Sunday, January 25, 2009

Immediately they left their nets ....

A friend writes....

Sunday 2009-1-25

Out of the Old Testament lesson, one phrase jumped out at me:
God "changed his mind" about Nineveh. Imagine a God who created
the universe and yet can still change his mind.

The sermon and New Testament lesson concerned calling the fisherman-
disciples to be fishers of men or souls:

1) The fish do not want to be caught. In fact, they are pretty
vigilant to avoid it. Do souls feel the same way? It feels like
I have spent a fair amount of time flopping in the net myself.

2) "Immediately" they left their nets to follow him. Several things
about that. They depended on their nets for their survival and that
of their families. Their nets were not of nylon. They were difficult
to construct and required constant maintenance to retain their value.
And yet the disciples abandoned their nets at "at once". I have a
similar impression of the shepherds at Christmas, depending on their
flocks for their lives, and yet leaving them in the fields to
go to Bethlehem "at once". Both groups recognized something as
important as survival.

3) This story does not seem to me to encourage being prepared, rather
when God calls, you go right now, ready or not. Yet being prepared is
still very important. How could you say you believe and not prepare
accordingly? The answer, I think, is to work towards being always ready,
a point repeated with emphasis and even more clearly elsewhere
in the New Testament.

I have had more paltry catches of a Sunday morning.

-Roger


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