For many are called, but few are chosen

02Jul
For many are called, but few are chosen.
-Matthew 21: 14


I’ve recently read a book, given to me by my father-in-law, about callings. The book, appropriately titled, You Have a Calling, asserts that everyone is called in some way to do something. While the book mostly gives a positive view of callings, Jesus gives some harsh reality at the conclusion of the parable of the wedding feast, one of today’s Daily Office readings, when he says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

In the book, early on, the author, Karen Swallow Prior, writes, “Ultimately, we can trust that when we are called, the call will - eventually - come through. Sometimes it might require a few tries to make the connection. Sometimes the call gets dropped. Sometimes someone gets a wrong number. But if we keep working at it, the call will come.”


Jesus and Prior are talking about two very different types of callings. In the parable, Jesus is speaking of the calling from God to be in relationship with him: to join the Kingdom of Heaven, to participate in the great wedding feast. For Prior, she is writing about how to discern the ways in which we are all called to spend our lives - whether it be as part of one's career or in their free time. Still, even with those differences in mind, the messages may seem to be at odds, if not in content than in tone.


However, I see a through-line that exists in both narratives. In Jesus’ story, “many” of the subjects of the king are called to attend the wedding banquet. It is only those who refuse who are not “chosen.” All that were called had the opportunity to be chosen. In Prior’s book, all will receive a call, or many calls, but the responsibility falls on the person being called to answer the call. We have to “keep working at it.” Simply receiving the call is not enough, in either narrative.


So, how do we be sure we answer our calls when they come our way? How can we be sure we are “chosen” for the great banquet? Prior advises that we first consider where the call is coming from. “Even if the sense of our calling is felt within, the actual call comes from other people - and ultimately, we trust as believers, from God. God is an external, objective source. He is someone else. We are not him. So, when people tell me they feel called to do something, I want to ask, ‘Who is calling you?’” 


If, upon prayer and reflection, the answer to that question seems to be God - and Prior believes that can mean God working through the people around you - then we certainly should do everything we can to follow that call, and see where it might lead. It may lead to something as small as a new discipline to add to our daily or weekly routines, or it may lead to something much larger. It can, for some, transform their entire lives. Have faith that, even if we cannot see where the path ahead leads, if we hear a call coming from down that path, and we discern it is coming from God, we are safe to follow that call and see where it might lead.


Musical Reflection - "Brand New" - Ben Rector with Cody Fry and the National Symphony Orchestra



God, help us to listen for your call, and to “keep working at it” until the path forward becomes more clear. When we feel calls, help us to discern where they are coming from and whether they are worth following. Even once the call has been heard, God, we know that the work is not yet done. Expand our faith, God, that your callings for us will be revealed and that the transformations that will follow, like all things that come from you, will be good. Amen.

Prayer

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