Sermon: A Change in the Road: Being Called

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A Change in the Road: Being Called

By Charles Rush

March 26, 2006

[ Audio (mp3, 1.6Mb) ]

This short sermon was written by Rev. Rush and delivered in worship service by Rev Yarborough. It served as an introduction to a dramatic presentation by the Christ Church Illuminators which was based on a piece entitled Something Like Motherhood by Carolyn Megan that appeared in the New York Times on Sept. 25, 2005. For copyright reasons we cannot post the audio recording of the dramatization, but we invite you to read it at the NY Times website [ www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/fashion/sundaystyles/25LOVE.html ].

is month, we have been looking at the subject of change, repentance, and conversion. It is an appropriate theme for Lent, as we remember Jesus going to the desert to pray that his will would take second place to the will of God for his life. In just a couple weeks, we will remember Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane about his own impending death. Sensing that his death was at hand, Matthew says that Jesus prayed until drops of blood formed on his brow. For the really profound junctures in our life, we need a prayer of that concentration.

Change is a significant theme in the Christian spiritual life and today we look at one example of it that falls outside the bounds of typical Christian piety. We share it for precisely that reason. We share if for those of you out there that are actually more spiritual than you realize, you just have an allergy to religion and formulaic piety. Over the years, you learn as a Minister to pay more attention to people's actions than their words and some of you have been through fairly profound spiritual changes, despite never quite finding the syntax or the words to describe what has been happening to you. We presume that the Almighty, whose job it is to read our hearts rather than just our lips, has a special category for staid, secular New Yorkers, where anything overtly religious tarnishes our reputation seemingly.

And yet, if there is one theme from the bible that comes up repeatedly, it is that the authentic movement of the Spirit seems to transcend religious observance, meaning that the pious have no corner on the God market and also that the secular are not exempt from being caught up in God's conspiracy of Goodness and love towards humanity. So, despite the fact that what follows was written by a self-described secularist, we believe that she just might have been snared by God after all. At any rate, in it's own touching way, it reminds me a great deal of the way that many of you speak about your lives. The spiritual dimension is there but it goes unnamed.

And it is important for another reason that fits with this season that remembers the time in Jesus' life when he faced an unjust trial, unnecessary torture, and ultimately a tragic death. Often the profound challenges that we have to face are not things that we go out and look for but things that come and find us. Part of the witness of the early disciples is that we need 'to be ready' to whatever comes our way. Challenges and tragedies have a way of finding us. And a lot of what we need to do is to find the humane thing to do in a situation of suffering and loss. We start off in one direction, but something else happens along the way, and we find… much to our own surprise that this new direction is not only okay, it is what we were prepared to do for all of our lives. The bible tells us that God is like that. Amen.