My Calling

My calling, to use Judaic terms beyond a Judaic context, is toward a prophetic and rabbinic ministry. I am called to pedagogy, to teaching the meanings, interpretations, implications, and applications of religious wisdom and truth, in the manner of a rabbi. I am called to proclaim the glad tidings of God, as Jesus did, and to a saving or healing ministry, as Jesus’ own ministry was, salving the wounds of sin and pointing the way to salvation in the embrace of eternal life.

My vocation is to reinterpret the Hebrew and Christian scriptures for the hermeneutical edification of my Christian and non-Christian contemporaries. I feel I am in an apt position to do this, as a member of a post-Christian religious movement, descended from Jewish and Christian traditions. If we have largely outlived the usefulness of the old modes of meaning making, we have not transcended them. We still live in the world our forebears have made. In our own lives, following in the living tradition we have received, we are making a world of meaning our progeny will inherit.

My vocation is to serve the people of God, that is, all people, and to serve God’s purpose, which is the well-being of all people, because we are all children of God made in God’s image, and God’s will is for justice and mercy.

The glad tidings of God are that you are accepted! You have been beloved of God and accepted into God’s realm since the day you were born, and before then, and nothing you can do or believe, or not do or not believe, will cause God’s love and acceptance of you to be withdrawn.

All that is required of you for salvation is to accept your acceptance. Repentance of sin demands no more of you than this: Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in the presence of God. This is easier said than done, though, because sin abounds. It is as perennial as grass. Sin, as well as hope, springs eternal. Where there is life, there is sin –and hope.

Remission of sin is a process engaged in on the part of the human person who has accepted God’s unconditional acceptance – one who has been redeemed by simple surrender to divine love. This is the ultimate meaning of forgiveness. It is a movement of the human spirit in love toward God, the divinity of being itself that is reflected in the human spirit.

“There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole,
there is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.” (Trad.)

Salvation is never done once and for all. It is the balm of God’s grace given freely and received by faith, and it is the way of life for God’s chosen people, that is, ones who live in faith. All are chosen to be redeemed by God’s grace, but not all will ultimately accept God’s choice.

“I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life – if you and your offspring would live – by loving your God, heeding God’s commands, and holding fast to God.” (Dt 30:19-20)

How shall we learn what God requires of us? By the insights of Holy Scripture and through prayer.