A Sermon by The Rev. Dan Rondeau

Being Called

The Rev. Dan Rondeau

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School

Back on January 14, as your priest in charge, I decided to leave the comfort zone and come down among you - and here on April 29th, I’m serving my last Sunday as the Priest in charge and during the week will return to Pastoral Care duties here at St. Margaret’s as we welcome our Interim Rector starting May 1st. So let me model, what I hope to preach to you this morning, let me leave my comfort zone, follow the good shepherd down into your midst and encourage you to do the same.

As we welcome Roger and his ministry as Interim Rector, as our Vestry forms a calling committee who will do their search, and offer the Vestry a name or two to call here, let’s be followers of the good shepherd, just what we heard in the Gospel today and so again to model at leave a very comfortable for me to stay at the pulpit and come down in your midst -- following what I believe to be the voice of the good shepherd in my own hear.

Let’s start with the reading that we just heard and then move to our particular situation at the end of April in 2007. Every Wednesday I gather with the children from the school here for morning prayer, and this past Wednesday morning I talked about being called by God to serve if you remember way back in January, if you were here, it was one of the things I said -- we are all called to be at St. Margaret’s at this time. Called by God. So I was talking to them about that, and parents come and all of you are invited to come as well, on Wednesday morning for morning prayer, and I started by saying to the adults, "Any of you who were asked as a child, what do you want to be when you grow up, would you please stand" - and no body stood up and I thought - oh, no, I thought everybody had been asked that, and so I had to do a little cajoling and after that sure enough every adult in the room stood up and I believe you never escape childhood without being asked at least once, what do you want to be when you grow up? It was interesting afterward, listening to the conversation for almost nobody in the little group that gathered, did what they thought they were going to do when they were a child. All took twists and turns, all of them were pretty pleased how God had led them, called them and you know what they had done with their lives. There was a high level of contentment - and it almost didn’t match when they were asked when they were a child. I tell you that because I want to go back to the reading of the Acts of the Apostle’s - did you hear what Peter did in that story? He raised the dead! Tabatha was dead. And he raised her to life. An Amazing story - think about it as the story of Jesus begins, he comes out of the wilderness, he’s baptized by John in the Jordan and he goes to the Sea of Galilee and he spots Simon the fisherman and spots his brother Andrew and says "follow Me" and they do. Simon the fisherman. Put yourself in his sandals at the seashore, could Simon have possibly envisioned a future where he would not be Simon the fisherman but Peter the Apostle, where he’d be sent for, where he would come to a room in Jape where a dead woman was, where he hears the voice of the shepherd to say, "tell the folks to leave." He would get them to leave the room, kneel down and pray and in that prayer, hearing the voice of the shepherd tell him "tell Tabatha to get up." Tabatha got up and she opens her eyes and sees Peter the Apostle and helps her up and restores her to her family and friends How could Simon the fisherman possibly envision it a future like that at the Sea of Galilee and in between that call and the Sea of Galilee, to raising Tabatha from the dead, he figures out after hearing Jesus teach and after watching the miracles - You‘re the Messiah, You are the Son of God, the one we‘ve been waiting for -- and he hears the words of Jesus – "you are blessed, my Father has revealed this to you." And of course being impetuous he messes it up almost immediately, and tells Jesus you don‘t really have to suffer in Jerusalem, we can figure out a different way. Get behind me Satan, thinking like a man. He is ready to die for Jesus but when the crisis comes, of course, I don‘t know the guy, he had me confused with somebody else - leave me alone, denying him three times. Feeling the shame of that and then as we heard last Sunday, hearing Jesus say "do you love me more than these others, feed my sheep."

Hearing the constancy of God’s love for him despite his failures, or seeming failures. Anyway, Simon the fisherman to Peter the Apostle. Knowing how to catch fish to raising the dead. And telling others about Jesus. He heard the voice of the Shepherd and he followed and he did amazing things.

