The Calling of the Imperfect by Christ
18th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Luke 5:1-11
In today’s passage from the Gospel we read that Jesus, standing in Simon's boat, preached to the people, "taught the multitudes from the boat." Then, having ordered the fishermen to head out into the deep, He performed a great miracle of catching fish. Afterwards, Jesus called the four fishermen who were near to Him to be His first disciples, and who, later, became His apostles.
The greatness of the Lord was evident in all those actions of Jesus Christ, but certainly the calling to the road of apostolic ministry of the fishermen Simon/Peter and Andrew, John and Jacob is the most tangible act, for all ages, for the entire Church of Christ. Therefore, our conversation will be thematically mostly about the vocation of Christ's disciples.
It is very likely that if you and I were to choose candidates for these or similar positions, for such important tasks, we would never choose those poorly educated ordinary people. We would certainly look for candidates for spiritual guides among people who are more educated, who are more prepared by life and experience to work among people, and not alongside fish...
We would certainly set requirements also for the character of such candidates; we would certainly consider that the builders of the Church of Christ, the preachers of the Gospel, should be people who are balanced, calm, and gentle in relation to their neighbours...
And that is why we certainly would not have chosen the feverish, erratic fisherman Simon, who could swear loyalty, and after a few hours, out of fear, renounce it.
We probably also would not have chosen as a candidate for the position of a superior spiritual leader such a man as Matthew, who was a tax collector for the Romans, the occupiers in that country (Palestine), who was hated by the majority of his countrymen-patriots. We would say that such a figure is very controversial, and we would look for another person.
And for sure, if we were looking for the successor to the first martyr for the faith of Christ, deacon Stephen, we would not be looking for a faithful preacher of the Gospel among those people who destroyed the Church of Christ, who praised the murder of deacon Stephen. No, we would look for a successor to the martyr for the faith of Christ only among his like-minded people.
Therefore, you and I would never have chosen Saul, who, having become the apostle Paul, he himself testified,
" I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it " (Galatians 1:13).
But at the same time, we are all aware that Paul, by his actions, proved to be the greatest missionary of the Church of Christ -- he founded the greatest number of Christian Communities, Churches in different countries, took care of them the most, wrote the most Epistles to those Churches from which we still learn more than from writings of other apostles.
From this, we are convinced that Jesus Christ, having already been bodily in heaven, made the most faithful and successful choice, calling the persecutor of Christians, Saul, to preach the Gospel. We are also convinced that, despite the imperfection of human nature, Simon, called by Christ, was worthy of a great calling -- he proved himself to be the great apostle Peter, who fearlessly began a sermon about the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost and continued it, brought people to the Church of Salvation until the last days of his life.
Similarly, the vocation of the publican Matthew, who became the first to write the text of the Gospel, from which those who had never seen Christ could preach, teach and learn, turned out to be successful. According to the testimony recorded by the apostle and evangelist Matthew, untold millions of people believed on his testimony, and those people found unity and salvation in Christ.
And so all those called by Jesus Christ, all his disciples, near and far with the exception of the "son of perdition", Judas Iscariot, all proved to be worthy of Christ's great calling.
At the same time, we always remember that Jesus Christ made the first appeal to His disciples after performing the great miracle of the catching of fish. That miracle of the large fish catch was not necessary for the material enrichment of the fishermen, Andrew, Simon, John and Jacob, but in order to testify to the divinity, God's power of the Son of Man, to testify that the forces of nature obey Him. And, in that way to do great things in their souls, to enable a spiritual transformation so that they might follow Jesus boldly, so that they believe that He can truly teach them to "catch men" (Luke 5:10).
As we speak about the first calling of Jesus Christ to his disciples, it is good for us to know that the Lord Jesus Christ called His followers in many countries who preached His Gospel--who brought salvation to people, overcoming great difficulties, sometimes sacrificing their lives, so that the truth would become affirmed and established among the people – that true faith of salvation lay in God. And in many cases, like the ones first called by Christ in Galilee, they were not the most perfect, the most educated people, but, as in the case of Saul, the Lord was a seer of souls and called people who sincerely sought to fulfill the will of God.
It was the same with the organization and growth of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada: the first organizers, the first priests were not accomplished people. Many of us had the opportunity to know them personally -- they were people, like us, with various imperfections and flaws of human nature, people not highly educated, but they were people with sincere intentions to serve for the salvation of their people in God, in Christ-- and the Lord blessed their work.
Therefore, we, living in new times, should not be afraid to undertake a great and holy work. Let us gain only faith and confidence that with Christ we can do everything, if only we have honest intentions. We may be handicapped, weak in terms of human strength, but inspired by the grace of God, we are strengthened in Christ. Apostle Paul testifies about Christ's assurance:
"...My strength is made manifest in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
