"REFLECTIONS ON THE CALL"
RETIREMENT SERMON
Diedra Kriewald
April 17, 2007

May the God who called Jesus to his vocation at the Jordan river, the God who stands with each of us in our Journey, open our minds and hearts to seize these stories as our own, as we strive to serve the world, in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, here we are - 25 years later. Lately, as I have mulled over these years in my mind, I keep coming back to the experiences that we Christians speak of as: "The Call." I invite you to reflect with me this morning on two neglected bible stories, and the Call story from a modern novel. May these texts provide what my Daddy used to call "grist for the mill." The first bible lesson, spoken so dramatically by "The Community Speakers," concerns the Call of Bezalel (found in Exodus 35, 37, 40).

Moses is a leading character in the first Bible reading for this morning. But our interest is not in the Call story of the great Moses, of which we are all so familiar. We clergy often preach about the great leaders like Moses, or Peter or Paul while we neglect to teach the Call stories of the lesser biblical figures. The Gospel lesson from John reminds us that it was Andrew, an apostle to whom we pay little attention, who left John the Baptist to track Jesus, followed him home and talked with him all day before rushing to find his brother Simon with the "good news."

The Call story of Bezalel begins on Mt Sinai where Moses was wrapping up his conversation with the LORD right before he received the Ten Commandments. The narrative begins when the Lord spoke to Moses saying: "See here Moses, I have called, by name, a man named Bezalel son of Uri (yoour-eye), son of Hur (Huhr), of the tribe of Judah." The Lord was clearly not consulting Moses in the choice. The man's paternity and tribe ensured that Moses could not confuse who it was that the Lord intended.

We learn from this conversation on Mt. Sinai that the Lord had filled Bezalel with the divine spirit in order that he could design and construct the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. The divine spirit gave charisms to him - the ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every craft that he would need in order to complete the task. Bezalel himself made the ark of acacia wood. He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside. He and his companions worked with the most precious and beautiful materials that were available. The priestly sources suggest that the project took about nine months. When everything was accomplished, Moses blessed the artisans for the work. Moses himself set up the Tabernacle and placed the furnishings.

We should pay attention to this ancient story, because sadly the church keeps falling into the fallacy of a "two-tier" Call to the ministry. There is no official tier system, of course, but informally it is easy to distinguish between what is considered a higher versus a lower vocation in the church. Without a doubt, ranked the most worthy is the call to become a pastor. Pastors are on the front line in church leadership, and like Moses they are at the liturgical and spiritual center of the congregation. Becoming a pastor is a worthy vocation.

But we also understand that in and through our baptism, all persons are called to the ministry. Even though the church affirms that baptism grounds all ministries, in churches that have a permanent Diaconate, women and men who believe they are called to be deacons very often feel pressured, even badgered to become elders. Why is this so? In addition, the Church is not always sure of how to affirm the laity who feel the call to ministry, but who also wish to retain their lay status. As for my own experience as a seminary professor, I will never forget the Bishop who called those of us together for lunch, who were working in what was then called "ministries beyond the local church," to tell us that because we were not serving in local congregations we were NOT truly in the ministry. The Bishop asked us to reassess our vocational call and then to phone him. I reassessed my Call and did not pick up the phone.

If a divine invitation to ministry is only given only to those who preside over congregations, "it narrows the sphere of calling and excludes most Christians from its scope." (Footnote 1) God is not the head of a celestial employment agency whose job it is to fill pulpits. (Footnote 2) The core values learned in Christian Community may lead as often to careers in public service, or to becoming a staff person in a theological seminary, as becoming the lead pastor in a church.

Here in this assembly are Christians who have lived out their lives in a variety of Calls. We need to remember that when God casts the net for persons in ministry, the net is cast deep and wide. Quite often, God calls us according to our talents and our passions. I believe it would help the church to remember that Bezalel the artist and craftsman, as well as Moses, was "called" to holy work on Mt. Sinai.

Bezalel and his companions created a portable sanctuary, a beautiful traveling house where the tabernacling presence of the Lord God would be with the people throughout their Journey. Then an utterly mysterious and dangerous spiritual power descended and the "glory" of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Led by the cloud of glory, the Ark and people began their slow nomadic journey.

Not all the Call stories in the bible are about vocational choice. Esther's Call was to act courageously from within the institution where she already had a public role.

