I remember back
around the year 2000 the United States Army wanted to change it’s
recruiting slogan. The one they had, “Be all
you can be” or “Be all (that) you can be” as the jingle went, had apparently run its course. I never would’ve
thought it, but that slogan is by some popular survey the number one most
memorable advertising slogan there has ever been. The Army’s announcement that they were
looking for a new advertising slogan shocked the world of advertising. Why fix what ain’t broke? They then changed it to “An Army of One”
which was counter-intuitive to the necessity of teamwork. Recognizing that, the Army has now ventured
into pick-up truck-ish slogans with “Army Tough”
Personally, I think
they should have stayed with “Be all you can be” and I think most Americans
probably have not realized the slogan has changed. That advertising slogan has been so popular
because it captures the vision of young people who are between the ages of
fifteen and 22. We all want to grow up
and be somebody, not just anybody, but somebody. The Army was saying that it could help a
person do just that. Through sacrificial
service to one’s nation, Army values, and Army Code of Ethics would make a
person a very fine somebody.
Yet, there’s a catch
this ad. It picks up on this vision of
young adults who are thinking: “I want to be somebody and nobody can tell me
who that is because I’m going to do it my way.”
There’s a streak of arrogant independence that comes along with being a
young adult. This Army ad makes you
think that you’re going to be able to be all that you want to be in the Army.
When in fact, it is the Army who’s going to tell you who you’re going to
be and that’s “soldier.” In fact, when
you enter the military you actually give up your right to become what you want
to be. You also give up your right to
individual freedoms. You even give up
your rights as a U.S. citizen. But, you
give up these rights for the sake of a higher and nobler cause, that of protecting
the individual rights of civilians. In
the army, who you are going to be is a servant of the common good of the
nation.
It has long been the
philosophy of the United States military that a person cannot become all that
they can be unless they learn what it is to become servant of all for to be all
that you can be is a call to service. I
think the Army has something there. It
is very difficult for us to find human fulfillment without the sense that our
lives are serving a higher purpose. We
cannot be in life just for ourselves. We
must be in it for others.
It is not just the
military that realizes this. It is also
biblical to say that we won’t find fulfillment in life until we pick up on this
sense of being called to service, to become servant of all. Finding the higher calling is part of what’s
behind our Scripture reading this morning.
Paul realizes that his calling in life is to be a traveling missionary
preacher who proclaims the gospel everywhere he goes for Christ’s sake. He is not concerned so much with who he is as
an individual but with how he might serve the higher purpose of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. He put aside who he wanted
to be in life, which was a zealous Pharisee, in order to become what Jesus needed
him to become so that we all might better understand what God has done for
humanity in, through, and as Jesus Christ.
Paul lived his life
under a higher calling. The focus of his
life was to serve a higher purpose. But
he would, and I will also, call into question this idea that one must serve a
higher purpose in order to have a fulfilled life for not just any purpose will
do. There are people today who say you
will be happy just as long as your life is lived for a higher calling or higher
purpose. You’ll be happy if you get
involved in human rights efforts. You’ll
be happy if you get involved with saving the whales because your life will be
serving a higher purpose. But, not just any
higher purpose will do.
You see, the Trinity
has created human beings in such a way that our lives are meaningless until we
find our meaning in the loving communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The meaninglessness that we experience in life
is actually a spiritual hunger, a hunger to know our Creator whom we have
spurned; a hunger to be in a relationship with God the Father through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This spiritual hunger cannot be satisfied
until we respond to the Father’s grace in Jesus Christ and through the bonding
of ourselves to him, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we participate
in Jesus’ missio dei; his work of
bringing in the Reign of God through which he makes all things new. Serving just any higher purpose will not feed
our spiritual hunger. It may make us
feel like we’re better for serving a higher purpose, but it won’t feed that
real hunger that we have for the love of God the Father freely shared with us
through the Jesus the Son in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Paul served Jesus as
a traveling missionary preacher. That
was his higher calling. But for us who
are, let’s say, just ordinary folks, ordinary believers whose calling is not to
be traveling missionary preachers, our calling is simply to share the good news
that there is meaning and purpose in this life right where we are at, at home,
at work, in school. Being living
examples of the transforming power of the love of God in Jesus Christ is our
higher calling. Being awakened by God’s
grace and sharing that joy is where we will find true meaning in life. There are things in life like friends,
family, or work that make life more meaningful, but they cannot give our lives
ultimate meaning. Only our sharing in
Jesus relationship to God the Father by our union to him in the Holy Spirit and
participating in his mission and ministry to redeem, to give value a dignity
back to his creation can give us true meaning.
So, how do we get in
on this? Well, the fact of the matter is
that you are already included. God is
constantly at work in our lives and becoming a part of that is at heart simply
coming to grips with it, accepting him, and going where he leads you. It’s giving up on being all that you can be
and devoting your life to becoming like Christ.
Being a Christian is living a life of constantly turning away from being
self-led towards being Christ-led. It is
constantly praying for Jesus to make you aware of how he is at work in you, to
pour his Spirit into you and make you a new creation. Being a follower of Jesus is simple but yet
the most challenging effort you will find yourself involved in. Amen.
