I pray that you are well and are finding your way into this new season of life. Christ is calling us to a deeper life with Him and the grace to use our gifts for His purposes, for our lives and for the life of the world.

 

Jesus calls us, each of us, wherever we are in our lives. There's no preparation. No special knowledge we need to learn and have at hand. No tests. No straightening out our lives in some way so that we are more worthy to respond to His call. Christ calls us out of His boundless love for us, just as we are, with our gifts and weaknesses, with our hopes and fears. He calls us today and all we need do is respond; immediately.

 

At the clergy meeting on Tuesday morning, the Rev. Amanda Eiman, offered a meditation and prayer on the story of Jesus calling His first followers and how they immediately got up from what they were doing (fishing) and followed Him. We talked about whether they knew Jesus and what Jesus was about before He called them. That would make their immediate response seem more normal. After all, if someone is healing the sick, performing miracles and teaching the ways of God and His love, it would make a lot of sense that they would follow One like this. On the other hand, perhaps it was Jesus' power, extended to these first followers. Maybe they simply could not refuse and immediately left their nets to answer Jesus' call. Perhaps they were tired of fishing and any other life would be better than they life they were living and so they followed.

We can never know the exact background of the call this side of heaven, but we do know that they followed immediately when they heard Jesus calling them. We can, too.

 

For those of us who know something about who Jesus and what He is about, the call will make sense. For those of us who know less about who is calling us, perhaps God's gracious power will encourage us to follow. And for those of us who are plain tired of a life absent of the love of God or a life that has become dull or routine, we can be raised to a greater life by following.

 

I invite you to listen for Jesus' call on your life today and start following now. You may not know quite what to do, but if we will answer and follow, Jesus will lead the way.

 

Grace and Peace.

 

P.S. I hope you will join in welcoming our Presiding Bishop this Sunday at the 8:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. services this Sunday. It is a great gift that she has come to worship God with us and share in the celebration of our 300th anniversary!