Jesus calls us

Readings for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany: Jonah 3:1-5,10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 for a display of all these readings go here

When we want something done
we are often tempted to say:
Put an advert in the bulletin
or make an announcement and ask for a volunteer
And my experience has shown me
that this is often. even usually, unproductive.
There are many reasons why this is so,
and we do not need to canvass them at the moment.

But today's readings show us that when God wants something done
as we read the scriptures
and reflect on the lives of God faithful people
God calls...individuals, groups
specifically and directly.

So today there are a number of insights
into what it might mean
to be called

Going backwards
Right at the beginning of his ministry, as Mark records it,
Jesus calls disciples.
This is a fairly curious event
It is done like this:
jesus makes a proclamation
...The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God
has come near; repent and believe in the good news.....

I wonder if anyone understood what he was saying,
in hindsight we read a lot on to it
but it is a generalisation
and it will only be fleshed out
as events take their course
and come to their fateful conclusion on Calvary

As Jesus moves on he invites the first four disciples,
Simon and his brother Andrew, and then James and John,
to "follow him"
Many of us would understand this,
so attractive is the person of Jesus
that we want to be with him,
you may have felt like this at a time when you gave your life to him,
when you were confirmed, or baptised.
Others of us just know the great joy
of always having had the privilege to follow Jesus.

What we can observe is that the four first disciples
can never have known
what they were letting themselves in for.
As the Gospel goes on it is clear that they misunderstand Jesus all the time,
they are at odds with him
and at the crucial point
they desert him.

What are we to make of all this?

Moving on
As we trace back through the readings

• Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that it is easy to be lacklustre about being a disciple. And that discipleship requires not just a general sort of adherence, but rather a commitment
• It needs the commitment that is like saying...this is more important than my marriage, this is more important than my grief, it is more important than that which causes me to be most excited. It is more valuable than the greatest possession that I have. It is is more important than anything in which I am caught up with in the world.
• He is not saying, I think, that these things are not important. But rather in his emphatic way trying to get us to understand the depth of commitment that is necessary if we are really follow Christ.

Similarly as we reflect on the story of Jonah
we note that God's called people
are sometimes unfaithful to the call
We say we want to be faithful
but we are not prepared to do it.
Jonah was told to go and tell the people to repent
...but he was frightened, unsure....and well we know the rest of the story
We hear today that
he is able to have a second go,
despite his failure
despite his stubborness
(even then as we read on in the story
it is not over)
So we have two more insights

1. Discipleship requires deep commitment
2. Discipleship admits of the sort of failure that allows us to mature by it

A pattern has now emerged

• God calls us to be disciples
• We may not fully understand what this means
• We may sometimes get it wrong
• We may sometimes be willful
• God continues to call us
• The call is not so much to do things as to be with Jesus
• this requires deep commitment
  

Measuring stick
As we hold up our own lives
I suspect we see this pattern there too
We know the sense of call
We may not be sure just what it is we are supposed to do
But we learn that we are taken there by being close to Jesus.
Sometimes we are bad at this, often we are willful, disobedient, arrogant.
God continues to call us
we are invited to be seriously committed.

I pray that as we face challenging times
as a parish, as individuals
that we may also pray for this strength to be more deeply committed.
For the courage to embrace failure
for the desire not so much to be successful, big or famous
but rather to be close to Jesus.

Have we the courage to exercise this source of discipleship?
I believe so
God gives us the Spirit to achieve this.
Do we have the will to do it?
We can decide...but will we?




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