Sunday Service 17th May

May 17
9 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unNXNeyFozI

Calling/Following

17/5/26

Call to worship

Hymn 530: One more step alone the world I go

Time for all

Hymn 340: When Jesus saw the fishermen

Prayer of Dedication of offering

Reading: Luke 5: 1-11 Margaret

Prayer

Reading: John 1: 35-42

Hymn 532: Lord, you have come to the seashore

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 522: The Church is wherever God’s people are praising

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 17^th May.

This week in our reflection we are looking at our commitment; that moment when we decide to follow Jesus.

And we have two readings of what seems to be the same incident, the calling of Andrew and Peter, but they are completely different...so which one is right?

And how does that affect our calling, our following Jesus?

Prayer of Dedication of Offering

Heavenly Father,

We are aware that we have so much to be thankful for.

We will never truly understand the depths of your love and how you seek to bless us throughout our lives.

As a response we give back this offering, hoping that in turn it can be used so that others know your blessings.

Amen

Sermon

Following the path that Jesus has for us is often a hard path, but is always a meaningful path.

Though I think we sometimes make a mistake in what we think is our Calling.

Often we think that when we make a decision to follow Jesus then that is it. We have made our decision; then we just carry on as if nothing has happened.

We forget how active that decision is in our daily lives.

Imagine that I had lengthy discussions about my weight. And after discussing things with my doctor and my wife I decided that the best way for me to loose weight was to be proactive, to set a goal; like running a marathon.

And having made my decision that was it.

I didn’t train, I didn’t change my diet, I didn’t intend to build up to the marathon by running a few half marathons or do a few park runs.

Realistically...Just how influential was my decision?

And yet in my head I can still delude myself into thinking I had made an important decision.

I wasn’t NOT running a marathon; I just hadn’t done anything to bring that decision to fruition yet.

In fact maybe what I have done is made excuses as to why this day I haven’t done anything.

Like...I am busy at work, I have family commitments, I have to get the weekly shopping, I am just too tired.

I still intend to run the marathon, it is just that I haven’t been able to do anything about it today, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t intend to do something about it tomorrow, or maybe the next day.

And sometimes our faith can be a bit like that.

We have made a decision to follow Jesus...but today, we just haven’t done anything about it. We have just kind of drifted alone.

It’s not that we’re not intending to be active in our faith; it’s just that we are too busy just now to do something specific.

So how do we get out of that mire of indifference or tiredness, or weariness?

I want to look at the apparent contradiction between the two Gospels of John and Luke as to when Peter and the other fishermen were called to follow Jesus.

In Luke’s Gospel it is very clear that Jesus is walking along the beach, sees the fishermen, calls them and they drop everything and follow.

That’s the way we expect to be as Christians.

Jesus calls and we are obedient.

And usually we feel guilty because our faith isn’t like that.

In John’s Gospel however, Andrew is already a disciple of John the Baptist. John points Andrew towards Jesus and then Andrew encourages his brother Peter to follow.

How do we reconcile this contradiction?

First by understanding why the Gospels were written.

Luke wrote his Gospel to the Roman church, possibly as a defence for Paul as he faced the death sentence. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written to explain to Roman officials how Paul ended up in front of them, how the way of Jesus began and how the church grew.

More importantly how the faith is not a threat to the Roman Empire and Paul is an innocent man.

To do this Luke used a lot of material from Mark and Matthew, Mark who had written his Gospel to explain the faith to a non Jewish audience, and Matthew to explain to those of the Jewish faith how Jesus was the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy.

In all three one of the main limitations was space. Papyrus was expensive and limited. So you only put in what was essential.

So both Mark and Matthew have the same story of Jesus calling the fishermen at the shore that Luke has.

The Gospel of John was written lot later. The church had grown, in fact now it was big enough that some Roman officials thought it was a threat to the Empire and so persecutions of the new church had started.

What is more John may have been the last disciple alive, the last of the original witnesses. John knew about the other Gospels and knew he didn’t need to repeat them.

He could give new information, more personal information, and so he did.

So how does that help us?

Well first of all it takes away some of the stress we have that we are not good enough.

According to Luke, if we are disciples like Peter, Jesus offers us a chance to follow him and we drop everything and follow...or don’t.

Those are the only two choices we have.

But if we add John’s memories to this we see it is far more nuanced.

We see that following Jesus is a process.

It is not one decision but many decisions.

First of all there is the decision of Jesus to come to us where we are.

When Jesus is walking along the shore this isn’t the first time Peter and his brother have met Jesus. John’s gospel implies that they have met before, talked before.

They met first of all when John the Baptist introduced Andrew to Jesus and then Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus.

