He is Risen! (He is risen indeed) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. exited
Sometimes it takes a lot effort on the part of God/Jesus, to refocus someone, so that he/she will actually do what God wants him/her to do. Saul/Paul (as we now know him) was not a bad guy, well maybe he was early on, but Saul/Paul was serving God in the way that he thought God wanted. He was a fanatic! He believed that Christians were in fact heretics that threatened Judaism by leading good and faithful Jews away from orthodoxy, away from the traditional practices of the faith. For this reason, I still don’t like the idea of him being called bad; he was more misguided than bad; he was doing what he believed God wanted him to do. The problem was, no amount of faithful witnesses (and there were those who witnessed to him about Jesus) and no amount of logic was able to sway Saul/Paul away from his beliefs; something dramatic was needed. And Jesus, like God the Father, knows how to do the dramatic. Jesus appeared to Saul; he knocked him to the ground; he spoke to Saul; he blinded Saul. That was dramatic! But Jesus wasn’t finished with Saul and everything was not going to seem like a punishment to Saul. Jesus sent to Saul, a Christian by the name of Ananias, to heal and instruct Saul in the ways and faith of Christianity. And Saul, who then changed his name to Paul, learned that his call, was not to punish Christians, but to become one of them and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the nations, not just to Jews but to Gentiles and he was uniquely suited for this work. Paul was a Jew and a Pharisee, but also a Roman citizen, which gave him access to all peoples.
It wasn’t just Paul that took a lot of the Lord’s attention and the effort of his chosen witnesses, to refocus to do what it was that they were called to do. Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John and two of Jesus’ other Disciples, 7 of the 11, who had witnessed the resurrected Jesus and saw the marks of the nails, and who were sent out by Jesus to share the good news of the resurrection, decided instead to go fishing. From what we can tell they went back to the work that they had trained for as youths, fishing (at least Peter James and John were trained to fish). They didn’t get it. And they didn’t just go out for a relaxing day of fishing; they went out with nets, fishing for a large catch; maybe they were going back into the fishing business. That wasn’t Jesus’ plan for them; that wasn’t why Jesus had taken them on as his Disciples and taught them all that they would need to know; that wasn’t what Jesus had in mind when he told them, at the very beginning, that they would be fishing for people. They needed some refocusing. And Peter specifically. Peter had led the others to go fishing, and Peter, while speaking so boldly about his loyalty to Jesus, when confronted, had denied even knowing Jesus. Of course, that was before the resurrection, but Jesus knew that Peter needed some tough love, some refocusing. And so, after showing them his power by directing them to a large catch of fish, he invited them to breakfast. But, after breakfast, he turned to Peter, the one who led them fishing, and Jesus asked Peter if Peter loved him. Three times Jesus asked him (the same number of times that he had denied Jesus), three times Peter answered Jesus, yes, and three times Jesus commanded him to care for his sheep (feed the lambs, tend the sheep and feed the sheep). It wasn’t their calling to go back to fishing; Peter knew he had failed Jesus first by his denials; they had all forgotten their calling, or maybe let their fears lead them away from it. After Jesus set them straight, and later after he had sent to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, they never, it seems, strayed from their calling; they like Paul dedicated their lives to the sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Could it be that we have also strayed from our callings? Could it be that the church at large has strayed? I wonder this sometimes when sitting through meetings like the Synod Assembly. I often wonder what the Lord may do with his church and with us to direct us back to our calling to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I wonder, am I the instrument of the Lord to refocus our members to do the things that God has called us to do? I wonder what Jesus may do to refocus me. We are only able to function as the Body of Christ when we each of us, together use our God given talents to the glory of God. Today we will grow the Body of Christ here at St. Peter’s. Today we will receive the Grant family into membership, Phil Grant as an adult member, Roger and Nathaniel as child members and Betty will be received as an adult member by baptism; Roger is currently in confirmation class and will (hopefully) be received as an adult member, by confirmation, on June 2. Though we are officially receiving them as members today, they have already begun finding ways to be a part of the Body of Christ. Phil will be leading our Chris. Ed. program, the kids are in Sunday School and Roger is involved with the youth. The ministry of Jesus Christ is stronger with each addition made to the church. Pray for our new members, pray for the members that have fallen away from active membership, let those who are new know that they are welcome and let those who are inactive, who may now be receiving Jesus’ refocusing care, know that they are missed, that it is the Lord’s and our hope that they will see their needs met and that they will use their Spirit given gifts for ministry, within the church and out in the world.