Hearing our name called, may be a special thing. When we are waiting for a table in a busy restaurant, we sit with expectation – listening for our name. We know that when our name is called, we are closer to being fed. Hearing our name called may sometime stop us in our tracks. BRENDA KAY BUCKWELL, an adult may yell when they truly want our attention.
This morning we have been summonsed by God, called by our name to sing a new song in our very foreign land of the 21st century. With two wars on the world scene and nations aligning sides with allies, the reality of human suffering, greed violence, injustice and pride rear its head! It appears some leaders are striving for superhuman power to sit enthroned on top of the world.
God does not just invite us, like receiving an invitation to a birthday party which we may or may decide to attend. God issues a plea for us to listen and actuate our faith. God summonses us. It is like a court summons for jury duty. It is difficult to turn down.
The Scripture
Look at the scripture from Isaiah 45:1-7. Twice in the New International Version word summons is used by God when calling Cyrus by name. (verses 3&4)
3I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name.
Cryus was known by God before he was born! God called him by name. In the beginning Cryus did not even know God! And yet God raised him up. God anointed him to lead God’s people. God guided his actions and encouraged his leadership. Yahweh went before Cryus.
Why did God do this? So Cryus might know Yahweh. So, God’s work in history might be done. So that God’s compassionate care would be shown for creation of the world and all that live upon it.
By summonsing Cryus, God showed that God expects expression of God’s own character to prevail among human interaction and that the sense of deliverance from all effects of evil will rule. This is what God created the earth and people for! So that we may live the character and nature of God more and more each day of our lives.
Today’s Prayer Practice
There is NO competition for loyalty between God and leaders of this earthly world. God made us to give to God what is God’s – our very lives. How do we give God our very life? By opening ourselves to God so that we become more and more shaped into God’s character in and through all of our speech, actions, and loving actualization of our faith.
In our warring world, how are we doing?
It can feel overwhelming for us to think we could possibly impact world affairs by our faith. But with God nothing is impossible unless we cling to our human ways rather than leaning in trust on God’s compassionate care and love for the world.
An Examen
- How are we declaring God’s uniqueness within our world?
- How do we live with the assurance that nothing on earth occurs separate from God?
- How to we proclaim from the rooftops that God is directly connected to creation and all that live upon this earth?
- Do we give to God what is God’s – our very lives? AND if we do, the question becomes . . .
- How do we actualize our faith?
God’s Kingdom has come, is coming and will forever reign on earth as it is in heaven.
The conviction that God rules the world – even now- with political upheaval in the United States, the wars around the world, the abuses of power, greed and violence launched at our enemies – God still rules the world. God empowers us, like Cryus, in the face of injustice and brokenness to look beyond the surface of the circumstance of the world AND SING A NEW SONG.
Not a Solo Act
Psalm 96 describe what our response to God’s wonderful attentive love in our world is to be. Our response is SING A NEW SONG. This is not to be a solo, but it is community singing together. How do churches unite (not merge) together in mission to become like a snowplow moving through the disorientation of our world?
I was listening to a few of my grandfather’s sermons this week. These were preached in 1977. My Grandfather urged us:
- To move from solo acts of faith into community.
- To move out of complacency
- To move from a moral code of rules to revelation of God’s presence in our lives.
- To be woven together in the heart of God’s love.
- He named this as incarnational faith – not just professed belief in God.
- That we embody the love of God, gain more attributes of the character and nature of Christ in and through our behaviors.
- He said it takes great courage to live faithfully.
- It takes courage to stand for justice and liberty for all God’s people.
It takes courage – courage empowered by God through our contemplative prayer practices- to actualize our faith. Yet we have been summonsed by God, called by our name to sing a new song in our very foreign land of the 21st century.
We are summonsed by God to become part of the spiritual solution to our warring world. How will you relinquish desire and illusion of control? How will you and the community of your faith increase humility as a posture from which our actions flow?
We are called to sing a new song. We are called to notice God in the ordinary events, moments, and breath of human life and SING A NEW SONG honoring the very presence and activity of God even now in the midst of our world.
May it be so among us, as we lead others in community joining our voices into a worldwide chorus of God love.
Enjoy praying.
