Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

The year was 1996.  The most famous preacher in the world Billy Graham was coming to Minneapolis to speak at the Metrodome for five straight nights.  A man, who had met with every President since Harry Truman, a man who had popular television specials, Billy Graham coming to Minneapolis was the equivalent for the Protestants of the Pope visiting.

My Dad and I went down to the first night of the Crusade.  Speakers gave personal testimonies of how their faith had changed their lives.  George Beverly Shea sang “How Great Thou Art”.  Graham then began to preach.  Hearing Graham speak as a sixteen year old, boy, I could see why he was considered America’s greatest preacher.  Billy Graham had a great speaking voice; you could listen to Billy Graham read the phone book and enjoy it.  Billy Graham would tell antidotes and famous musicians regarding how even they felt empty in their lives that something was missing.  Graham’s message was simple and scriptural.  I can’t help not to look up to Billy Graham even today for how he puts a sermon together.

The Metrodome was hanging on every word that Billy Graham said with an intensity rarely captured in that building by either the Twins or the Vikings.  Billy Graham started to speak about the Ten Commandments; he asked if we had broken any of them, because if we have, then we are standing before God like a prisoner awaiting our execution on death row.

Graham then began to hit people with the good stuff of God’s love for humanity.  How each and every one of the 70,000 people there in Minneapolis wants to get to heaven.  Yet there is only one way to get to heaven.  Graham stressed how being baptized and confirmed wasn’t enough.  Billy Graham tried to emphasize the believers uncertainty that they don’t know if they will live another day, so tonight was the night to get their faith right.

Graham emphasized there was only one way to be sure that we were going to be saved.  We need to receive Jesus by faith and dedicate our whole lives to him.  Graham was then going to present the sold-out Metrodome with a wonderful opportunity; they could come forward that night to do all these things.  Half the audience moves forward to the front at this point as “Just as I Am” plays in the background.  People were swept up by the moment.

My Dad and I go forward as Graham had exposed insecurity with our faith that it wasn’t what it should be.  We talk to one of the Billy Graham Counselors who was a nice lady from the Saint Cloud Area, who wants to know what type of decision we’re going to make on that night.  Whether we were brand new believers (which didn’t make sense considering we were both in church every Sunday) or whether we wanted to rededicate our lives to Jesus?  Rededication or recommitment seemed to be the ticket for us.  Stoke the spiritual inner-fire inside us with what seems to be missing.

Graham’s whole ministry was based on the premises that to be saved that we needed to be born again.  This statement is certainly Biblical.  Graham’s whole ministry put being born again in terms of our moral and religious level of commitment and dedication.

Yet, as time went on, I began to question some of the things that Graham said to me, on that night.  Shortly after I figured that I needed to rededicate my life to Jesus.  I was talking to a girl I went to school with that we will call Emily.  Emily was talking about her religious walk when she made the statement that she has had to rededicate her life, several times after getting saved.

Emily’s statements didn’t make much sense to me as Emily was in church (every Wednesday and Sunday), Emily didn’t use foul language, and Emily didn’t smoke, drink, or sleep around.  Emily probably didn’t watch R-Rated movies or listen to popular music.  Emily didn’t do anything that good Christian girls weren’t supposed to do.  Yet Emily would continually keep encountering brick walls where she felt that her faith wasn’t good enough.  As I heard Emily speak about how she was continually not sure whether she was born-again, and if Emily couldn’t’ meet such lofty standards, maybe we don’t think about the meaning of what it meant to be “born-again” quite right.

Today’s Gospel lesson comes to us from John 3.  It’s a story of Jesus and a man named Nicodemus who has a discussion regarding the meaning of being “born again”, a discussion regarding the reality of our personal spiritual transformation.

