John and Mary have been married for about twenty years. These are good days for Mary as she looks at her life with a sense of satisfaction and joy. She worked long and hard to help put John through medical school. Now that the schooling debts are almost paid off, they have a nice home, a savings account, and she has been able to quit work. Johnny and Susie, sixteen and fourteen, are happy in their school and neighborhood. Many of the things for which Mary has dreamed and worked all of her life are finally coming true for her. Life is good. John's medical practice is becoming firmly established. These are good days.
John has called a meeting of the family, and Mary has in the back of her mind an idea of what it's all about. She feels that John is going to announce that he has made preparations for a long-awaited vacation to Europe - a full month! Mary has dreamed of a vacation in Europe all of her life. The children will never forget it. She is so excited.
John stands and says, "Well, family, I have an announcement to make. I feel that God is calling me to be a missionary. If we watch our pennies, I can resign my medical practice and go to seminary. Oh, I know there will be sacrifices and I know that our parents are getting older, but God is in this. I truly believe that God is going to take care of them as he will take care of us. Now, Johnny and Susie, you may have to take part-time jobs to help with your college education. And, Mary, just think how wonderful it will be and the joy we will have as I live out God's calling in my life. Everybody happy?"
Sometimes we fail to remember that Jesus' calling of the disciples was a calling to a second career. Lives were firmly established, families had deep roots, and all of a sudden here comes this preacher, Jesus, and he turns things upside-down. Think about Simon Peter. Simon Peter probably had parents that needed care. We know that his wife had a mother with a history of illness. What about the children? They probably came bounding in from school asking, "Where is Daddy?" "He's gone again! He's out running around the countryside with that itinerant preacher." Think about Simon's wife. She fell in love and married a successful fisherman, and all of a sudden, she's the preacher's wife. What happened? Did I miss something? Think about that. Second career - fruit basket turnover.
No wonder people are tempted to leave before the invitation. No wonder people are tempted to just come to Sunday school. "We don't go to worship. We don't stay for the invitation." No wonder people are tempted. Why risk it? Why become vulnerable to an experience that could change your very life? Why become vulnerable to an experience that could affect the way you spend your time, energy, and money? Why be vulnerable to an experience that will cause you to reorder your priorities? Why stay for the invitation? Why listen to the call of God? It is one thing hearing the call of God, but it's an awesome experience accepting the call of God.
It was an awesome experience for Simon Peter. He had been fishing all night and had not caught a single fish. Jesus said, "Go back, put your net out." Jesus was telling them to do that during the daytime! You can just imagine Simon Peter nudging one of his buddies and saying, "Can you believe this? We're professional fisherman, and he is a carpenter. Probably has never wet a hook in his life and he is giving me advice about fishing." Simon Peter responded, "Nevertheless, if you say so, Master, that's what I will do." He did what Jesus told him to do and lo and behold, he caught more fish than he had ever seen before! He got his business partners to help load both boats until they were ready to sink. That was a miraculous experience and it happened in the ordinary experiences of life. God does that you know.
God takes the initiative and comes to us in the everyday experiences of life and calls to us. It happened to Moses as he was wandering around in the Judean countryside. He had been dead spiritually for forty years and all of a sudden in the common experience of tending sheep God called. God called David in the den of his father's house. He had no idea why they had summoned him in from tending sheep. God called Gideon while he was out farming. God called Paul when he was out rounding up troublemakers. God called Isaiah when he went to the house of God to worship, and God called Simon Peter when he was out fishing. In the common everyday experiences of life, God calls to us. Why? Could it be that God is concerned about us and cares about the everyday happenings in our lives? Could that really be true?
In the spring of 1978, the film, Oh God! was given an award. It was a film that portrayed the message that God cares about people, that God comes to people, and he wants people to be happy. Do you know the award that film received? "Best Fantasy Film of the Year." To some people, it is a fantasy that God cares for us; that God loves us and comes to us in the ordinary affairs of our life. To some, it is a fantasy! Why? If we truly believe that God comes to us, speaks to us, calls out to us, then we, too, have to put our nets where he tells us. We, too, have to place the net where he tells us in spite of the fact that we think we know better. That is what this church is trying to do.
