[This is what I delivered last night with minor alterations. If you're curious, the lessons for this week are Isaiah 9:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, and Matthew 4:12-23.]Many terms which are used in Christian theology come from Greek. For example, the Greek word ekklesia [εκκλησία], which means a “gathering of those called-out” or a “gathering of the called ones”, has come to refer to the "Church" or the "Body of Christ" (we consider the terms to refer to the same thing). Over the period of human existence, God has called to people—Adam, Moses, the prophets, Mary, Peter and Andrew and the other Disciples—some responded, some, like Adam, hid themselves.
Matthew’s Gospel today has the calling by Jesus of Peter and Andrew to “follow me.” As Jesus calls his Disciples, we see a pattern. These are not the people of privilege and status. They are common people, not perfect specimens of humanity. Jesus doesn’t ask what Peter and Andrew believe, he simply says “follow me.” They answer the call and their lives are transformed to become “fishers of people.”
Jesus’ call and the Apostles acceptance changed their lives, but they remained human. Part of Peter’s attraction to us is his humanity—we can understand his fearful denial of Jesus because we have the same impulses. I can certainly identify with his ability to follow up a magnificent statement of faith with a horrible clanger. The Apostles argued about their places in the Kingdom and that is all too human as well.
Through the centuries, Jesus has called all sorts and conditions of people. Some were famous persons we remember; many more were common folk whose names are lost to us. He called a rich young man named Augustine and a rich man’s son named Francis. He called a nun named Teresa and a medieval noblewoman named Julian. Their following Jesus continues to echo down the years to us in their writings and in the communities they inspired.
In our own time, Jesus called a German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Ugandan archbishop named Janani Luwum and an Albanian nun whom we would know as Mother Teresa. Each of them knew the dangers involved—in fact Bonhoeffer and Luwum paid with their lives, yet they put aside what they were doing and answered the call. They followed, and we honor their lives as a monumental testimony to the power of God’s Love.
If we hear and answer God’s call, our lives will change to some degree. Our relationships are transformed. Things will not automatically be easy. We may not face the same risk of persecution and death that the early Christian martyrs faced, but we may find that we have priorities that are not the world’s (or at least our modern consumer culture’s) priorities.
In reality, everyone that has walked the earth has been called in some way by God. We believe that God is universal, being at all times and in all places. He calls everyone—every human being—to Him. His call can come in many ways. It is up to us to hear and listen to that call and to decide whether to answer it. God lets us refuse His call. Some might wonder why an all-powerful, all-knowing God would allow that. God wants our love and worship to come freely from our hearts and souls. What good is love that is coerced? Is it even “love”? True love and worship is given freely. God has given us the freedom of choice to answer His call to help establish the Kingdom of God in the here and now or to refuse.
While we may refuse the call, we are drawn to answer. We all have our own gifts to use in bringing into being the Kingdom of God. Lent is approaching. During Lent, let us try to clear away the “noise” in our lives that keeps us from acknowledging the call of God, so we may do what we can to bring forth God’s kingdom.
