Tomorrow’s Sunday

The Gospel tomorrow describes the calling of the disciples. We’re told that as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon, Andrew, James and John and asked them to follow him.

We’re then told that they followed him without hesitation, putting an end to their old way of life and starting afresh.

It’s been seen as the perfect response that anyone can make when they hear the call of the Lord on their lives.

Not wanting to take anything away from the fact that the disciples did make the perfect response to the Lord all those years ago I do, however, question their motives. Because it’s clear from the Bible that James and John were actually motivated to follow Jesus from their own desire for power: they wanted to be his prime ministers when he came in the glory of his power.

And St Peter isn’t let off the hook either: having given up everything to follow Jesus he wanted to know what was in it for him (Matthew 19 verse 27).

So it raises questions: How do we feel about the fact that some of Jesus’ most famous disciples only followed him for selfish ends? Do we think it’s bad? Well, personally I think it’s quite good. Because, if we’re honest, all of us come to church for different reasons, not all of them pure and holy.

I had a friend who admitted that she only started going to church because she fancied the person running the youth group.

But none of the reasons why we come to church really matter. The most important thing is that we’re there, in the presence of Jesus. And if we’re in the presence of Jesus we’reopentochange-andbecoming more like him.

That, at least, was the experience of the disciples. Because whatever their motives were in following Jesus, however high and mighty they wanted to become, the fact is they did change - and took on board the teaching that whoever would be great must become a servant. How might we change to be like the Lord? Rev David Chadwick

St Pauls, Ryhope