I take choosing hymns for worship very seriously! If you have every walked into my office while I am working on hymn selections, you’ll see Scripture readings pulled up on my computer, along with the planning book and two to three different hymnals open across my desk. It’s pure chaos to look at, but I think it is really important that our music connects us to the readings and the themes of our weekly worship. It’s about having good music, hymns that we know and love interspersed with new ones, as well as giving us a different way to experience the Word and the Spirit.
I’m not just saying this to get you to appreciate the hymns more, but because the heart of my sermon today is actually a hymn that didn’t make it into this week’s service, although now I rather wish it had. Because all week, the refrain for “We are Called” has been stuck in my head: “We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.” It is this beautiful refrain that picks up the heart of our call as disciples of Christ, that biggest commandment we keep talking about: to love God and love our neighbor.
I know I keep going on and on about this commandment in the last few weeks, but it is so central to the teachings of Jesus and something that we constantly need to be reminded of, to bring us back when the world keeps trying to offer us different paths forward. We need to be reminded of this because it is hard work that we are only able to do because of the grace and mercy of God. When we think about it that way, as an invitation from God into the life of the world, it helps us to see some of the beauty within this call too. When we are invited to help shape the world, to carry one another’s burdens, and to receive care in return, we are invited into a richness and a depth that is so easy to dismiss because the rest of it feels too hard or unimportant.
I know I joke a lot about what I would do if I wasn’t a pastor, specifically something that I would be able to leave at the end of the day and not think about until my next shift began, but the reality is that I really do love my job. It can be so challenging and heartbreaking at times, as we journey through some of life’s darkest and heaviest moments, but it is also in our gatherings that I am able to glimpse those thin places where God feels the most present. But, even if I wasn’t a pastor, I know that this is the reality of what our call opens us up to, when we actually experience life alongside one another, when we truly take the time to know one another, to celebrate the joys and comfort one another in our sorrows, we see glimpses of God in the world and see the divine in one another too.
While Paul rambles quite a bit again today, since he really wants us to know that he is writing this himself and it isn’t someone writing on his behalf, as was the case for many of the later letters, the center of his message is in a similar vein: “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all…” (Galatians 6: 10a). He is teaching the Galatians about how to live as disciples of Christ, that the heart of what we are doing and why matters so much more than just doing something for the sake of doing it. We are called to do these things not to boast about how amazing we are or how much more faithful and righteous we are than that person over there. It isn’t supposed to be a popularity contest of righteousness! This is where that refrain keeps popping into my head, as we think about what it means to walk humbly with God, to work for the good of all.
Even our Isaiah reading calls us back to this refrain, as the book of Isaiah concludes with the Israelites returned from exile, disappointed at the reality that things weren’t just restored to the way they were before the exile. All of that was meant to be a reshaping of the community, to break down the systems of inequality and call out the ways the people, especially those in leadership, kept turning away from God and being let down by other humans and disregarding the work of caring for one another. God doesn’t promise to give all of that back to them but instead invites them to receive comfort. From there, after the disappointment and anger have had a chance to settle down, God is inviting the people into a new way of being. One in which they recognize how they are sustained and supported by God and through their relationships with one another. Fed and nourished from that, then they are able to rebuild and reshape their communities with those priorities in mind. It’s an invitation into the work, into creating the world we long to see, not just expecting it to be handed to us.
And, the laborers from the Gospel are also trying to figure out what it means to walk humbly with God and serve one another. After all, Jesus sends them out with nothing and instructs them on how they are to serve the communities in which they visit, while also being served in return. They are to become dependent on the communities for their daily needs, while also returning good to the community, by teaching and healing. It is inherently a communal arrangement that Jesus is sending them into. And, I imagine, it would be a terrifying experience. To be sent away from home and told to bring nothing with you, but fully to rely on the kindness of strangers. I mean, Jesus even says, “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves” (Luke 10: 3). This is clearly what every person wants to hear about their call, no wonder we don’t often want to listen!
We don’t hear too many of the stories that come back with the seventy who were sent out, but we hear that they came with joy talking about how the demons submitted to them (Luke 10: 17). This makes me want to hear more of what they experienced, but not to get sidetracked, the important part of that conversation is how Jesus concludes it: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven “(Luke 10: 20). When the only thing these people want to talk about is how the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name, Jesus calls them back to the humility that they are to have in walking with God, in doing God’s work in the world. It can be so easy to get caught up in the power and glory that we forget why any of these things we are doing matter in the first place. Jesus enables these laborers to do these things because it is an invitation into the life and work of God, because it is a new way to be connected with world and people around them. As cool as they may find it, it really isn’t about having power over demons, but about positively impacting communities and being changed in return!
I know I talk about our call a lot, this call that is both communal and individual. I know I probably sound a bit like a broken record up here, but I keep talking about it so much because it is the guide and the foundation for our life of faith. Everything else that we do comes from that, as it shapes who we are and how we interact with the world around us. It affects everything from the way we show up in our communities, to the values which we hold in our hearts as we cast our votes or decide where to donate our time and money. It is a call that we are given in love, for love, as we are sent out into a weary world to support one another along life’s journeys. This is what still brings hope to the world, this reminder that we are known, loved, and cared for just as we are able to remind people of those things for themselves too. This is what is means to live into our calls, so help us God!
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Sunday June 29th, 2025 Worship