Another Calling

Clips from today's Gospel in Matthew 4:

Jesus saw two brothers and said to them,

“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ...

He saw two other brothers, ... and he called them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Preachers have often pointed out a couple of things in this passage.

#1. That Jesus must already have been known by these fishermen since he doesn't introduce himself or anything else. He just invites them along his way. Others will use that tidbit of trivia to point to how powerful a person Jesus must have been since he could just walk up to some strangers and they follow him. I tend to agree with the first interpretation.

He was living in Capernaum, Matthew has told us, so evidently he was not a stranger. I like better the idea that Jesus is, in essence telling them, "OK, the time is now. Let's go." Perhaps he had shared something of what he was about to do, perhaps not. When God's time is at hand, it is time. Which leads to...

#2. When God's time is at hand you drop whatever it is you are doing and follow. You even leave behind what you have been doing and let the old man finish repairing the nets. Talk about irresponsible. Over the centuries I am sure there have been many who have done the same thing with Jesus and have been called irresponsible, etc. But when it is God's time, well, it's God's time.

I am tempted to say that in our much more complex 21st Century world this is a more difficult thing to do. I don't think so. It is always difficult to make the moves that God is calling you to make. In spite of the political rhetoric of the Religious Right, it will always go against the grain of whatever society, culture, political system, or century you are living in.

That may be the deep message of this passage. The more we are hooked into the culture, etc, the more difficult it will be to follow Jesus in all his fullness. We will always make excuses for staying behind or defining God's will and direction too narrowly.

I like to think of what happened in this morning's Gospel is that the call finally broke through- and they saw the need to follow. They were finally ready- on some level or another- to begin the journey. They continued to struggle- hard and often as even a quick reading of the Gospels shows. But they went.

Will I?

Which is not really the question for many of us. Rather, when the call comes the next time will I be willing to put it into my life in whatever new ways it is being presented? No matter what I am doing at the time? No matter if it doesn't seem to fit either my culture - or my prejudgment of what that call might mean?

That is part of the excitement of Jesus. You are never sure when or where he will show up and simply invite you to follow.