I lost my child. Have you ever had that happen to you? I felt like a terrible father. One minute she was beside me in the department store, and the next minute she had vanished. As I looked out into a sea of clothes racks and lengthy aisles, I was scared. Have you ever felt that fear? I immediately called out for her…“Mikayla”. There was no child to be found. The only response to my call were the judgmental eyes of bystanders. A few good Samaritans offered to help and together we all called out for her. We looked high and low for what seemed like an eternity. Until eventually she was found hiding amidst a clothing rack. Her sparkly little ballet shoes gave her away and she was having a good old time of playing the age-old game of ‘hide and seek’. I called to her with tears in my eyes: “Mikayla, I have been so scared. I thought I lost you”. I held her a little tighter and a lot longer than I normally do, and I began to grow eyes in the back of my head as a father.
This morning, we focus upon a very different story of calling: Jesus calling the first disciples. The disciples weren’t lost, per se. But Jesus’ call shifts them towards a new way of living and being. For us as a church, this passage is very significant because it reveals how the Church works. Matthew tells us that after John is arrested, Jesus withdrew to Galilee, settles in Capernaum, and begins to proclaim a simple message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In many ways, he is doing what John had already done. And then, almost immediately, Jesus does something striking. He starts calling people. And for us as individuals, it reveals the parts of how God calls us. When Jesus begins his public ministry, it is not with a manifesto, a miracle, or a mass gathering. (but we will get to that a little later)
If you were to imagine the beginning of the followers of the Way (as they first called themselves), is this really how you imagined it to start? No miracles, no healing, no wise debates with the Pharisees. The beginning of the Jesus movement was with a call to ‘come and follow me’. Jesus’ call to each of the twelve was the key for the movement’s beginning! And before there is a movement, before there is a structure, before there is even a name for what is happening (like ‘Church’ or ‘followers of the Way’), Jesus begins by calling His disciples. This matters. Because it tells us something essential about how God works. The kingdom of heaven does not arrive fully formed. It comes near through people; ordinary people…those who are willing to listen, to hear, and to follow. It reveals what I view as the two parts of the call to Jesus’ people.
Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee and first comes across Simon Peter and Andrew doing what they have always done: casting nets into the water. He calls them. He next calls James and John while they are mending theirs and calls them. We notice that none of them are seeking Jesus. None of them have applied. And Jesus says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” We notice what Jesus does not say: “Come and AGREE with me.” He does not say, “Come and UNDERSTAND everything,” “Come when you’re READY.” He says, “Follow me.” Follow me…follow me…and Matthew reports that the disciples leave their nets immediately. That word “immediately” can make us uncomfortable. Most of us don’t experience call that way. We hear it slowly. We resist it. We negotiate with it. But Matthew’s focus is less interested in the speed than the clarity: when Jesus calls, he calls to all of us…ready or not, formed or not…Jesus calls. And this has, and always will be, the way of the church…called by Jesus.
So, what does one’s call look like? The more I think about, I think there are two distinct parts to one’s call. The first part of Jesus’ call is about nourishment and care: Jesus does not call them away from the world; he calls them into a spiritually nourishing relationship with it. “Fish for people” is not an escape from their daily life. It is a reorientation of purpose. The skills they already have, fishing, will be transformed for something larger than themselves. The first part of call is the focus on nurture and the larger connection to God. This call begins not with knowledge, but with trust; not with certainty, but with movement. When we turn to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, we see what happens when the church forgets this. This comes at a post-Jesus time as the church is forming in ‘house-churches’ in communities across Asia Minor. Here we find ourselves in the Northern part of Greece, then called Corinth. The Corinthian community is fractured. People have begun to organize themselves away from Christ and around people’s individual personalities. They would say: “I belong to Paul.” “I belong to Apollos.” “I belong to Cephas.” Paul is heartbroken. “Has Christ been divided?” he asks. Paul knows how easily discipleship can slide into competition. How quickly calling becomes status. The Corinthians have turned their attention away from the call of Christ and toward the credibility of human leaders. I’m a member of this church; I’m a member of that one. The first, and foundational, part of call is the deeply rooted connection we have on Christ. Not with a spiritual leader or with a denomination…but with Christ. The first part of our call is considering how we are actively nourishing an ongoing relationship with Christ. How are you opening your ears to hear Christ? How are you opening your heart to experience Christ? The first part of our call is the active opening of ourselves to be in relationship with the Holy One through Christ.
There is a second part of the call as well. Equally important, I believe. In the letter, Paul responds in a surprising way. Paul is one of the most significant figures in scripture. Responsible for the expansion of the Church throughout Asia Minor. Yet, here he minimizes himself. He reminds them that he did not come with eloquent wisdom, that he did not baptize many, that his role is SECONDARY to the message itself. “The message of the cross,” he says, “is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” It’s NOT about the individuals; it is about Christ’s call to servant leadership. The second part of call is our personal expression of servant leadership into the world. The second part of one’s call is how we are actively expressing it in the world. We follow the one who served; who washed the feet of others; who ultimately gave up his life.
For some of us, ministry looks very public. Teaching, preaching, leading, organizing. For others, it is quiet and hidden: listening, caring, advocating, praying, showing up when no one else does. Both are equally important! Some are called to build. Some are called to heal. Some are called to challenge. Some are called to sustain. The mistake we often make is thinking that ministry is something added on top of our lives, rather than something woven through them. Getting back to the gospel lesion, Jesus does not call fishermen and then ask them to become carpenters. He calls them to be who they already are…fishers. And then reshapes what they already know how to do. In other words, begins with vulnerability; with humility; with the willingness to allow Christ to guide our God-given talents that were already there.
So, as we consider the two parts of call, the questions for us are: How are you opening yourself to God’s nourishing spiritual presence? How are you opening yourself in order that you might receive God’s blessing, guiding presence? It will ebb and flow. How you listen and receive God’s nurture will, necessarily change over time. And the other question pertaining to call is: what is your call this new year? Not what WAS your call in the last period of your life. But what will be your call in this period of your life. Given your time, talents and treasure. Given the ways God has equipped you. How will you express your call in this next period of your life.
God is calling. Are we listening with open hearts? Are we serving with open lives?
Amen.