God's Calling

Today's readings are about God's calling to each of us.  We commemorate when Jesus called Matthew to join Him in His ministry today.  Jesus called the traitor, a Jew working for the enemy Roman state, and told him to follow Him.  That may seem like a very odd thing for the King of the Jews to do.  However, the lesson is that Matthew followed Jesus.  He left his old ways and ministered.  Jesus also calls each one of us.  He comes to the gay bars and asks us to follow Him.  He waits for us during our one night stands.  He wakes us up in the morning after a hard night of drinking.  Are we ready to give up our old ways to follow him?
Paul also writes that God's calling is to each one of us, for there are no divisions in this church of God.  In the same way, there are no divisions among us, the assembled members of God's church.  We all have heads, we have brains, we have blood, we have hearts.  We all have souls, and we all have emotions.  There is no bear or twink; no butch or femme; no cis or trans; no male or female.  There are just sheep waiting for a shepherd.
Accompanying these, we hear one of my favorite series of parables, the ones where people find great treasures and give their lives to keep them.  What do we do all day? We look for things to sustain us.  We work to have money; we plan so we can enjoy our time; we read so we can know.  What would we do if we found the one thing that sustains us today, tomorrow, and after death?  Surely we would rejoice over that discovery.  And that is what we have.  We must celebrate that Jesus sustains us throughout our lives on earth and past our deaths into His eternal kingdom.  We must go out and share that we are all saved!
God calls us to be unified in God, and we must be ready to push the answer button and listen to the voice of God telling us what we must do in our lives.