The Reverend Luis Madrigal is Parish
Associate for Latino Ministries at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
There at the church at Antioch, in the midst of worshipping God and fasting, the Holy
Spirit says, "Come now, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I
have called them in my service." No doubt about it, if our passage says anything this
morning, it says that God's Spirit calls.
A few years ago Os Guinness' book The Call caught my attention. May I share some of his
thinking on this with you?
"Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything
we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion,
dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service."
Guinness brings these thoughts to this conclusion: "Our primary calling as
followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him. First and foremost we are called to
Someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or to
somewhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia).
"Our secondary calling, considering whom God is as sovereign, is that everyone,
everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live and act entirely for him. We can
therefore properly say as a matter of secondary calling that we are called to homemaking
or to the practice of law or to art history, etc., etc..."
On this the Lord's Day, the first day of the new week, as I gather with others who have
been called out, the ecclesia, - la iglesia de Jesucristo - is there a Word from the Lord
that will reveal to us how we might go about responding to the Sovereign Call of God in
our own lives this day? What directions would the Holy Spirit reveal to us from this
astonishing incident at Antioch? What can be gleaned from some of the ways that the church
in Antioch responded to the Sovereign Call of God?
Surely one way that the church in Antioch responded to the Sovereign Call of God was by
accepting the reality that God is no respecter of persons.
Of the church at Antioch writes Barclay, "They had decided, quite deliberately, to
take the gospel out to all the world."
The great drama that was unfolding was none other than the calling of the sovereign God
to get this gospel of the Kingdom out to all the world. From the miracle of the day of
Pentecost, when Galileans declared the wonders of God in the language of God-fearing Jews
from every nation under heaven, to Peter at Cornelius' house saying: "I now realize
how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts persons from every nation
(ethnei) who fear him and do what is right," to the Apostle Paul saying that God
called him in Hebrew, knocking him off his horse on the way to Damascus.
Again, listen to Barclay's description of the church at Antioch: "It has been
pointed out that this very list of prophets is symbolic of the universal appeal of the
Gospel. Barnabas is a Jew from Cyprus; Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa; Simeon was
also a Jew but his other name Niger is given and, since this is a Roman name, it shows
that he must have moved in Roman circles; Manaen was a man with aristocratic connections
(who was brought up with Herod the tetrach), and Paul himself a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia
and a trained rabbi. In that little band there is exemplified the unifying influence of
Christianity."
The community of Faith sometimes does not listen to the Call of God's Spirit. Consider
Richard Foster's Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the great traditions of Christian
Faith, as he relates the story of one such calling by the Holy Spirit. The life and
ministry of one William Joseph Seymour who was born in 1870 in the bayou country of
Louisiana. Seymour, black and self educated, is best known for his leadership in the
famous Azusa Street Mission revival. Listen to Foster tell us about Seymour's stress upon
the primacy of love. Many white leaders simply never understood his insight here, and so
they made glossolalia the distinctive mark of Pentecostal fellowship. For Seymour,
however, the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit was divine love.
He had called for an all-inclusive community of loving persons beyond the color line.
In 1906 Seymour's way was a direct challenge to the prevailing white supremacy. Indeed, if
continued, it could well have meant a martyr church. Douglas Nelson writes, "Seymour
championed one doctrine above all others: there must be no color line or other division in
the church of Jesus Christ because God is no respecter of persons. He resolutely refused
to segregate or Jim Crow the movement ... For this reason, and this reason alone Seymour
was rejected and forgotten by the movement he created."
Our Form of Government, Chapter 3, The Church and its Mission, states: The Church is
called ... to a new openness to its own membership, by affirming itself as a community of
diversity, becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages,
races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new
humanity.
Amigos, do you understand that Pasadena Presbyterian Church is proclaiming the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God in English, Korean and Spanish. And soon we'll be speaking the
language of Gen-Xers and God only knows how many other ethnei (nations).
Another way that the Church in Antioch responded to the Sovereign Call of God was to
commission some to do the mission of God.
New Testament Antioch had a population estimated at around half a million and was
second in size only to Rome and Alexandria. When it concerns the church, Antioch was a
city of firsts. It was the first city to send out missionaries.
Our Directory for Worship asserts: "The life of the Christian flows from the
worship of the church, where identity as a believer is confirmed and where one is
commissioned to a life of discipleship and of personal response to God. The believer's
life of response and discipleship flows into the church's life of worship and service. For
Christians, work and worship cannot be separated."
Excerpting from Marxist thought on this issue of our work, Hardy, writes: [The]
Ultimate satisfaction is found in surveying the freely created works of our own hands. For
the products of our activity contain within them something of ourselves ... When we stand
back and gaze upon them, we see our own reflection in a world which we have constructed
... Instead of contemplating God, we are to find our fulfillment in contemplating
ourselves in the works of our own hands."
This can never be an option for the believer. The Shorter Catechism is very clear here:
"What is the chief end of man?"
"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."
In The Fabric of this World, Hardy observes, "According to the cultural taxonomy
developed in 'Habits of the Heart,' modern American individualism comes in two forms:
utilitarian and expressivist."
The utilitarian individualists among us locate the meaning of their lives in the public
world of work. They turn to work in pursuit of personal success, which if often measured
financially. They are hard working, highly competitive, and willing to sacrifice their
private lives for the sake of career advancement.
Expressive individualists, on the other hand, typically turn away from the harsh
realities of the world of work and seek meaning in private life -- personal relationships,
leisure activities, and "life-style enclaves." They have decided to bow out of
the rat race for the sake of a more humane and sensitive existence.
