True Callings

January 26^th, 2014       “True Callings”         Rev. Heather Jepsen

Matthew 4:12-23

          Our reading for today from the gospel of Matthew is a familiar one to many.  Prior to this reading, Matthew tells us that Jesus was baptized and then was led out into the wilderness for a time of trial and temptation.  Following his 40 day sojourn, Jesus hears the news that John the Baptist has been arrested.  He immediately takes up the mantle of the prophet and begins to preach the same message that John did, saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

          Last week we read the gospel of John’s version of the gathering of the first disciples, and you may remember that in that story Jesus’ followers began from John’s own flock.  Looking for a new teacher, two men left the ranks of John, followed Jesus to where he was staying, listened to his teaching, and began to share the news of what they had found. 

          Matthew tells a different version of the story of the first disciples.  Rather than people actively looking for a teacher of the faith, Matthew presents a teacher actively looking for students.  Jesus appears to be simply out for a walk when he happens upon Simon Peter and Andrew busy fishing.  He calls to them with the famous line, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” in the Greek.  Our version, the NRSV has the politically correct “fish for people” which I like because it includes me, but I also don’t like since it lacks the great play on words that the original has.

          Strangely, these men simply look up at Jesus and drop everything.  Matthew tells us that immediately they leave their nets behind to follow after Jesus.  As the three are walking, Jesus spies two more people, James and John who are working with their father Zebedee mending nets.  Jesus calls to them too, and they also drop everything and walk away from their lives, even leaving their own father behind.

          These are amazing stories of men following the call of God in their lives and there were several aspects of these stories that I was drawn to this week.  The first thing that struck me was the power of the call of God on these people’s lives, and the power of the call of God on our own lives today.

          In my studies this week I came across a great story about this issue told by Professor Rodger Nishioka in the commentary Feasting on the Word.  He writes about watching nature programs with his father who was a Presbyterian minister saying . . .

“One episode I remember fondly was about the elephant seals of Argentina.  The show focused on a mother and her seal pup, who had just been born.  Soon after birthing her baby, the mother, now famished, abandoned the pup on the shore so she could go feed in the rich waters off the coast.  After feeding, she returned to a different part of the beach and began to call for her baby.  Other mothers had done the same, and all had returned at a similar time; I remember thinking they would never find one another.  The camera then followed the mother as she called to her pup and listened for the response.  Following each other’s voices and scents, soon the mother and pup were reunited.  The host explained that, from the moment of birth, the sound and scent of the pup are imprinted in the mother’s memory, and the sound and scent of the mother are imprinted in the pup’s memory.

This fascinated me especially when Dad turned to me and said “You know, that’s how it is with God.  We are imprinted with a memory of God, and God is imprinted with a memory of us, and even if it takes a lifetime, we will find each other.””

I love this idea that Rodger presents, that the memory between God and us is what draws us together.  It is a beautiful explanation of why the first disciples would have responded so strongly to the call of Jesus.  It was a call from a voice that they knew, even if it was only a memory buried deep within their souls.

          Another striking thing about this call narrative is that the disciples were willing to leave everything behind.  They walked away from jobs, from investments like boats and nets, from security and livelihood, and even from family.  Jesus called them, and they simply walked away.  While Matthew presents this as if it were nothing, I don’t think it was.  I imagine it was painful for Peter and Andrew to look back at those nets and boats, I imagine it was painful for James and John to say goodbye to their father.  To assume that this was an easy task is to misread the text.  Yes, the call was strong enough to make them go, but it was not so strong as to wipe out the pain and truth of leaving.

          Not everyone experiences loss like this in responding to God’s call.  For some, the life of faith, the role that God calls us to, is one that can be walked alongside our current jobs and families.  For others, the call to follow is more dramatic and wrenching.

          It would be a lie for me to tell you that my own path to service of the Lord was easy.  I fought the call of God on my life in many ways.  My own story of following God looks a lot more like a blind, wandering, angry Saul then it does like Peter and Andrew dropping everything and skipping off after Jesus.  For many years the call of God on my life was a painful thing.  And yet here I am, happy and fulfilled.  I feel so blessed and I can’t imagine my life any other way.  It was interesting for me to realize this week that I hardly feel the call itself any more.  Living for and serving God has become such a part of me that it is like the air I breathe.  I have become the call, rather than the call being something apart from me.  It wasn’t an easy road by any means, and yet given the choice, I would have and could have gone no other way.

          I don’t think we are all called to such dramatic upheaval.  Many of you here probably have not experienced a call so strong as to make you leave your job and home and family.  Rather, you may have felt a smaller quieter urge, to live your life in a manner suitable to one who is following Jesus.  Sure, it can create dramatic rifts at the office and at home if we are talking faith or politics, but in general, the call of God on your life has not separated you from others.  It has been more like that story of motherly recognition.  You know you are beloved, and you respond to the voice of the one who loves you.  You recognize something familiar in the call from God, and so you follow where it leads.

          The last thing that really struck me about this passage this week was that famous phrase “fishers of men.”  So often we hear sermons about how we are all called like Peter and Andrew to be fishers of men; we are called to go out into the world and fish for people.  That’s a great interpretation of this text, but I’m not a fisherman.  I wasn’t a fisherman before I was called, and I’m not one now.  So what does this text mean to me?

          I think Jesus used that particular language because Andrew and Peter, James and John, really were fishermen.  I think Jesus’ true call on us, would more likely reflect who we are when we are called.  Like Jesus used particular language with them, Jesus uses particular language with us.  Some of us were teachers, and the Lord doesn’t ask a teacher to fish, God asks a teacher to teach.  “Follow me, and I will teach you to teach the way.”  Some of us were in finance and God says, “Follow me, and I will show you the checks and balances of the kingdom.”  Some of us were homemakers and God says “Follow me, and we will make the world a home for all.”  Some of us were painters and God says “Follow me, and we will paint the world with God’s vision.”  Personally, I was a harpist, and God said “Follow me, and I will teach you to pluck heart strings instead.”

          The calling of God on our lives is a calling to become our true selves.  Like our reading from Isaiah, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”  Before the call of God on our lives, we walk in darkness, a shadow of who we are meant to be.  After God calls and we respond, we become fully our true selves.  The light of God shines on us and in that light we become who we were always meant to be: fishers of men, teachers of the way, painters of God’s vision, and those who can pull heart strings. 

          And so, as we think on these stories of Jesus calling the first disciples, I want to encourage you to reflect on God’s call in your own life.  Are you like the disciples we read about last week, looking for a teacher to follow?  Or maybe are you like the disciples we read about this week, dropping everything to follow where God leads.  Regardless of the particular call you hear, it is my prayer that you know and recognize the call of God in your heart, shining a light in your life, to be the true person you were made to be.  It is my prayer that you answer that call to serve God and those surrounding you with love, in your truest form, whatever that may be.  Amen.