As noted in the previous post on the calling of Jesus' first disciples, the gospel accounts of those callings provide lot of insights into how God calls folks to the puposes He created them for.
Today we'll look at where those calls can occur. Prayerfully read these scriptures and consider the points set out beneath them.
The next day as John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus went past,36and John looked towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God.'37And the two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.38Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, 'What do you want?' They answered, 'Rabbi' -- which means Teacher -- 'where do you live?'39He replied, 'Come and see'; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.40One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and say to him, 'We have found the Messiah' -- which means the Christ-42and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas' -- which means Rock.
43The next day, after Jesus had decided to leave for Galilee, he met Philip and said, 'Follow me.'44Philip came from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter.45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.'46Nathanael said to him, 'From Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?' Philip replied, 'Come and see.'
47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, 'There, truly, is an Israelite in whom there is no deception.'48Nathanael asked, 'How do you know me?' Jesus replied, 'Before Philip came to call you, I saw you under the fig tree.'49Nathanael answered, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel.'50Jesus replied, 'You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You are going to see greater things than that.'51And then he added, 'In all truth I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of man.'
As he was walking by the Lake of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast into the lake with their net, for they were fishermen.19And he said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you fishers of people.'20And at once they left their nets and followed him.21Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.22And at once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -- for they were fishermen.17And Jesus said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.'18And at once they left their nets and followed him. 19Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending the nets. 20At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.
Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,2when he caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets.3He got into one of the boats -- it was Simon's -- and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.'5Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.'6And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear,7so they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point.8When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.'9For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made;10so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.'11Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.
1. Jesus calls ordinary folks and does so from where they are and in the midst of their day-to-day lives.
A. He does not exclusively focus on/draw from societies’ elites, their cultural/political centers, or those engaged in high profile work. Instead, He mostly goes where regular folks are doing regular things. These disciples’ ultimate calls didn’t come in Rome or Jerusalem, but instead came in Galilee, a backwater. These disciples were not religious or political leaders, but were guys doing ordinary jobs.
B. Jesus goes where people already are. In John 1:35-51, it’s at the Jordan, where people were already being drawn. See Matthew 3:5, Mark 1:5, Luke 3:3-15, John 1:19. In the synoptics it’s at the water front, the natural focus of fishing community, and where these particular guys spent a lot of time because of their work. See e.g.Matthew 13:1-2, Mark 4:1-2. We see that dynamic throughout the gospels; Jesus goes to the synagogues and festivals, places where people already are. We see a similar dynamic in the wisdom literature; Wisdom goes to places where people are. Proverbs 1:20-21, Proverbs 8:1-3, Proverbs 9:1-3.
C. Jesus’ primary call comes in these guys’ ordinary situation: in their work place. He had indeed laid the ground work in a “religious” setting (the scene described in John 1:35-51), but the actual call came in the midst of these guys’ day-to-day lives (what we see in the synoptics).
D. Jesus uses what is naturally available. In Luke’s account it is the natural dynamics of acoustics and Peter’s boat; Jesus uses them as an opening to Peter’s call. In all these accounts He uses the preexisting relationships between the guys being called.
E. Those dynamics make sense when you consider God’s ultimate purpose and the ways He works toward that purpose. It is well described in the first paragraph of the Catechism of The Catholic Church:
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (emphasis added).
Given that, it’s not surprising that God comes to us where we are.
F. So how do we respond to those dynamics, how should we live our lives differently? Several things come to mind:
i. Do not count yourself ineligible for service just because of where you live, because you do not lead an extraordinary life, or because you don’t have special skills/advantages.
ii. Faithfully attend to what God has already called you to; chances are that is where any additional call will come. These disciples would have missed their calls if they had missed work the day Jesus came by the lake. They were in a position to be called because they were faithfully doing what God had already called them to. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why scripture makes a consistent point of exhorting us to diligence. See the scriptures collected in Wisdom Principles: Diligence & Working. See also Preliminary Work: What we can learn from Joseph and Daniel. That makes sense when you think about it from a purely practical perspective: God has already called you to do something in your ordinary life, so why would he trust you with an additional call if you were not faithfully doing what He’s already called you to?
iii. Keep your eyes and heart open for God’s prompts in the midst of your ordinary. Chances are you won’t be called in the dramatic way or to the extraordinary changes these guys were, but the chances are good that God has something else He wants you to do in your day-to-day life.
iv. Be open to varying routines. Peter probably didn’t get requests to use his boat as a podium every day, and it likely seemed odd when Jesus asked for that. But eternal, universal, blessings resulted because Peter was open to that variation from his routine. We should likewise be open to deviating from our normal patterns when God prompts us to do so.
2. Although Jesus came to where Andrew and Simon/Peter were, it is important to note that that happened after those guys had gone looking for God. Both initially met Jesus at the Jordan, as described in John 1:35-51.
A. Andrew and Simon/Peter had varied from their routine, effectively going on retreat, via their trip to see John the Baptist.
B. They probably did not know what they would find/learn when they set out, but they went anyway. Great blessings resulted to them and billions of souls since then.
C. They took action on the prompts that God gave them; first to go to John and then to heed what John said about Jesus.
D. That trip took significant effort. They had to leave their family and business responsibilities. They had to travel a significant distance, likely on foot.
E. That effort created the conditions for these guys to hear Jesus:
i. It demonstrated their availability and eagerness.
ii. It removed them from distractions of their family and business obligations, as legitimate as those obligations were. See Digging Through the Dirt.
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Other posts about God calling folks to the purposes He created them for are collected at What we can learn about God's calls from Jesus calling His first disciples--collected
