Every Person in Four-Way Call

I was thinking this week about last week's post in The Shiloh Insider. In that article, I explained the four-way call of clergy within the United Church of Christ. In the UCC, clergy are responsible for being in relationship with God, the local setting and calling body, the community in which one serves and the wider church. Our code of ethics makes clear that the call is to represent God's will in multiple arenas, at all times, as well as one is able.

What if that calling belonged to more of us than just the clergy class? What if it were understood as God's calling to each of us?

As the themes of the Revised Common Lectionary have highlighted over the past several weeks, those who would be Christ's disciples must take up the Cross and follow him. Apostleship involves self-sacrifice and sometimes radical notions of service to others. Those who follow Christ Jesus must intentionally engage in works of self-sacrificial service, carried out for the sake of those who are served, and for the betterment of the community at-large. From that ministry we cannot turn back. We cannot escape it, if we are to be faithful followers.

Therefore, the four-way call, that previously belonged exclusively to clergy, is a helpful way to think about the ministry and calling of every person. Each of us is responsible to represent God's will in faithful relationship to God. This is the prime directive. Every person is accountable for representing the grace of God in Christ. Each is a mechanism of grace and kindness and mercy. Each is a vehicle of God's love and forgiveness.

Each is called to represent God in the local setting, in those arenas that are closest to us, most familiar. Each represents God in family and friendships, in how we work for justice and peace in our towns and cities, how we represent God in our most intimate relationships. Each is responsible for assisting the local setting be a clearer expression of God's will. As each person does so, we work together to shape community. God's will expands form the most personal and intimate relationships to the social arena. Each person in accountable for expressing God's will in the social, cultural arena. As a natural expansion of the personal, intimate setting, our social obligations occur organically. As we live, personally, in relationship with God, we can live in personal relationship with others, with our communities and with the wider population. We are called to represent God's will regionally, nationally and globally. There can be no disconnect between expression of God's will on any level. (Disconnect is hypocrisy in the eyes of the world, after all.)

Each of us, lay and clergy, is called to represent God's will in personal, community and global expressions of faithfulness. Each is called to embody grace and acceptance, generosity and kindness, love and compassion.

At Shiloh, we attempt at all times to equip persons for fulfilling the ministry to which each is called, in relationship with God's will, with those who are closest to us, in our communities and in the wider, regional and global communities. To this end, God empowers us with God's own Spirit, equipping us with everything that we need to bring God's kingdom on Earth. Join us, as we each work out our four-way call.