Today’s Gospel lesson is a familiar story: Jesus calling his first disciples.
Walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee he sees fishermen, first Simon and Andrew and then James and John. He calls to them to leave their work and come with him. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” he tells them. Hearing this story, we may wonder, ‘What made them drop their nets and go with this unknown person? What drew them to him?’ We don’t know the answers, of course, because Scripture does not share the thought process of these four men with us.
I think one answer to the question may be that Jesus offered the possibility of a new life, one that would stretch these men. In becoming disciples, these four men entered in to new work. Their horizons widened. They traveled to places they had never been before. They met and worked with new people, people who were probably quite different from those whom they had known. They stretched themselves, becoming teachers and healers. They probably did things that they never thought they could do.
That is actually a good description of the life of discipleship to which we are called as present-day followers of Jesus. We are not asked to drop our current work or leave our families. But we are called, each and every day, to stretch ourselves. To reach out in acts of generosity and compassion to others. To face challenges, to do what we did not think we were capable of doing. To carry on what Jesus and those early disciples started.
Peace,
Deacon Sue
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