{"id":142,"date":"2019-02-10T21:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=142"},"modified":"2019-02-11T02:00:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T02:00:56","slug":"fifth-sunday-after-epiphany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/02\/10\/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Sunday after Epiphany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Isaiah\n6:1-8, 1 Cor. 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe\nit or not, there have been those in our church who have decided to call me a\n\u201cnudge\u201d, others a \u201cpest\u201d, all because I pointed out to them that they seemed to\nhave a special calling from God. The truth is, I am not unsympathetic to their\nreaction and I now wear those names as a badge of honor. I too faced God\u2019s\ncalling; for me it was when I was young, and in response to it, I became a bit\nof a mouthy little delinquent. It wasn\u2019t until I realized my need for Jesus,\nthat I turned to consider the calling made to me eight or nine years prior. It\nis a hard thing to stand before the Lord and accept God\u2019s call. It is even\nharder sometimes to figure out what exactly God is calling us to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter,\nJames and John were told that they would be fishing for people, whatever that\nmeant; I imagine they envisioned a big net with people all balled up inside of\nit. Isaiah was to go where God was going to send him, but to do what, to say\nwhat, he didn\u2019t know; all he knew was that the live coal that the Seraph touched\nto his lips did not hurt nearly as much as he thought it would. Paul\u2019s call,\nturned his life completely upside down; he had been on his way to advance his\nwork of persecuting the heretic Christians; God blinded him; still, before God\ncalled him, he restored to Paul his sight; as Paul accepted his call, he had no\nidea what he would be doing and where he would go. He like Isaiah and the\nDisciples would soon find out what his call was all about. The point is, Peter,\nJames, John, Isaiah and Paul, pretty much said yes to God\u2019s call, not really\nknowing where they would go and not knowing what they would be doing. I, kind\nof, knew where I had to go at least initially, seminary and what I had to do,\npass my classes and field work assignments, but I had no idea where the call\nwould take me after that, and no idea what the call would require of me; at one\npoint it looked like I was going to end up in the Western Pa\/West Virginia\nSynod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cathy\nis not here today, she is having a girl\u2019s weekend away; so I can get away with\nsaying this; but what I am about to say she would argue against with her last\nbreath; well, she was as much called by God as was I; as a kid she had felt\ncalled to be a nun; that didn\u2019t work out; instead, as it turned out, she became\na pastor\u2019s wife; a much harder calling; as my wife she would have moved with me\nto West Virginia, though she had a job that would pay her more than the church,\nthat I would be called to, would pay me; we didn\u2019t have to move then, but it\nturned out that I couldn\u2019t have done all that I\u2019ve been called to do without\nher help, support and encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callings!\n(So) What might be your calling? I know a youth that, I truly believe is being\ncalled to the ministry, and, that youth is fighting with all that the youth has,\nto get away from it. Reminds me of how I was. But it is important to point out\nthat all callings are not to the ministry as a profession. I\u2019ve had to learn\nthat; I watch many of you live out your callings every day. We have one member\nwho does a great job keeping in touch with many of our members and keeps me\ninformed of their medical or other needs; this member probably does not even\nrecognize that it is a calling. We have members who dedicate a bit of their\ntime searching out ways that we can minister to the poor, the homeless and they\nhungry, who likely do not recognize their work, their ministry as a calling. We\nhave other members who take care of our property, so that our ministry can go\nunhampered and be more effective, who likely do not see their work, their\nministry as a calling. The nudge in me does not want any of you to sit back and\nsee only what you are already doing as the fulfillment of your callings; there\nare those of you whose callings may also be directing you to seminary or other\nchallenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nof you might remember Sandy Yoder, she worked around the church and as this\ncontinued, she found a different calling which took her to PACS and eventually\nemployment there, until her family moved to Wisconsin. The Lord often moves us\nout of our comfort zones (it did for Sandy) and then moves us into greater\nchallenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah,\nPaul and the Disciples, would be greatly challenged and in time, they would learn\nwhat their call would mean for them. Isaiah, at the very beginning had to\npretty much lead his very own people to open their minds and hearts to God; he\nlater had to tell them when their actions were setting them in opposition to\nGod\u2019s will and then warn them of God\u2019s impending punishment; a prophet\u2019s life\nis not always a pleasant one. Paul found himself persecuted by the same people\nthat he once called friends and associates, and Paul had to endure the\nquestions and doubts of the church, whose ministry, he was called to serve. Paul\nproclaimed the good news of Jesus to Jews and Gentiles alike and for his work\nhe was beaten, stoned, imprisoned, chased out of town, and eventually executed.\nThe Disciples learned that they were called to preach and teach and heal; they\ntraveled, some to far distances while others stayed relatively close in order\nto spread the good news of Jesus Christ. For their efforts, all but John\nsuffered persecutions and executions; John died of old age, but watched\nsuffering all around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each\ncall requires different talents, demands different responsibilities and\nprovides different joys and satisfaction. I thank God that I\u2019ve been called to\nthe ministry of Jesus Christ, it has brought me great joy, even though it has\nhad its difficult moments. What is it that you are called to; will you fight\nGod\u2019s call like I did or will you embrace it? It may not prove to be easy, but\nit is well worth any and all of the difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 6:1-8, 1 Cor. 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Believe it or not, there have been those in our church who have decided to call me a \u201cnudge\u201d, others a \u201cpest\u201d, all because I pointed out to them Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}