Lent- Day 11
Lent 2010: A Season for Listening
3/1/10-Day 11
Note: For the next leg of our Lenten journey together we will be taking a whirlwind survey of the Gospel of Luke and giving ear to the teachings of Jesus. In the coming days we will experience the radical and often shocking words of Jesus that will take us all the way to the events of Holy Week and the Cross. Be warned this is not the tame and toothless Jesus that we have tried to domesticate throughout the centuries; this is the wild and dangerous Lion of Judah, never safe but always good! May the words we read and the message we hear be a holy irritant on our souls causing us to produce precious peals of righteousness! Speak Lord your servants are listening.
Listening to The Teachings of Jesus: Part 1
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” – Luke 5:10b
For years I thought that to become a true disciple of Jesus I had to become someone different. I knew from an early age that I was called and charged with the privilege of proclaiming the Good News. For years, (sometimes reluctantly, sometimes eagerly willing), I waited for God to transform me into a preacher. Suddenly, one day I realized that the transformation was not the beginning but a part of the journey. I would not be made into a preacher so much as I was to become a preacher as I tried to live into my sacred office. Some instantaneous transformations are years in the making.
How about you? Are you waiting for something to happen or change before you get serious about our common evangelistic vocation? There maybe no golden day or magic moment that will mark the beginning of our service of faith sharing and witness, except that of your baptism that has indelibly marked you as a minister of the Gospel. Jesus does not so much change who we are as redirect and focus our lives in a new or different direction. Peter and these first disciples will still be simple fishermen from Galilee, but from this moment they will be working for the Lord and will be casting nets of glad tidings to gather and harvest a new people for God.
Today we remember the first command of discipleship, “Do not be afraid”. Our biggest challenge is just to show-up and be open for new ways of experiencing and sharing God’s love. God is responsible for the catch. God is in charge of who, where, what, when and why. God is responsible of the work of convicting and redeeming. We just get the honor of watching the Master work up-close. And some times, (Thanks be to God!) we get tangled in our own nets and end up catching ourselves in the process. Go fish!
– Rev John Mattox
Let us pray,
Amazing God,
How is it that you would call us
who are just simple people to serve you?
Help us to be filled with love and
confident of your presence with us
so that we may catch the people to whom you send us
until all the world knows of your love.
Thank you for calling us. Amen. –Rev. Katie Mattox