“What are you
looking for?” Jesus asks these two new followers. “We are looking to be with
you, Teacher, Rabbi. Where are you
staying?” Then, after spending the day
with Jesus, one of these men, Andrew, found his brother Simon and brought him
to Jesus, who renamed Simon, Peter. It is so typical of Jesus. He just knows how to upset our applecart,
change our whole lives and call us to himself.
The reading isn’t just about the first
days of the Public Ministry of Jesus some two thousand years ago. The reading is about every day of our lives
right here, right now. This often happens to all of us. We are comfortable in following Jesus. We do our best to establish a Christian
lifestyle. We go to Church. We avoid
major sins. We keep an eye out for the
less fortunate. We are serious about
living our faith, and then, just when we are content with our lifestyle, we are
called to a greater faith, a greater devotion, a more determined following of
the Lord. This is not extraordinary. It
is ordinary.
For example: We
have great plans and desires for our children.
But our children are unique.
Their plans, their desires, their gifts may not coincide with our dreams
for them. That intelligent hard working
daughter, that future doctor or lawyer or CPA in our minds, meets Filbert, the
love of her life, and her life takes a path that we would never consider or
desire for her. Or we have prayed hard
for that son whom we are convinced is not reaching his potential. There are times that we question whether the
Lord has been hearing our prayers. But
the God of the Upset Applecart is calling us to trust Him to do the rest after
we have done our best. Or another
example might be: We reached out to the elderly neighbor down the street who
needed someone to take him to the doctor, help with his shopping etc. He was always kind and generous to us and our
children. It was all a good experience
in Christianity not only for the children, but also for us. And then he becomes bedridden. Instead of the once a week visit, he needs us
to look in on him every day, several times a day. “I have done my part,” we declare to the God
of the Upset Applecart. “Not yet”, he
responds. If you really want to see
where I am living, you’ll have to go down the block and check on Grandpa.” We
are forced to seek where He is staying, not where we would like Him to be.
The one
consistency about Christianity is that Jesus is always shocking us out of our
routine, continually making the ordinary extraordinary and continually calling
us beyond our pre-conceptions to the place where he dwells. I am certain that all of us wonder if we have
the faith we need to hold on to the Lord in the midst of turmoil. I am also certain that He will never, for any
reason allow any of us who are seeking Him to lose our way. He holds us in his hand. He will never let us get lost. Today we pray to the God of
the Upset Applecart for the courage and the faith to go to that place, those
places, where He dwells.
Please remember the 20th
Anniversary of our Pasta Dinner Night on February 21st, 2015.
Tickets are available at the back of the church on weekends and from the office
during the week.
Many thanks for your concern and prayers after
my recent car accident. My injuries are healing slowly, but surely!
Next week, I will include my thank-you notes
to all who made our Christmas and New Year celebrations so meaningful and
decorated our church so beautifully!
I
wish you all a great week!
Fr. Phil