A Part to Play -
In the service of the Lord God Almighty
The one thing you could say about Peter and Andrew: they worked hard. In with the nets, out with the nets, over and again, sometimes rewarded by a flash of scales glinting silver in the light of the moon; more often than not, though, just the sound of water filtering through the twine.
What did they think as they gathered and threw, gathered and threw, the motions automatic, unconscious, second nature?
What were their hopes, their dreams, their unspoken ambitions?
A larger boat? Another?
A new home, a new child, a new woman?
What were they thinking as they searched for fish, as they scanned the waves, when Jesus called their names from the shore?
What were they thinking, rowing to shore, trudging after him up the beach, their boat drifting off behind them?
What were they thinking as all they knew and all they loved and all they ever were floated away in the mist of Galilee, as all they ever would be smiled and called them by name?
The one thing you could say about Matthew, he wasn't stupid.
When the chance came to buy into the tax racket he begged, borrowed and maybe, just a little, stole to finance his venture.
A few well placed bribes and he was set for life, money no object, as much or more than the public could bear. As tax collector, the commission depended only on your level of greed and your level of gall, in equal proportions. It also meant that decent, respectable people would never want anything to do with you ever again, but that was a small price to pay for all the comforts and friends that money could buy. No sir, Matthew wasn't stupid, he knew he had it made.
So you can be sure that when Jesus walked by, unencumbered by possessions, his poverty clear by the condition of his tattered sandals, and offered Matthew a chance to drop everything he worked for and follow this sorry parade; you can be sure that Matthew knew what to say.
And by the time he had thought of a response witty enough and cutting enough and guaranteed to draw a laugh from the crowd, he was a hundred yards away from his precious chest of money, and losing ground fast, following the dusty King and his ragged retinue of fisherman friends.
The one thing you could say about Paul, he was determined.
He had outshone his peers and earned the grudging respect of his elders not because of his honourary Roman citizenship, which was as much hindrance as help, nor because of his looks, which seemed formed to ensure a lack of any beauty whatsoever.
No, he had climbed the ladder and scaled the heights and arrived at the top of Pharisaic Judaism because he was single-minded and dedicated and scrupulous and keen.
And when these Nazarenes, these Christians, went around twisting the faith of which he was the most avid disciple, he was determined to drive them into the sea and beat them into the ground and grind them to a pulp, if that's what it would take. He was determined to get to Damascus and weed out the troublemakers before they had a chance to start, to prune the heresy like the gardener prunes the rosebush, like the farmer pulls the weeds.
The sight of Damascus appearing in the distance begins to cheer him, and his thoughts turn to more pleasant things, a cold bath, a soft chair, some decent food. He pats the horse on the neck. Not a bad horse after all, he begins to think, but he never does get a chance to finish the thought, for at that moment explodes a flash of a blinding light, his terrified horse rearing and throwing him to the ground, the shouts of his frightened companions filling the air.
Saul shielding his eyes from the light, throwing his hands over his head in fear of the horse's crashing hooves. And then a voice, next to his ear, a hundred miles away, as soft as the wind, as loud as the thunder.
"Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, who you persecute. Get up and go to the city. You will be told what to do."
Saul with his hands covering his face, hiding his tears, rising to his feet as the sound of the horses returns. The men are silent, waiting, scared; Paul turns to look at them, but he can see only the light which blinded his eyes.
"To Damascus," he quavers, determined; confused, astounded, enlightened, afraid: but determined still. If there was one thing you could say about Paul, he was determined.
Each of these, and so many others, their lives forever changed, forever transformed, forever new. For each of them a time of calling, a time when the Lord was with them, beside them, within them. And they followed.
I often wonder what it is that makes us follow, that makes each one of us come out on a Sunday morning to meet with our God. I often wonder if there are those of us like Peter, like Andrew, like Matthew, like Paul.
After all, if you were to describe Peter and Andrew, you would have to describe people satisfied with what life had brought them, with where life had put them, with what life was giving in return. Peter was contentedly married, a situation in his eyes far preferable to happily married; he got along well with his mother-in-law, and the situation was quickly moving to children. He had inherited his vaguely profitable fishing business from his father, and when the seas were kind there was money for more than the basics. So the work was hard but steady, the life was slow but good.
Andrew was living the less content but perhaps more happy life of the younger brother, with none of the responsibilities of the family business aside from a good day's work; let Peter worry about the bills.
Unmarried, he could afford to wonder a little more about what life could bring, could afford a little less security and a little more risk. The whole world of his limited Galilean perspective was his oyster, and the occasional glimpse of a traveller from far-away caused his mind to wander as he minded the nets of his trade.
