by Rola Al Ashkar

Isaiah 43, Luke 3

How special would you feel if you enter a restaurant or a store and an employee greets you by your name? To call a person by their name is a mark of closeness and familiarity. In Lebanon, I would never call anyone who’s my parent’s age and older by their first name; I have to say aunty or uncle, as a sign of respect. I discussed that with Christina the other day and it is obviously applicable elsewhere in the East. If that shows anything, it is that names are very personal, and even more so, are nicknames!

Nicknames are still very much used in the Middle East today, and they are often stronger than a name. I do not recall my brother or any of my former house mates calling me Rola, Kazo is the pet name assigned to me almost ten years ago, it refers to my curly hair, and that’s what they still call me today.

The Bible itself is a collection of stories of people who have been called by name and some who have been assigned new names with new roles. The Bible wouldn’t have existed wasn’t it for people who thought that God is calling them. In the Hebrew tradition a name is not only used to call someone but it signifies the whole being of the person. Like “Adam” from אדם which means earth or “Eve” from חַוָּה which means life. That is why we read about name changes after a person had been transformed or given a new role, like Abraham, Jacob, and the apostles Paul and Peter. Also nicknames are prominent in the Bible, like John and James sons of Zebedee better known as “Sons of Thunder;” that makes us wonder what kind of personalities they had, or John also known as the Baptist.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah chosen for today, God addresses God’s people saying: “I have called you by name.” And by that God establishes a personal relation with God’s people, designating them as God’s own. If we go back to the creations story in Genesis, we can see that God uses names not for the sake of identification, but rather for creation. God calls things into being. For example, “God creates a vault to separate between water and calls it ‘Sky’.” Then makes the light and the darkness and “calls the light ‘Day’ and the darkness ‘Night’”. This same Hebrew verb used for calling things into being in Genesis is used in Isaiah for calling God’s people by name. Here, God claims God’s people and us as God’s own. God calls us into being, but also calls us into living as ones elected and designated to do a certain work. That is what we usually refer to as “a calling.”

In different wording but similar purpose, in our gospel story God calls Jesus with the biggest of callings, but even literally so: Luke says that the voice of God is heard, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” From the word voice comes the word ‘vocation.’ In this text, God has settled Jesus’s vocation or calling, right there at the beginning of his ministry. The rest of gospel is just a narrative of how Jesus lived that calling.

Friends, we were all called by name. You were each called by name. What is your unique calling? To be honest, it is a scary word and a scary thought. Those of us who chose to enter the field of ministry are more familiar with using the term “calling” but it doesn’t mean we are comfortable with it. For long time I used to think: “Is God in such a bad shape to call someone like me?” But then I had to change my understanding of the word calling from being a privilege, to being a vocation. To know you have a calling is to understand that you have been assigned a role to do something for God, and for the kingdom.

For those of you who haven’t heard about my new yoga obsession, ask Veronica, she can tell you all about it. She’s sick of hearing me talk about it time and again. At the beginning of every yoga class, we are asked set an intention for that class. And every time the physical challenge gets tough, we are invited to go back to our intention and focus on it. We are asked to remember why we are there, and thus what is it that would keep us going.

Life is like yoga, it’s a combination of stretching and releasing, of times to work hard and challenge ourselves and times to relax and let go, and whenever we lose focus, there is one thing we should go back to: our intention, our calling. It should keep us moving. In our lives we set goals and ambitions; and these change with time and space and circumstances, but God wants our calling to drive our life. All of us have been called by name; all of us have been designated to do something for the kingdom. I cannot tell you what it is for you, but I can assure you there is a calling for you.

As I am also sure that there is a calling for us as a community. Twenty-three years ago, God called this church to become multi-cultural, and look at us! Today, our reality, our context and our leadership are changing; the world around us is changing, but our calling remains the same. We are invited to go back to our intention, to the calling which God and we have set for ourselves.

I shared with Veronica my secret substitution in my head of the word ‘intention’ or ‘breath’ by the word ‘God’ every time the yoga instructor says ‘go back to your intention’ or ‘focus on your breath.’

If there was a time for us to prayerfully discern our calling, it would be now. Now is the time to go back to our calling, now is the time to focus on God. We are called by name, we are called to exist and to serve. That’s our calling. How are we going to embody this as a 2019 Sacramento Parkview Presbyterian Church? May God lead our steps.