Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 8: 14-22

With so many of our American neighbors stationed at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have become more acutely aware of the realities of service to our country. When someone signs up with the Armed Forces, there is a contract that he or she will be ready and willing to go wherever needed. And we are also aware of what that means to families - it is a great hardship to have a son, a daughter, a mother, a father overseas. It is a sacrifice that the rest of us must never take for granted.

Today I'd like to talk about availability - what it means to be ready to serve. And soldiers are certainly a prime example of that. There are other examples, too. As an ordained pastor, I have sometimes had to struggle with the privilege and the inconvenience of itineracy. Itineracy is the contract we enter when we are ordained that says that we are ready and willing to be moved and deployed by the bishop wherever he or she needs us. It is a way of saying that we will be totally available to God. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when a pastor would listen on pins and needles to the appointment list at Annual Conference, and hear for the first time where he and his family would be moving in two weeks. Thankfully, that time has gone - but pastors and churches and bishops still live with the realities of itineracy.

The thing is, it's not just for soldiers or for pastors to be available to serve God - it's for all of us. At any given moment, how available are you to do what God is calling you to do? In Genesis 12 we read about a man named Abram. Today, Abram would be ten years into his retirement - he was 75 years old. He had a wife of similar age. He had lived a good and productive life in the land of his birth. It was rocking chair time. And yet, we read this: 'The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you..." He didn't even know where he was going! But he packed up and went - that's being available.

Our other scripture this morning is from Matthew 8; last week I mentioned that this part of Matthew is considered to be an instruction manual for apostles - those sent by God to be His representatives in the world. In other words, all of us who call ourselves followers of Christ. Last week, the "A" word for apostles was Active; today the word is Available. Apostles are available to be sent, and here's how Jesus puts it:

'A scribe ...approached and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'" In other words, do you really want to follow me? Because I have given up home, family, career, security - in order to be totally available for the mission God has sent me to do.

Then it gets harder yet. Another man, says the scripture, said, "...first let me go and bury my father." Sounds like a reasonable request - and more than that - the fifth commandment is, "Honor thy father and thy mother." This man simply wanted to follow the commandment. But Jesus said, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." In other words, even family obligations are not a strong enough reason to be unavailable to God. And this is one of several places where Jesus makes just this point; he almost seems anti-family. Is he really saying to sell everything and be ready to hit the road like he did? Is he really saying to shun family responsibilities?

No, probably not. What he is saying is, Be available. Be ready to respond when God calls. Don't hand God a million excuses. I heard about a man who was helping his neighbor, and found himself down in a pit with a role of cable and a plumbing snake. His neighbor heard him talking to himself, saying things like, "My mother needs a ride into the city; my wife has a headache; my car is in the garage; my brother is coming to town..." Finally the neighbor yelled down, "What are you talking about?" And the man said, "I'm practicing all the excuses I'm going to give you next time you ask me to help you with a septic problem."

Lots of times God gets excuses from us; we can be pretty imaginative when it comes to finding reasons not to go when God wants to send us.

Let's look at some of the things that hold us back. First of all, we are unavailable because we are too wrapped up in 'things.' An Osage Indian chief said to his new white neighbors, "Everything about you is in chains." And that is a good description of the way we are living these days as individuals and as a society. We are mortgaged to the hilt; indebted up to the neck; so tied up in stuff that we won't be free for years, if ever. It is true of our nation - we have now piled up a national debt that is going to shackle future generations throughout the 21st century. One commentator put it this way: "We call ourselves a free country; we are really an indebted country." And what's true for the whole country is true for more and more of its citizens. When I was a youngster, Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song with the line, "St. Peter, dontcha call me cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store." That song is appropriate again; a lot of people owe their souls to credit card companies and other creditors.

So what if you suddenly had a strong passion to reach out to a lonely kid in the neighborhood, or to stop and help some one by the side of the road, or step forward and take a heavier role in your family or your church. What if that was God calling you, but your response had to be, "I would, but I've taken on more hours to pay for the stuff I charged this past year." In other words, you are unavailable because you are entangled in 'things.'

Another way we are unavailable to God is that we get out of shape. There is a measure of truth to that statement in the physical realm - physical fitness can be a great asset to God's work. But I'm talking here being spiritually out of shape. I'm talking about knowing enough about the Bible to open it and show somebody a verse that can help them. I'm talking about enough background to tell someone why you are a Methodist. I'm talking about having a sense of your faith journey that you can share with someone. In other words, I'm talking about a faith that is in shape - it is disciplined and practiced and available to God for His purposes in the world.

When I was in seminary, I took some courses at St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Seminary. There were some women in the classes; I asked a couple of them what their plans were. Both said that they planned to be Roman Catholic priests. "But... the Catholic Church doesn't allow women priests." "Well," they said, "when the day comes, we'll be ready." My goodness, what faith!

So, let's say sometime this week a co-worker or family member or neighbor is in serious crisis, and you are the one who is there. No time to say, Oh, I'll get a pastor or a lay leader. It's you. Are you in shape to respond? Can you bring prayer and faith and love into that person's life? Or are you unavailable because you are out of spiritual shape?

Some of us are unavailable to God because of closed minds - and closed minds are very closely related to fear. Two caterpillars were crawling along the ground, and they looked up and saw a monarch butterfly majestically flying by. And one caterpillar said to the other, "Ha! You'll never get me up in one of those things!" That's a closed mind; and it's all about fear. And the Church is a famous place for closed minds, especially expressed in what have affectionately been called the Seven Last Words: "We've never done it that way before." There are churches all across this land who are dying out because of their absolute devotion to that phrase.

Now, some things must not change: the message we proclaim; the God we serve; the cross of Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit that surrounds us. These are constant things - we never throw them out. But the Gospel has always received new life when people keep a growing edge, and respond to the language of the times in which they live. The thing is, those two caterpillars are choosing between two things, but one of their choices is not to stay on as caterpillars. Their choice is to become a butterfly, and fly - or to die. Closing our minds to new possibilities, and new ways of communicating God's love - is death. So what if God tapped you on the shoulder, and said, "You are just the right person to teach that class," or "lead that project," or “share that talent." And you say, "Naw, you'll never see me doing that." You are unavailable to God because of a closed mind.

This list could go on. We are too entangled by things; we are spiritually out of shape; we are close-minded and fearful - what other ways might we be unavailable to God? Again and again the witness is affirmed that only by being ready to fulfill our God-given destiny can we find happiness and peace and true life in this world.

Such was the story of Andrew Young's daughter. The former mayor of Atlanta brought his daughter up in the church, and prayed that she would turn out to be a good Christian. All through high school the prayer was answered - she was kind, nice, popular, everything her parents had hoped for. Then one day after her graduation from college she shocked everybody by announcing that she was going to go to Uganda and be a missionary there. At that time, Uganda was perhaps the most dangerous place in the world.

Andrew Young came unglued, and said, "You can't do that! I won't let you do it!
It's too dangerous." And he protested, and forbade her, and argued against her...right up to the moment she hugged him goodbye and got on the plane for Africa. And he realized he had never seen her happier. And he turned and walked away with tears of worry and pride and love and amazement. And when he described it he said that he had always prayed that his daughter would be a 'good' Christian. And unbeknownst to him, she grew instead into a real one.

Are you available when the call comes that will make your faith, your purpose, your life?