Father Gary’s Sermon
Inspired from
Matthew 4:12-23
Proclaimed on
January 23, 2005
Today’s Gospel reading is about Matthew’s rendition of how Jesus came
to call his disciples. On the surface it appears that Jesus was just walking
along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, comes upon some fishermen, and simply
calls out to them to follow him. This scenario seems a bit unrealistic to me.
What makes it doubly so is that they immediately drop everything that they are
doing and follow him! How did Jesus know that these men were the ones that he
needed for his mission? How did they know that following Jesus would be a
worthwhile venture? It just seems that there is a lot of information missing.
This certainly is not how we
would go about it today. We have so many wonderful tools and professionals
available to assist us. I received an interesting e-mail the other day that
imagines how today’s Gospel reading would change if that same event were to
occur in our time. Here is how the correspondence unfolded.
Jerusalem in Judea
January 23, 30 A.D.
(whatever that means!)
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth of Galilee
Dear Sir:
Thank you for submitting the
resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new
organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not
only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal
interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude
consultant. The profiles of all these tests are included, and you will want to
study each of them carefully. As part of our service, we make some general
comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general
statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without
any additional fee.
It is the staff opinion that
most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational
aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the
team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of
experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
w Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and
given to fits of temper.
w Andrew has absolutely no qualities
of leadership.
w The two brothers, James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest
above company loyalty.
w Thomas demonstrates a questioning
attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
w We feel that it is our duty
to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem
Better Business Bureau.
w James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus
both definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on
the manic-depressive scale of their psych evaluations.
One of the candidates,
however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness,
meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He
is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas
Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.
All the other profiles are
self-explanatory. We wish you every success in your new venture.
Sincerely yours,
While there is the obvious
tongue-in-cheek humor in this letter, it also reveals the calls Jesus made were
not advisable. However, that is the beauty of this story. God does not approach
things like we would. Rather the Divine seems to take that which we would cast
off, use it, transform it, and bring about results that are beyond our greatest
expectations.
The truth is, as Jesus
called those early disciples, so he continues to call us today. Most of us are
not any more worthy than those original disciples, but he does it anyway. The
problem is that we either do not realize it or understand it.
I recall my seminary days when a fellow student, who was a
psychotherapist in his former life, rose in chapel to deliver a sermon. He
started by asking us how we answered question #476 on the MMPI: “I am on a special mission from God.” All of
us were very familiar with that psychological test. It was one of many that we
took while we were being evaluated to begin the process towards Holy Orders. It
was an arduous process that was designed with several hoops for us to jump
through. Failure at any point along this process would bring about our
departure. That is why this question posed such a problem for many of us. It
made each of feel uncomfortable. If we answered in the affirmative the test may
indicate that we are experiencing some sort of psychosis. After all, such was
the line used in the popular Blues Brother movie whose crazy premise was based
on this very line. On the other hand, if we answered in the negative what were
we doing in seminary?
This is not just a quandary
for aspiring clergy. The reality is that God is present here and calls each of
us to a special mission. Like those early disciples we may find that we are not
the best, the most talented, nor the most committed. Furthermore, when we look
around we may come to the conclusion that these are not the kind of people with
which we would want to work. Yet, this is the same Church—the same process—that
Jesus used to turn the world upside down.
Today we call Brooks to join
us in our mission. He is to be baptized this morning. By doing so he becomes a
Christian. However, Brooks is just an infant. He will never remember this day
or its significance. Therefore, when we baptize him, we are taking on some very
serious responsibilities. We are promising that we will support his family in
raising him in the Christian faith. We are obliged to teach him what it means
to be a Christian. Furthermore, we are promising to equip him for the mission
of Christ, which we share. As he matures, he will invariably question the
choice that we made for him today. Indeed, in time he will struggle mightily
with it. He may even refuse this mission. Much of this will depend on how well
we did our job. On the other hand, Brooks may one day stand before us as an
adult for confirmation. Should this occur, he is loudly proclaiming that all
those promises we once made on his behalf have been kept. Now he is ready to
accept the mission of Christ as his own. He will then formally join with us to
accept that mission to which Christ has called us—the mission in which the
world is turned upside down for Jesus.