Try this little spiritual exercise. Sometime this week stand at the step of City Hall
And for an hour, shout at the top of your lungs:
“Forty-days more and this city will be destroyed!!!”
Then, come back next week and tell me how it went…
The conversion of the city if Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah goes to show you that the only reason he was effective as that he was literally on a mission from God.
But with Jonah and with Paul and even with our Lord, we can see a certain urgency with which they go about their tasks.
“Forty days more…”
“I tell you, brothers and sisters, that time is running out…”
““This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
You can feel the urgency in their message.
When I was younger, I was captivated by Peter, James, John and Andrew, who left everything, seemingly on the spur of the moment, to follow Jesus simply because he asked them.
“What faith!” I thought. “What fervor!”
Then, as I grew older and started adulting, I thought to myself, “Self! Hold on a minute. Normal people don’t this that. They don’t just up leave everything because some stranger says, ‘Follow me.’” In fact, we see several other places where Jesus give the same invitation and they don’t follow him, such as the rich, young man in Mark 10:17-31.
There has to be more to the story.
Fortunately, we get our insight in last week’s gospel from the call of Andrew and Peter in the Gospel of John
(Jn 1:35-42). As you recall, once Andrew spent the rest of the day with Jesus he sought out his brother Simon and exclaimed, “We have found the Messiah!” If we keep reading, we see that the next day the scene is repeated with Philip and Nathaniel. In this case, Philip says, ““We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” (Jn 1:45)
What becomes abundantly clear in a reading of John is that, like everyone else at the time, those who would become the first disciples were primed and ready for his appearance. They were on the lookout, and when they found themselves in his presence, they recognized in him the long-expected Messiah.
They didn’t know what following him would entail, of course, but really they didn’t have to. He was there. He asked them to be his disciples. That was enough for the moment. The rest would take care of itself.
It’s a good lesson for all of us who choose to follow Jesus. Do we recognize in Jesus the fulfillment of all our hopes and deepest longings? Do we choose to follow him daily? If we do, then every other decision from then on will flow from that choice. The rest is just details.
The problem is, human beings are naturally averse to the unknown. We like a bit of certainty before we take a leap of faith.
We like the road map, not just trail markers.
In the morning I like to listen the local news radio. It seems that every news and talk radio station has at least one featured show on planning your financial future and setting a road map to success.
And yes, we should plan prudently in this regard.
But in the end, it is all an illusion.
“The world in its present form is passing away.”
You never see a hearse with a U-Haul behind it.
In her essay, the Open Door, Helen Keller once said something that I greatly admire:
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
– Helen Keller, The Open Door
Still, we like a bit of certainty before we take a leap of faith.
If not in what we are getting ourselves into,
then at least in the ONE who is asking us to do it.
This trust in the other is called faith.
This is not something esoteric or complicated.
Anyone who has watched a child leap into the swimming pool at his father’s beckoning knows what I am talking about.
The water is deeper than the child’s head.
The child knows this.
The child also knows that it is only about chest deep on his father.
And he knows that since his father is there, he will be safe.
And so…he leaps.
Is it any different for you and me as we stand on the edge as Christ beckons us out of the kiddy pool and into the deep end of discipleship?
It is Jesus who is calling us.
What could we possibly be afraid of?
What could possibly hold us back?
He has gone all the way to the Cross for us.
His arms are still outstretched to embrace us.
What could possibly make us hesitate any longer?
Yet, still. Some of us do.
In 1958, Thomas Merton, prolific author and monk of Gethsemane Abbey in Louisville, KY, wrote a book called “Thoughts in Solitude.” In this book is a short prayer about this very moment in the life of every Christian.
It is now called “The Merton Prayer.”
It is often quoted, even today.
So I will conclude with it in hopes that you will find it helpful:
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end,
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
