Psalm 62: 6 - 14
I Corinthians 7: 29 - 31
Mark 1: 14 - 20
“GOD’S CALL TO US IN CHRIST”
(Homily text: Mark 1: 14 - 20)
Verse one: Jesus
calls us, o’er the tumult
Of our
life’s wild, restless sea;
Day by day
his sweet voice soundeth, Saying, “Christian, follow me.”
Reflection: The image of the phrase “life’s wild, restless sea” is reminiscent of the account of Jesus’ walking on the water. Remember that as Jesus made His way toward the disciples who were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee (see Matthew 14: 22 – 33), the water was beaten by the wind. As Peter recognized Jesus, he called out, saying, “Lord if it is you, bid me come to you on the water. At the Lord’s bidding, Peter got out of the boat and walked over the surface of the water. He walked over the surface, that is, until he stopped looking at Jesus, and saw the wind and the waves. He began to sink.
Jesus calls us, saying to us, “Get out of the boat.” Take the chance, like Peter, that once we leave the safety of the boat of life, we will overcome the restless and wild sea of that life, but only so long as we keep our eyes on the Lord.
But we may be tempted to ask, “When did the Lord call us?” The answer, of course, is in our baptisms…when we passed through the waters, being buried with Christ in a death like His (as St. Paul says in Romans 6: 3 – 9), and being raised to new life in a resurrection like His, we become new creatures in Christ.
However, that first call isn’t the end of the calling…notice that verse one of our hymn says, “Day by day His sweet voice soundeth.” There is the reality, that the Lord’s voice asks us to “Get out of the boat” and take the risk of following Him, day by day.
Verse two: As of old th’apostles heard it
By the Galilean lake,
Turned from home and toil and kindred,
Leaving all for Jesus’ sake.
Reflection: Jesus’ call to “Follow me,” meant that the lives of Andrew and Peter, James and John, changed. All of them were fishermen, engaged in what were most likely family businesses. So Jesus’ call to them did mean leaving home, family and familiar surroundings.
Jesus’ call thus became the most important reality in their lives from that day forward.
In some cases, Jesus’ call means leaving everything behind in order to follow Him. We can see this in the cases of missionaries who go to far away places to spread the Good News of the kingdom of God. In other cases, men and women enter monasteries or convents to follow the Lord’s call.
But for most of us, the choice to follow the Lord may not be so clearly seen, for most of us won’t sever our ties to family or location in order to live the Christian life.
For us who make this latter choice, what changes is the nature of our relationships to loved ones and to familiar careers….Now, our choice to follow Jesus means that our ongoing relationships take on a different hue, for they are now colored by our allegiance to Jesus Christ, which becomes first in our lives.
Verse three: Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world’s golden store,
From each idol that would keep us,
Saying, “Christian, love me more!”
Reflection: Verse three follows naturally upon what we’ve said about our ongoing relationships with family, loved ones and careers. In such cases, contact with those we love and with familiar surroundings means that the attractiveness that these relationships might have had before coming to Christ are still able to exercise their pull over us.
When a person leaves home, family, career and location to follow the Lord into some sort of a ministry, eventually the contacts and the attraction of those persons and things begins to fade in their importance to us.
Not so in the case of most of us who don’t sever our ties in such dramatic ways. Things we used to care about still invite us to restore them to their former prominence in our lives.
That road is a much harder one to walk, it seems to me. It takes diligence to be aware of the “pull” of these former things, and a daily renewal of our vow to make the Lord first in our lives. After all, anything that takes the first place that the Lord ought to have qualifies as an idol.
Verse four: In our joys and in our sorrows,
Days of toil and hours of ease,
Still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me more than these!”
Reflection: The “business” of life (or perhaps I should say the “busyness”) often threatens to engulf us. There’s always so much to do, so much to be accomplished, so many demands on our time and attention. This says nothing about the distractions that the contemporary world offers…we are a distracted culture, enamored by more toys and gadgets than any other in human history. (A wonderful book entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death” makes this point clearly and forcefully.)
Immersed as we are in a culture that seeks, above all, to be entertained (yes, even many church services today are geared toward entertaining its members, using secular tools from the entertainment world as means to advance what is wrongly perceived to be worship), it is difficult not to allow the waters of the culture in which we sail to seep into the ship of faith. For there is always some water in the bilges of that ship, water that, if left unattended to, will destabilize the ship of faith. So Jesus’call to “Love me more than these,” is a call to see that destabilizing presence, and to get the pumps in motion to pump these distractions out of our ship of faith.
Verse five: Jesus calls us! By thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear thy call,
Give our hearts to thine obedience,
Serve and love thee best of all!
Reflection: Just as each verse of the hymn renews Jesus’ call, asking us to hear His voice, again and again, so now this last verse seeks Jesus’ mercies to enable us to hear His voice.
Without God’s power, a power which comes to us and is within us even before we can act or respond, we are unable to turn to God in Christ. This is true of our baptisms….we cannot respond to God’s love without that grace of God which comes into our hearts in the first place, a grace which allows us to respond.
But as we said near the beginning of this reflection, God’s grace and presence also allows us to respond again and again to that call of Christ which comes, day by day, year by year. The call comes, again and again.
And when we respond, we come into an intimate and loving embrace, and into that sort of obedience which arises out of love, not because of threats, nor out of compulsion, but out of love.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