So Jesus doesn’t demand obedience, he is not a king demanding his people follow;

instead he builds up relationship, builds up trust.

Peter and the others get to hear him first, get to watch him first.

In that context the meeting that Luke describes is not their first meeting, and therefore isn’t the only chance that Peter gets to follow Jesus.

Instead, the meeting of Luke is the culmination of many meetings that Peter and the rest have had with Jesus, so we see Jesus gives them time to reflect and decide.

And even then you could argue that at the end of John’s Gospel, after all the betrayals, after the crucifixion and all doubting that comes after the resurrection...that Jesus is offering Peter another chance to follow.

So we see our following Jesus, our discovering of our calling and what Jesus wants us to do with our life, is not a one off, but a continual, decision.

What is more it is one where Jesus comes to us, where we are, in Peter’s case to the beach where he is working away, where he is failing, and offers him a chance to follow.

I think that is still the way Jesus works in our life.

Jesus continually comes to us where we are, not with a one off, ‘this is your only chance to make a decision. If you don’t choose me then I will abandon you, because you have made your decision’, attitude.

Instead Jesus comes again and again, where we are, where we are failing, and offers us another choice...to carry on what we are doing, or to follow him.

And sometimes that will be to carry on doing what we were doing, but under Jesus’ instruction...like telling them to go back out on their boat and to fish again.

And sometimes that will mean leaving what we were doing and go somewhere else, where Jesus is active, so we can work with him there, or just watch him there and learn something.

Here’s the trick.

Seeing that the disciples were invited to spend their day with Jesus.

And that’s all Jesus expects from us.

But what would an ordinary day with Jesus look like?

Let me give you a simple example.

It starts with us acknowledging that the way they saw their world was very different from the way we see ours.

.

Their day started at sunset, or rather their day finished at sunset, and the new day started. Because of the lack of light, often at sunset people just went to bed.

So their day started with sleep.

Their day started with giving up control.

They slept and God was in control, God still worked through the night.

So if they reflected on this.

Their life was not to be in control of things, not to try to manage their life or other people’s lives.

Their job was to let go of anxiety and worry and give it all to God, and then when they work up the next morning they simply joined God in the work he has already begun.

Does that not sound like a less stressful way for us to live our life?

But carry that through into ordinary things.

I’ll tell you a way my life changed...washing the dishes.

When I was a single guy on my own I would leave dishes in the sink.

Let them pile up and do them at the end of the day.

Which was fine because I was on my own and busy doing church work.

And to be fair it was only me so the dishes never really piled up.

But then I married Roseanna, and inherited two boys.

Did I change...nope.

I just left the dishes in the sink, expecting that I would do them all at the end of the day.

But I never needed to because Roseanna would do them when she came in from work.

Now it is not that important, not that special, not that significant.

Except that bit by bit Roseanna was getting resentful.

I was in all morning. Would create breakfast and lunch dishes, and she would come in from a heavy day at work...to see a pile of dishes waiting for her when she still had to cook the evening meal for the family.

Then I would rush in get tea, and then go out to the evening meetings.

I don’t know how long that lasted until I thought about...’how would I do the dishes if Jesus was with me?’

And part of me thought to myself, if I go to the sink and there are dishes there, why don’t I just do them?

Wouldn’t take that long.

Not exactly a great burden.

In the great scheme of the world pretty insignificant as things go.

And yet in a small way, it was a way of saying to Roseanna, ‘I love you’.

Now to be honest Roseanna thought a better way for me saying, ‘I love you,’ was buying a dishwasher.’

But the point is still made.

How does our shopping change if we do it with Jesus?

Would the way we drive our car be different if we did it conscious that we were doing it with Jesus?

On an ordinary day, while doing ordinary things, Jesus came to his disciples and asked them to follow.

Sometimes asking them to do what they had always done, but this time with him, sometimes asking them to leave what they were doing and go out their comfort zone.

And the disciples would fail, and Jesus would teach and they would learn and grow, and Jesus would keep on asking them throughout their time together to follow, to continue to learn, to fail and grow.

And now Jesus is asking us if we want to follow...doing ordinary things with him, and occasionally seeing some amazing things along the way.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Sometimes it feels like we have dedicated our lives to you and it has become a great burden round our neck.

We have worked for the church, for the faith and it feels like we haven’t achieved anything.

We don’t feel like we are better disciples, we don’t even feel we have become better people.

Sometimes it feels like you are further way from us rather than closer.

We are so like Peter.

We have worked all night, keeping the boat wind and watertight, keeping the other fishermen safe from the storms, protecting them from the cold.

But the boat has returned empty.

Our bellies are empty and hungry.

And we have nothing to show from all our work.