I had spent nearly a year working weekends as a cub reporter in Kalamazoo when I got the call from a news director, offering me a job working weekdays in Cincinnati.

Bigger market, better pay, better schedule – a big promotion no matter how you looked at it. I was given an opportunity I instantly recognized and could not resist. I turned in my resignation. Immediately.

There are just some opportunities that come our way that we know we need to take. They’re no-brainers, slam-dunks, positive steps in our lives.

Perhaps this is what’s happening in this Sunday’s gospel when the first disciples got the call from Jesus. It was with great haste and no sense of looking back as we heard how they were given an opportunity they instantly recognized and could not resist.  So they dropped everything and followed. Immediately.

Readily answering God’s call should be like that. We should jump at the opportunity to follow Jesus with great joy and excitement.  But that’s not how it works. For a variety of reasons we hesitate and resist, probably not fully understanding the golden opportunity that lies before us.

So our job is not so much to drop everything and follow, but figuring out why that would be an attractive option. What is it God is inviting us into? What are the nets we need to drop? What does the big or small call of God look like in our lives?

Reading

Matthew for Everyone – NT Wright

Matthew – Leon Morris

Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow

Reading

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

The Guidebook (NRSV Bible)
Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow

It was a warm August morning when my wife gave birth to our first-born.

It was emotional, unforgettable, and life-changing. And I remember the feeling as we left the hospital and made our way to the car with that tiny little boy snuggled into his car seat. And as I buckled him in for the first time I recall thinking that Beaumont hospital had made a huge mistake: they had absolutely no business entrusting the life of this sweet innocent babe to me. Who was I to know what to do – if not just that night, but for the rest of his life?

I’m sure I’m not alone in experiencing feelings of inadequacy as a new parent. In fact, I’m sure I’m not alone in experiencing the myriad of thoughts of troubled self-esteem that characterize the human condition.

In Sunday’s gospel we hear of Jesus going to the River Jordan and requesting baptism from John. We read that this great saint’s first reaction is to want to prevent this pinnacle act, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’

In other words, if it were up to John, he would not have baptized Jesus.

And we can’t help but ponder how our own self-esteem issues can, and do, interfere with God’s greater plans. What we may think of as simple self-deprecation or the avoidance of high-mindedness, can turn into something much more harmful.

How do our own fears, insecurities, and limited self-esteem prevent us from living into God’s plans for our lives? What fears do we camouflage by being overly humble? How might God be calling us to rightfully stake our claim - owning up to our place and responsibilities in life?

Reading

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

Beyond the Possible – Williams/Mirikitan
The Bible - NRSV

I called a friend recently to wish him a happy birthday.

We enjoyed a pleasant chat, then as we wound down our conversation he said, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ He said, ‘You called on my birthday, how did you know?’ I paused for a minute – then told him, 'Facebook.'

As many Facebook users know every day we log onto Facebook this powerful social media platform gives us a notice on whose birthday it is.  We don’t have to consult the sources we’ve been programmed to check, our calendars, diaries, or memory, we have a way of learning through a new and different path.

For many of us our bibles and church services are the way we’ve been programmed to find and experience God. We have come to see the Word and our faith community as central mediators of the Divine in our lives.

However, in this Sunday’s gospel we see that God is intent upon giving us experiences of the Numinous well outside traditional delivery channels. When we understand the Three Wise Men from the East came upon the revelation of God with Us BEFORE the rest of the Chosen People, we have much to ponder. We see that God’s way of revealing God’s self is not, at all, limited to the ways we might traditionally think of God being made known.

So the question is: how is God coming to us today – outside of the ways we’ve grown accustomed? In what ways is God using other people, movies, books, and our own rather average life experiences to communicate important truths to us? It’s been said that the most common and repeatable transgression there is, is not paying attention to our lives. Perhaps by doing this more intentionally in 2014 can bring us closer to the One to whom our lives belong.

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Reading

The Social Media Gospel – Meredith Gould

A Distant Mirror – Barbara Tuchman
Codependent No More – Melody Beattie