Not Invited

I was recently summoned for my first tour of jury duty.

I would have been excited except I wasn’t at home to get the notice in time.

You don’t just wiggle out of a summons. You are mandated to answer.

I called the courthouse and was graciously allowed to serve at a different time. I hung up the phone and turned my attention to a Bible study I’m doing.

I’ve never studied Jude much. Usually, by the time I get to Jude’s short epistle, I am reading at the speed of light to finish my read-through of the Bible in a year.

This year, I saw a study by Jackie Hill Perry and decided it was time to dive in.

Right in verse 1, I learned something new.

Jude wrote “to those who are called.”

Whenever Scripture talks about those who are “called,” I generally think of invitations going out with the R.S.V.P. stamped on the back. Those who are invited have the opportunity to say whether or not they will attend.

We are not invited by God. It is not up to us whether we will attend Him. If we answer His summons now, we join His ranks, alongside Jude, as servants of Christ. If we are forced to answer His summons later, we will go before Him as penitents before our Judge.

Perry writes, “God’s call is not merely an invitation to know Him, but a summons.”

The word summons struck a chord because of my jury summons notice. I understood what it meant to be summoned. Summons don’t come with an R.S.V.P. You will attend, whether it happens now or later.

Jude wrote to those who were called because he shared a common salvation with them. They had all been summoned. They had shown up. The Lord Jesus had claimed, changed, and commissioned them to the same task- following Him. 

As a girl, I can remember the hurt of not being invited to a party that all my friends were going to. I wasn’t invited, and it stung. God’s summons works differently. No one is left out. All are summoned to come to Him. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

When Jude addressed his letter, he added more modifiers than simply “called.” He wrote, “To those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.”

The Lord isn’t simply summoning us to be mindless drone bees serving in His hive. He summons us because He loves us and offers us the protection of His safe-keeping.

When I take my children swimming, they hand me all their valuables for safe-keeping. “Will you hold this, mama?”

Their watches, necklaces, toys, and glasses are entrusted to my care because they know I will keep them safe and dry. 

The Lord summons us to come to Him for safe-keeping. This is one time we can be glad we are not invited.