What call would immediately change your life? Matthew 4:18-25

Simon and Andrew, James and John have been doing the same work their entire lives. Rising early in the morning, they spend long hours in the scorching heat without cover out on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Their hands are severely callused, their arms and shoulders routinely sore, and their backs extremely tight from hauling in fish, that is when they have been fortunate enough to catch them. Zebedee, James’ and John’s father sits in the boat, a constant fatherly presence and a reminder of the one who taught them not only how to fish, but how to live. From the time they were boys Zebedee brought them out upon the water not just as sons, but also as apprentices. These brothers live off of what they catch, and not just them, but their entire families. Before they caught their livelihood in the Sea of Galilee their fathers and uncles did, and their fathers and uncles before them. This is the family business. This is their life. They are fishermen.

Every day possesses the same routine: rise early, cast out over and over again, hopefully haul in fish, then return home sore and tired. Then, one day a stranger walks onto the shore where the brothers cast off to make their catch. He simply utters an invitation, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." The men, without hesitation, lay down the family business, their livelihoods, their life’s work at the request of passerby. “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” 

Wait, what?! Are you serious Matthew?! That’s it?! No further explanation. No more detail, then that they laid down their nets and followed him. We hear this quaint story about fishing for people so many times that it becomes easy to overlook. Simon, Andrew, and the two Zebedee boys leave the work that provides them with food, shelter, and an opportunity to continue living, so that they can follow an itinerant preacher and healer. Fishing may be a smelly, sweaty, back-aching job, but it’s a way to make a living, it is a way of providing for one’s family, it is a way to survive.  

What was Zebedee thinking of his two sons James and John as they put down their nets? He might have thought, “I raised you to be fishermen. Now you want to go and follow this homeless stranger! You are going to throw away your life.” Later in Matthew, Jesus will say, “If you want to save your life you will destroy it.” We all know this saying, but still how many of us could even fathom giving up the power and control we have to make money, to make a living, to provide for our families? This is radical what these brothers are doing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. They are leaving everything they have so that they can follow Jesus. Is there anything in this world that would make you leave your means for security and survival? Or put another way, what call would immediately change your life? 

I can tell you the precise geographic location (All Saints’ Chapel Sewanee, Tennessee) and specific date in history (Saturday, March 22, 2008) when I clearly heard Jesus’ call “Come, Follow me.” The two years before this day had been a struggle. I had fought with God trying to believe that he did not exist, but every time I turned my back on God, he was there. Finally I relented, and so on this night, the night of the Easter Vigil, I had reaffirmed my baptismal vows. I was serving as a chalice bearer, and the first person who extended his hands to receive the chalice was my childhood priest. As our eyes met, we shared a moment of communion. Then, I lifted back the silver chalice to reveal that the reflection in the cup made it appear as though all those gathered around the altar were making up the chalice. We, gathered together, are the Chalice, the Blood and Body of Christ. I knew then, that my call was to serve within that Body and to continue to hold up those sacraments as signs of God’s grace in this world. Before that moment I knew God existed, I knew I loved God, but I was not following him like Simon, Andrew, James, and John. God is calling each of us to immediately drop our nets and follow him. Maybe it’s not so dramatic as what I just described or what the Galilean brothers did, yet we are all ordained through our baptism and we are all called to be ministers in God’s Church.

This week we have spent a good bit of time at St. John’s exploring our congregational call to ministry through the envisioning process. We are learning one sheet of paper at a time, who we are as a community, for what we are thankful, what we yearn for as a church, and what ministries we are craving. As we continue to listen, I encourage us to listen to Jesus’ simple invitation, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” Amen.