Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard Lampert
Epiphany II

WE ARE HELD FAST, RAISED UP AND ALWAYS CALLED TO FOLLOW HIM.

“O Lord may our lives be always illumined by Thy Word and shine forth in Thy glory (Collect); May our souls cling to You while your right hand holds us fast (Psalm); May we ever trust that You will also raise us up I.Cor. Help us to know that You still come and stand forth and call us (I Sam.); How do you know me and I you? Let me Come and See and then Follow You! (John 1)”

The message today is that you and I are always held by God, called through all our lives again and again, raised up in His power, then pulled once more to follow and obey Him. There are those who will say that God’s Word and Call are now, “very rare.” His visions are “unknown.” But, you and I, people in Redeemer Church, many others simply know that this is not true! The entire history and life of Mankind and the Bible are one of Call & Response. A “Call”comes from the Latin word “vocare” meaning a bidding or an invitation from above which summons a deep response from within ourselves. Our whole lives, the life of Redeemer, are filled with all sorts of biddings and faithful responses. Certainly part of the key of life (clearly the Spiritual One) is that like Samuel and Eli, Philip and Nathaniel in today’s stories, we all have to listen over and over, get up again, go on, see anew and then follow Him: in our lives, in this parish, in the world around us!

Let’s be honest on 3 things! One, when God calls us we’re often not looking for Him at all. We already have too many things, stresses and strains already on “our plates.” But, He just comes anyway, stands right smack in front of us and we can’t escape Him! Two, we know when we think about it, that every “good work” to which we are “called” not only produces something good in the world, but also completes and corresponds to a desire deep within us. With God’s help, every real Call in life is both a genuine invitation and a deep faithful response on our part! Third, many here at Redeemer are experts in all of this, in every new stage of life, new calls and new works will emerge for us all. It took me a lot of years and struggles to learn this last point. I used to always want to go back, return and “end up the way I had started out”! Gradually, I began to understand that I too had changed. I was always changing, but that nevertheless in God’s Name new Calls, new Works, new Journeys would still lie ahead for us and for Redeemer Church!

Sometimes God may even call us in a dream! Like Samuel & Eli in today’s lesson, there are many wonderful Biblical Call Dream Stories- another one is the Genesis 22- story of Abraham and Isaac. These stories can dramatically connect with our own stories. This morn. I want to quickly retell the Abraham and Isaac story and then go on and tell you my own story. Many will remember Abram as one of the great Old Testament heroes. God called and made Covenant with him when he was seventy-five years old. Then God renamed Abram Abraham, and He made a new Covenant with him and all of his descendents for generations upon generations. When he was one hundred years old his wife Sarah bore a son Isaac. As the boy grew, God put Abraham to the test telling him to go to the land of Moriah with Isaac, his only son and give him as a burnt offering on the mountain to prove his faith. Abraham did as God directed: he traveled up the Mt., bound and put his son on the altar, raised his knife, but in the final second the Angel of the Lord called down and stopped him. Then God produced the ram caught in the bush for Abraham’s faith offering.

My dream story is this: This past June I retired the second time; learned over the summer that I was not yet ready to totally quit. I started visiting many churches, eventually began supplying in St. Pete and Clearwater. I was four days short of accepting an Interim Position when totally out of the blue, Fr. Fred called me up. I went to bed Sunday night totally conflicted, undecided, dreamed about Abraham and Isaac, awoke in the middle of the night realizing that I was both Abraham and Isaac. My mountaintop sacrifice would have been the 3-4 x’s a wk. commute! God gave me His answer! Now was Fr. Fred God’s Angel?-Well, I don’t want to quite go completely off the edge!

Today’s Message: God has always known us; holds us fast; raises you &me up to new Calls!

God Still Calls: His visions are still known- You and I: Keep listening, Responding, Following!

Your Charge and Mine : Keep listening; Keep getting up; Keep coming; By His strength and in His Name keep shining; Follow Him, Go where He leads you, He’ll hold you fast!