So it is that I want to go back to our theme. Who could have pictured that in 2007 you would be called to be part of St. Margaret’s, called to be part of the process of calling a new rector, chosen by God to be here at this moment because you must have gifts, you do have gifts -- that this parish needs, that God needs right now. In order to hear the voice of the Shepherd, to do the work that is necessary to call the one who God has already anointed to be the next rector of this parish. Because I truly believe that is known to God and that we as we do our work will come to understand God’s will and if we are faithful in this process, we will call the person whom God is calling here - to be the next rector -- anyway, you called to be a part of that great adventure and journey and I am called to be a part of that. The Rev. Roger Douglas is called out of retirement to be part of that journey and this process and this adventure and that is a wonderful thing. If you’ve read the letters and the bulletin and on the web site -- Roger served for 24 years as the pastor of St. Phillips in the Hills in Tucson, grew the parish from an average size Episcopal parish to a parish with 3000 members when he retired in 2001. That’s a remarkable journey and they were doing lots of things right apparently, as a church, as a parish family under his leadership and he brings the wisdom and the experience and the skills to our parish now, to serve us as we do the work of calling our next rector. I truly believe I will learn a lot from him and expect him to challenge us, and tell us what he believes God is calling us to do and be. That together, we are going to do amazing things. I think we are right there, ready to blossom, I said this in January, I still believe, in fact I believe it more fervently now. We’re ready to take those next steps to be a remarkable and marvelous presence and light in this valley. We’re right there and we’re going to be brilliant because a God has called us to be brilliant.

Psalm 23 celebrates this shepherd, this good shepherd in our prayer, the collect this morning, Jesus is identified as the Good Shepherd, in the blessing that I use at the end of the service, Jesus the Good Shepherd, we ask Him to enfold us in His love. Then again I’m trying to model what each of us needs to do over the next months, days and months, need to follow the Good Shepherd, need to hear His voice within our hearts, and follow, even as Simon the fisherman did. Do we do that? Green pastures, still waters, even when things get really scary, the Shepherd is there with us, His rod and staff, to guide and protect us, the voice to constantly lead and guide us --- trusting that is going to be our task in the months to come, being faithful in our prayers so we can actually hear that voice, that’s going to be our task in the months to come.

Then of course, doing the work that God calls us to do because He’s not asking us to stop feeding the hungry, working in the Cellar Door so that we can send money to other people. Working at Maggie’s Corner, volunteer in the office, help on the Altar Guild, God is asking us to keep doing the work that we are doing. And even better, follow His voice -- serve His people, feed His sheep, invite others to be part of this flock - it all continues and I am overjoyed to be a part of it with you, to be in the midst working side by side with you, hearing you encourage me, hearing your words of encouragement so that I can continue to do what I do and allow me to encourage you in your various ministries, one of which is to show up on Sundays and sing God’s praises and give God the glory so that you can be fed so that you can go out and share that grace with others. And you’re here, it is a great joy to me to be in your midst and serve you that way and to allow you to serve me in that way - the encouraging word, the pat on the back, a new opportunity to know and love and serve the Lord.

I pray that you will welcome Roger next week and he’ll be our preacher next Sunday and he’ll be at breakfast right after that, wandering around and meeting you. Pray that you will welcome him also -- because like all of us, Roger Douglas is called to be here at this time, he’s the right person. The Vestry did their work and they called the right person, at least that’s my heart -- he’s chosen by God to exercise his leadership here at this time for God’s glory. I think he brings many gifts to us so I hope you welcome him and allow him to share those gifts with us. And he’s going to encourage to share and continue to share with each other and with the community out there.

Finally, I know that he comes with a great deal of love for us, he knew Fr. Brad, he also knew Robert because they both served in the diocese of Arizona -- he knows the love that’s been shared in this congregation over the years and he comes ready to love us, to be the embodiment of God’s love for us and I pray that you welcome him and share God’s love with us and I pray that you welcome him. It’s going to be a great adventure. And we’re ready to take our next steps now and we continue to pray and continue to love each other and next week we welcome God’s minister, Roger Douglas into our midst.

So continue to pray, that’s what I’d like to do with you right now, and I’ll get here with you in your midst, if you would quiet your hearts, and open them to the Good Shepherd and also to the Holy Spirit allow me to pray:

Come Holy Spirit; come as you did to Simon the Fisherman, transforming him into Peter the Apostle. Come Holy Spirit as you did to Blessed Margaret, Queen of Scotland transforming her into a Saint of your church. Come Holy Spirit to us and transform us. Come with your fire and burn within us and with your rain to cleanse us and come with your light and reveal the way to us. Convict us, even as you convicted Simon the Fisherman to become Peter the Apostle. Convict us to do great things for God. Convert us to do those wonderful things that God desires done. Consecrate us that we might draw others to Your light to Your refreshment to Your love. Come Holy Spirit, come and bless us - Amen.

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