Divine Invasion

Lisa Rzepka, January 30, 2005
Scripture: Matt. 4:12-23; Psalm 27:1, 4-9

The text is terse - in places, which is a blessing. The brief nature of a text gives us wiggle room to imagine possible scenarios and it serves to engage us with the story. For example, imagine what Peter's wife's reaction might have been to this morning's story. Now, we know from the gospel writer Luke, that Peter was married because Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.

What in the world could be keeping him?? Dinner's on the table and he knows we're supposed meet with the carpenter this evening to discuss new cabinets. I know that both he and his brother have been raving over this terrific fishing season which does enable our renovations. But - I've asked Peter a hundred times to call it quits by twilight. That Andrew, he probably talked him into filling one more net, and knowing them one thing leads to another...

Did you ever wonder - did Peter ever go home and tell his wife what the plan was?

Or, think about poor, old Zebedee? For the last three seasons straight the fishing has gotten better and better. Why, the night before he and the boys took in so much fish some of the nets started to rip. They all were up way past midnight counting receipts -- so mending nets had to wait for morning. Long into the night James and John talked about their plans to take over the family business. They were looking forward to branching out in new directions. Maybe open a sushi bar next to the dock. That should bring in a little more revenue. Old Zebedee was counting the days before he and the wife could move to their retirement home on the shore of Caesarea.

Life was normal. Life was good. They had all they needed; at least that's what they thought. And then it happened - the Divine Invasion. Jesus comes to Simon called Peter, Andrew, James and John, extends an invitation. They drop their nets in an instant and follow him. It's disruptive. It's an intrusion. Life will never be the same.

This story amazes me. Four men who, from what we know, had successful livelihoods drop everything and follow Jesus. Did you ever wonder how many people Jesus asked before these four agreed to go…was Zebedee the first to stay behind, or was he one of many… What made the difference?

Maybe the four who accepted the invitation had been experiencing some underlying malaise or discontent…is this all there is…working and new kitchens…is there meaning to all this…Where is my life going? Where is the world going? Obviously, Jesus offered something better... the best ever…a chance for a closer relationship with God. This story makes it seem so easy to find the answer - and at one level it is. Sometimes Christ comes to you and you drop everything and follow. Yet, as you well know the invitations aren't always clear and the answers easy.

Preacher Fred Craddock remembers a summer when he was teaching at Princeton. At lunchtime he found a spot at a table where a young woman was sitting.

"You a student?" he asks.
"Yes, I'm a graduate student."
"In what field?"
"Theology."
"Oh, really?"

I said, "Hello."
He said, "Hello."
"We both cried and said goodbye again," she said.
"Does it still hurt?" Craddock asked.
"Very much," was her reply.

But some are like Zebedee, they don't immediately drop the net - I identify closely with old Zebedee - not so quick to respond to a call. There's so many things to consider…so many risks…

A young college student having trouble with his parents went to see Duke University chaplain Will Willimon at the end of last semester. It seems the young man spent the previous summer working with the poor in Soweto, South Africa. While there God had gotten hold of him, he said, grabbed him and he's been miserable since his return. God won't let go. He decided to forego graduate school and follow where he felt God calling him - back to Soweto. His parents are upset.

Willimon asked, "How do you get along with your parents? What did you have to eat for dinner last night? Do you have a girlfriend?"

After an hour of conversation Willimon could find no satisfactory precedent, no rationale for his change in direction. Willimon concluded, "Well, I guess Jesus really is risen from the dead and is loose, up to his old tricks." (Willimon, William H. "The Long Search," The Living Pulpit. 23 January 2005, p. 20.) Taking people from their ordinary lives and redirecting them to the kingdom.

We may not drop the net right away for often there is an internal struggle. Former chaplain at Yale University, William Sloane-Coffin believes "the power of God is lodged in the very marrow of our substance and is pressing, constantly pressing for release in order to permeate every fiber of our being." (Coffin, William Sloane. Credo. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 122.) It gets to a certain point where as the psalmist tells us our heart says, "Come!" …and we follow the call.

To be a Christian, one who follows Jesus, is not about believing a half dozen impossible things before breakfast. It is being intellectually open to the possibility that something is afoot, that the life you live may not be your own, that God really does mean to have God's way with the world -- through you. God calls you for a particular reason. It's a gift and a burden.

Sometimes God calls and a dramatic life altering decision must be made. But God calls many times in our lives and at some level, all of God's calls are life altering - they function to redirect us toward God. Maybe the call is to be an elder or deacon. Maybe it's a call to take time off and travel out of your comfortable existence into the lives of those who live differently - in Appalachia, Africa, Mexico. Perhaps it's a call to help lead a midweek program, or getting involved with youth somewhere in the world, or maybe it's working on a capital campaign. Perhaps it's carving out time in a busy schedule to work with the poor and needy in the community or maybe it's to experience God in Sunday school.

God's call intrudes on our time and invades our lives. God is determined to have us and comes looking for each of us one way or another. Because…

Something is afoot!
    Repent!
       The Kingdom of Heaven is near!

Hearing Repent used to make me cringe until I realized it's not an indictment about sin so much as it is a promise. Repentance is all about redirecting oneself to the Source of all Life. Jesus' words here this morning show us how Repentance and Call work together. God's calls - and I do believe they are plural -- serve to redirect us, refocus us on our relationship with God. And in that relationship - the gift - we are put to work - the task. Thinking about the Kingdom of Heaven being near or 'at hand" is to think of the kingdom in terms of activity rather than space. The promise is not so much about being rewarded with a space in a far off place. The characteristics of the kingdom are about activity; healing, reconciliation, inclusiveness, relationship with God and one another.

When Christ calls, he summons us beyond the point of our familiarity, asking us to risk doing something we don't yet know what to do, to become someone we're not sure yet how to be. It's not just that we're taking a risk on Christ. Each and every time he calls, Christ is taking a risk on us. ("What About Zebedee?: Living by the Word" The Christian Century. 11 January 2005, p. 17.)

© Copyright, 2005, Rev. Lisa Rzepka
All Rights Reserved.
Providence Presbyterian Church
Fairfax, Virginia