Who's calling please?

The concept of a "call" to ministry, or any other action taken in the name of Christ, is a somewhat slippery one. After all, if God is still "calling" men and women to a specific task of service, it's a pretty subjective experience for the one called. The apostle Paul had a very definite experience on which to base his claim that he was "called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God" (1 Corinthians 1:1). But normally, when the New Testament speaks of God "calling" believers, the word is used in the sense of the call to salvation by the Holy Spirit.

We often hear of someone speak of a call to the professional ministry, meaning a sense of conviction and certainty concerning the will of God for that individual. But I've never heard of someone claiming to have had a "Damascus Road" experience, upon which to base their claim to be so called. Instead, it's the more ordinary sense of inner leading that is, for practical purposes, indistinguishable from, say, a doctor's sense of vocational calling, or what my wife experienced when, even as a young girl, she sensed she should train to be a nurse (and she did, and her career has supported that perception).

But, does that subjective conviction or sense amount to a divine calling? That's where the slippery part is. To automatically ascribe such a conviction to God gives room for all kinds of people to attribute their actions to God with justification, including those who commit acts of violence "in the name of God", or because "God told me to." Surely, there ought to be some way to connect such perceptions to the Bible, in order to separate an actual "calling" from an ordinary, and very human sense of psychological attraction to an idea or practice. Otherwise, how do we know who's really "calling"? It could be just the echo of our own mind, as is surely the case with those who feel they've been called to do things clearly outside the bounds of biblical truth.

And, case in point, today's news from the recent meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (the largest and most liberal-leaning Lutheran denomination) tells how the vote of those gathered went in favor of allowing ELCA churches to be pastored by someone who is both homosexual and sexually active in a "committed" relationship. They aren't the first to take this step, just the latest. The justification for this action was expressed by one delegate as being consistent with God's leading in his own life, as he said, "The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us." (My emphasis)

So, which is it? Are they indeed "called" by God, or are they just "led" (by whatever influence or perception that might be)? If the Bible is a unified book of God's inspired writings, then there is no way to justify such a calling with the clear statements of Scripture on the subject of homosexuality; at least not for those who take the Bible's words at face value, and don't try to bend them to fit modern sensibilities on this subject. Such "same-gender couples" may "live in love and faithfulness". But that doesn't mean they are biblically in the same category as a heterosexual person in respect to the calling of God to do His work (not that all heterosexuals are cleared for takeoff in the ministry either).

So, who's calling? If God has called these individuals to proclaim His gospel in a professional sense, then those who interpret the Bible to say that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle are mistaken (as the gay-friendly churches are indeed saying). But if that's the case, then I've wasted 35 years of Bible study on a book that can't be trusted to say what it means. Either that, or God has changed His mind of this subject and I just didn't get the memo.