Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
January 28, 2007 - 4th Sunday after the Epiphany
Jeremiah 1:4-10
1st Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

A Mass Calling Event

If you have a cell phone, please be sure that it is turned off. One reason is that you don't want to embarrass yourself by having it ring, especially during the sermon. The other is that the odds of someone calling with information that can't wait until the end of the sermon is pretty slim -- possible, but slim!
That reminds me of that commercial: I'm sure you've probably seen it. There is an nerdy sort of guy who is complaining to his phone representative that he the previous evening he gave his number to a couple of really hot babes, and he hasn't gotten any calls back yet. He asks the representative what the odds are of the two of them calling simultaneously and blocking each other.

The response is, "Probably one in a billion."
"So ... there's a chance, huh!"

Have you ever tried to use your phone and been told that the circuits are busy and to try again?

Ruth Gauweiler works for AT&T and her job is to be sure that doesn't happen -- at least for AT&T subscribers. In an average day, there are some 440 million calls over AT&T's network. If something causes a spike in usage, the network can be overwhelmed. It is Ruth's job to anticipate the spikes and be sure that the company has enough equipment available to handle it.

It all started in April of 1982 when Eddie Murphy was on Saturday Night Live and he held up a live lobster named Larry and said that the viewing audience would decide Larry's fate. He then announced two numbers -- one if you wanted Larry to be set free and another if you wanted him to be boiled. In the next 30 minutes there were almost half a million calls on the network. Employees were sent scrambling to keep the network functioning. It was only later that they found out what had caused the tremendous spike in usage.

Unexpected drops can also be a problem, because the network doesn't know if that means there is an outage somewhere and they need to track it and restore it.

For example in October of 1995 there was an unexpected plummet in volume that lasted for several minutes. Again, the folks overseeing the network scrambled, only to discover that the O.J. verdict was being announced and people were hanging up to watch it.

I won't even get into the whole "American Idol" thing.

What I do want to get into, though, is another kind of call ... the one that each of us has received ... is receiving right now ... from our Creator.

Jeremiah received the call when he was only a boy. He had all sorts of excuses about why the call was inappropriate, but God reminded him that God knew Jeremiah before he had even been formed in his mother's womb.

God has called each of us as well ... to a variety of tasks. If we don't know what our calling is, then it is time to spend some time in prayer. Maybe our calling is to just be our best selves where ever we are. Maybe it is more specific than that - like Jeremiah's: to speak what ever God commands him to speak.

What I also know is that in addition to each of our lives having a purpose, we are called to live in a certain way - the way of love That is what Paul is saying in this first letter to the Corinthians that we referred to last week. We know this as the "Love Chapter". It is often read at weddings, but it really has nothing to do with marital love; it has to do with how we relate to other people in our every day, ordinary lives. We aren't called to be superior; we aren't called to be right; we aren't called to be righteous, or wise. We aren't called to be martyrs, or to make examples of ourselves. We are called to NOT BE arrogant or rude: we are called to NOT INSIST on our own way - to not be irritable or resentful ... we are called simply to love ... always and in every instance, to do the loving thing! We are called to stop being childish -- to give up childish ways of thinking and acting -- and to be mature in our love!

That's a challenge. That's a tall order! That's our calling ... and the message has been delivered!

NOTE: The idea and much of the factual data in this sermon are credited to HOMILETICS, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2007. Canton, OH: Communication Resources.