LETTER FROM THE ECUMENICAL MODERATOR
vocation
MURDOCH MACKENZIE
FEBRUARY 2002
Dear Friends,
Now that we are working as one Body in our new Mission Partnership the Executive have been thinking together about VOCATION. Each of our denominations has a designated 'Vocations Sunday' but these occur on four different dates in the year. Therefore, with the encouragement of the denominations, we hope that all churches will observe the month of February as a month in which we all think about VOCATION. We hope that each local church will make VOCATION the theme of the main service of worship on one Sunday in February.
On February 3rd the reading from Micah asks the question: 'And what does the Lord require of you?' That question is still asked to each one of us in terms of our own personal VOCATION today. The Gospel reading that day provides the answer in the form of the Beatitudes, sometimes called the 'Beautiful Attitudes' in Matthew 5. The readings for the following week remind us of the glory of God with Moses on Mt Sinai, with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration and in 2 Peter we are encouraged to 'pay attention' to what this means for our own walk with God in our own VOCATION. Sunday 17th is the first in Lent with the lesson from Deuteronomy containing the closing words of Moses before the appointment of Joshua, in which we are faced with a choice between life and death, good and evil. The words of the collect remind us of our need for obedience in our choice of VOCATION as we say: 'give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit.' On Sunday 24th the challenge to VOCATION is again brought into sharp focus with Abram leaving home and country to go out into the unknown and with Nicodemus, who, like Abram, was in the U3A category, asking the question: 'Can a man be born when he is old?'
The season of Lent is a time for each of us to ask such questions and to realise that God is not finished with us yet. Perhaps we will sing: ' O Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end ' or ' Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee ' or in more modern mode:
Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
This song, of course, reminds us of Isaiah's vision in the temple and the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' and Isaiah's reply: 'Here am I! Send me.' This is a response which every Christian is called to make whether their daily life is in an office, a factory, a hospital, a prison, a shopping centre, a church, a school, a garage, a TV station, a theatre, a bank, a police station, a farm, a university or a building site. We can each sing with the people of Nicaragua:
Sent by the Lord am I.
My hands are ready now
to make the earth the place
in which the Kingdom comes.
This is what it means to have a VOCATION. But at the heart of all of this there may be some specific work which each one of us can recognise as a special calling from God. That may be to the TV station or to the building site or to a whole variety of ministries which are more immediately related to the church itself, whether with an Aid Agency, with Bible Society or Scripture Union, in work with children or young people, as a church related community worker, a licensed lay minister, local preacher, ordained local minister, non-stipendiary or paid minister. Let each of us think about our calling this month. To help us we have the Milton Keynes Training Commission and all sorts of opportunities through our various denominations, details of which are listed in this month's information sheet which accompanies this letter and may be on the notice-board of your church.
Love, Joy, Peace!
Murdoch MacKenzie
Now that we are working as one Body in our new Mission Partnership the Executive have been thinking together about VOCATION. Each of our denominations has a designated 'Vocations Sunday' but these occur on four different dates in the year. Therefore, with the encouragement of the denominations, we hope that all churches will observe the month of February as a month in which we all think about VOCATION. We hope that each local church will make VOCATION the theme of the main service of worship on one Sunday in February.
On February 3rd the reading from Micah asks the question: 'And what does the Lord require of you?' That question is still asked to each one of us in terms of our own personal VOCATION today. The Gospel reading that day provides the answer in the form of the Beatitudes, sometimes called the 'Beautiful Attitudes' in Matthew 5. The readings for the following week remind us of the glory of God with Moses on Mt Sinai, with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration and in 2 Peter we are encouraged to 'pay attention' to what this means for our own walk with God in our own VOCATION. Sunday 17th is the first in Lent with the lesson from Deuteronomy containing the closing words of Moses before the appointment of Joshua, in which we are faced with a choice between life and death, good and evil. The words of the collect remind us of our need for obedience in our choice of VOCATION as we say: 'give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit.' On Sunday 24th the challenge to VOCATION is again brought into sharp focus with Abram leaving home and country to go out into the unknown and with Nicodemus, who, like Abram, was in the U3A category, asking the question: 'Can a man be born when he is old?'
The season of Lent is a time for each of us to ask such questions and to realise that God is not finished with us yet. Perhaps we will sing: ' O Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end ' or ' Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee ' or in more modern mode:
Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
This song, of course, reminds us of Isaiah's vision in the temple and the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' and Isaiah's reply: 'Here am I! Send me.' This is a response which every Christian is called to make whether their daily life is in an office, a factory, a hospital, a prison, a shopping centre, a church, a school, a garage, a TV station, a theatre, a bank, a police station, a farm, a university or a building site. We can each sing with the people of Nicaragua:
Sent by the Lord am I.
My hands are ready now
to make the earth the place
in which the Kingdom comes.
This is what it means to have a VOCATION. But at the heart of all of this there may be some specific work which each one of us can recognise as a special calling from God. That may be to the TV station or to the building site or to a whole variety of ministries which are more immediately related to the church itself, whether with an Aid Agency, with Bible Society or Scripture Union, in work with children or young people, as a church related community worker, a licensed lay minister, local preacher, ordained local minister, non-stipendiary or paid minister. Let each of us think about our calling this month. To help us we have the Milton Keynes Training Commission and all sorts of opportunities through our various denominations, details of which are listed in this month's information sheet which accompanies this letter and may be on the notice-board of your church.
Love, Joy, Peace!
Murdoch MacKenzie
