You may object that the metaphor of call listeners is too passive, too silent. Call listeners have a special resonance in our mass media dominated culture.
Returning God's Call: The Challenge of Christian Living by John C. Purdy
The Call to Perfection (Matthew 5:38-48)
The heart of God is reflected not so much in sunshine and rain, but in the cross, where God literally turns the other cheek to the enemies of goodness and justice. If you and I want to be called sons and daughters of God, we must act in the same way.
The Call to Secret Service (Matthew 6:1- 18)
Jesus' call to a secret ministry of God was based on his relationship with the Father who sees in secret. We are not to pray to a public God who is present in the market place and the meeting house. The reasoning for this is written later in the Gospel in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.
For such is the admonition of Jesus concerning personal charity; it must be private, in the strictest sense. There is a social recognition of charity equivalent to reading the name and donation aloud in the synagogue. At stake is a huge temptation to claim credit—in the form of approval from others—for faithful behavior.
We must pray, give alms, and deny ourselves as if we were in the service of the divine secret service. Trying to live entirely without reference to the Father who sees in secret is neither desirable nor possible.
The Call to Mirror a Ministry (Matthew 9:35-10:8a)
It follows, then, that you and I—members of the Church—are also called and appointed to perform miraculous works. The Acts of the Apostles mention a number of them, such as the healing of the lame man in the temple by John and Peter, described in the third chapter of Acts. Also in the Gospels are a number of stories about casting out evil spirits – demons, if you will.
But Meier offers a liberating metaphor when he writes (p The mission of the disciples mirrors that of Jesus in word and deed." The Word. There is also a fourth possibility - that the extraordinary works to which Jesus calls his church are an order of action for positive values, among which death, disease and the demon. And this is the possibility that the wonderful works to which Jesus calls us are the celebration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
If we see the sacraments as mere rituals, it is not a failure of the church to keep word and sign together. The argument of this chapter is that the extraordinary work to which Christ calls his church today may very well be the celebration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, together with the bold proclamation of his sovereignty over all the powers that affect the welfare of the humanity threatened.
The Call to Extend the Family (Matthew 12:46-50)
In the churches' rhetoric, there are significant references to the Christian community as a family. This use of the metaphor of the family to designate the church is supported by theologians. Meier writes (p. For [Matthew] the church is God's family, incorporated into the common life of the Godhead through baptism.)
And the scriptural answer is: Your true family is the company of believers, the saints with whom you fellowship. To be loyal to the company of believers is indeed to honor father and mother in obedience to them. We must be careful not to create a false rivalry between the natural family and the fellowship of believers when, in fact, such rivalry does not often exist.
Another classic dilemma is that of the parent who cannot let the child become independent. The teaching of Matthew 12:46-50 can be summarized as follows: In family matters, our loyalty as Christians belongs to the company of the faithful.
The Call to Costly Obedience (Matthew 16:24-28)
It is foretold in the preaching of the prophets of Israel, especially in the Servant Songs of Isaiah. However, there are a number of places in the life of Israel when there was a foreshadowing of Jesus' choice of the cross. The first martyrs of the Christian church in Uganda were young pages in the king's court.
When the Son of Man comes, He will set things right; he will establish the kingdom of peace and justice promised in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. It is to risk danger and death at the hands of the judges and rulers of this world. Edith Stein reminds us both of the demand of Christ and of the horrible face of the state when it pretends to act in the national interest.
In the last scene of the opera, there is a small group of nuns on stage singing hymns to Christ. What are the problems and causes in the rest of the twentieth century that call us to the cross.
The Call to Fidelity (Matthew 19:3-9)
This understanding of the Creator's intent must be central to any discussion of sexuality. This famous exception has been used throughout the history of the Church to approve divorces. Eduard Schweizer attributes the exception to the author of the Gospel, but says this is true.
34; understandable on the basis of the practice of his community." In other words, what we have represented in the exception is the lifestyle of the late-first century church that Matthew knew. To seek union with others in obedience to Christ's call to loyalty - this is the heart of the Christian understanding of marriage.His appeal is to the intention of the Creator to make people man and woman: that the two should become one.
It is rooted and grounded not only in the calling of Christ, but in the very purpose of the Creator. And because faithfulness is grounded in the intention of the Creator, it carries with it a guarantee, an assurance that, despite ups and downs, the marriage will be fruitful.
The Call to Dispossession (Matthew 19:16-22)
A Jew in good standing certainly knows the teachings of the Pharisees (keep the law), the Essenes (be an ascetic and wait for the coming), the Sadducees (follow tradition) and the Zealots (join the revolution against Rome). Others would see the key words in Jesus' invitation: "Go, sell what you have." They believe that it is vital to get rid of the burden of worldly possessions. If we don't believe that Jesus invites each of us in this way, then he probably sent it only to that young man, and it remains for us to squeeze some commandment out of the story as much as possible.
All the ethics of the Bible are on the side of sharing with the poor. If we take this story of the rich young man as our paradigm, it yields this: We must at all times be prepared to share what we have, even to the last penny, with others who are in need. And in his teaching there is little about the evil of belonging to the class of the rich at the expense of the poor.
Compare our story of the rich young man with that of Zacchaeus the tax collector. However, the significance of the story of the Rich Young Man seems quite clear: Jesus calls those who would follow him to be prepared to dispose of their worldly goods and possessions if they become an obstacle to discipleship.
The Call to Servant Leadership (Matthew 20:20-28)
If it's not always a dog world, it's certainly a world where people have a strong desire to be top dogs. Those who seek to be influential in the church should not seek the highest offices or seats of leadership, but rather the interest and advancement of others. Several of our commenters agree that this role will be that of a servant in the church.
A common misunderstanding of Jesus' teachings is that Christians are to be servile -- never to aspire to greatness, always to think poorly of themselves. If you and I aspire to greatness, we will find true greatness by seeking first to be servants of others. According to the opinion of the author of Matthew, Jesus would surely have passed such a test: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus showed his servant leadership by giving his life to set people free.
Robert Greenleaf, in describing the servant leader, gets his order right: Man chooses to be the servant of the public; then one is chosen to be the leader. But we can -- and must -- aspire to be servants of one another, to seek our common good rather than our personal good.
Chapter ll:The Call to Universal Mission (Matthew 28:16-20)
The climactic scene in Act II is the making of the covenant on Mount Sinai, with the giving of the Law by Moses. And with the Davidic kingship, Israel takes her place as one of the world's remarkable nations. The God of biblical drama is a God of both intention and love; a people are chosen to be God's possession, both out of love and for a divine purpose.
And what is true of God is true of the church: It is both the object of God's love and the agent of God's purpose. Beginning with the activity of the eleven disciples, there was a thin red line running through the history of the church. Paul took up collections in his congregations for the relief of the church in Jerusalem.
In the southwestern United States, in the centuries following the arrival of the Spanish, it was the practice of the church to send European priests to the Indian pueblos. We should not be surprised at the ease with which we have adopted the military, colonial, and commercial metaphors to conceive of the universal mission.