Posted by Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s Gospel recounts the story of the calling of the two brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter, as well as James and John, sons of Zebedee (who were partners in the same fishing business) to leave their nets and follow Jesus. This was not the first time that they had encountered Jesus. According to St. John’s Gospel they had previously been followers of John the Baptist, and had followed Jesus as the one to whom the Baptist had pointed as the Coming One (John 1). But now that Jesus had come into Galilee as the anointed liberator of Israel, he called them to a more definite attachment, to abandon their fishing business and their families, and follow him and accompany him in his public ministry.
The account in St. Luke’s Gospel which we heard today gives more detail than the accounts of the same events in St. Mark and St. Matthew. Jesus is teaching from the boat used by Andrew and Simon Peter for their fishing business. They are called to launch their nets into the deep and this leads to a miraculous catch of fish. When Peter saw this he fell down at Jesus’ knees and said “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5: 8). Jesus responds with a call to a more definite commitment. “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5: 10). Forsaking all that they had they followed him, together with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with them.
This follows the pattern of the calling of the patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament. Abraham, the founding father of the Jewish nation, was called upon to leave his country and his kindred in fulfilment of the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12). Later, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, Moses was called at the burning bush to be the one to lead the people out of captivity into the wilderness and journey towards the promised land. When he protested that he was a man of slow speech and a slow tongue his brother Aaron was provided to speak on his behalf. He was confronted with a sense of the holiness of God and his own human unworthiness (Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground), and responded to God’s call in faith (Exodus 3: 5). Centuries later, the prophet Isaiah heard God’s call in the temple in Jerusalem in the year that King Uzziah of Judah died. Confronted with a tremendous sense of the majesty of God, he senses his own unworthiness “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6: 5). He responed to the call in faith, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us”, with “Here am I; send me” (Isaiah 6:8). In the dying days of the kingdom of Judah before the Babylonian conquest, the prophet Jeremiah was called by God, despite his protests, “Behold I cannot speak, for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6).
In all these cases, at different times and places, whether the patriarchs and prophets of the old testament, or the first disciples of the new, there is a confrontation with God’s call and his message of judgement and mercy, a profound sense of unworthiness on the part of the one who is called, and then a response in faith to abandon a former way of life for the new.
Jesus did not call all his followers to abandon their careers and families, for some remained in their homes with their families. However, he certainly did not promise any of his followers success or comfort in this world. The gate is narrow and the way is hard. The disciples were sent out as sheep among wolves. They were to be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Jesus’ message divided families and communities. Some responded, most did not.
St. Paul experienced that same call when he saw the light on the road to Damascus and the Risen Christ appeared to him. Like the first disciples he was confronted by God’s call and his message of judgement and mercy. He was conscious of a profound sense of unworthiness and then responded in faith by abandoning his former way of life as a persecutor for a new life as a missionary. It was not an easy path for him to follow, for he experienced many trials and tribulations. Yet by the grace of God he persevered and could write to the Romans (in the passage we heard today) that “the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). The sufferings of Christians were in some mysterious way part of the sufferings of the whole creation as a consequence of the fall, and yet the whole creation waited with expectation for the final deliverance from the bondage of sin and death when God would be all in all. “For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now; and not only it, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body; in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is this hope that enables us to bear all things in this life, as we await the coming of that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Let us conclude with a prayer: “O Lord God, who hast called thy servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown: Give us faith to go with a good courage, not knowing whither we go, but only that thy hand is leading us, and thy love supporting us; to the glory of thy name. Amen.”