EPIPHANY 5-C, February 8, 2004

Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel reading from Peter’s perspective. It is the end of a long night of fishing for Peter, a rather futile night at that, as he had caught nothing. But every fisherman has those days. Now he is at work on the shore of Lake Gennesaret along with his brother Andrew and their business partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons, cleaning their nets, getting them ready for the next day, hoping, no doubt, that tomorrow will be better than today.

They have a good business, these men. They are successful fishermen. It is safe to assume that although they are not wealthy, they make a good living, take care of their wives and families, and even enjoy their work, which is why they are such good fishermen in the first place. If you don’t like your job, you’re probably not going to be very successful in it. These men like their job and are successful and will hand on the business to their children just as Zebedee has done with his.

And then along comes Jesus with a large crowd following him. Jesus stops in front of Peter’s boats and asks Peter if he can come aboard. Peter gives his consent. Then Jesus asks Peter to put out just a little from the shore so that the crowd can gather around and listen to what Jesus has to say. Peter does and the crowd gathers. When Jesus is finished, perhaps as a way of thanking Peter for his generosity, he insurrects Peter to put the boats back out into deep water and assures Peter they will make a big catch. Peter does and they do, much to the amazement of Peter. From that moment on Peter’s life is changed, as that of Andrew and James and John.

The short of all this is that Jesus intruded into the lives of Peter and his partners, made his presence known and asked them to respond. When they did, their lives were changed forever. This divine intrusion into the lives of ordinary people, simple fishermen, is not uncommon in the Bible, however. A friend of mine from Spokane, Jim Edwards, who is professor of religion at Whitworth College, has written a book he titles The Divine Intruder. In it he chronicles and reflects upon God’s intrusion into the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Mary and Paul.

God intruded into the lives of these people and somehow made his presence and his wishes known. And then God waited for their response. Moses and Mary and Paul, all of them, could have said "no" just as Peter and Andrew could have decided they would rather fish for fish than fish for people. But they did not. They probably had second and third thoughts all along the way, each one of them. "Why me?" they asked. "Why now?" "Why not someone else?" But they overcame these questions, these doubts, persevered and carried on in their ministries, doing what God asked of them.

Even when things may have been going well for them, I suspect they all waited for the other shoe to drop. And when it did, as before, God always gave them the means to solve or resolve any problem they saw. God did not open their eyes to recognize a problem without giving them the ability, the grace and the strength do all they could both to help address and to help resolve that problem.

That did not mean that were happy campers. That does not mean that they enjoyed having to help solve or resolve a problem. Almost every one of them complained at one time or another because of what God was demanding of them. It simply means that when the Divine, when God, intrudes into our lives, we, like Peter and Paul and Moses and Mary, can help solve or resolve the problem that comes our way, whatever that problem is, because we already have at our disposal the means to do so.

Whenever the Divine intrudes into our lives, however, just because we have the means to solve the problem that in itself doesn't mean that we will like the solution or that it will be easy. Jesus had within himself the means to resolve the problem of our sins: he had to die for them. That does not mean that he particularly liked what he had to do even though he could do it. Resolving problems is not always, if ever, easy. When God called Isaiah to be his prophet, when Jesus called Peter to be a follower, both Isaiah and Peter had what it took to respond. That does not mean that they really wanted to do what they were being asked to do, certainly not always.

The same is true for you and for me. God does not intrude into our lives simply on a whim, for the sport of it, just to see how we will react or respond. God does not play games with us. When God intrudes into our lives, God does so because God knows we are capable of doing what God is going to ask us to do. God did not ask Abraham to be the Father of the Jewish people on a lark. He knew Abraham could fulfill that responsibility. God did not ask Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh because there was no one else around. God in Jesus did not ask Peter to become his disciple because Peter’s boat happened to be handy and Peter looked like he just might be a good candidate for the job.

Whenever God intrudes into our lives, God always does because God knows we can accomplish whatever purpose he has in mind for us. Like Jonah and Abraham we may not like to hear what has to be done when God drops the other shoe. That is for sure. But when the other shoe does drop, when we discover just what it is God is asking of us, we can be certain that God will give us whatever grace and strength, whatever wisdom and ability we need to do what needs to be done.

The truth is God has already intruded into our lives. God has already made himself known to us. And we have already agreed to follow his son, Jesus. Our presence here this morning attests to that fact. No, we did not have a vision like Isaiah. We were not knocked off our horse like Paul. We did not see an angel like Mary or hear a voice from a burning bush like Moses. We did not receive a personal invitation like Peter. God simply worked his way into lives very slowly, very subtly, I suspect. But God’s intrusion into our lives is no less real and no less certain than God’s intrusion into the lives of any of these famous ancestors in faith. And our mission and our ministry are just as important and just as vital to God’s purposes and plans as was Abraham’s or Moses’ or Isaiah’s or Mary’s or Peter’s mission and ministry. That is the truth.

And that is what "Matthew 25…and all that jazz" is all about. It is all about God asking each one of us, you and me, to be prepared, to be ready and willing to respond to any situation where our personal gifts and talents are needed, no matter who needs our help; or when it is needed, where it is needed, or why. We can be sure that when we see a need to which we have the ability to respond, the other shoe has dropped. God has once again intruded into our lives, and deliberately so. Again, God does not ask us to respond if we do not have the ability to do so. God’s intrusion is intentional. And so must be our response.

We may not want to respond. We may wish that God would go intrude on someone else’s life with his problem or that the problem would go away or that we could pass it off on someone else. But it is too late. God chose us, intruded on our comfortable life – as he did with Abraham and Moses and Peter – and wants us to respond to the very best of our ability. That’s Matthew 25. Whether we choose to do so or not is up to each one of us.

And all that jazz is a reminder that God also intrudes into the lives of the church, the community, as a whole: this church, this community. There is nothing we cannot do. There is nothing God asks us to do as a community of faith that we cannot do. Nothing. God would not intrude into our lives if God had not already given us all that we need to do his will. God does not ask more of us than we already possess. God does ask that we give our all, give the best of ourselves for the good of others. And, again, whether we choose to respond as God asks us to is up to us. We have the ability to say yes, but we can say no.

Matthew 25…and all that jazz is a reminder that whenever God intrudes into our lives and asks us to do his work, we can say yes, individually and as a community of faith. May we always do so.