You are called

At church tonight Simon was talking about how all of us are called by God – even though we often act as though it is only church ministers or overseas missionaries or people involved with the work of groups like Urban Seed and TEAR that are called.
I think it was appropriate that on a night when we were thinking about calling, a member of our congregation announced that she’s hoping to do her discernment year for ordination or our church next year. I was also glad that we were able to affirm that everybody is called – not just people who become ministers and such.
For the response time I showed everyone this picture, which I had drawn on Saturday, while thinking about our scripture reading (1 Peter 2:1-9), which talks about how our bodies make up God’s temple, and how we need to clean ourselves up because we’re all priests, being called to make sacrifices to God:
 I invited everyone to come and sit in the big wooden ministers chair (which doesn’t actually get used all that much these days) and to be anointed with oil by another member of the congregation, as a recognition that each one of use is called. (I suggested that one person might anoint another, and say to them, ‘You are called,’ and then they might reverse roles.)

I also brought also some incense sticks for people to light as incense offerings (since we are all priests), to symbolise something we wanted to offer to God. (I had considered bringing some livestock to sacrifice, but I decided that this would not be appropriate, and that the vegetarians and vegans among us would not appreciate it.) We also had our usual candles for people to light along with the incense sticks, to symbolise our prayers.