A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: ACCEPTING THE CALL PLACED ON YOUR LIFE
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday we take up another characteristic of leadership: acceptance. Really? Acceptance almost sounds defeatist, doesn’t it? It does until we put it into a perspective of relationship with God / Jesus / Holy Spirit. It does until we put it into the question: what does God’s call upon my life and this community of faith mean to me? How do I interpret the word call anyway?
When we look at it this way (at least this helps 
me), I realize that accepting God’s call on my life flows from my relationship with God – flows from the very heart of God. Which frankly isn’t always that easy to understand or to accept!
What if God calls me to something I don’t feel prepared to do? What if I don’t feel worthy or deserving of what God is calling me to? What if I am afraid of what I’m being asked? What if I simply don’t like what God seems to be calling me to accept? All perfectly valid questions and concerns and yet – what does it mean to really accept the call placed upon our lives at any given moment?
Sunday’s Scripture readings give us two stories of reluctant acceptance of God’s call, God’s desire. We will revisit Moses and his burning bush theophany (a visible, tangible manifestation of the Divine) during which the Lord tells Moses he has seen the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt and he is calling on Moses to go confront Pharoah and demand that he set his people free?! Really?! Does Moses jump right up and say yep, I’m ready, send me? Absolutely not. It takes Moses a good long while to say yes and only after many assurances.
We will also visit Peter again – right after he identifies Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus tells all of them that he is going to die at the hands of the religious and political authorities but will be raised in three days. Peter says – stop it! Don’t you dare say that! And Jesus says – get behind me Satan!
You aren’t going to derail this because this is what God is calling me to. My words and actions will lead to my death, but the words and actions are the call placed upon my life. If you can’t accept that, then you are now an adversary in my life trying to thwart my acceptance. You need to accept this reality.
Acceptance is tough when it comes to God’s call on our lives. Leadership requires that kind of acceptance – Moses couldn’t be the leader that he was if he didn’t accept what God was asking him to do. Peter could not have gone on to lead the early Christian church if he didn’t accept what God was desiring. But both had the assurance of God’s presence throughout their leadership journey.
So, what does all of that mean for us? And where is God in all of this acceptance anyway? Come and see! Come and explore together in community!
Blessings,
Pastor Karen