The key to understanding this passage is to understand the background of Nicodemus before he encountered Jesus.  Nicodemus was no Atheist.  Nicodemus was no moral delinquent.  Nicodemus was one of the most religious men of the day that he lived.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin (the very religious body that would eventually convict Jesus of blaspheme sentencing him to death).  The Pharisees were no religious softies, they constantly railed against the evil influences of how Greek Culture had crept into Israel.  The Pharisees considered themselves to be the hardliners, the purists, the ultra-traditionalists, and the spiritual heirs of Moses.  The Pharisees today would be denouncing the influences of Hollywood, and popular culture as being the cause of all society’s problems.

Jesus during his conversation with Nicodemus admits that Nicodemus was a renowned teacher of religion in his own right[1].  Nicodemus knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards.  Nicodemus was a paragon of virtue and knowledge, yet he came to Jesus as spiritually blind.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he is intrigued after hearing about one of Jesus’ miracles.  Nicodemus knew something from his own life was missing.

Yet as Nicodemus begins his conversation with Jesus about being born-again, Nicodemus just doesn’t get it.  Nicodemus couldn’t understand “How can anyone be born after growing old?”  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and re-born[2]?  What Nicodemus failed to understand was the nature of our gospel.

Nicodemus had heard that Jesus could turn water into wine; he heard that he could open the eyes of the blind; he heard that he could make the lame to walk, yet Nicodemus didn’t believe a type of spiritual transformation was possible that he hadn’t already undergone.  Nicodemus couldn’t believe as one of the most religious men of his day, how far into the muck of life that God could reach to bring forth salvation.

This week a famous religious figure named Fred Phelps died.  Fred Phelps was a Pastor of The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS.  Westboro Baptist Church was famous for picketing events such as Military Funerals, Gay Pride Parades, and various political gatherings.  Phelps would loudly proclaim that any bad event that happened in America was a result of God’s disapproval of homosexuality.  Phelps was one of the least popular individuals in the entire country for a variety of reasons.  People celebrated at his death, they proclaimed that they would soon dance on his grave.

Yet when such language enters into our popular discourse this showcases how few of us really understand the meaning of being “born again”.  Fred Phelps did not represent the best in organized religion.  Fred Phelps openly celebrated God’s judgment, rather than hoping for God’s grace.  Fred Phelps took occasions where people needed to be pointed towards the cross, and Fred Phelps proclaimed Death and Hell as the final word.

Yet we should never celebrate any man’s death, no matter how much we dislike them for any man’s death should serve as a reminder of what we ultimately deserve.  When we stand on our self-righteous soap boxes and wish another man’s eternal man suffering, then we have truly failed to understand what it means to be born-again.

What being “born again” means is that Christ came to the place of our very death the lowest moment of our existence, and sought to take us to the place of re-birth.  Whenever we wish for another man to rot in hell, we realize that we are ultimately no better than how low he sunk.  We fail to recognize the vulnerable Children of God that our God might dare to save.  Any fool can proclaim judgment upon other people, yet it takes someone being born again to really understand grace.

The struggle over what it meant to be born-again is one that Martin Luther struggled with for many years of his life.  Luther looked in the mirror, and saw no differently than my sixteen year old self or Emily, all the ways that they failed to measure up to God in their daily existence.  Yet Luther ultimately realized something very important about his faith that he expressed in the Catechism when he said.

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith[3]”.

Luther realized that his re-birth wasn’t about his actions in any way, any shape, or any form.  The best translation of our passage from John 3 isn’t to say that Nicodemus was told that he must be born again; rather that Nicodemus was told that he must be born from above.  This interprets the Nicodemus story in a whole new way.  Luther realized that his salvation was not dependent a level of spiritual achievement that his weak and sinful nature ultimately did not possess.

My point this morning is not to bash Billy Graham.  Billy Graham has clearly presented the Gospel to hundreds and thousands of people.  What I will say is why I don’t like to describe myself as being born again because of all that goes with it.  Born Again Christianity today is defined by what you do, rather than what God does within you.

