When Christ called His first disciples to join Him on His mission, they immediately changed their focus toward God. Immediately they made their entire life about serving God and sharing His Gospel with the world. With the constant reality of violence and war in the world, it is an opportunity for us to live as followers of Jesus Christ with the same dedication as the Disciples. Now is our chance to use our life to preach, teach and heal the world, through the peace and grace of God.
My brothers and sisters, the world changed last night. In a split moment, war has broken out yet again. And this time I fear that we will be more involved as a nation, but I do not fear the war because as Christians, my brothers and sisters, we have something more than just what is here on the Earth, more than just life on Earth. We are the people of God. We are children of the everlasting and living God. And we have something that the world does not yet under understand; we have the peace of God, but it’s up to us to share it with other people.
In this morning’s gospel, I think it is appropriate that it coincides with the situation last night. In this morning’s Gospel, we hear that Christ called his first disciples, who were busy with their worldly life. They were fishermen, they were fishing, they were working on their nets. They were doing the necessary things that we could see any day by going down to the docks. And when Jesus called them, when Jesus said, “Follow me,” the gospel says they dropped their nets and they immediately followed Him.
You see, my brothers and sisters, we have a choice to make. We can either commit ourselves to the worldly things and the worldly priorities, or we commit ourselves to God. Now, the disciples never stopped being fishermen. In fact, even during the ministry of Christ, we see they were fishing. After the resurrection, the first story we hear about them is they continued to be fishermen. So it isn’t that we have to give up our life in the world. We don’t have to stop living in the world. We don’t have to go become cave dwellers to maintain our faith in Christ. Admittedly, some people do. There are hermits living in caves. But my brothers and sisters, it is a great opportunity for us, in the middle of the pain of war, for us to live as followers of Jesus Christ.
The Apostles dedicated their entire life to the work of Christ. If they went fishing, it was for the ministry, it was for the people, it was to feed the people. If they went teaching, it was to teach the people about Jesus Christ. Everything from that moment on, the moment Jesus Christ called them, it says immediately they dedicated every moment of their life to God and to His gospel. And my brothers and sisters, the same can be true for us. Every day that we wake up, the Lord is calling us to be His disciples. Every day that we go to work or go to school, God is asking us to dedicate our life to Him and to His work and to His gospel.
And it says that Jesus Christ, with His new disciples now, went town to town, village to village, city to city, preaching, teaching and healing. They didn’t keep it to themselves. Now, they lived in a world that was very violent. The Roman Empire was not always a peaceful place to live, especially for Christians. But they didn’t allow the conflict and they didn’t allow the danger of the world to stop them from their belief and from their life.
And so I invite you, my brothers and sisters, in this season of fasting for the church, we’re fasting for the Holy Apostles, in this season of learning how to dedicate our lives to God, don’t just watch the news; pray the news, pray for God’s peace. Pray that people’s hearts are open to love and compassion and open to God. We can do nothing beyond sharing God’s light and His love. The Holy Spirit, speaking to each and every one of us, opened our hearts to come to church today. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to the hearts of those who are in the middle of war, to end the conflicts. And there’s so many conflicts we can’t even identify them all in the world. But suddenly, because our country is more involved, suddenly our attention has been grasped.
So take the advantage and dedicate every moment of your day to God and to His gospel, and bring light hope and peace to the world. It begins with us and how we interact with our neighbors and our co-workers and our friends, and those family members that we may be estranged from. The peace begins with us, so we can be people of God and bring His light and hope into the world. Glory to God for all things.
