Do you hear what I hear? Yes, I know those are the words of a Christmas song, but even though our Christmas season has concluded, I think that those words are words that you and I are invited to reflect upon today. Do you hear what I hear?

What I hear is the call of God in my life. As we hear in our gospel today Jesus calling his first disciples, we are invited to reflect upon & to pay attention to the ways that God is calling us. God doesn’t just call us once, God doesn’t just call us when we’re young, God doesn’t just call us to show us or to help us see what He’s calling us to do with & in our lives, God doesn’t just call us at the moment of death, God calls us throughout our lives. There’s not one moment where any of us can say, God isn’t calling me anymore. Do we hear that call? And not just do we hear it, but do we respond?

In my own prayer life in these first few weeks of the new year, my own time of reflection, I have heard God calling me to reflect upon & to make some changes in my own life; my physical life, my spiritual life, the way I lead & pastor. I’m still praying with God about what those changes might look like, some may be big, some may be small, some may just be adjusting things here & there, some might not even be noticeable to anyone but me, but as I continue to pray with God about them they are a reminder to me that we never, at least in this earthly life, arrive at that place we can say, “That’s it, I’m done, I’ve got it all figured out, God’s done calling me.”

Do you hear what I hear? Hopefully we do, hopefully we hear how God is calling us, as individuals, as a parish, as a larger human family. His call may not come in the same way, the same shape, the same form, but His call is always there. May we continually develop an attitude & a habit of prayer that helps us to hear that call in our lives...taking time for silence, stepping away from the noise, coming before God with that attitude that we hear from Samuel in the Old Testament, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”