{"id":4292,"date":"2016-01-18T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T14:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2016-01-18T14:19:35","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T14:19:35","slug":"unlikely-disciples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/unlikely-disciples\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely Disciples"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"fishing<\/a><\/h5>\n
January 23, 2011<\/h5>\n

Matthew 4:12-23<\/h3>\n

In today\u2019s Gospel, Jesus calls his first disciples: Peter and Andrew, and then James and John.\u00a0 The stories are brief and unadorned.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cFollow me,\u201d and they leave their boats, their nets, their families, and follow him.\u00a0Because of our familiarity with these stories, we might overlook a very important characteristic within them\u2014the people who Jesus calls are not the best candidates to be his apostles.\u00a0 They were fishermen. Despite Jesus\u2019 clever turn of the phrase that he will make them fishers of people, there is a big difference between catching fish and catching people.\u00a0 They require two different skill sets.\u00a0 To catch fish, you need to know how to manage boats and nets.\u00a0 To catch people, you have to know how to use words and persuasion.\u00a0There is no doubt that Jesus would have been on much surer footing had he chosen people accustomed to public speaking.\u00a0 He could have chosen apostles who had some notoriety, whose name and star power could have attracted others into Jesus\u2019 company.\u00a0 It certainly would have been a plus if those chosen had some education, if they had studied the Hebrew Scriptures, not to mention being able to read or write.\u00a0 But Jesus did not choose people with these qualifications.\u00a0 He chose a handful of fishermen.<\/p>\n

Now, this choice of Jesus\u2019 disciples contributes to a major theme which runs throughout the whole Bible. God seldom chooses the people that we expect.\u00a0 God seems to prefer the younger and inexperienced to the elder and accomplished, the unlikely to the logical.\u00a0 God chooses Jacob over his elder brother Esau.\u00a0 God chooses Joseph and David over their elder brothers.\u00a0 When God needs a prophet, he chooses Amos who is a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees or Jeremiah who is a boy.\u00a0This theme carries over into the New Testament.\u00a0 God chooses Mary though she is a lowly handmaiden and Paul though he is a persecutor of the Church.\u00a0 It is difficult to predict who God is going to call.\u00a0 This is the Bible\u2019s way of telling us that God is in charge.\u00a0 It is not we who choose God, but God who chooses us.\u00a0 So this much is clear:\u00a0 God will choose who God will choose.<\/p>\n

But, how do we move this theme out of the Bible and into our lives?\u00a0 What do these unlikely call narratives have to say when God calls us?\u00a0 Here we need to be careful, because we could draw some conclusions that are false.\u00a0 For example, we might say since God chooses those who are unlikely, qualifications do not matter.\u00a0 God could choose anybody to do anything.\u00a0 This is not true. God calls us in light of our talents and our abilities. If you want to perform for the Metropolitan Opera, you must be able to sing.\u00a0 If you want to play halfback for a pro football team, you must be able to run.\u00a0 I would imagine that there are many of you here today who would not want to change places with me and give this homily.\u00a0 And I can assure you that you do not want me to be your surgeon if you needed heart bypass surgery.<\/p>\n

The unlikely call narratives do not negate the need for abilities, but they do negate our excuses that other people are more qualified.\u00a0There may be many people who have better parenting skills than you do, who are more insightful, more patient, more creative. But if God calls you to be a parent, you must say yes and do your best.\u00a0You might be able to recognize many people at school or at work who are more popular and have more influence over others than you do.\u00a0 But, if God calls you to stand up for someone who\u2019s being demeaned or picked on or to speak out against something that is unjust or wrong, you cannot excuse yourself.\u00a0 You cannot say, \u201cGod, go choose somebody else.\u201d\u00a0You might not be the most people-friendly person, not the best listener.\u00a0 Your skills might be more about analyzing, quantifying, deciding.\u00a0 But, if there is someone in your family or someone among your friends who is in need, who is hurting, and Jesus says to you, \u201cGo to that person and be present,\u201d you must stand up from your nets, from your book, from your computer and do His will.<\/p>\n

God will call who God will call.\u00a0 And when God calls us, it does us no good to point to others who have better qualifications.\u00a0 Of course, the God who calls us will be with us and will make up for our inadequacies. That is why, with Jesus\u2019 \u00a0help, even unlikely disciples such as us can be successful.\u00a0But, first, we must stand up and follow him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God will call who God will call. And when God calls us, it does us no good to point to others who have better qualifications. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5879,"featured_media":4293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/files\/2017\/01\/fishing-nets.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}