Called by, or Pointed to?

In the gospel reading from this past Sunday we heard John's version of how the disciples connected up with Jesus. In the synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee when he comes across Simon Peter & Andrew and James & John and basically says, “Get out of your boat and follow me.”

In the Fourth Gospel, however, we are given a different scenario. In this gospel we see John the Baptist and some of his disciples sort of hanging out when John says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” and his disciples, one of whom is Andrew, follow after Jesus. Jesus invites them to come see where he is staying, and then Andrew goes and rounds up his brother Simon Peter to also come along.

In her sermon this past Sunday, Dcn. Sue talked about the revelation of when, where, and how we see Jesus. She also recalled some of her own call story into ministry. In that story she said it was her pastor at the time who invited her to step out of her comfort zone and, with the help of a young teenage boy, write the prayers of the people for their worship service.

In her story her pastor was playing the part of Andrew. He, like Andrew, was someone who was already following Jesus when he invited someone else to come along.

I think that sometimes we can get so focused on the synoptic version of being called to discipleship that we forget about John's version of being called to discipleship. What I mean is, we hear any number of call stories and assume it's Jesus who is calling us. After all, there are plenty of scriptural references to that, such as the calling of the disciples I've already mentioned, or where we read that God or Jesus called someone, as well as hymns (Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild restless seas). We hear these stories or hymns and we automatically think, “Jesus calls out to all of us directly.” That leads us to maybe think that if we don't hear Jesus we aren't being called.

I'm not saying that's not true, but what I am saying is that sometimes call stories (Dcn. Sue's and Peter's from Sunday's gospel, for instance) take another avenue. Sometimes those call stories happen because someone pointed someone else in the right direction. For Dcn. Sue it was her pastor. For Simon Peter it was Andrew.

The point is this: The Season of Epiphany is all about revelation. It's all about finding out who Jesus is. It's all about seeing the light. The season started when the wise men followed the star to the Holy Family's house. Then we heard about the baptism of Jesus and the voice and descending dove. Sunday we heard Andrew being point to Christ by John the Baptist and then pointing his brother to Christ.

In this Season of Epiphany, let us remember that Christ calls to everyone in a variety of ways, and sometimes that involves us inviting others to follow along with us. Don't forget to help point out Christ to others wherever you may find him.

Todd+