Third Sunday of OT

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 26, 2003

It's a party - the boys are turning thirty! (Again)

You are cordially invited to attend the Wedding shower of
Walter and Peggy to be held at Fred's home.

With great joy we invite you to attend the wedding of Mary and Jim.

Please come for dinner at my house on Friday night.

Invitations - we get many of them during our lives. Some, you know it's okay to ignore - you'll be missed - but they'll get over it. (The boys are turning 30, dinner) Others - command performances – the wedding shower was my brother and sister in law’s; the wedding was my sister’s and I was the presider. You know those are important...

We receive other types of invitations - not written on paper - but just as powerful:
Be all that you can be. From the army, inviting one to an adventure.
"Be my friend, - I enjoy your company.”
A phone call – and you can hear that something is up – and the unspoken invitation is: “will you listen to my story? Will you walk with me?”
"come after me, I will make you fishers of men.

These are the invitations calling us to a way of life. We call them vocations - a way of walking in the world with your brothers and sisters. Is the more difficult of the invitations - nothing is written in stone, no piece of paper with directions to the party, where to be when. Simply: Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.

How will you hear that invitation? How will you know what God calls you to? Because the man who stood on the shore of Galilee stands also upon the shore of Normandy and invites us this morning to be fishers of men. Come, follow me. Come, walk the road of discipleship – as uncertain and hope-filled endeavor as fishing. No promises of how it will turn out. No warm fuzzies. Just: Follow me And fish for people. Love people with my heart. Be available to them as I am.

This week, I found myself watching for all the invitations to be a fisherman. It was amazing, the times that come planned and unplanned. Yet if you are aware – boom – there they are. Let me share two in the hopes they may trigger awareness in you to what God might be inviting you to this week.

Overnight retreat with the speakers for our Awakening retreat in February, I heard 8 college students saying: “How can I make my talk the best it can be? How can I reach out to my peers and help them to know the same love I have come to know?” It’s exciting – to see the passion. And I knew I was helping to fish for souls. So, pay attention to the times God might use your talents and gifts to shepherd someone else.
Phone call from a family – can we meet to talk about our father’s funeral? So they came straight from Spiro’s where they had gathered to share about this man whom they loved. And as I listened, I knew another opportunity was given to be a fisherman, to let people know of Jesus’ care by my own attention to them. How will you let your listening skills be at service to God’s people this week?

This week – listen for that invitation. Come, I will make you fishers of men. Because as surely as Jesus stood on the shore of Galilee, he now stands on the shore of our lives and bids us become fishers of men. Will you say yes? Will you embark on the journey? I pray it so. I pray it so.