The thing about Nicodemus is his problem was not lack of religious motivation.  Nicodemus rather couldn’t believe that God could actually turn him young all over again.  Nicodemus couldn’t grasp that we have a God who took one of the greatest persecutors of the church in Saul of Tarsus and blinded him on the Road to Damascus making him the church’s greatest evangelist.  Saul was totally unaware of the spiritual transformation that was capable of hitting him until the moment that it happened.  Nicodemus couldn’t grasp that we are as capable of choosing the time for our spiritual rebirth as we are choosing the time that we are physically born.

The hardest thing for a believer is to believe that he believes.  Because of our weak and sinful nature, we will always struggle with our own sense of self-doubt.  Satan exploits us in these moments, to convince us that our faith is insufficient, that we’re truly not born from above.  The problem with getting swept up in the grand religious fervor of the moment like a Billy Graham crusade is that today’s religious experiences often encounter tomorrow’s reality (the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh).

The key emphasis in Lutheranism is not our personal commitment to Christ; it’s rather the depth of Christ’s love and commitment for us.

Nicodemus’ story has a nice ending.  In the 19th chapter of John after Jesus died, Nicodemus assists Joseph of Arimetha in preparing Jesus’ corpse for burial.  The fact that Nicodemus would be so much importance in Jesus’ burial that one needed to go through death to be brought back to life shows that Nicodemus finally did get the meaning of being born from above.

Being born from above is a symbol of a powerful miracle that takes place when faith is created inside us in spite of our every urge to resist it.  The scriptures describe this just like Billy Graham says as standing before God dead in our sins[4], yet as the Apostle Paul says in the waters of Baptism we are given the Holy Spirit and given new life[5].

This can happen as an infant, or it can happen later in life upon hearing a powerful preacher like Billy Graham.  Yet rest assured it is not our decision, it is not dependent upon our ability to transform ourselves, it is not dependent on our standing over and against our neighbor, and it is only dependent on being “born from above” as a result of God’s wonderful healing grace.  Amen

[1] John 3:10

[2] John 3:4

[3] Luther’s explanation to the Apostles Creed found in the Small Catechism. 

[4] Ephesians 2:1

[5] Titus 3:5-7

Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

The following story is inspired by Pastor Teber Hill whose legacy I hope to appreciate in some, small way today along with our Gospel lesson from John the 4th Chapter.  This story is a retelling of how the story of the Woman at the Well in the town of Sychar might look if it were to take place today.

I want to tell you the story of a church not unlike one that you know that sat in a small, sleepy Minnesota town named Sundsvold. 

A woman named Shelley had recently moved to town.  Shelley was a single mom with an 8 year old son named Tucker.  Shelley came to Sundsvold as a way to escape her past.  Shelley had been previously married to Tucker’s Dad Craig who worked as an over the road truck driver.

Shelley had met Craig in High School and Shelley was really taken in by Craig.  Yet once Tucker was born, and being awaken at 3 in the morning became a common occurrence, Craig started to grow distant by spending more time on the road.  Craig claimed it was for the money, but Shelley started to suspect something else was at work. 

Shelley’s heart was broken as she eventually discovered that Craig was cheating on her when he was away from home.  Shelley met other men after Craig left her life, men that she wanted to believe could actually love her, but once these men got what they wanted from Shelley then the phone calls stopped coming, and the men would quietly drift from Shelley and Tucker’s life. 

Shelley was not raised in a real religious home.  Her parents weren’t into what they deemed to be “god-stuff”.  Shelley had only been to the occasional church service with her grandparents on Christmas or Easter.

Yet when Shelley moved to Sundsvold, Shelley wanted a fresh start for herself and Tucker.  Shelley was fearful for Tucker’s future.  Shelley dreaded more than anything that Tucker would end up like her in life. 

Right down the block from where Shelley lived was Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church.  Shelley didn’t know the difference between a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Baptist, or a Catholic. 

Shelley saw that there seemed to be a lot of kids around Saint Martin’s Sunday school every week.  So Shelley decided that she wanted Tucker to join Saint Martin’s Sunday school program.  Shelley decided that she should also get involved down at Saint Martin’s. 

