Below is the sermon that I preached yesterday for Deacon Sunday at my church.\u00a0 At my church, the Deacon President preaches for this service.<\/p>\n
First Old Testament Reading:\u00a0 Psalm 139:1-18<\/a> Audio:\u00a0 Here<\/a><\/p>\n Have you ever wondered what you should be when you grow up?\u00a0 Whenever you might grow up?<\/p>\n Have you ever wondered if you are doing today what you are supposed to be doing?<\/p>\n Yeah, me too.<\/p>\n Parker Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak quotes a poem from May Sarton:<\/p>\n Now I become myself<\/em> The journey of discovering who we are is often a long one, a winding journey, and one that has almost as many steps back as forward.\u00a0 In the church, we call the destination \u201cvocation\u201d.<\/p>\n We often associate vocation with a job in the church, but vocation is so much more than that.\u00a0 God gives each of us gifts, and calls each of us to a job or a role in life – a vocation – that will use those gifts in the best way.\u00a0 In essence, we are called to discover who we are – who God has made us to be – and once we find it to be that person as best as we can.\u00a0 You may be called to a role in the church, or perhaps another career in medicine, law, advertising, sports, or science just to name a few.<\/p>\n The good news is that God already knows who we are meant to be.\u00a0 In the Psalm we heard this morning it says:\u00a0 \u201cIn your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.\u201d\u00a0 Some people call this God\u2019s Plan for Us, but I believe it\u2019s simpler than that – it\u2019s God\u2019s revelation of who we are.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re not alone in finding out who we are.\u00a0 God is present in the journey, and nudges us along the way.\u00a0 Those nudges take a lot of different forms.\u00a0 Most are subtle – an internal tug within ourselves to something that interests us, a thought that seems to have come from outside of our self, or the words of encouragement of a trusted friend or mentor, or an insight after reading something.\u00a0 Some are more like shoves, not as subtle, taking the form of dreams or visions or hearing an actual voice \u2013 and many of the stories in the Bible take that form.\u00a0 However we hear the message, God is with us, and will not let us go until we understand.\u00a0 It just takes time.<\/p>\n Jonah heard God\u2019s voice at the beginning of today\u2019s scripture.\u00a0 It was a little more than a nudge, but less than a shove.\u00a0 The shoves came later.<\/p>\n Jonah was a prophet, and as such likely accustomed to transmitting the word of God to others.\u00a0 In this story, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, and cry out against it for God had seen the wickedness of that city.\u00a0 At the time, Nineveh was an enemy of Israel, and this was a dangerous message, to be delivered to the enemy.<\/p>\n Jonah heard the message of God very clearly, but decided not to follow it.\u00a0 And the nudge didn\u2019t quite work in this case.\u00a0 Albert Schweitzer was also nudged by God into his first career, through much subtler means.<\/p>\n Albert Schweitzer heard his early call through a still, small voice.\u00a0 The son and grandson of preachers, Dr. Schweitzer himself chose theology and philosophy as his areas of study at the University of Strasbourg, ultimately earning a PhD at the age of 22.\u00a0 One of his professors advised him to consider a teaching position in philosophy, but he chose theology as his primary focus.\u00a0 In his autobiography he says, \u201cto me preaching was an inner necessity. The opportunity to speak every Sunday to a congregation about the essential questions of life seemed to me wonderful.\u201d\u00a0 From his earliest years his call to ministry was expressed through his internal spirit – through his gifts and interests given to him at his creation.\u00a0 And so he went on to succeed in his field, serving a church, leading a theological seminary, and publishing a famous work of theology.<\/p>\n Sometimes God speaks to us through ourselves, by giving us interest in a particular subject, or through us hearing someone else tell us what they see as our gifts.\u00a0 Schweitzer heard that quiet call to ministry in his early career.<\/p>\n My own story of becoming my true self starts with a bit of nudging as well.<\/p>\n I was a lot like some of the youth in this church when I was in high school.\u00a0 I was quite involved in the church, serving as a Deacon and going to Triennium, working at Camp Johnsonburg and serving in the higher levels of the Presbyterian church system.\u00a0 I was also a bit of a geek, taking every computer course my high school had, playing in the band and serving on the stage crew.<\/p>\n I started at Rutgers feeling that I was headed one of two ways \u2013 either to a future in the ministry, or to a future working in the computer field – and I started by taking courses in both.\u00a0 Then I had a bad experience on campus, and a few months later I saw a few odd things happen in my work in the greater church.\u00a0 And I came to the conclusion that the church was about a small group of people trying to control the actions and beliefs of a larger group of people. As a result I quit my church roles and walked away.\u00a0 I was done with the church, though not done with God.<\/p>\n More than 15 years later, I reconnected with the church through the camp. \u00a0One summer Sunday while volunteering, I began to form an inner question – whether or not I should be attending a church again every Sunday.