Third Sunday an encounter with Jesus

Many people think that the Christian faith is something that is just a personal faith that it does not involve other people. You hear people say that “it is my faith and its nothing to do with anyone else.” It is almost as if the faith is something that only happens to them. But believing in something and believing in the person of Jesus is not a passive personal exercise It is a lived faith and alive. The words in the letter to the Hebrews comes home as true “ The word of God is alive and active.” The faith then is a doing word rather than a passive one. 

We can see this quite clearly in the disciples today. When they were called by Jesus to follow they left everything that followed him. It was an active call in following Jesus. They encountered Jesus and were able to follow him to learn from him and be his disciples. They were called not to be passive in their faith but active. They were to be fishers of Men in other words to tell others about their encounter. 

We are called into an authentic relationship with the person of Jesus to encounter him and to follow to leave our old lives behind and follow him. It is not in anyway a personal faith but an active faith to follow Jesus to be with him. Our faith then is something that is routed in our  love of the person of Jesus. When we look at this we then must tell others. If we have good news and encountered someone who we love very much then we want to tell others. Lets think about a couple who fall in love. For a while they may keep it to themselves but there comes a point when they are bursting to tell others. They are bursting to tell others about their love what they mean to each other and how they are going to spend the rest of their lives together they share their good news. 

So why not with the most fantastic good news and that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I have heard it said that rather than us being God’s Chosen people we are God’s frozen people. So what is it that is presenting the Gospel to those we met. Maybe we feel frightened that we maybe laughed at or that we might not have the right language for telling others about Jesus. Maybe we need to learn the language by just saying how we feel and sharing our own story. This maybe is the one thing that is most impressed. The disciples told others their own story of their own encounter nothing else. Maybe we make it too complicated and just need to tell others.