It was back in January of this year, on Epiphany Sunday, January 7. The preacher’s text that Sunday was John’s account of the calling of Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel (John 1:35-51). The preacher that day was the Reverend Canon John Thompson-Quartey, interim rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newnan, Georgia. He is also the Director of the Episcopal Anglican Studies Program and Professor in the Practice of Church Leadership at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
It wasn’t a Christmas sermon (in the sense that many might think of Christmas sermons), but what he said that day has kept rolling around in my brain and heart since I first heard it. I think the season of Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, is a good time to write about what I heard that day. The phrase I remember so well is, “God calls unexpected people at inconvenient times.” When the sermon ended, he reminded those listening that we ought to be sensitive to the idea that, as unexpected as we may see ourselves when it comes to being called by God and as inconvenient as the moment might be, we should respond to the call of God.
The Old and New Testament scriptures are filled with stories that demonstrate the truth of the idea that “God calls unexpected people at inconvenient times.” Lots of us will recognize some of the “big stories” of God’s likeness for calling humans to help Him out. Noah, Abraham, David, and Isaiah are among some of the more notable names. The Gospel of Luke opens with the call of God in the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary. The gospel narratives are filled with stories like the call of Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel. Those seven deacons in Acts 6 must surely have been a bit surprised. And for at least two of them – Stephen and Philip – there is no way they could have “expected” to be called to do what they did. Then there’s Saul of Tarsus – and if that doesn’t convince you that “God calls unexpected people at inconvenient times,” then I don’t know what to say!
One of our challenges in thinking about this may be that we know these people and dozens like them in their post-called-by-God life. These four men in John 1 would not likely have been listed in “100 up-and-coming young Jewish men,” had there been such a thing in those days. Saul of Tarsus might have been listed in something like that, but only because he seems to have been leading the terroristic threat in full force against Christians when he finally notices that Jesus is showing up!
In what kind of world would a poverty-stricken, betrothed, mid-teen Jewish girl have thought, “I think God is about to call me to be the mother of His only begotten son?” Or would a simple carpenter named Joseph assumed, “At any moment, God is going to ask me to go ahead with my plans and marry this pregnant girl – not pregnant with my child – and take care of the mother of God?” And help raise “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” as another called man, John the baptizer, would announce one day?
I’m having a hard time finding a single person in the calling-narratives of Scripture where the person called – male or female – was anything other that a pretty normal, but unknown person, just like I am and you are, no offense. Yet these people become the lifeblood of the biblical narrative that tells an amazing story of redemption – a story still being written. That story won’t end until this baby of Bethlehem whose birth we celebrate reappears in glory to redeem all of creation and make the world and all its creatures live as though it were Genesis 2, and Genesis 3-11 never happened!
Some of the most stunning Scripture I know is found in 2 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 18.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal
through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
You and I get to be God’s partners (“fellow workers” in 1 Corinthians 3) in His work to redeem the world. I can say nothing better about myself than that.
So remember, as Canon John Thompson-Quartey deeply implanted in my heart about a year ago, pay attention – we never know at what inconvenient moment God might call on us to take another step in that partnership, as unexpected as we may view ourselves for such a call.
Wye Huxford 