Shelley was nervous about all this to be sure.  Shelley didn’t really think that she would fit in.  Most of the people who Shelley knew well weren’t really all that religious.  All Shelley remembered from the few church services that she did attend was not being quite sure when to stand up and sit down. 

Shelley decided that she wanted to put herself out there.  Shelley didn’t know how the church crowd would respond to her as a single mom.  Shelley ultimately decided to show up at Saint Martin’s because through all the issues in her life the pain, the trouble, the mistakes, and the heartache what she had been doing wasn’t working.  Shelley was started to be convinced that nobody in the world really knew her, that anybody possessed the ability to really understand what Shelley was struggling with on a day to day basis.

So as Shelley stopped by Saint Martin’s one day, she saw a sign that read “Sunday School Teachers Needed”.

Shelley had never attended Sunday school as a child, she really had very little idea what Tucker might be learning, so Shelley figured if she signed up to teach Sunday school it could be beneficial for both her and Tucker.

Saint Martin’s Board of Education sat down one day to plan the upcoming school year.  The Board was made up mostly of young mothers full of energy and new ideas.  These woman had husbands with good jobs and well-behaved, honor roll students for kids.  These were the type of young mothers that any church would love to have involved.

The one exception to the Board was an old lady named Emily who sat alone and quietly in the corner.  Emily had been on the Board of Education for years and years.  She had been the Sunday School Superintendent of Saint Martin’s for decades.  Everyone would have just preferred that Emily stepped down from the board years ago.  Emily would often be forgetful with projects, and was starting to have a struggle taking care of even herself. 

Emily knew the scriptures like the back of her hands, yet the other women on the Board thought that Emily was incapable of understanding how today’s kids learn with all their tech gadgets as they thought Emily to be living in the past.

As the Board of Education met that August night they looked down at the names of signed up teachers where they saw Shelley’s.  No one in the room really knew Shelley all that well.  They had seen Shelley around town.  Shelley on account of her youth and good looks seemed to be popular with the men around Sundsvold.  Yet seeing Shelley around you would think she was anything but polished.  Shelley’s breath would smell of cigarettes.  Shelley’s wardrobe wasn’t always stylish or neat.  Shelley’s job working as an aide down at the local nursing home barely allowed her to live check to check with Tucker.

The women on the Board of Education didn’t know if Shelley teaching would be a good idea.  They feared what the people of Sundsvold would think about Saint Martin’s if they knew that this Shelley lady was teaching, only for Shelley to stumble home from the Bar some night with a sleazy gentleman.  

Emily had tended not to say much at these meetings, as she felt her input would often go ignored.  Yet as the Board of Education was discussing how they could allow Shelley to teach, Emily felt compelled to speak up. 

Emily didn’t have any idea who this Shelley woman was that the women were describing, yet Emily knew that Jesus’ whole ministry was centered on reaching outsiders.

Jesus’ whole ministry was based on going outside the bounds of the type of people who were going to make good Sunday school teachers.  Jesus reached out to sinful women like the woman caught in adultery in John 8, he reached out to the lepers that had been cut off from society, and he reached out to the Tax Collectors like Zaccaheaus who were hated by society. 

Emily did not want to condemn Shelley, because she knew that Jesus had a very similar encounter in the Christian Gospels with a Woman at the Well in a town called Sychar.   

The thing that really stood out to Emily about the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well from the town of Sychar was that Jesus loved that woman in the midst of her great sinfulness and made her the biggest priority of his outreach once he encountered her.

Emily then asked the Board of Ed. what Jesus might do if she came across this Shelley?

Emily pointed out that Jesus would seek to free her, forgive her, and ultimately change her existence.  Jesus would have offered Shelley living water from which she could receive nowhere else.  

Emily knew and admitted that there were probably things in Shelley’s past that could have justified her fellow board members in being harsh with Shelley, yet she knew this wouldn’t have been Jesus’ approach. 

