Meditation for 16 September 2009

From The Rev. Peter Munson

Matthew 4:18-20

 

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

 

Discovering and Offering All of Your Gifts

 

Simon Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the lake, “for they were fishermen.”  Makes sense to me – the fishermen were casting their nets into the lake.  They were good fishermen, gifted fishermen even, for they were making their living from fishing.  But is that all they could be gifted at?  Jesus saw some potential in these two, and also in James and John – two other fishermen – and thought they would become good at fishing for people.  Indeed, if you keep reading in the Gospels, you discover that Peter and James and John became what you might call “the inner three”, the three closest to Jesus – the only three who witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, for example.  All three of them became high-profile leaders in the Church, after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  Jesus saw other gifts in them, in addition to their gift for fishing.

 

I was talking to a parishioner of St. Ambrose the other day and she and I agreed that everyone has more than one gift.  Just look around.

 

Erin Russek can talk physics with you and makes absolutely stunning quilts.  Amy Austin and Jeanie Balch can direct choirs and also keep track of 80-100 children in two different casts as they direct musicals.  Tim Hillmer mentors teachers and has written two novels.  Heather Payton leads youth groups and organizes and leads mission trips (and plays the trumpet).  Dan Weprin is an awesome fly fisherman and can fix your computer problems.  Kris Bertness is a physicist and our church treasurer.  Chris Walther remodels houses and leads groups in jail.  Leanne Walther guides students at CU’s Norlin Library and sings in the 8:00 choir.  How many of our Sunday School teachers do one thing for a living (run a company, do web design, work as accountant or as medical professionals or lawyers) and then teach our children on Sunday?  Joe Girard works at Ball Aerospace and is a baseball umpire (and Sunday School teacher).  My wife is a therapist, a workshop leader, and an amazing mother.  And how many others in our congregation excel in their work and as parents?  You get the point.

 

Sometimes we don’t know that we have other gifts until someone spots them in us (think Jesus and the disciples), or we get around to trying something.  Math was always my best subject in school, although I was good in other subjects, too.  If you would have told me in 10^th grade that I would end up spending a significant amount of my working life writing, I would have thought that you were a little off.  But now I can’t wait to write a meditation; I can’t wait to write a sermon.  I love the process of writing, the creativity of it.

 

What are your gifts?  How are you offering them for the good of the kingdom?  There are at least 2-4 times as many gifts in our congregation as there are members.  Not only that, we may be on the brink of discovering more gifts – ones that we didn’t even know that we had – if we are open to trying something new.  That’s where faith comes in.  Andrew and Peter and James and John dropped their nets that day, and followed Jesus.  Not only did they get to spend the next three years learning from the Messiah, they also  discovered a gift for leadership that they probably didn’t know that they had.  Or at least they used their gift for leadership in an entirely new way – in fishing for people.

 

Thanks be to God for all the gifts represented in our congregation.  And thank you for sharing them, for the good of the world and for the good of our community.