us is continuous throughout our lives. It begins with the very simple, “I am here.” And our response begins with the very simple acknowledgement that there is a God. This may not be a dramatic burning bush. It may be a still, small voice in our hearts. It may be a feeling of presence. It may be a feeling of peace and tranquility. But it is an inner acknowledgement from our hearts that there is a God, and that spirituality matters in our lives.
This acknowledgement of God is the beginning of the church with us. When Swedenborg uses the word “church,” he means the heart and mind of a person. When we have God in our hearts, then we have the church with us. We carry the church around with us wherever we go. We have the church in us in our work and family life when we have God in us. This is what we bring to the church building on Sundays.
The church building is a place where our spiritual life can come out and manifest. The congregation is spiritually alive when everyone brings to it their own feelings and thinking about God. The minister leads the worship service, but it is the spirituality that people bring with them as they go through the liturgy that makes the church spiritually alive. It is God that calls us into communion with Himself, and when we are in communion with God, it is the minister who calls forth people’s living connection with God through the liturgy. When we join together in worship, God fills the sanctuary with His presence. And when worship works, we leave touched again by the living Spirit of God. Hopefully, the minister leaves the congregation with inspiration and something to apply to their lives in the sermon. But I think that it is the whole worship experience, from the first hymn to the final benediction, that elicits from everyone their experiences with God. I know when I come to church, almost always I leave feeling better than when I arrive. The service uplifts me, quiets my mind, and opens my heart to feel love for God and for my fellows. In this sense, the worship service is like a holiday. It refreshes the spirit and relaxes the mind, giving one energy to return to the world ready for the upcoming work week. It recharges our spiritual batteries.
For God calls to us in our work, too. Being busy in the affairs of the world is not a distraction from God. In the affairs of the world we have a place to do good to our neighbor. Ultimately, what is good, whatever it is, is the neighbor. Doing good in any way we do it is loving the neighbor. It doesn’t have to be only person to person. So Swedenborg writes,
Charity itself is to act justly and faithfully in the office, business, and work in which one is, because all things which a man so does are of use to society; and use is good; and good, in a sense apart from persons, is the neighbor (TCR 422).
People who act faithfully in their work life become more and more a form of charity, or goodness. Whenever we are honest, faithful, sincere, and just, we are practicing charity, or good will. And God calls us into such a life during the week when we are not in church. God may help us to make a business decision we need to make. God may help us to choose between two options we are confronted with in work. God may help us to apportion our time so that it is well-spent. These actions are our response to God’s call and form the church inside us. The kind of character that such a life forms is described by Swedenborg,
Charity may be defined as doing good to the neighbor, daily and continually; and not only to the neigbor individually, but also collectively; and this can be done only by means of what is good and just in the office, business, and work in which one is, and in his relations with whom he has dealings; for this he does daily; and when he is not doing it, it still continually has place in his mind, and he has it in thought and intention. The person who practices charity, becomes charity in form more and more; for justice and faithfulness for his or her mind, and their exercise forms his or her body; and little by little, from his or her form one wills and thinks only what is of charity. Such become at length like those of whom it is said in the Word, that they have the law written on their hearts (TCR 423).
Although Swedenborg here emphasizes the workplace, he also includes in this definition of charity one’s relations with others. Do we give others the benefit of the doubt? Do we refrain from judging–or at least do we judge with understanding? Are we honest and sincere? These ways of acting are what make us into an image of charity. And in acting in this way, we are responding to God’s call daily and moment by moment. For ultimately, God is our best friend. And our dealing with others is a reflection of how we deal with God.
When a person is living in this manner, then they are a church in its smallest form. Then a person has the church inside them. And then, when such a person comes to the church building and participates in the liturgy, they bring God to the whole. When a church building is filled with people who are all bringing God to the whole, then the church is a vital, living institution. The church isn’t only us calling to God. The church is also God calling to us, and us responding.