Emily knew that what they were going to discuss that night at the Board of Education was much more important then what other people might think of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church, Emily was rather fighting for the soul and character of Saint Martin’s which was the soul of the Gospel.    

Emily pointed out at that meeting that:

A church that doesn’t risk being embarrassed really isn’t much of a church at all.  How she would rather that Saint Martin’s gets burned by being too gracious to those in the community, to be the type of church that gives out money even when they know they might not be paid back, rather then the type of church who is completely jaded by the possibility of God’s grace coming through to other people.

Taking in Shelley as a Sunday School Teacher could lead to a Scandal, no different then Jesus asking a Samaritan woman for a drink could lead to a scandal. 

Yet Jesus had been a much higher priority then caring what people might say as he interacted with the Jews’ natural enemies.  Jesus instead cared about offering living water to the most hurting of individuals. 

Shelley was going to be wanted by Saint Martin’s because Jesus would have reached out to Shelley were she was at this point in her life, not where the religious crowd thought she should be.  Jesus would have promised to Shelley the type of water that would leave her never thirsty again.

The reason why the story of the woman at the well in the town called Sychar was so important to Emily is because the Sychar Woman’s story is the story of most of us.  The reason this story of the woman at the well is included in John’s Gospel is because John knew that living water could be offered in not only the midst of the Woman at the Well’s pain, not only in the midst of Shelley’s pain, but rather all of our pain.

As the rest of the woman on the Board of Education heard Emily speak they knew that Emily had won the argument.  As they heard Emily speak, they were reminded about all of the things in their own life that they feared being exposed in the light of the day.  They then understood that Shelley was really no different from any of them.

Shelley ended up teaching Sunday school that year and the year after then the year after that.  Shelley and Tucker would start attending church more frequently, and eventually get baptized together.  Shelley came to believe that the “living water” of forgiveness of which Jesus spoke was really for her.

The women who were initially skeptical of having Shelley teach Sunday school were changed overtime in their perspective.  Shelley was outgoing, funny, and the kids loved having her as their teacher.  Shelley was eventually taken in by Saint Martin’s as one of their own.  This meant the world to Shelley.  Shelley would come to become as valuable as any member of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church.

Shelley ran in a different circle then the typical church crowd.  Shelley started talking to her co-workers about her faith and what a change it led to in her life.  Shelley had morphed from someone who knew very little about the church to its most effective evangelist.  What made Shelley so effective was that she had come to Saint Martin’s from within the midst of a deep burden helping her relate to others that were going through their own issues. 

As Shelley became more involved in Saint Martin’s, she started reaching out to other people in the pews.  People who were going through more in their life then they care to admit to their fellow church members or their Pastor.  People would open up to Shelley like nobody else, because Shelley got those people because she had been where they were.

Shelley had no religious training.  Shelley’s life had been transformed.  The Living Water that she had received from Saint Martin’s had opened her eyes, and began to heal her wounds.

Shelley had only walked through Saint Martin’s doors because her life up to that point had been so screwed up; she wanted something better for Tucker. 

Yet in the midst of all the brokenness of the Board of Education, Shelley had received grace.  Shelley had received this word of grace at the very moment when she most needed it.  This led to Shelley having an enthusiasm about her faith that was so rare it almost became contagious.  Many people would come to believe because of Shelley.

As for Emily, she would not be long for this world.  Emily worried greatly about the future of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church.  Perhaps that was why she spoke so forcefully in Shelley’s defense.  Emily and Shelley had never met before that Board of Education meeting.  Yet they soon met and became fast friends.  Shelley looking up to Emily’s grace, and knowledge and Emily being taken in by Shelley’s youthful energy and empathy.  Saint Martin’s was richly blessed because God had led both Emily and Shelley into their midst. 

Perhaps you know a town like Sundsvold.  Perhaps you know a church like Saint Martin’s.  Perhaps you know a lady like Shelley.  Yet what you don’t know is where living water might spring, just as it sprung up for the Woman at the Well of Sychar.  Amen

Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

There is no greater story then someone emerging from the humblest of backgrounds that eventually changes the world. 