Both kinds of individualists, however, live primarily for self. One seeks
self-fulfillment on the job; the other seeks it off the job. Neither approaches work with
the primary intention of serving others in it, of making a contribution to the common
good. But this is precisely the meaning that work must come to have, the Bellah group
claims, if American society is to regain its social solidarity and face the challenges of
the future as a house undivided ... If our troubled and fragmented social world is to be
reconstituted, we need a 'reappropriation of the idea of vocation or calling, a return in
a new way to the idea of work as a contribution to the good of all and not merely as a
means to one's own advancement."
Lord, today is the first day of the new week, what is the solution to this matter? Like
a voice crying in the wilderness there's Arthur F. Miller, Jr.'s book Why You Can't be
Anything You Want To Be, But You'll Love Being Who You Were Designed To Be. It goes to war
to tear down our cultural myth of "becoming" -the mistaken notion that we can
become anything we want to be. "... if I am right," writes Miller, "and
every person has been given the means of living a rewarding, productive, richly satisfying
life, what is wrong with the people around us?"
Why are seven out of ten teachers, managers, ministers, sales representatives, neither
motivated nor competent to perform the basics of their jobs?
Why don't people pursue the life and career for which they are eminently suited?
Why do so many millions of Americans spend their working lives in what bores them,
stresses them, or fills them with self-hatred?
What lies at the heart of a seven-days-a-week faith: It is using one's endowed
giftedness to serve the world with excellence and, through that service, to love and honor
God. Miller, whose associates have consulted with the likes of the 3M Company, Aetna,
Exxon, IBM, Merck & Co. Inc., U.S. Department of Energy, Willow Creek Community
Church, and World Vision, argues in this definitive work that each of us has our MAP - our
Motivated Abilities Pattern. "Giftedness is the only means I know of for the ordinary
person to make sense out of life. Each one is given a purpose and the drive and
competencies to achieve that purpose."
Can you imagine that, God didn't make a mistake by the way God wired me to be me. The
Psalmist asserts: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your
works are wonderful, I know that full well ... All the days ordained for me were written
in your book before one of them came to be."
Lastly, another way that the Church in Antioch responded to the Sovereign Call of God
was to gather to Worship God.
Gary Burge wrote an interestingly titled article for Christianity Today: "Are
Evangelicals Missing God in Church?" "Worship, I believe," he writes
"is a divine encounter that touches many dimensions of my personhood. It is an
encounter in which God's glory, Word, and grace are unveiled, and we respond, in songs and
prayers of celebration. Worshippers seek an encounter with the glory of God, the
transcendent power and numinous mystery of the divine -- and in so doing, they recognize a
Lord whose majesty evokes strong praise, petition, and transformation."
He answers himself, "But my evangelical training has emptied Sunday's worship hour
of God's majesty and mystery. Divine encounters seem few. Two factors have stood in the
way...We have reduced our worship service to intellectual exhortations and ethics."
I, a member of an ethnic minority, struggle with this. Here being bicultural is a real
pain. Do you identify with my struggle? At times I catch myself with envy of the so-called
third-world peoples. Those immigrant populations among us, you know, the ones not
encumbered with our enlightenment questions and answers. To them God is everywhere. They
seem to find worship that flows from the need to trust God for the rent to passing the
English proficiency portion of the U.S. Citizenship test.
Victor Villaseor captures this in La Lluvia de Oro/Rain of Gold, a story of
his Mexican ancestors' journey to the Estados Unidos.
He writes about the three miracles of each day: the first miracle - the new day, the
family awakens and the world is still alive - "Buenos d’as"; the second
miracle: Ready to do one's chores, one kneels - as one should each morning - feeling the
greatness of the stars and the moon and a personal thanks is given to God, secure in one's
station in life; and finally, as breakfast is about to be serve - there as the sun dawns -
la cobija de los pobres (the blanket of the poor). Two miners stop and take off their hats
and give witness to the right eye of God, Himself, the sun, the greatest miracle of the
day. All quit their labor and join the two men, bowing their heads in greeting.
The Directory for Worship states: God hallows daily life, and daily life provides
opportunity for holy living. As Christians honor and serve God in daily life, they worship
God.
Through worship people attend to the presence of God in their life. From a Christian's
life in the world comes the need for worship, in worship one sees the world in light of
God's grace; from worship come vision and power for living in the world.
The called out ones of Antioch, the ecclesia, certainly did this one thing: They
worshiped God. And so should we.
So, my brothers and sisters, what are we to make of this matter of responding to the
Sovereign Call of God in our lives?
Some 24 years ago I attended chapel as a student of Fuller Seminary, right here in this
Sanctuary. Dr. Cecilio Arrastia told a story that in all these years I have heard many
times again. It seems a big rat was heading down a street in New York City. In the corner
of his eye he spots a big cat coming after him, so he seeks refuge in a pothole. He
patiently waited until he heard a dog barking. Thinking the dog would chase the cat, he
takes a look. To his amazement there was the cat, that in one swoop caught him. The rat
had this incredulous look on its face as he asked the cat "where's the dog?" The
cat very "matter-of-factly" told him "don't you know that to survive in New
York City you have to be bilingual?
My old friend Dr. Arrastia is home with the Lord these days. But I'm sure if he were
here this morning, the Lord's Day, he would say: La comunidad de fe responde al llamado de
Dios (The community of Faith responds to the Call of God) porque Dios no hace acepcion de
personas (because God is no respecter of persons), porque nos da dones para hacer su
mision (because God gives us gifts to do his mission), y porque siempre es bueno adorarle
(and because it is always good to worship him).
