The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
January 18, 2009
Vol. 12 no. 03

Everything But...
           Evangelism is one of those words. Either the hairs on the back of your neck stick up on hearing it, or people are inspired to do just a little more. An allied part of evangelism is what is termed “The Call.” It used to be that God only called a specific kind of person to do God’s ministry and will, but long ago that has expired. God is no longer so specific or discriminatory.
          One of Martin Luther’s most significant Protestant innovations was the notion that ‘vocation’ or calling was much wider than deciding to go into the priesthood or convent. Since all the Earth is God’s world, anything we do or work at can be appropriately termed our vocation or calling, no matter whether it is something ‘religious’ or not. I barely need to tell you that many a person in our pews understands passionately their life’s work as a calling, even a sacred trust.
          It is neither a simple nor obvious process to determine your vocation, and the stories that could be told in this room could keep us entranced for days. Sometimes you sit down and analytically figure out what you should do. Sometimes your dream crashes and you are ambushed by a job, an idea, a cause without which you could not now live. Sometimes you are dragged kicking and screaming to do what is the hardest thing imaginable - and the most profitable.
          How do you know when you are being called? Is it always a quiet voice in the dark as with Samuel? God is direct dialing. Or a person walking up to you and convincingly saying, “You have the ability and we need you!”? Or do you read it in a book, see it on TV, hear it on the radio? The medium is not always the message.