We see before us today another miracle of Jesus Christ that bears particularly and personally on your faith, on my faith, and on our church. Christ once again reveals Himself as God incarnate.
The Gospel is opened for us today to reveal the calling of Christ’s foremost disciples: Peter, James, and John. Christ doesn’t call these fishermen in the Synagogue but on the water, in their boats, while fishing! In other words, He calls them where they’re at, where you’d expect to find a pious fisherman—on the sea, fishing! And what does He call them to? He calls them to follow Him, that is, to grasp hold of Life and He calls them to share that Life with others, saying, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be fishers of men” (Luke 5: 10). Having just seen the miracle of the great catch of fish by Him who called those fish into being where there weren’t any before, they’re ready to leave all else behind to follow Christ.
All of us as baptized Orthodox Christians are certainly likewise beckoned to follow Christ, to become inheritors of true and everlasting Life, that is life in Christ. The reality is, that this journey of salvation, what we call deification or theosis in the Church, our increasing participation in the Life of the Holy Trinity, is never just about ourselves. Part of that growth in participation in the life of the Holy Trinity is achieved only by coming outside ourselves to love and to serve Christ by witnessing to His truth in this world around us.
Listen to what St. Paul says, “Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation… Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (II Cor. 5:17,20). By virtue of our putting on Christ in baptism, becoming a new creation in Him, we’re made His ambassadors to the world around us.
Our living out of our faith is our response to that calling as ambassadors. So, it’s incumbent on us to examine how we live our lives, how we speak, how we think, what we do, how we love, how we prioritize our worship and our time with God and with each other, but also how we perceive our fellow man and woman. Are we perhaps indifferent toward their plight? Do we fear witnessing or being more open about our faith for fear of rejection?
What gift from God compels us to model our faith before others? The verse we hear in every Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom gives us the answer: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, may have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
Having put on Christ in baptism, having been made a new creation, having become Christ’s ambassadors, called by Christ to be His light and salt in this world, we grow in the love that God Himself is the Author of, the love that God Himself models for us and pours out on us through His Son Who entered into human nature as man so that He could redeem that nature as God.
We who are in Christ are called to grow in that same love, to share that same love and hope of new life. This love is a love for the truth of God, for the fullness of life with God, because Christ proclaims and demonstrates Himself to be that Truth.
If we are in Christ, the same desire to save the lost, to witness and speak the truth of God that Christ did, that the holy Apostles possessed, that we see in evidence in all the Saints, is also in us. Following Christ, the Saints overcome their prideful fear of rejection, and dared to love God to such an extent that they can follow Him and become great “fishers of men.”
So, if we find ourselves indifferent or our love growing cold, then we repent and begin to pray that Christ will give us His love, to help us to learn to love with His love.
While we may understand the “why” of witnessing the Gospel and Orthodox Faith, it doesn’t take away from the fact that to many, coming outside ourselves to witness to the truth of our faith is daunting if not frightening. It demands humility, overcoming over-sensitivity and fear of rejection. Remember Christ’s four words when He tells the disciples that they will now be “Fishers of men: “Do not be afraid” (Luke 5: 10).
It’s true: sometimes our witness to the truth that Christ is will be rejected. We may be greeted with indifference or even scorned. St. Paul puts it this way: “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” (I Cor. 1:23). There’s no doubt that it’s easier just to remain silent, to get along, but this is not love. Instead, Christ God calls us to love sacrificially by witnessing to the truth that He is in a world trapped in darkness.
We as parishioners and attendees of Holy Archangels Orthodox Mission have an inherent interest in following Christ’s call to become “Fishers of men.” A mission is, by definition, a missionary enterprise. A new mission begins not just so those Orthodox who live close to the new church don’t have as far to travel to worship. No, a mission means that the Church (with a capital C) is putting its flag down, saying, “this is a place that needs the Gospel and Orthodox Faith, this is a place where people need to hear the Gospel and find purpose to their life. This is a “spiritual hospital” for all of us who are sin-sick and looking for growth in Christ. The Sacraments and all the tools He’s lovingly entrusted to us through His holy Church are here.
Growing a Mission, like founding a Mission, inherently involves ‘risk.’ As Christians, we call that risk, faith, because it’s grounded in trust that God will grow His Church, that He deeply loves the people of Annapolis and this region, and that He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:4). We trust that God will provide and we bless the hands through which He provides. We are participants in this work and in its fruit: those who grow in their faith in Christ, those who return to their faith in Christ, those who come to the fullness of faith and life in Christ through His Church. All because those before us were not afraid or ashamed to be “fishers of men,” to heed Christ’s call in obedience just as the disciples Peter, James, and John did in today’s Gospel.
The fact is that the majority of new people who come to our Orthodox churches come because someone else at the church invited them. Our building up of our church, Holy Archangels, testifies to the truth of Christ and of the Orthodox Faith in Christ. For this reason, we serve as Christ’s ambassadors: we give of our time, talents, and our treasurers, so that we can build a church, another spiritual ‘hospital,’ not just for us, but for all those whom we do not yet know, but who will come to embrace the life in Christ with us through this church. This too is an act of love and sacrifice that you and I are called to continue growing in. And so, we remember Christ’s words, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be fishers of men” (Luke 5: 10).
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
September 28, 2014
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Epistle: II Cor. 6:1-10
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
