There is something about the way God calls each of us which is persistent, real and loving. God always calls us first, waiting patiently, even before we are aware of God. I think, the Acts of the Apostles, should be called the Acts of God, as it is God who is calling each of us into relationship and action. It is we who have to practice listening to God, and then like the apostles, we turn to God in response, and through prayer, we become active for and with God. However, it is God who starts the relationship always.
The two stories we read [John 21:1-19] about Simon Peter and [Acts 9:1-20] Saul, have a history of misunderstanding, denial and betrayal with Jesus and God. Simon promptly followed Jesus when he was first called to be a disciple, leaving his livelihood and way of life as a fisherman. He heard Jesus’ call and followed him. However, when Jesus was being put on trial by his own people and the Roman authorities, Peter denied him emphatically three times, betraying him and walking away. He didn’t believe the resurrection stories the women told him on the first day of the new creation, when the stone was rolled away from the tomb; he refused to believe God’s messengers; he forgot Jesus’ own words about what would happen; and, he had a hard time trusting God. Yet this is the man who died for his faith, because of his unwavering trust in God and God’s Son, Jesus Christ when his time came.
Saul was an active defender of his faith as a faithful Pharisee. He diligently persecuted the new group, emerging from the faithful Jewish prophecies. He was blessed for his work by the Jewish authorities, and had Jesus’ followers brought to judgement and condemnation by them. He was someone who enabled religious sanctioned murder. He stood watching and encouraging when Stephen, the first known Christian martyr was stoned to death. Saul was not someone Jesus’ early followers would have willingly trusted.
Both men responded to God’s calling, leaning into a relationship with God. They learn to listen and respond, and in doing so, their lives are turned upside down as they hope and trust in God’s love.
It is an extraordinary scene with Jesus on the beach, when he and the disciples are eating breakfast together, as the disciples relax with the enormous, unexpected catch of fish, once Jesus had encouraged them to let down their nets one final time, after a night of empty nets. Jesus knows how guilt, sorrow, shame and memory eat away at our spirits when we have no way to resolve and change our story. It takes courage to change such a story and its impact on each of us is profound and powerful. Jesus asks Peter three times, if he loves him. Each repetition is a reminder of the three denials Peter made of Jesus. Each time Peter is given the chance to change his story. Then Jesus changes Peter’s story forever. He offers Peter the chance to live differently, loving God, and God’s people both inside and outside the Jewish nation; to take a radical risk of faith, scandalising his own people, and finally he is killed for it.
Then we have Saul, responsible for the deaths of others, knocked to his knees by God who appears as the Christ, asking why Saul is persecuting him. God asks another disciple, Ananias to restore Saul’s sight. A frightening request, to which Ananias listens, trusts, prays and acts. Saul becomes Paul the evangelist for the emerging story God is telling for the whole world.
Did you notice in Saul’s conversion, he is baptised. We are reminded at the start of the Acts, while many of Jesus’ followers had been baptised by John with water and repentance, God is baptising with the Holy Spirit. Saul is baptised with water and the Spirit and like Peter, leans into God’s story as he hears God’s call, listens, prays and acts.
Both men remind us we are all less than perfect and yet God still calls us and invites us to participate and serve in God’s creation. Often, we don’t listen, we don’t understand, we doubt, we act and then wonder why things haven’t worked out. We try and persuade God to our way of thinking, we blame God, we turn away. But God is always present for us, God always calls us by name, forgiving and inviting our participation in God’s work.
This week we heard the story of the Rev’d William Barber II, a North Carolina-based pastor and national anti-poverty activist who was arrested with two other clergy members on Monday while praying at the US Capitol in Washington. The three were part of a group of 20 – 30 people who had gone to pray in protest to the immoral cuts to the Federal budget, which disproportionately affect the poor and vulnerable.
The Capitol police told them they were participating in an unlawful demonstration and must stop or be arrested. The doors were closed, the press excluded, and they were handcuffed and arrested after three warnings that praying was an illegal activity. They were charged with ‘crowding, obstructing and incommoding’, a violation of an ordinance around public demonstrations.
So, as we listen to Peter and Paul’s stories, we can hear God’s love, forgiveness, mercy and hope for each of us, imperfect as we are throughout our lives. Nothing is too bad for God to call us and bring us back to God’s love. Perhaps we now need to be asking God, as the baptised body of Christ, if we are ready for similar action if we are called to prayer and action, by God.
To be baptised is a significant and profound covenant and it carries significant commitments to God, about love, peace and hope for the future. Let us be sure we are ready, committing ourselves to bringing hope to people, where there seems to be none, because, God is calling you.
The Lord be with you.
