THE CROSS AND THE CALL

I’m trying to figure out whether I believe in Prophets. You know, the Biblical kind, those rare, enlightened individuals that get away with telling things like they are – at least for a little while. A really good preacher (or rabbi or priest or imam) can talk for a solid half-hour telling you things you may already know but need to revisit without you feeling like you’d rather be reading the financial section of the newspaper. There he or she stands, usually above you as a subliminal message of hierarchy, telling you how you can get closer to God, or Allah or Spirit and you don’t even resent it.

I have noticed some of their messages are incredibly hard. Love your enemies, give more to the poor, shelter the homeless. Not activities we give a whole lot of priority in our post-colonial, neo-capitalist world. Generally, I’m one of those who believe each of us come to Spirit, God, the Creator in our own time and in our own ways. Even though I pretty regularly attend church, sometimes it gets my knickers in a twist that this person, who obviously has the same failings as me, can presume to tell ME how to get closer to my God.

Something must be off about us – something that compels us to attend Sunday service to hear the ‘good news’ that we are doing everything wrong from people that may be no more ‘faithful’ than we are – or at least most of the time. I guess the point of faith is like trying to hit the target with an arrow. Unless you are a really, really good archer, you are going to miss the bulls-eye more often than you hit it. 

Maybe that’s why we come to hear pastors (or prophets) speak to us in parables. We WANT to hit the target and just maybe we’ll hear something that improves our aim. Perhaps we justify attending our places of worship by knowing shepherds of flocks of faith are paid to think about this stuff so maybe they might have a teensy bit more enlightenment than we do.

Imagine my surprise back during Christmas when my minister-in-training’s pastor provided my son a chance to help his congregation ‘improve their aim’ and give the sermon at his home church. I was wondering how that would turn out; this boy used to have some serious stage fright at times. What would happen when he looked out at all those people waiting for HIM to tell THEM how to be better Christians? This was going to be interesting. Not exactly like the fox guarding the chickens in my son’s case, but more like the rooster (the loud, noisy one) trying to wake up the whole chicken coop.

I flew up to provide my support and to catch the show when the "Sermon Sunday" arrived. My son practiced his sermon in front of me and it seemed that he had a good message he wanted to deliver well. A message about ridding oneself of things like fear, greed, hate and taking up the cross which would ultimately let you die to new life. Really? These words were coming out of MY CHILD’S mouth? Redemption, resurrection? Long ago, I decided I believe in redemption (but not too many of them) but resurrection? Come on.

The bible passage was the Lenten one where Peter is getting cold feet about the radical nature of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus knew he was just about ready to take up the cross and he was a bit testy with Peter. Well, I guess I can feel for Peter here more than I can feel for Jesus. What happens if my son preaches news that makes people seriously uncomfortable? I know that’s kind of the point but what happens if someone takes offense, so deeply in denial about his or her own spirit that he or she needs to hurt the messenger? 

These thoughts do cross my mind. It’s easy for a mother to want to shield her child from hurt. But when the child is running around telling people about a better way but they might have to give up their Mercedes and their pedicures (being autobiographical here) because there are hungry people on the streets? Honestly, even I know that sometimes a mother just has to let the consequences fall where they may.

Here ‘s the thing I’m learning about ‘the Call’. Someone who is truly ‘called’ can’t help themselves. It’s like a force is pushing them forward, causing them to witness to something amazing that CAN happen only if….. And that only if part is the hardest part of the message. And there is no medication for those ‘called’ to do God’s work except the work itself.

Men and women who get that tap from whatever we call God are as attracted to the ‘good news’ as an addict is attracted to crack. Somewhere in the core of their being, they believe the world-nay the cosmos-can be a better place if we all die to our old lives to make room for our new life. And this message of the perfect love of God fuels their engines, speeding them forward.

In the past few weeks, I have wondered about this Call business. I wonder if all persons of the cloth are OCD like mine. It seems like this call thing borders on obsession. Like the need to scratch an itch. I think possibly the call IS obsessive, more like a burning desire.  I wonder if Coretta Scott King ever thought of Martin as obsessed. I wonder if Mary was more than a little worried about Jesus’s passion for his ministry. Frankly, I suspect all persons of the cloth, who truly are called (and I think some of them are not but take it up like Johnny got a law degree because it looks good on paper) are pretty much a half a bubble off.

Maybe they have to be a bit crazy to continue to believe in redemption and resurrection among a species with such poorly designed ‘free will’. I'm kind of upset that God gave us a really good tool with absolutely no directions. Well, except for those we can find in our spiritual books, in our churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. So I was thinking that maybe if I look at  pastors, priests and prophets more as research librarians, I’d be more comfortable when my wild child climbed his way to the pulpit and started telling people about the ‘good news’.

So what happened when Dan spoke his truth to his congregation? Well, I was needlessly worried. Even I would have to admit he ‘hit it out of the park’. And by his actions alone, he continues to convince me about this ‘Call’ business. And here’s the real deal. Whatever God is serving, Dan is absolutely going back for refills.