The religious landscape of the story of Esther is very different from the earlier caravan of former Egyptian slaves in which God's glory was located in the company itself. (Footnote 3) In the Hebrew text of the Esther story, God's presence appears to have vanished. (Footnote 4) Esther's call to save her people from genocide did not come from a disembodied voice on Sinai. It was Mordecai, the older cousin who raised her, who reminded Esther that the decree of death was for her as well, and that as the Queen of Persia her voice might be the only chance to save the people she has denied.

As you heard the story, told so well by Professor Denise D. Hopkins, Esther and her cousin Mordecai were living in the confines of a royal court system run by avid Jew-hater named Haman (Hay-man), and a careless power broker of a King, whose chief characteristics were a roaring machismo, and his love of banquets and drinking parties. This setting made it very dangerous for Jews to own their ethnic and religious identity. For her own safety, Queen Esther had quite carefully hidden and masked her Jewishness.

When the edit came to kill all the Jews in the empire, Esther knew there would be no supernatural cloud to lead this people from bondage. There was only a frightened woman being called to make a decision. The Greek text tells us that as she faced the King, to reveal her true religious identity, "she looked happy, as if beloved, but her heart was frozen with fear"(Esther 15:5 in the Apocrypha).

Even today, when the Call comes to take a principled stand, it may well come through the very human voices that we already know, and in the institutional church we are already serving. Imperfect as it is, the church is where the living, tabernacling God is now located for us.

Like Esther we have learned our place in the institution. Very quickly we know what is acceptable teaching and what public stands are provocative and might get us into trouble. More often than we care to admit, we hide deeply held convictions, and even hold secrets that mask our true selves. When we lose the capacity to be honest about ourselves with others, we also risk losing our authority as teachers of the faith.

The example I would hold out to you has to do with the state of Bible literacy in the churches. The fall of 1958 was my first year to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Our class had a fabulous Professor of Old Testament named James Muilenburg. In order to pass our first year, we had to write a major paper on the documentary theory of the writing of the Pentateuch. Forty-eight years ago, in Muilenburg's class, I learned that there are two creation narratives that open the bible, and that in the priestly account of the Great Flood, Noah took 7 pairs of clean animals, 1 pair of unclean animals, and 7 pairs of birds into the Ark. In other words, almost a half century ago I learned the first elements of biblical interpretation. Why has it taken so long for this information to reach into so many of our congregations?

Every fall for 25 years, Wesley students have come into my class to discuss teaching the Bible. They wrestle with what will happen to them if they teach in the local churches the skills and content that they learn in seminary courses. Some students are exhilarated and freed by the new knowledge. Others are afraid to take even minimal risks in opening up the texts at their churches. I continue to be overwhelmed at the number of students who enter seminary who have never owned or read a modern translation with notes and commentary. No pastor ever told them that such a study Bible was important.

I am equally astonished at the number of church leaders who never ever engage the congregation in serious bible study. The excuse seems to be that "no one is interested in Bible study anymore,"or "no one turns out for Bible study." This is a sad, defeatist attitude. Pastors and teachers have come to rely on curriculum packaged by their denomination. However good such denominational curriculum might be, I can guarantee that Don Imus and his sewer mouth will not be included for discussion in the lesson this Sunday. There is no substitute for a pastor or Christian teacher who week by week and month by month provides the leadership to help the baptized grapple with the ancient texts in light of contemporary events in the world.

We Christians have a living tradition which contains the testimony of sisters and brothers who have faced down tyrants in church and state. Like Esther, we too can overcome anxiety and find our prophetic voices. We may not have a visible "cloud of Glory" leading us through the wilderness, but we do have the promises and presence of the Spirit of the living Christ who is our advocate and comforter.

Christ calls us to teach. Christ can overcome "hearts frozen with fear" as we pick up our Bible and prepare to lead a discussion on the war in Iraq, or when we lead a bible study group to analyze our government's justification of torture. Christ can overcome "hearts frozen with fear" as we consult the texts to help facilitate a congregation willing to reach out to the undocumented workers in our community. These and many other teaching decisions can call for "true grit." As Christian leaders none of us are at our destination, the journey continues and we have choices to make.

A young man from Montana named Christopher Paolini began to write a contemporary Call story in the year 2000 when he was 15 years old. In 2005, the first book of the trilogy became a publishing phenomenon and now has captured an international audience of youth and young adults. (Footnote 5)

The story line is quite simple. An orphaned farm boy named Eragon, living in a mythical world with his uncle and cousin, came upon a beautiful blue stone in the field. He does not know that the stone has been in the possession of an Elf who has guarded the treasure for 15 years. Eragon takes the beautiful stone home thinking he might be able to sell it for food. In his room late one night the stone begins to rock and roll, and to his utter amazement the stone is an egg that cracks open revealing a small, sapphire blue, and female dragon.