The task force is meeting and seeking answers to questions like: "Where are we going to expend our resources, our money, our time, our talents, and our gifts? How can we reach people for Christ? Where are we going to put our nets?" Right now we don't know, but we do know this: It is not in the way we have been putting our nets. We do know that. Things are changing and we have to change and present a never-changing gospel to an ever-changing world. It is an awesome thing to be called by God. It is a humbling and revealing experience. When Simon saw the miracle and stood face-to-face with the miracle worker, he fell and said, "Get away from me! I am unclean! Get away from me! I am a sinful man! I am unworthy to be in your presence." Simon was not only humbled but it revealed to him, just like Isaiah of old, that he was a sinful man.
Notice that Jesus did not reject Simon. Jesus already knew that Simon was unworthy, but that had nothing to do with it whatsoever. What made the difference was that Simon became aware of his unworthiness. It was Simon's awareness of his unworthiness that fit him for service, not the fact that he was a sinner or not a sinner, not the fact that he had great gifts or that he was an emotional person. Simon's awareness of his own unworthiness equipped him to be a servant and that drove him to his knees as a sinner lifted up and as a servant of the Christ.
Several years ago, two land surveyors were sent from a large city in Wales to survey the mountains in North Wales. For a week, they stayed in an isolated cabin in shepherd country. Every day they went out with maps, compasses, and charts checking the countryside and the valleys. Several days into the first week, an old shepherd came up to them and said, "Might be best if I go with you tomorrow." They said, "No, there's no need for that. We have our maps and charts. We'll be fine. We have everything we need." The old shepherd said again, "It might be best if I went with you tomorrow." "No, we have our maps and charts. We know these hills just like you. We'll be okay." And the old shepherd said, "You may have your maps, but the fog is not on the maps."
There come times in our lives when all the charts, maps, and other resources are insufficient. There come times when we can only do God's work in his power and in his strength. It is an awesome, humbling, and revealing experience to stand before the miracle worker as he reaches out and calls us. We realize, first of all, that we can't do it in our own strength and in our own power, but it is through his power that we can do it.
It is not only an awesome and revealing experience, but it is a humbling experience. It is a joyful and progressive experience. Notice that after being lifted up, leaving everything and following Jesus, it wasn't over. It continued. It is a lifelong experience of obedience and joyfully growing.
I love the story that is told of a sophomore who worked in the library at Princeton to earn money to help with his education. One night about closing time, he was walking around the empty halls of the library when he noticed in the very back corner amid an old stack of books, an old man reading and taking notes furiously. The old man was very intent. The librarian became a little curious so he went back to the old man and said, "My, what are you studying so intently?" The old man looked up long enough to say, "Well, I'm a student of physics." The young librarian said, "Well, last year I took a course in physics and I think I have all I need for an understanding of physics." He then turned and walked back to his desk. You can imagine his chagrin a few minutes later when the old man checked out some books, and on his library card was the name Albert Einstein. It is a calling to a process. It is a calling to a lifelong process of obedience and service and growing more like Jesus. There is nothing in the world more joyful than that. There is nothing in the world more challenging.
You may say, "Well, I've never met Albert Einstein and I've never stood in the face of a miracle. I've never stood knee-deep in fish in the middle of a boat on the Sea of Gennesaret." That may be true. How do I know God is calling me and then how do I know that God is calling me in a particular direction? That's a good question. Let me try to answer it this way: You may not know what you are supposed to do tomorrow, but do what you know to do today. Do what you know to do. Do what makes you happy. I'm sure every person in this house of God knows that there is something you are to do for God today. Do what you know to do. Do what fulfills you as a person and as a Christian.
William Bausch tells the story of a nun who received some extra grant money. She worked as a chaplain in a women's prison in Chicago. She went to the women and said, "I have some money that I want to spend on you and I'm going to give you some options: 1) I can hire an attorney to come and talk with you on how you can shorten your sentences, 2) I can hire a welder to come in and teach you to weld so that you can have a marketable skill when you leave the prison, or 3) I can hire a dancer and a painter to teach you how to dance and how to paint." Ninety-five percent chose the dancer and the painter because, as they said, "They always wanted to express themselves, but never had the chance."
That puts God's calling where it should be and that is in a positive light. The most fulfilling, the most expressive, the most joyful experience you will ever know in your life is walking in the middle of God's will for your life. Hear the invitation, and say, "Oh God, here am I, send me. Send me!"