Called

I want to say a word or two about the calling of the disciples.

The gospel reading is rather straight forward.

            Jesus calls.  

            The four – Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John – 

                        respond spontaneously and immediately.

And thus they set the example for everyone else who was ever called.

                        

We are all called.

You may not recognize or acknowledge it,

            but we didn’t come here on our own initiate.

Whether you heard a voice from heaven,

            felt an inner nudge,

                        were hounded by someone you know,

                                    or simply were curious

you were responding -                         responding to a call.

That’s why we talk about discipleship, why we use that term

            when we talk about spiritual formation as a Christian.

You respond,

            and you are automatically enrolled as a disciple.

Disciple – student, novice, learner, follower, disciple.

Jesus called the disciples for a purpose.

Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John were called first to discipleship,   

    to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him,                                                            

and then to go and be like Jesus for others

so that Jesus could extend his saving ministry through them 

to an even greater number of people

than would ever have been possible for him alone.

Jesus is very utilitarian.

And Jesus is still calling disciples,

            still calling disciples for a purpose,

                        the same as he called those first four.

So we are called into a process of discipleship,

            and that discipleship has a purpose.

We are not called to come here 

            and sit and be comforted and be filled with peace and joy.

That can and does happen, 

                                                and it is wonderful when it does happen.

But that is not the purpose of the Church.

One of my favorite quotations come from the Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, who said:

            “The Church is the only institution 

created for the purpose of those outside of it.”

What do you see immediately in this statement?

This is not your Church!

            It belongs to Jesus.

            We cannot claim ownership.

We, as the Church, the Faith Community, the Body of Christ, 

do not exist for ourselves

            but for those outside these doors.

The work of the Church, one might observe, 

gets done despite us on many occasions. 

Because it is the Spirit of the Resurrection Jesus who does the real work, 
and it is Jesus who has taken responsibility for the work from the beginning.

He doesn’t leave this important work just to us alone, thank God!, 
for no matter how good we think we are, 

we simply don’t live up to our real potential.

Instead, as we heard in the OT lesson from Isaiah:

            “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

            Those who lived in a land of deep darkness –                                                                         on them light has shined.”

This should be music to our ears.

And it doesn’t mean that we should just sit back 

and wait for the Spirit to do all the work.

In order to be a faithful and effective church, 
fulfilling our purpose to which Jesus called from the beginning   

each of us really needs to look at and take responsibility for our own personal spiritual growth.

This has to do with openness to the Holy Spirit working in us,                                          

so that the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming and making us holy 

will produce fruit.

Jesus called the first disciples to go fish 

            not for fish, but for other people, some of their own kind,

            not as food for themselves,

            but a type of “food” for God.

Remember Chapter 4 of John’s Gospel, the woman at the well?

            The disciples came back 

            after he and the Samaritan woman had had a long conversation.  

They had got him some lunch,

            but he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

And he is the Vine and we are the branches

            whose job is to produce fruit – but not for us to eat, 

                        but for whom?                        For all those not here.

What is the fruit Jesus is looking for?  It is characterized or described as 

love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, 

faithfulness, non-violence, and self-discipline.

That’s the list of the fruit of the Spirit as it gets expressed through us.

That describes the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit at work within us.

That is our calling,  and that is how we can fish for others.

            Let our lives and how we live them be the bait.

The actual fruit itself then is that we ourselves become a conduit                                    

            naturally and freely, a conduit for the revelation of God,

just as Jesus did and was and is the perfect and full revelation of God.

So I pray that we will continue to be a work in progress – 

            become disciples that can have some effectiveness and be useful

                        for the sake of all those outside the institution we call Church.