“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
Follow me
—notice how near God’s rule can be!
Focus on that, not the extraneous stuff!
Isn’t that good news?
Turn to what God is up to,
Trust that God is making you part of it,
and be transformed.
Transformed, not in some ephemeral way, that melts in moments like snow in July,
but in the concrete world in which we live
—after all God uses means to be gracious,
word and water and meal, yes…
but also flesh and blood humans, in all our vocational capacity.
Fishermen, a father, nets and boats
—the whole works
—all of our roles, relationships, and responsibilities
—all of ‘em, shot through with the Spirit.
That’s one of those central Lutheran claims
—God’s holiness isn’t found ONLY among us collared types,
mediated by the Pastor,
pounded out in prayer
—no, as Luther wrote, the Holiest thing he ever did,
was his Fatherly duty
—change his son’s diapers.
Now, all of you have written something down, persons, places, and things
—Relationships, Roles, and Responsibilities…
find a neighbor and share with them a little bit about those
Vocations where you’ve experienced God doing something in your life.
Prayer
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
Follow me
—Repent
—turn 180 degrees, so you’re focused on God’s actions,
make a U-Turn, or at least make a turn on the jug handle,
and get headed in the right direction.
You’re GPS is saying re-calculate,
so that you can find what the Spirit is up to in this moment,
and join in the flow of it!
…Feels like more than a flow, doesn’t it?
—it feels like you’re going against the current,
against the grain, just to gain the right trajectory?
Yeah—that’s because those Vocations of ours, are tricky thing…
those spaces God works through, can also be the Devil’s play place.
We can take our vocations, and make them gods—Idols
—we can start to think of them as ends unto themselves,
the goal not the journey.
We can be captured by them, instead of called to them by God.
Our Relationships can enslave us
—How many messed up behaviors by adults come from bad relationships or misunderstandings with parents from childhood.
How many songs have been written saying that you just gotta find a good man, or good woman and everything will be fine, ecstatic even?
–I know back when I was single, there were times I wanted to be in a romantic relationship more than I wanted to be alive!
The Roles we take on can take us over.
Think of the way some clergy hold so tight to their titles,
that you’d think it was their ordination that brought them into the body of Christ,
not their baptism!
Responsibilities too can callous our hearts to the calling of the Kingdom.
“We’ve always done it that way” or
“I was just following orders” or
“I gotta take one for the team.”
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
Repent of those ways your vocation makes you veer off course, because they can be redeemed, transformed!
Fishermen will become Fishers-of-Men, of People…
After all the boat James and John were on makes later appearances
ferrying Jesus to and fro.
Those nets Simon and Andrew cast aside,
will be cast again to catch a multitude on the other side of the resurrection,
and surely Father Zebedee was not abandon—he’s got a feast day after all…
Our vocations, once relativized,
are moved from being Idols to being part of God’s creation,
and therefore Good and Very Good!
Think of those relationships that drew you closer to God.
How did that happen, what was that like?
Perhaps the ways those people were models of the faith for you,
the ways they brought you along to never be alone,
can be models for the way you share your faith with others too!
The way God drew you to the faith might be where God is calling you now…
sometimes these things kind of rhyme or echo
—and now one of your relationships might be a channel of the Spirit’s work
in a similar way to those relationships that shaped you!
Consider too those roles you inhabit—those identities you have.
Just as the fishing boat was left and returned to, repurposed in light of the Good News,
so too, you might leave and return to a role.
This sometimes happens in retirement:
a trucker becomes a school bus driver,
a Pharmacist or Nurse becomes a medical relief personnel,
a Doctor becomes one without borders.
Alternatively, something done as an amateur, can take center stage
—a passion for guitar becomes a gig becomes a service to God and neighbor,
an early interest in ocean animals becomes a call to conservation,
a flare for the dramatic blossoms into the inspiration of millions,
a role you once loved, becomes your New Old Love.
Finally, our responsibilities, bereft of goals or a larger purpose, can become no more than drudgery or a deflated kind of duty.
Why fix the net, why keep fishing?
But, when there is a WHY to what we do,
when we have a purpose, a goal, a good that gives us meaning
it ennobles our duty,
Tasks can become callings.
I always think of the largest funeral I ever attended
—he was a bus driver in West Philly,
he was known for being so conscientious,
always making sure his riders got home safe,
and when he had the heart attack while driving,
he instinctively pulled his bus over, because he had a responsibility to his riders.
There was a meaning to his duties
—caring for people was his purpose
love was his why and his goal.
Jesus says to us: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Amen!
