Called to Follow Christ
James Tissot. The Calling of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew, 1886-1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, click image to link to source.
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 49, Matthew 4:12-23
“. . . And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. –Matthew 4:19-20
Today, the sermon series “Through the Bible” moves to the New Testament. We’ll be looking at the four gospels for a while. More about the composition of the gospels, and their relationships to one another, may be found in the descriptive paragraph I placed in your bulletin.
During the fourth century A.D., when the Christian canon of scripture was formed, Matthew was placed first. Matthew’s opening chapter, with its genealogy of Jesus’ Jewish ancestry, and references to key events in Jewish history, formed a good bridge between the Old and New Testaments. The early chapters of Matthew contain a great deal of material familiar from reading at Advent, Christmas, and Lent. So, for our through-the-Bible sampling, I thought I’d start with Jesus’ call of the disciples.
Jesus had received news about the arrest of John the Baptist, which seemed to call him into a new phase in his ministry. He left his village of Nazareth in the hill country, and moved several miles east to Capernaum, along the beautiful shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. There he began to preach a message similar to John’s, challenging his listeners with the call to repentance.
There, too, he made a decision that some have said prevented his message and memory from dying out after a few short years, and instead created a worldwide movement that has endured. Perhaps with the example of Moses in mind, when he followed his father-in-law’s advice, and learning from the practice of his cousin John, Jesus recruited special helpers to work under his guidance and mentorship.
We don’t know long Jesus searched, but eventually he focused on some fishermen. Capernaum was not a very large village, and, certainly, the fishermen had heard him preaching. Perhaps Jesus had been a guest for dinner in Peter’s home.
Whatever the extent of their prior encounters, it is clear that when Jesus issued an invitation to the first of those to become his disciples, there was little hesitation in their response. “Immediately,” scripture says, they followed him.
I wish we knew more about Peter, Andrew, James, and John. What did they leave behind? Did they have a good relationship with their parents and other relatives? Was their openness to change fed by economic desperation, or by a boredom-induced craving for adventure? Or do all rational explanations fade into the background when we consider the supernatural quality they may have seen in Jesus? We can’t answer these questions; we can only wonder.
This story about the call of the disciples, common to all four biblical gospels[1], became the Church’s model and standard for raising up new generations of leaders. This way of operating speaks to a basic truth about learning that every parent knows: more is caught than taught. We learn more while living in community with our elders and mentors than we ever could in reading a book about them. The picture of their lives is worth a thousand words.
Christ’s call to his disciples is at the root of our English word “vocation,” which comes from the Latin root vocare, meaning “to call.” In a religious context, Christians talk about a vocation or calling to a particular set of behaviors and ethical practices. In our larger society, we know how widely the term is used to talk about jobs and careers.
Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?, one of the most popular career guides ever written, was an Episcopal priest. He helped untold numbers of people think about the religious dimensions of their life’s work. “Why are you here on earth?” he asks. “What’s different about you, from everybody else?” Bolles believed each one of us has something unique to contribute to this world, and challenges every reader to find his or her purpose in life. Bolles made clear an important biblical truth: Discerning your vocation – listening for God’s call to a life of purpose – is a task for everyone, not just ministers. And it doesn’t end at the moment you retire from a job or career.
Some people seem born for one job, and are lucky enough to fill it for an entire career. Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite pastor-authors, and she is not convinced it’s ever that clear for most of us. She once wrote, “In my life so far, I have been a babysitter, an Avon lady, a cashier, a cheese-packer, a horseback riding instructor, a nursing unit clerk, a cocktail waitress, a secretary, a newspaper reporter, an editor, a fund-raiser, a special events coordinator, a teacher of creative writing, a hospital chaplain, a pastor, a preacher, and a college professor – and those are just the jobs that I have been paid for.”
She moves from talking about the jobs she has held to her sense of “vocation” in them. “Every one of these … gave me opportunity to choose kindness over meanness. Every one of them offered me the chance to recognize the divine in human form, inviting me out of myself long enough to engage someone whose fears, wants, loves, and needs were at least as important as my own.”[2] Whatever the job or position of service you hold, there are always opportunities to live out Christian vocation.
Another one of my favorite pastor-writers is Pastor Craig Barnes, recently retired from serving as president of Princeton Seminary. He says that “it is a particularly American preoccupation to reduce God’s call to job descriptions.” Even in our volunteer work, we tend to think of God’s call to the task group that feels just right, or brings the most personal fulfillment. Barnes recalls that the Apostle Paul’s “job description” was to be a tentmaker, “but his calling was to bring the name of the Lord before everyone he met ….” He goes on to say, “I have strong hunch that God is not nearly as worried about how we earn an income as what we do with the name of the Lord along the way. In other words, the real issue is this: Are we being the blessing of God to those around us?”[3]
When Peter, Andrew, James, and John answered Jesus’ call to follow, they couldn’t foresee the concerns and blessings, the tragedies and triumphs, of the journey ahead. They would argue with Jesus about where they should travel, and who they should serve. They would argue about job titles, and who was the greatest. But these things really were not as important as learning from the one they followed, and serving when he gave them opportunities.
Like the original disciples, Jesus calls us to trust rather than fear, to hope rather than despair, to love rather than hate, to serve rather than to be served. May we hear his voice, and follow.
NOTES
[1] Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:2-11, John 1:35-42.
[2] Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, New York: HarperOne Publishers, 107 ff.
[3] M. Craig Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009, pp. 102.
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