Eragon understands the danger to the baby dragon if discovered by the Empire's spies. The dragons have been exterminated by the emperor, along with their human riders, because dragons and riders were committed to righting wrongs and promoting peace and justice in the land. These goals interfered with the emperor's drive to power.

Eragon feels a strange and wonderful attraction to the little blue creature whom he hides and feeds. The dragon, who he names "Saphira" (Sa-PHEAR-ah), grows spectacularly, and begins to talk telepathically to Eragon. Eragon learns that the dragon always chooses the human partner, and that Saphira is calling him to be her rider. The mark of a "dragon rider" appears on his hand.

It is now clear that this is not your usual story of a boy and his pet dragon. As Saphira grew she called Eragon to commit himself to the heritage of older dragon riders, "a legacy of great tradition and heroism." She encouraged Eragon to fly with her and ultimately to bring down the hateful ruler. No question that Tolkin wrote it better in "Lord of the Rings," but it would be hard to deny the passion of this young novelist.

We worry about why our youth today are not responding to the vocational call of the church. Perhaps we can learn from the story-worlds which they themselves create and the books that interest them. Yes, many young people do read!

I believe that young people in our day yearn to hear a call from the church to become dragon-riders. We know that many of them long to stop the war, protect the rain forests, confront evil structures and displace them with an environment that is life affirming for all children on the planet. Instead of dragon riders, is the church calling young adults to be leaders in a rather ordinary cultural institution? What fun, what challenge is that? What would we have to change in our church culture to convince young adults to begin a Journey that would engage them in a life time of holy work?

Virtuous dragons seem to be staples in the literature directed to young people. Perhaps the church should add to its symbols another image of the Holy Spirit, not as a small dove, but as an intelligent, justice loving, Pentecostal flame throwing dragon? Well, why not? Saphira, as a character portrayed by our young novelist, becomes a marvelous companion who shares as a full partner in Eragon's momentous journey.

The biblical narratives all point to the activity of a living God, who continues to prick our common wisdom, and who breathes life into our religious institutions by calling new leaders. The easy part is to preach that God continues to issue "the Call" to ministry to young and old, male and female, gay and straight, and from all countries, races and cultures. The much harder part is to reflect carefully on these texts as a living word for us, as the questions they raise may puncture our sense of what is proper church practice.

There is no "two tier" vocation in the church. The church just must find ways to affirm and to anoint persons with the artistic gifts of Bezalel, the courage of Esther, the vision of Andrew, the "bridge building" of the Deacons, and the talent of young novelists, as well as the leadership of the pastors and great "stars" like Moses, Simon Peter and John Wesley.

Forty-four years ago I responded to the Call for a vocation in the church. My journey has been about what writer Joseph Chilton Pearce once called: "seeking to understand a crack in the cosmic egg," where the divine breaks through into human life. (Footnote 6)

I myself am going to continue to search for and to pay attention to such a crack in the cosmic egg. Now that I understand that "life is a journey and not just a destination," I think I will choose in retirement to be a storyteller for Christ, while riding the air currents from place to place on the back of a sapphire blue and female dragon. What a blast, what a blast retirement is going to be! Amen.

Copyright Diedra Kriewald © 2007 Wesley Theological Seminary. Ideas and images from this sermon may be used in the churches but only with attribution.

(1) Os Guinness writes on "two tier calls" in The Call: Finding and following the Central Purpose of Your Life, (Nashville: W Publishing Group),1998, p.32.

(2) The idea that it is wrong to treat God like a great employment agency also comes from Guinness, p. 46.

(3) I am indebted to the insights of Timothy K. Beal in The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, Annihilation, and Esther, (London and New York: Routledge Books), 1997.

(4) The Greek version of Esther is found in The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament which adds 107 verses to the book of Esther, originally written in Hebrew and found in the Old Testament. The Greek version has added religious character that is not found in the older Hebrew text.

(5) Christopher Paolini, Eragon: The Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1. Kroft Books for Young Readers, August 2003.

(6) Joseph Chilton Pearce, Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg: Split Minds and Meta-Realities, (New York: Pocket Books, 1975). I am only using the metaphor of the "crack in the cosmic egg," not Pearce's arguments or conclusions.