A homily by Fr.
Gene Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, October 2, 2011.
“CALL-AND-RESPONSE”
(Homily text: Philippians 3: 4b – 14)As I consider our epistle reading for this morning, from Philippians chapter three, the phrase that comes into my mind is “call-and-response”.
“Call-and-response”
may be a term you’ve never encountered before, so it might require some
explanation.
The phrase
comes from a style of singing that is common to a type of music called “work
songs”. Work songs are a particularly
American musical genre. They were sung
by slaves working on plantations, by manual laborers in almost any setting, and
by railroad workers. Sung by workers who
were doing manual labor, they were effective in getting the efforts of several
men to work together, which was valuable for times when some heavy object
needed to be moved. Another purpose of
work songs was to combat boredom when doing repetitive tasks. Still another purpose was to say things about
the boss using coded language that he wasn’t likely to understand.
So work
songs were used this way: A caller would
sing out a line, and sometimes the workers would answer with a response (hence
the term, “call-and-response”). At other
times, the workers would move in response to the rhythm of the song.
Here’s an
example of a song (or chant) which was used when working on railroad track, using
lining bars[1] to
straighten out track that was out-of-line:
Beat: 1 2 3 4 Workers
Text: Come on Move it Huh (Pause) Caller
Beat: 1 2 3 4 Workers
Text: Boy can you Move
it Uhmmm (Rest) Caller
When the
caller called out the text in rhythm, the workers would tap their lining bars against
the rail on each beat. Then when the
second phrase came around, they would pull hard on their lining bars on beat
three of the second phrase (uhmmm).
Of course,
with the coming of modern machinery, almost all of the heavy manual tasks that
were done the hard way years ago have become a thing of the past. Along with the loss of those ways of getting
work done, the work songs that made the work easier and more efficient (and
less boring!) have also disappeared.
This observation applies to railroading, just as it does to many – if
not most – other sorts of work which were done manually in times gone by.
Now keep
this image in mind as we turn out attention to St. Paul’s wonderful letter to
the Philippian Christians. It’s worth
noting that this letter is the most positive and heart-warming one that we have
from the apostle’s hand, and today’s passage is no exception to that
observation.
Essentially,
Paul is talking about God’s call and his response.
Applying
the image of being a railroad worker, we see from the beginning part of the
passage that Paul lays out what I might call his “religious resume”. He tells us about his pedigree: 1. He was circumcised on the eighth day (in
accordance with the requirements of being in covenant relationship with God);
2. a member of the nation of Israel; 3.
from the tribe of Benjamin; 4. a
Pharisee; 5. a persecutor of the Church;
and 6. blameless under the Law of Moses.
So,
according to this former way of thinking, Paul says that he was fully qualified
and was going about doing God’s will and work in the world.
Except
that, once he had been called into God’s service through the call of Jesus
Christ, he realized that it was as if he was working without being hired. Oh yes, it is true that he was fully
qualified according to his own understanding of the terms of being hired, but
it was as if he had shown up at the jobsite without an invitation, and without
instructions from God about what to do and where to do it.
So, he
says, once he came to understand that it is through faith in Christ that he is
called into a proper relationship with God, he counted his life before God’s
call came to him on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9: 1 - 23) as “refuse”, as
the “loss of all things”.
For the God
who called Paul on that road that day also told him what things he was to do
for the sake of the kingdom of God, as it has come in Jesus Christ.
From then
on, Paul had become a part of God’s work party, willing to do whatever God
called him to do, and willing to do it wherever God sent him.
So God
called and Paul responded. Once Paul
responded, God’s plan became clear. Paul
had a purpose and direction which was absent before.
God’s call
comes to us, too. Perhaps that call
won’t be as dramatic as Paul’s call was….maybe there won’t be bright lights, no
voice coming from heaven. But the call
is there, nonetheless.
And the
call comes not just once, but again and again.
God’s call
comes, first of all, at baptism. When
the new believer enters the waters of baptism, it’s as if God is taking that
new Christian onto his “work team”.
“Come and serve me as you serve others” might be a good way to
characterize the call which comes at baptism.
Once we’re
on the team, other calls come to us as we are invited by the Holy Spirit to
learn what it means to be a member of this team, and just what it is that the
“boss” (God) wants us to do to get the work done that He has in mind.
Still other
calls come as we discern what vocation God has in mind for us…..We ought to
pause here for a moment, and take apart that word vocation.
Vocation has to do with one’s “calling”,
for the word itself comes to us from the Latin, where it means “to call”.
So a
person’s vocation is their calling in life.
Usually, we associate the word vocation with a person’s career
path. We also associate the word with a
specific application to ordained ministry.
But, in truth, everyone who is a child of God, claimed by God in baptism
as His son or daughter, has a vocation, a calling.
And our
vocation might change or be refined as we continue to work in God’s field, His
vineyard, His world. New tasks arise
which demand a response. New challenges
come along which might prompt us to ask God to help us learn new ways of
responding.
The calls
come, again and again, throughout our life.
It is our
task – along with Paul – to strive toward the upward calling of God in Christ
Jesus. For to do so keeps ever in our
minds and hearts God’s “big picture” and our part in bringing about God’s will
on earth, just as His will is done in heaven.
God calls,
we respond. May the Holy Spirit enable
our response, again and again, until we attain to that upward call of God in
Christ.
AMEN.
[1] A lining bar is a steel bar which is about
five to five-and-one-half feet long. It
is round on one end, and square at the other.
It is used to pry the track when it is out-of- line.