A number of years ago there was a girl born to a teenage mother in small-town Mississippi.  This girl’s mother was a housemaid.  This girl was so poor growing up that she had to wear Potato sacks for clothing, as all the other children made fun of her.  At the age of 9, this girl was sexually abused.  At the age of 13, this girl ran away from home.  At the age of 14, this girl got pregnant but lost the child shortly after birth.  This girl then turns her life around, becomes an Honor Student in both high School and college.  Shortly after College, this girl lands her dream job as a TV Anchor in Baltimore, Maryland only to be fired after several months with the station executives declaring that “she was unfit for TV”.  This woman though soon found a TV format that better suited her style, which allowed for more ad-lib and free-flow.  This woman would eventually become one of the most well-known and richest women on the planet.  This woman’s name is Oprah Winfrey.

The US Presidency, in my lifetime, has been occupied by the son of a shoe-salesman and a homemaker from the small village of Tampico, Illinois who is Ronald Reagan.  While another President was born three months after his father died in a car-crash, then his mother would remarry a man who was an alcoholic and a spousal abuser.  The child from these humble begins was Bill Clinton.  These are just three stories of people from unlikely backgrounds changing the world.

These stories are not unlike today’s Gospel reading which deals with people from unexpected backgrounds being called by God to change the world.  Today’s Gospel is the calling of the disciples Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  Digging into these men’s background we find some interesting things.  Jesus encounters these men in the town of a Capernaum a town of a thousand people that very few people had even heard.  These men were odd choices as Jesus’ earliest of followers since they were not educated men or religious scholars, in all probability these men couldn’t even read.  These men had no influence, or money, there most notable skill was that they were fishermen.  Yet this wasn’t even all that unique a skill because the whole economy of the area of Capernaum was centered on fishing.  These men were not uniquely good at fishing, as their nets were unable to produce any fish on that day. 

Why Jesus would have chosen these men doesn’t make any sense.  Peter! Peter lacked courage, when Peter would later be asked if he knew Jesus upon Jesus’ arrest, Peter denied knowing him three times.  James! And John!  Here Jesus was choosing a couple of hot heads.  Later in Jesus’ Ministry, after not be received by a village of Samaritans, James and John got so worked up that they ask that Jesus would consume the city with fire.  James and John were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder.  Andrew! He made no sense either, when Jesus would give sermons later on his ministry such as on “why bad things happen to people” in John 9, Andrew failed to get the point of his sermon.  On the night of his arrest- Andrew was supposed to be on watch for people to come to arrest Jesus, only for Andrew to fall asleep within the first hour.  For if one were to just look at the calling of these men in the moment of our Gospel to be Christ’s disciples, this move seems to be the epitome of foolishness.  These men probably hadn’t traveled more then a few miles from home in their entire life, yet now they were being asked to change the world.   For it might have seemed everything that God would want as a leader in his church, the disciples lacked.  Yet, years down the line something funny happened.  Immediately after Jesus’ rose from the dead something came over these men, so that where as days prior they were hiding for their life, these men were willing to travel to every corner of the earth under threat of death saying that the one who promised to make them fishers of men, had risen from the dead for their salvation.  The disciples after being bumbling, stumbling, and uneducated cowards had become great speakers, who Christ chooses on this day to start his Church. 

This idea of God calling the unexpected was not a new one.  God had previously called whose personal faults seemed to disqualify them.  The scriptures describe Noah as a drunk, yet God used him and his family to save the world from a great flood.  Moses murdered an Egyptian, but God used him to deliver and rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians and lead them to the Promised Land.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but God turned him into Israel’s greatest king.  Jonah openly ran from God’s call so fiercely that he ended up in the Belly of a Whale.  Then there is Paul.  Paul held people’s coats, as they stoned Stephen to death for confessing the Christian Faith.  Paul is described as seeing to it that Christians were arrested, and Paul describes himself as persecuting Christians more then anybody else.  Yet Paul became the Christian church’s greatest missionary.  Paul wrote more books of the Bible then anyone else, thereby shaping Christianity forever.  For it was only through the most magnificent of sinners in Paul that people could understand the Christian Gospel.

