Year A 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

Text Matthew 4:12-23 – Drop everything.

I am always intrigued by the power that a mobile phone has over people.

You can be deep in conversation with a person and if their mobile phone rings they will stop and search to answer it.

They don’t know who is calling them but all of a sudden they are more important than you are.

Or you’re outside and the phone rings and you almost break your neck trying to get to the phone to answer it.

What is this power that a phone call has over us?

I would like to think that God had the same type of power over us when he calls us.

It seems that Jesus did when calling his first disciples.

When he saw Peter and Andrew fishing, he called to them and IMMEDIATELY they dropped their nets and followed him.

As he went further he saw 2 other brothers – James and John, and he called them too.

And IMMEDIATELY they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

Notice in both situations that there was no hesitation.

They immediately responded to Jesus call just like we do when someone calls us on the phone.

Would you have dropped everything to follow Jesus if you were one of those first disciples?

If God asked you to leave your employment, sell your house, leave your family – would you, could you do it?

It would be different if Jesus were saying – come follow me because I’ve got this business venture where you will make millions.

We’ve seen people prepared to take that risk.

But to leave security and have no idea what’s ahead – that’s a different story.

We don’t always know what will happen or whether we can afford it.

Have you ever experienced what you believe to have been a call by God?

What does it sound like?

How can we be sure it’s from God?

Sometimes we stand at a crossroad and we are waiting for God to call out to us to help us decide what direction to take.

We might be facing a big decision about our employment.

Pastors quite often face that dilemma when they receive a call from another parish.

Pastors are allowed to weigh up that call over against spiritual criteria which is usually their current call to their parish.

But many times that call is weighed up against seemingly non-spiritual matters:

Their children’s schooling.

Their wife’s employment.

Other personal considerations that would make it difficult to move.

Is it right to say “no” to that call or should Pastors, like Peter, Andrew, James and John, drop everything and immediately respond to that call.

I would like to think that our entire life is a call from God.

Every day God calls us to follow him.

We have choices every day.

The problem is that much of our day is made up of routine and therefore we don’t really see our everyday mundane lives as callings from God.

We wake up, have breakfast and then start our daily routine:

Off to work, off to school, off to the doctor, house work.

Read the paper, watch TV, play sport.

Back home, tea time, bed.

Has God had any role in your day?

For many people, that’s the extent of their routine.

Each day God is calling us to follow him but it often doesn’t feel like it.

But we can misunderstand what a call from God looks and sounds like if we believe that it is always a sensational event.

I often get asked how I decided to become a pastor.

I think people are looking for a spiritual journey I took that led me on a soul searching venture.

No – it was a lot more boring than that.

A friend of mine who was studying at the seminary said how good it was and that I should do it also.

So I applied.

I wasn’t unhappy in my work or have this burning sense of calling to become a pastor.

But that’s how God works a lot of the time.

Paul was concerned about the Corinthian Church who had become focused on the Holy Spirit working in sensational ways – speaking in tongues – miraculous healings – prophecy.

And it was causing conflict.

Paul was called to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom.

Paul says the cross of Christ is central and sensational.

How often don’t we read about people’s amazing conversion stories and wish that we too could have that experience.

Or how often don’t people insist that we too can experience what they experience if we had enough faith.

Paul sees it differently.

He says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who don’t understand it.

Sadly even some Christians don’t understand that.

Whenever I see TV evangelists the message is consistently the same.

The more faith you have the more spectacular work of God you will see happen.

The more you do and give to God, the more God will do for you.

If that’s true, I wonder where Jesus went wrong.

He gave his life to God and still cried out – my God – why have you forsaken me.

St Paul gave up his life as a leading Pharisee only to have been in prison, flogged, exposed to death again and again; whipped, beaten with rods pelted with stones, shipwrecked, in danger from rivers, bandits, and even his fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in the country, at sea; often going without sleep, food and water; cold and naked. Besides everything else, he faced daily the pressure of concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

That’s not very spectacular, and it’s not really what a person would drop their nets and sign up for.

But that’s the message of the cross;

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

You are called every day.

Every day you are called to put your trust in Jesus.

You are called to let go of your “nets”.

Your “nets” are the things you usually put your hope and trust in when you things are not going well.

These “nets” can hold us back from experiencing where God is leading us.

One of the biggest nets we need to let go of is our sense that we are not called by God.

Luther says God has called us to a Station and Vocation in life.

Our stations are as parents, children, friends, uncles, aunties, grandparents – we are called to honour God through these stations.

But we also have been called to vocations – our employment and other duties, paid, volunteer, in and out of church by which we can honour God.

Every decision, every action we take, every word we speak is important to God.

No event is commonplace that God is not present with us in them.

God is present in the ordinary, in the normal, in the routine, in the mundane just as God is present in ordinary things - bread, wine, water.

And so the biggest call that we respond to is when we think about the next action we do – the next word we speak.

Is it bringing glory to God or is it bringing him dishonour?

When we speak a word of forgiveness rather than anger – we are responding to God’s call.

When we call or visit a person in need rather than focusing on our own needs – we are responding to God’s call.

When we do our work in an honest way, loving and respect others, we are responding to God’s call.

When we take time to pray for others we are responding to God’s call.

There are many ways in which we respond to God’s call and probably 99% of them are in ordinary, mundane, run of the mill things we do each day.

We might not see them as important but nothing is unimportant to God.

Just watch the excitement of parents when their child takes their first step even though they will take millions in their lifetime.

When they say their first of millions of words they will speak in a life time.

God has the same excitement every time you speak a word of grace or do something to share his love.

Grace comes in unspectacular deeds sometimes, but it is grace nonetheless.

Jesus calls us to leave behind our “old way of life,” to repent our former way of understanding and participating in the world.

Our lives, as well as our everyday tasks will take on new meaning when we see everything we do – even the mundane and routine – as a calling from God.

Sometimes that call disrupts us as we are called to leave behind the ways we find comfortable and are challenged to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, but let us remember, that as we follow Christ, he has gone ahead of us to give us strength and hope.

The message of the Christ might seem foolishness at times but it is always the power of our salvation.