What's Your Call? by Thomas Moore, III Executive Director, Society for the Increase of the Ministry
Posted on
Epiphany IV B February 1, 2015
Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; I Corinthians 8: 1-13; Mark 1: 21-28
Theological Education Offering Sunday
Thomas Moore III
Let us pray: “O God,Grant that your Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament and may uphold their work for the extension of your kingdom.” (p. 256, BCP) AMEN
As many of you know, I am the Executive Director of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry or S.I.M. You may also know that SIM and Trinity have a long history. SIM was founded in Hartford in 1857; Trinity, in Hartford in 1859. For much of our first 150 years, SIM’s operations were managed from shared space at Trinity. Your rector received a SIM scholarship when he was a seminary student at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Your warden, Percy Williamson, works three days a week at SIM doing six days of effort. Recently, SIM returned to her roots here as a rent paying tenant on the second floor of the parish house. We are very pleased with our close relationship with Trinity.
This is a special day for SIM because, decades ago, long before Super Bowl Sunday became that almost religious holiday in America, the first Sunday in February was established by the Church as “Theological Education Offering Sunday”—a day for focusing the Church’s attention on the importance of supporting education and formation of future priests. Providing scholarships to individuals called to become Episcopal priests is SIM’s ministry. So for SIM, this day could be considered our Super Bowl Sunday, but with a bit less media hype, fewer video interviews and no half-time performance.
In each of today’s readings there is a focus on the importance God calling leaders from their communities to serve and increase God’s ministry. In Deuteronomy, Moses toward the end of his life, said to the Israelite community, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.” That was some 4000 years ago. Calling leaders was important to God then and it is today as well. In Corinthians, Paul writes of a critical attribute of a church leader— “Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God, is known by him.” In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks with authority because he is called by God, loves God and is intimately known by God as His only Son.
All of us have a calling from God. Some are called to the ordained priesthood; others to positions, no less important as part of the body of Christ. We all have roles to play. During our almost 20 years of living in Boston, I would regularly visit with Neil, an older friend who unselfishly shared his wisdom about my career and direction in life. One of the many memorable maxims that Neil conveyed to me relates to the calling each of us has. I can hear his gravelly voice now, “You know, Tom, we are all put on this earth to figure out how we can help.” Neil lived out that belief. He shared generously, helping others to find and live into their own true callings. If he were alive today he would answer my phone call the way he always did, “Hello, Tom, how can I help?”
The author and Presbyterian minister Frederick Beuchner describes a woman’s response to his being called to ordination. She said: “I hear you are entering the ministry. Was it your own idea or were you poorly advised?” Beuchner didn’t have the words at that moment but later came to realize how he could have responded, “It was not an idea at all, neither my own or anyone else’s. It was a lump in the throat. It was a stirring in the blood at the sound of rain. It was a sickening of the heart at the sight of misery. It was a name which I knew was a name worth dying for, even if I was not brave enough to do the dying myself and could not, for sure, even name the name.”
I vividly recall the CALL unfolding to my wife, the Reverend Helen Moore as we drove down US 1 in Swampscott, MA some 30 years ago. At that time, with the demands of raising five children and me lessening, she had returned to school to earn her masters in counseling and consulting psychology at Harvard. Our faith had become central to our lives and had provided us with the courage to move our family from our lifelong home and family in Tennessee to a new adventure in Boston where we felt God had called us. Helen had been convinced for some time that I was called to the priesthood. “I don’t see why you don’t see that you are called,” she said for the umpteenth time. Feeling somewhat like what I imagine Moses was feeling when he said to God in this morning’s reading, “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, …”, I responded to Helen, “It’s not me who’s called. It’s you!” It wasn’t long before her esteemed professor at Harvard’s School of Education said to her, “Surely you know that your true calling is at the Divinity School.” God was at work, her call was being confirmed, her journey to priesthood had begun.
What’s important about Helen’s story is that being attentive to her community’s various arms matching her inner stirrings brought about her Epiphany. I feel blessed to have played my part and answered my call to tell her – “not me, you.” One could say, along with others, I was “nudged” to say those prophetic words.
Some years later, when we were in Chicago, I did respond to my own call to the priesthood. All went well through parish sponsorship, the discernment committee and even acceptances at seminaries, but not by my bishop. Though all was very positive on paper, my bishop’s gut told him it was not the priesthood to which I was called. Begrudgingly this important arm of my community was speaking. Though I was very upset with my bishop, I now realize some ten years later that the bishop’s “nudging” me in another was right for the Church and a gift to me. My increasingly vital call as an Episcopal layman has led to finding joy, value, purpose and meaning in my ministry at SIM. Not all are called to the ordained ministry.
I think it is all of our responsibilities to “help” identify and affirm people finding their calls to their own church ministry. Last year, I almost missed an opportunity to practice what I preach. A teenage acolyte had served with me at Communion in a church in Florida. I was impressed with his presence and comfort around the altar, but had not thought about making any comment. Then, there came a moment after the service when the young man and I were alone in the vesting room. I felt a “nudge,” but thought surely a teenager wouldn’t welcome thoughts of his having a ministry. The “nudge” pushed me. “John, you seemed comfortable, respectful and reverent around the altar. Have you ever thought that maybe the ministry might be in your future?” I braced for his response. He shrugged, “Yeah, maybe.” I thought that was a success and would hear nothing further. But a couple of weeks later, SIM received a generous check and a comment from his grandmother who had learned of John’s and my brief encounter.
This is SIM’s calling today — to support, affirm and encourage. It dates back 157 years to our founding purpose words: “to find suitable individuals for the Episcopal ministry and aid them in acquiring a thorough education.”
And, what about your calls to ministry as members of the body of Christ? Affirming and encouraging each other’s calls will undoubtedly “increase the ministry” of this wonderful church. You might get a “Yeah maybe” response. You might get a “not me, you” answer. But who knows, your “nudge” might even be prophetic. May God bless each of your calls to increase the ministry of Trinity Sigourney Street.
AMEN.