\u00a0 Talking with others I discovered that this was a common question, and I worked with the camp staff to develop a weekend retreat to help adults figure out whether or not to return, and if so how to find the right church for them.<\/p>\n Guided by what I learned at the retreat, my search process led me to Lawrenceville (with a few well-placed nudges from Alicia Pasko Morrison and Jill van den Heuvel).\u00a0 That was in 2006.\u00a0 Shortly after that, invitations from individuals and the congregation brought me to my work with the Deacons and with the youth.<\/p>\n All throughout this time I began to periodically wonder if I was in the right job.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working in Information Technology for 20 years at this point, and I began to wonder if the world of machines and concentrating on the bottom-line and career advancement was where I belonged.\u00a0 My co-workers tell me that I would light up when I talked about my church work, particularly with the youth.\u00a0 I starting thinking about and researching seminary.\u00a0 I bought the Parker Palmer book that is referenced earlier and in the bulletin, and spent lunchtime at work reading it to try to figure out what I was feeling and hearing around vocation.\u00a0 Something was beginning to change.<\/p>\n There are three questions that I have for you to consider today about your own journey.\u00a0 The first question is this \u2013 when have you heard a nudge from God in your life?\u00a0 When have you made a choice without really knowing why you did?\u00a0 When has someone else said to you \u201cYou really should consider\u201d this or that, often without knowing why they were asking the question?\u00a0 Has God nudged you?\u00a0 Is God nudging you today?<\/p>\n Sometimes God gives us a shove, because we need it.<\/p>\n Jonah decided to turn from God\u2019s direction.\u00a0 He hot-footed it out of town and boarded a ship to Tarshish as a passenger, directly in the opposite direction of Nineveh.<\/p>\n While Jonah was on the ship to Tarshish, God turned to shoves.\u00a0 God caused a great storm to come up on the sea and put the ship in danger.\u00a0 This storm was bad enough that it scared even the seasoned sailors on board. The crew, realizing that Jonah was the cause of their trouble, asked him what they should do to him, so that God would end the storm.\u00a0 Jonah, apparently seeing that he was putting their lives in danger as well as his own, told them to throw him overboard so that the sea would become quiet for them.\u00a0 Jonah understood that he had taken a course against God, and begins to show signs of a change of heart – at least as far as putting others in danger.<\/p>\n Finally in desperation the crew pleaded directly to God.\u00a0 They asked for God\u2019s forgiveness for what they were about to do, and then threw Jonah overboard, expecting him to drown and at that point the sea calmed.<\/p>\n Jonah expected to drown, in order to save the ship and the crew.\u00a0 But instead, something fantastic happened.\u00a0 He was swallowed up by large fish.\u00a0 And scripture tells us that he lived in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.<\/p>\n Alcar, as it is also known, has neuro-protectant properties needed to repair peripheral nerve damage that affects sexual arousal and cause a decrease in production of cialis viagra canada mouthsofthesouth.com<\/a> testosterone, the male hormone testosterone. 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Other Links Other research has shown that a high number of women suffering from PMS symptoms sample viagra for free mouthsofthesouth.com<\/a> also exhibit spinal dysfunction. <\/span>God\u2019s shove for Jonah was very clear.\u00a0 Albert Schweitzer\u2019s shove was a little more mysterious, but just as clear to him.<\/p>\n One summer day in Schweitzer\u2019s 21st year he awoke, and lying in bed he pondered his good fortune.\u00a0 Before he finally arose he had reached a decision – he would pursue his passions and scholarship until he was 30, and after that he would devote himself directly to serving humanity.\u00a0 The exact nature of how he would do that wasn\u2019t yet clear, but the direction was.<\/p>\n Another morning eight years later he found a copy of the magazine of the Paris Missionary Society on his writing table.\u00a0 He was about to put the magazine down and take up his studies when an article caught his eye – \u201cLes besoins de la Mission du Congo\u201d – The needs of the Congo Mission.\u00a0 The article spoke of the mission of the society in the French colony of Congo – the mission that was founded by Robert and Isabelle Nassau, who were members of this church.\u00a0 The author of the article expressed the hope that his appeal would bring some of those \u201con whom the Master\u2019s eyes already rested\u201d to a decision to offer themselves to this work, concluding \u201cMen and women who can reply simply to the Master\u2019s Call, \u2018Lord, I am coming,\u2019 those are the people that the Church needs.\u201d\u00a0 Schweitzer\u2019s autobiography states the working of God in his heart very simply:\u00a0 \u201cI finished the article and quietly began my work.\u00a0 My search was over.\u201d<\/p>\n Albert Schweitzer expressed the shove as a clear call \u2013 through the words of a magazine writer but nonetheless directed clearly at him.<\/p>\n For me, the shoves started in the summer of 2008 – a summer of extremes.<\/p>\n
\nSecond Old Testament Reading:\u00a0 Jonah 1:1-4,7,11-12,15-2:1,2:10-3:3a<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s taken time, many years and places.<\/em>
\nI have been dissolved and shaken,<\/em>
\nWorn other people\u2019s faces \u2026.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n