BIBLE STUDY: CALL Center
A. BACKGROUND... I’ve been subtitling the last few Bible Studies with take-offs regarding “calls”: robo-call, call-center, etc. We are all subjected to calls, wanted and unwanted. “Amy” calls me five times a day at my “health provider’s request” to offer me “medical alert” devices. She’s my new imaginary friend. Yes, calls can even be annoying. Biblically and spiritually to have a “calling” refers to having the conviction that God has need of you for some task or purpose. I’ve known people “called” to be a plumber, a missionary, a baker, a church member, a volunteer, a spouse, an entrepreneur, a CEO, or a soldier.
B. TODAY... “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” That was a popular substitute for an epithet in my good old days. It is also whose callings we look at today. For Mary’s “call”, Luke 1:26-38. For Joseph’s “call”, Matthew 1:18-25.
C. SUMMARY... Mary and Joseph were probably an arranged marriage. In the months leading up to their union an angel informs Mary that God’s spirit will overwhelm her with a miraculous pregnancy. No doubt this disturbed Joseph, but his mind is set at ease by a dream that explains God’s purpose. Mary and Joseph will be the human family for Jesus whose dual purpose is to be “God with us” (Emmanuel) and to save us (Jesus). Thirty years later the adult Jesus begins his public ministry by going to John the Baptist to be baptized. At that moment Jesus receives confirmation of his “calling” when God’s spirit descends upon him, and God’s voice declares “this is my son” (Matthew 3:13-17).
D. KEY POINTS
1. CALLED to the IMPOSSIBLE. Mary is called/selected/chosen to be the mother of Jesus via a virgin birth. Yet Mary and Joseph both accept and do the impossible and unlikely. Truth is, most challenges in life are challenging. God calls us to do something because it needs doing, no one else is doing it, and it won’t get done on it’s own. MY GUESS is that the angel’s visit to Mary and the dream to Joseph were so vivid, so real that they could not and would not decline the call. They knew something was at work in them. And God needed them.
2. Jesus’s “calling”. With our 20/20 theological insight, literally indoctrinated by 2,000 years of Christian teaching, we can say that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior of the World, 2nd person of the Trinity, born to die on the cross and save us from our sins. But what did he know? And when? Was he born with such knowledge of his calling and purpose? Was it revealed over time? Did it dawn on him at key moments? MY GUESS is that Jesus had two back-to-back experiences that set him irrevocably on his path. First, the Baptism, when God almost literally puts a hand on Jesus’ shoulder (the Holy Spirit as a dove) and audibly affirms Jesus’ call (“you are my son”). The second comes right after, when Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days, goes mano a mano with Satan and doesn’t give in to temptation. This let Jesus know who he was, what he was up against, and that he could do it.
