A Sermon preached at St-Mary-the-Virgin, Primrose Hill, by Andrew Allen on Sunday, 4th February 2007.

As many of you will know, I am here at St Mary's for a year, before I start my official training for the priesthood in October. Whilst I am really looking forward to engaging with the scriptures and theological debate, I think I have already learnt the key lesson of being a priest from my time here... that is , how to stack chairs!

In order to secure my place at theological college, I had to go through a three day selection conference, where I was tested on various areas of my personality and character, such as leadership and pastoral work, but, the selectors were principally concerned with ensuring that I had a sound vocation,; a vocation to serve God and the Church of Christ on earth.

So, you can therefore imagine my joy at discovering that the topic of my first sermon was neither about the consubstantiality of the Trinity, nor justification by faith, but rather about vocation. The word vocation has its roots in the Latin verb vocare, meaning to call, and that simply is what a vocation is, a calling to do something with a specific purpose. Traditionally the term vocation is reserved for certain professions and occupations, such as teaching, nursing, counselling, as well as the priesthood. However, a dear friend, in her attempt to help me with this sermon did a google search on the term vocation and brought up a site where, for an horrendous amount of money, one can test one's vocation to be a rally driver, or an igloo builder. Whilst this may seem slightly ridiculous, there is some truth in it, because a vocation is something which the person experiencing it should feel drawn to, in other words, should really, really want to do, because it feels fulfilling, or enjoyable, or just right. And this is the same with our Christian calling. This is evidenced in our readings for today, all of which talk of vocation, from the wonderful, ethereal imagery of Isaiah, to the very earthly image of the gospel.

Before looking at the gospel, let's resume the story of Christ's life.. We have seen his birth, the visit of the shepherds, magi, and the visit to the temple. Christ himself has just returned from the desert, been baptized by John, and performed several miracles. He knows that it is now time for him to stop being a carpenter in Nazareth, and do what he was sent to do; to fulfil his vocation.

Having left Nazareth, Jesus made the lakeside town of Capernaum, his new base, and it is to this town and its surrounding area that people flocked to hear him preach and to see his miracles performed. The lake of Gennesaret is another name for the sea of Galilee, and comes from the name of a fruitful plain on the lake-side. That Luke uses this name is indicative of how fruitful the harvest of followers will be; a fruitfulness also symbolised in the generous bounty of Simon Peter's catch of fish. The natural geography of the area meant that the various coves and cliffs acted as a natural amphitheatre, and thus it made most sense for Jesus to commandeer a boat and speak from a distance, because he could be heard by all the crowd who had gathered around about him, without them having to strain their ears too much, so Christ managed to proclaim his word without the benefits of modern technology and sound systems.

So the scene is set: hundreds, maybe even thousands of people have come to hear this man speak the word of God - obviously his earlier miracles, signs, and teachings have spread very fast. At the shoreline we have Jesus on a boat, surrounded by several fishermen who have been up all night working, and working in vain because they haven't caught any fish. Imagine being one of the fishermen - Simon Peter for example. You have been up all night, have caught nothing, and are quietly clearing up the boats before going home to perhaps a hungry, or anxious family. And then this man, about whom you have probably heard something wants to borrow your boat whilst he teaches about setting the captives free, or making the lame walk again. You meanwhile are feeling perhaps like a gooseberry; a superfluous extra, waiting for him to finish his talk so that you can get your boat back, and get home and get some sleep. Then, all of a sudden he says let's go back out and cast your nets down for a catch. You think that the man is crazy! The reason why most fishermen fish at night, especially in the middle east is because it is cooler then, so the fish are nearer to the surface. However, you do as Jesus commands, and lo, there are so many fish in the nets that they begin to break up.

Once everything is back on the shore, Simon Peter's eyes are opened - just as Isaiah's were in the old testament reading - and he has an epiphany, that Christ truly is the Son of God, and he acknowledges this with a confession of his sinful humanity - again, reflecting Isaiah's instinctive reaction when he saw the Lord. I suppose this experience of humility and acceptance of who we are, and the acknowledgment of the awe-someness of God is necessary if we are going to truly be called to serve him.

It is very clear that Simon Peter, and James and John heard God's call and followed Christ for "they left everything and followed him", as St Luke writes. The C20th German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhöffer wrote that ‘when Christ calls a person, he calls them to come and die'. Harrowing words, especially because Bonhöffer was killed by the Nazis, as he was part of a group which tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. How do we relate this dictum of Bonhöffer to our own service to Christ? Does it mean that we go from this service, and get on the next flight to Daruf, or Baghdad, or Somalia? That is one possible way of doing so, but, it is probably not what most people are going to do, nor what everyone is called to do. Christ says to the fishermen not to be afraid, for from now on they will be catching people. How do we in 2007 in our lives ‘catch people'? What does it mean?

Throughout the new Testament, Christ's activities all reveal to us how important it is to love one and another, from the raising of Lazarus, the summary of the Commandments, to allowing his feet to be anointed at supper. Therefore if we are called to be followers of Christ, then surely one of the best things which we can do is to show this love in our society, for as St John writes, God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.

How then do we do this?

Saint Paul, in today's epistle, provides an answer, as he writes, ‘by the grace of God I am what I am", and also, "it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me." It is thus through God's grace that we have a vocation, and act on it - because the grace of God is with everyone - rich and poor, educated and uneducated, it is not competitive. The people whom Jesus or God calls to serve him are not necessarily the most obvious - look at today's examples - the simple fishermen, Saul, the extreme Jew who was trying to persecute the church - yet they have become central to the establishing of Christianity. And the same is true today: we all have a vocation to serve Christ, we all have a calling and commission to follow our Saviour, as this communion service concludes : Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

But, how can we do this?

There are lots of different levels of fulfilling this vocation, from the ordained priesthood, helping at church through singing in the choir or on the youth team, to even showing acts of love towards others, such as by being a loving parent, friend, or neighbour. We can draw parallels with the crowd who have gathered to hear Jesus preach by the sea of Galilee. Some of whom have given up all to follow and work for Christ. Some of whom were further back in the crowd, who came along partly for entertainment or out of curiosity, but yet something they heard had struck a chord with them. Maybe they decided to try and love their neighbour as themselves, or turn the other cheek when in a difficult situation.

Where do you stand in this scene? Jesus doesn't want any anyone to be left out; there are those of you who will be following, working with Christ from now on, devoting your life to him or maybe you aren't at that stage yet, but rather somewhere back in the crowd by the shore; something - maybe a sermon, or the words of a hymn, or someone's actions, has touched you and you want to do more. As we prepare for Lent, and make time to reflect on Christ's suffering for us on the cross, perhaps it is also time to think how we all can respond to his callings for us. It may be daunting but, we are to be reassured, just as Jesus said to the fishermen, "do not be afraid," so he sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter is constantly with us as we all journey on, showing the love of Christ to others, and thus fulfilling our own individual callings. As Robert Bridges, in translating our next hymn puts it, Christ doth call one and all. Ye who follow shall not fall.

So let us all, in the name of Christ, go in peace to love and serve the Lord. AMEN