Matthew 4:18 - 22
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This short, simple passage has long held my attention. It has been a significant text in my own wilderness wanderings as I've sought direction for my life. I don't always hear clear guidance for the next part of my journey, but I seem to always be buoyed in knowing that Jesus continues to seek me out and bid me to follow him.
And I'm continually challenged by the immediacy of the response to his invitation. "At once" these men left what they were doing . . . my own discipleship is most often much more hesitant and stuttering. For me, that's what happens when I stay too much in my head and close out my heart and soul.
For today, though, there is something else that catches my eye for prayer. Of all the significant things going on in the text, I'm drawn most to the work and the relationships.
Jesus entered the lives of these men in the course of their daily work, that is, what they did day after day. And I notice that in the context of their daily work, he gave them a different way of doing their work, or a different nuance for their work: He made them fishers of people . . . or at least he invited them to fish for people. It was a variation on their chosen vocation. Jesus gave them a way to live out their vocations, only in a way that was a bit out of the mainstream, a way that was counter to conventional wisdom.
He also came to them in the midst of human relationships . . . notice all the references to siblings and parents in the text. Jesus invited them to a holiness or a life-stance that was not divorced from ordinary relationships, but rather which was lived out in the context of ordinary, human relationships. Life with God may not remove us from family and friends as much as it gives us a different way to be in relationship with them.
Both of these items seem significant, both work and relationship. God's call or invitation does not necessarily come in the lofty air of retreat or the beautiful chorus of the stirring hymn or anthem. It does not need to come in the moving sermon or in the confluence of events that are working out in our favor. Rather, in the ordinariness of daily work and relationship God comes.
Most any of us can be moved by the beautiful sunset, the awesome vista, the proverbial handwriting across the sky; but, it takes a depth of vision and a more practiced seeing and listening to come to that same soul-stirring in our everyday work or in the midst of common relationships.
So these are my questions for the day:
If I listened to how God were inviting me in the midst of my daily work, what would I hear?
If I listened to what God is saying to me through my near relationships (spouse, children, parents, siblings, close friends), what would I hear?
No comments:
Post a Comment