And yet when Jesus appears, when Jesus comes, when Jesus calls them out from their old lives and into new, suddenly all that seemed so important and so safe and secure - so vital - paled. The attractions of a safe life, a day-to-day predictable existence, somehow seemed less compelling, and the opportunity to follow, to experience, to serve this wandering carpenter's son, seemed irresistible.
And follow they did.
Why? Why?
Matthew, our tax-collecting friend, had all the pleasures the world could offer. He knew the finest foods and the finest drink, he knew the happy companions of a night around the bottle, he knew comfort and warmth and a soft bed. If Matthew had been living today, he would have had a Jacuzzi and a Lexus and a big-screen plasma TV. Matthew would have had a platinum card. Matthew would have had vacations in Cancun and ski-trips to Colorado. Matthew would have been one of the beautiful people, one of the fortunate few, one of those not only dreaming but living the North American dream. What didn't Matthew have?
And yet when Jesus appears, when Jesus comes, when Jesus strolls by Matthew's store-front, all dust and smiles, and says Come, Matthew goes. He left behind all he had worked and schemed for, all the pleasures he held so dear, and he came.
He went. He followed.
Why? Why?
With Paul, Jesus didn't just stroll by.
You see, Paul was a hard case. Paul had heard the good news from one of the best, from a fellow named Stephen, whose sermon was so memorable we still have a copy handed down to us today. But Paul wasn't impressed. In fact, the whole thing went completely against the grain of all he had ever been taught or all he had ever read or all he had ever held dear.
So when a few of the radicals decided that the only way to shut Stephen up was to stone him to death, Paul more than approved. He decided to make a career of it.
So Jesus didn't bother with the casual approach.
Jesus didn't just call out or wave or enter into quiet, compelling conversation. Instead, Jesus, in all of his resurrected glory, shone from the sky with the light of a thousand suns, knocking the sight right out of Paul's head and the horse out from under the other end. And with a voice that had hardened soldiers hiding behind bushes and shaking like dry leaves in the wind, he confronted Paul directly.
For some reason, when Jesus called Paul, it was with an irresistible fury of love and grace.
Why? Why?
Jesus called Peter out of his contentment, Andrew out of his searching, Matthew out of his self-indulgence, Paul out of his resentment and his rage. And they followed, all of them, because ultimately, that's how God made them.
They were called, ultimately, because God had a purpose for them.
God had a place in his plan for Peter, for Andrew, for Matthew, for Paul. God had a part for them to play, and no-one else would do.
And we are here, because God has called us, has a job for us, a role for us, a part for us to play. Just like Peter and Andrew and Matthew and the rest, it wasn't us who chose God; as Jesus said, "you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last" (John 15:16). This calling is something which God had planned even before we were born, as it was with the prophet Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" (Jeremiah 1:5).
To play a part in this calling is to participate in the timeless nature of the plan of God. The same Paul whom he called said it in this way: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" (Ephesians 1:4-5).
The logical conclusion to draw from this might be that we are so great and so fine and so brilliant and so holy, so indispensable to God, that he God couldn't wait until we came along. But again Paul provides an antidote to that sort of thinking, when he writes to the Corinthian Christians:
"Friends, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
So, with all humility, we must realise that we are here not because of any virtue of our own, but because of the plain and simple fact that God has called us, and called us for a purpose.
There is a part for us a play.
There is a task we have been given.
There is a responsibility we must fulfil.
We have been released from the slavery of our own self-indulgence and concern, and have been called to the service of the Lord God Almighty - not a bad guy to work for, really.
This is a tremendous responsibility, this calling, and it is only with the help of God that we can hope to even begin to live up to it. Others, with God's help, have done so in the past - others like Peter, and Andrew, and Matthew, and Paul. Plain people.
Simple people.
People like you, and like me, who, in the service of God, left a mark on this world that will never be forgotten.
2006 is for Guildwood Community Presbyterian Church a year of transition, a year of change, a year when people will need to step forward and respond afresh to the call of God upon their lives.
This is a year when this congregation will need to band together and work together and support together and dream together in a way different from the last many years.
This is a year when each person here will need to say "Yes" when before they've said "Maybe"; "Yes," when before they've said "No." This is a year when it is necessary to, like Peter and Andrew, put the nets aside, or like Matthew to stand up from behind the table, or like Paul to get down from the horse, and do, serve, go where God would have you be.
As you go home today, I hope that you will think about just what it is God has called you for, what purpose it is you might fulfil.
And maybe you might even pray, this evening, before the lights are out and sleep comes once again; pray that God might use you for his purpose, might show you the task, might direct your attention to a job which needs doing, might prompt your faith.
And with this in mind, we conclude with words from Paul, called of God:
"With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith"
(2 Thessalonians 1:11).
Bible Reading:
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth.
(Jeremiah 1:1-9 NRSV)
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
(1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NRSV)
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