In Matthew's Steps: Ordinary Made Extraordinary

The First Steps: Read Matthew 4

Focus Verse: “They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:18-20

Meditation: Ordinary Made Extraordinary

“Why did you become a pastor? What made you decide to go into the ministry?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question. By young Confirmation students and older people, by church people and secular people. There is a unique curiosity around the calling to ministry.

My answer has always been the same. I was called. Pure and simple. My first recollection of this was in Confirmation when an old, retired pastor told me I’d make a great pastor someday. I later learned that this wasn’t the first time I had expressed interest in the ministry. I was four years old when I declared to my mother that I’d like to be a priest someday. (That didn’t sit well with her, if you know what I mean...).

Still everyone wants to know the time...the moment...the event that shaped your life and changed its very direction. I’m sure it happens in a flash for some people...but for me...it’s more complicated than that. For me pastoral ministry is a right expression of the gifts God has given me and the way that I have chosen to use those gifts. There was a calling, for sure, but not an audible one. As I’ve grown older too I’ve learned the skills I bring are suited for ministry...and little else. I wouldn’t make a good doctor, lawyer, or any number of other professionals. My passion lies here in the pastoral ministry of God’s people.

Pastoral ministry may be right for me...but might not be for you. And that’s okay. For too long we’ve been told by the church that the only “holy” professions are those who work for and with the church. Everyone else is below them in rank. That is NOT true in the slightest! In fact, Christ calls each of us to a profession, a vocation, and sanctifies that profession and makes it holy. Christ helps us see what we’re doing in a new and different light.

That’s what he does for Andrew and Peter, for James and John. These fisher boys never had a clue what Jesus was calling them to. “Come and follow me,” Jesus says. “I will make you fish for men!” What power there is in that voice. It is a call to holiness in the workplace, a call to a new vocation, one that takes their skills seriously and understands that every profession is a profession given by God. Every job is a job of the Kingdom. Everything we do every day can reflect Christ within us.

Jesus calls them with these words and immediately they leave their nets. Immediately they follow Jesus as he goes “...throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matt. 4:23). Immediately they are taken into a whole new way of seeing and living and becoming!

The same thing can happen for us too! Except that we don’t need to leave our jobs and our families and our homes. We can follow Christ right there and now. We needn’t go traveling about the country. God has planted us here for a reason. We can, though, witness and reach out, being fishers of men and women right here in our own communities. We can be disciples of Jesus Christ in whatever we do using the gifts and grace that the Holy Spirit has lent us. We can do it!

And we are doing it! Right now in Greeley, Colorado a surgeon lives who prays before every surgery...with the family most times. It all started one day as he was going to check in on a patient and he overheard the hospital chaplain praying with one of the patients. Usually he kept his distance for such things, but this time he listened in. The chaplain prayed for the doctors and nurses, for their work of their hands as they healed this patient. That prayer struck him. Slowly he emerged from the other side of the curtain and today this doctor is one who will actively pray with his patients and the chaplain before surgery. God’s Spirit is at work in his hands and in his heart as he heals the sick in Jesus name.

I know of another man whose passion was driving truck! He was good at it and loved his work. His only concern was how does he drive truck and do God’s work. Easy, he thought. Many truck stops have little chapels in them. In his off-time, on Sunday mornings, he’d take to going to such chapels. Sometimes to talk and preach. Other times just to be present and worship. And his passion has changed lives. More than we realize.

What would that look like if we all did the same? What does a Christian truck driver look like? Or a Christian rancher and farmer? How about a Christian software engineer? How would he do his jo? What does a Christian waitress, CNA, hotel worker, gas attendant, mechanic, bank teller, teacher, counselor, principal, politician or any other kind of professional look like? How do Christians work differently at their jobs than non-Christians do?

I believe that God calls us into our passions. If we have a passion for something, God gives us strength to continue and work into that passion. Where is Christ Jesus calling you? And what will be your response to his voice? Amen!

Questions to Answer
1) Think of a time you’ve been drawn to do or say something. Describe the passion, energy, and purpose you had in completing your task.

2) Add Christ to your job. What would that look like? Where is he calling you to do? Where is he calling you from?

3) Is God calling you away from your expectations? Have you put off doing something you’re being called to simply because it is too hard?

A Prayer to Pray
Christ Jesus, as you called your disciples on the lake to enter deeper into the ministry of fishing, so we too hear you calling us into service to you wherever we are. Open our eyes by your Spirit that we may see the ways we may be Christ to our neighbor in whatever we do. In your most Holy Name we Pray. Amen.