February Article

The “CALL”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his epic book, The Cost of Discipleship, writes about this very thing. It is perhaps my favorite text in any book, other than the Bible itself. It is a must read and is copied below. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg.57-58.
The call [to Levi] goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus. How could the call immediately evoke obedience? The story is a stumbling block for the natural reason, and it is no wonder that frantic attempts have been made to separate the two events. By hook or by crook a bridge must be found between them. Something must have happened in between, some psychological or historical event. Thus we get the stupid question: Surely the publican (tax collector) must have known Jesus before, and that previous acquaintance explains his readiness to hear the Master’s call.

Unfortunately our text is ruthlessly silent on this point, and in fact it regards the immediate sequence of the call and response as a matter of crucial importance. It displays not the slightest interest in the psychological reasons for a man’s religious decisions. And why? For the simple reason that the cause behind the immediate following of call by response is Jesus Christ himself. It is Jesus who calls, and because it is Jesus, Levi follows at once. This encounter is a testimony to the absolute, direct, and unaccountable authority of Jesus.
There is no need of any preliminaries, and no other consequence but obedience to the call. Because Jesus is the Christ, he has the authority to call and to demand obedience to his word. Jesus summons men to follow him not as a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as the Christ, the Son of God.

MY WORDS
I often reflect on my own life, especially in January because it is my Spiritual birthday month, and I wonder, “How does a man in his mid 30’s completely change his career of over 20years to go into the ministry and preach the Gospel?” I can only come up with one answer, “Because it was Jesus!” I simply could not say ‘no’ to him at that point. Make of that whatever you’d like theologically, but for me it simply points to Jesus and his authority as the Son of God, just as Bonhoeffer so beautifully articulates. When we meet Jesus and he calls us, “Come follow me,” there is only one thing to do – get up and go. We know from Scripture that some received the call and walked away, so it is obviously not automatic. But, for me, there did not seem to be any other credible option, and for that I say, “Thanks be to God!”

Let’s follow Jesus together!

Pastor Dan

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