Almighty God, by grace alone you call us and accept us in your service. Strengthen us by your Spirit, and make us worthy of your call, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen
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Gospel St. Mark 1: 14-20
14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news."
16As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
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I was once asked why I became a pastor. I responded that I felt that I had been called by God to enter the ministry. The response from that person was, "What? Did one day God, just call you on the phone and say", "Ernie, I want you to be a minister." I told the person that no, God didn't call me on the phone one day but that I felt that God wanted me to go in that path. Sometimes God's call takes a while and other times it is immediate as in our gospel lesson.
It wasn't by phone that he called his disciples, but he met them where they were at and called them into ministry. We are not certain why these disciples laid down their nets and immediately followed Jesus. Maybe they had been having a bad stretch of luck catching fish. Maybe they were tired of fishing and wanted to change their career path. We just don't know. The Gospels don't give us any reason why they did, they just did it.
Did they have any regrets? Who knows? The one thing for certain is they followed Jesus' call to be his disciples. They did in fact become fishers of men.
We as Christians are all called into the Lord's service. We are called to be disciples of Jesus. We are not called to just sit in the pews to sing, listen, talk and have a snack. We are called in our baptism to be true disciples. We are not just members of a church. That would imply that the church is a country club. Sitting back is not an option if we take our discipleship seriously.
As part of the priesthood of all believers, we are called to serve. We are called to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick and speak up for injustice and poverty. As the disciples were called into God's service so are we. God calls us to go beyond the walls of our churches. In order to meet the needs of those around us, we have to be a missional church. We can't rely on the theory that if you build them they will come. Instead we need to take the words of the great commission seriously. "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations."
No doubt the disciples weren't sure where their following would lead, but they trusted Jesus and left all that they had and followed him. He opened their eyes to new adventures. Opened their eyes to God's power. They saw and experienced Jesus' power first hand, sometimes not understanding where all this would lead. As Disciples of Christ in 2015, Jesus takes us on new adventures and down new roads and new ministries. We need to walk by faith and follow were Jesus leads us.
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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