The idea of God using flawed, ordinary people to do God’s work is one I can attest in my own life.  When I was three years old, I had such a bad speech impediment; I had to begin therapy in Pre-School.  Making R and L sounds just doesn’t come naturally for me.  When I was nine-years old, I was talking to a very kind man, who was my Speech Therapist, named Mr. Kelly.  Mr. Kelly asked me “What I wanted to be when I grew up”? I replied that I wanted to be a Sports Broadcaster.  Mr. Kelly at that moment proceeded to inform that a job with that type of public speaking wouldn’t be possible with my speech impediment.  When I was in Seminary, my advisor Jim Boyce proceeded to inform me that my nerves causing me to stutter would be an almost impossible obstacle to overcome within a Congregation.  When I first started preaching, I would have bad stomach aches on Sunday morning before having to face a congregation to hopefully deliver so small bits of wisdom into people’s lives.  I can speak first hand to how the tasks placed before so many of us are not going to be easy or even realistic.

I remember when I was in Seminary; Luther Seminary had a mission statement which declared that “God could use someone like you”.  This campaign was developed by the Seminary’s marketing people and would always seek to find the most photogenic, attractive people it could to be front and center of this campaign.  The only exception to this would be when they would feature people from parts of the world that Lutherans generally knew nothing about it.  There was something that I noticed about the people that were front and center of these campaigns.  They might have been nice enough, smart-enough, and hard-working enough to be effective Pastors.  Yet they often went through life having everything handed to them on a Silver-Platter, receiving every blessing that youth, polish, and attractiveness often brings.  Yet when I talked to these people, I noticed a seeming inability to really understand the muck and mud of life, to understand loneliness when you’ve never been lonely, to understand heartbreak with better options seemingly around the next corner, to understand job struggles when people are always going to want to hire you.  As I think back to all this perhaps the calling of simple fishermen like Peter, Andrew, James, and John begins to make sense.  It’s a story of how the Gospel is best understood the most ordinary of people, who live the most common of lives, who retain the ability to not get a head too high in the clouds, because they would never forget going on home on days without catching any fish. 

Why do Peter, Andrew, James, and John decide to leave behind all that they ever know to follow Jesus?  We know that Capernaum was the area that Jesus had moved to after his temptation in the Desert at the hands of the Devil.  So perhaps there was a relationship established with Peter, Andrew, James, and John that caused them to come to trust Jesus’ words.  This wouldn’t be a bad outcome to the story as it encourages us to build relationships as a way to further the Gospel.  Yet perhaps something more interesting and even more significant is at work here during this story.  Perhaps the reason why Peter, Andrew, James, and John drop everything that they had ever known to follow is because they had been overwhelmed in the moment.  Perhaps something came over them in their encounter with Our Lord in this moment so that they didn’t think about acting; they just believed it was what they were being called to do.  Jesus didn’t promise the Disciples any great earthly benefit or success if they followed his calling.  They were being asked to do the most radical thing imaginable in leaving behind all that they had ever known to face the unknown.  Yet that’s the thing about a Calling it doesn’t promise to be easy, it doesn’t promise to bring great earthly success, yet a calling presents itself in an almost unexplainable way that we can make a difference in the world whether we are fishermen, teachers, mechanics, or factory-workers.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John the men that Jesus calls today to be his disciples didn’t come from the most sterling of backgrounds nor did they have standout abilities.  They weren’t great religious scholars who immediately grasped the point of every sermon that Jesus ever gave.  These men didn’t have the greatest work ethic, or great courage with nerves of steel.  Yet God called them to be the people, he used to start the Christian church.  For the thing about the Disciples is they were not unlike the flawed, ordinary forgiven sinners that Christ calls to serve him everyday.  It is must be true what they say “God can use someone like you”.  Amen