When I taught in Cambridge, some years ago, one of our school governors was quite a young Roman Catholic scholar who wrote education books that I could not understand and once took us on a walk to visit Wittgenstein’s grave. If you asked him, on meeting him, ‘How are you Terry?’, his reply was always the same, ‘eternally, I’m fine’. We lost touch when I moved here and I learned recently that he had suddenly and very sadly died – I couldn’t help smiling inside – he is certainly eternally fine now.

Terry knew where he was going and rested in the assurance of God’s touch on his life. He was also very aware of his vocation to a particular way of life and to a teaching ministry which enriched many people and which drew others closer to God.

Where are you going?

What are you doing for God?

What is your vocation as a Christian?

As we go through what is in this church year a very short period between our celebration of Jesus’ birth and our preparation for and commemoration of his death the lectionary presents us with real challenges – which it would be oh so easy to overlook or relate to other people than ourselves. Vocation has in the past been used as a term to refer specifically to the ordained ministry or to certain professions such as teaching or nursing. It does not mean that – every Christian has a vocation – a calling from God to a particular role in the church and in the world. Our Bible readings and church teachings last week and this make that very clear.

Last week we commemorated the baptism of Jesus. Not as a baby, just after our Christmas / his birth celebrations, but as an adult, in the river Jordan. He did not need to be baptised but did so ‘to fulfil all righteousness’. He entrusted himself to the waters in order to identify with human beings and to mark out the start of his true vocation – his recognition of his heavenly origin and divine sonship. A new start was marked in his life and thus for all those baptised in his name, we too are called sons and daughters of God – chosen and called to serve him.

The church year is carefully structured. Having recognised the significance of Jesus’ birth, we cannot rest in the merriment of Christmas, but must now reflect on what the adult Jesus did - and of course on what he still asks of those who follow him. In this short time before Lent we think about how Jesus prepared for his ministry, called his apostles, started his work and ministered in many ways before he was brought to trial and death. We will return to reflect on our worthiness and spiritual lives during Lent, but in these few weeks we are called to be clear about just who we are and what God is asking of us as baptised members of Jesus’ body. Once we are clear about that, then we can consider how better to be who we are called to be. And then during the Easter season we will have space to learn more of Jesus’ teaching, guiding us in our vocational journey.

And so today we read of Jesus’ vocation. He is clearly the fulfilment of the promises of the Old Testament. Matthew has already made that clear of the infant Jesus, now he shows how the adult Jesus truly is the promised Messiah – with a role, a mission to accomplish. Having grown up in Nazareth, we hear in today’s gospel reading that, prompted by the arrest of his cousin John, Jesus made a decisive move from there to Capernaum. He broke with his past and moved on. Matthew interprets this as fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that this area (which had in the past been the territory of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali) would be relieved of their burden of oppression. That part of Israel had certainly always been under control of some power or the other – it was a very important part of the international, indeed inter-continental trade route and so to control that region was economically beneficial. The people of the Galilee had almost always lived under the rule of foreigners, many of whom were ruthless in their leadership. The dark days of oppression and misery, as prophesied by Isaiah, were now ending and the light was about to shine through the Messiah.

Yet this background had also produced a people who were adaptable and more adept at listening to variety. William Barclay tells us: ‘History had compelled Galilee to open its doors to new strains of blood and to new ideas and new influences’. Galilee was also a very fertile region with good farming and fishing and large villages and towns. It was highly populated. Jesus chose wisely to start his ministry in a place where there were lots of people – and who may well be open to listen to him. And so he started to proclaim – to speak out in both warning and encouragement: Repent – the kingdom of God (the rule of God on earth) has come near. Jesus had begun to live out his calling to bring God to people in his own being.

We hear of the call of the first apostles. Presumably Jesus knew, or had at least seen previously, Peter and Andrew and James and John, as he had got to know the area and walked beside the lake. Perhaps they had chatted for some time. So when he invited them to follow him they did so immediately. Just as Jesus had made that decisive change and left his home town of Nazareth, so they too left their familiar way of life and their families, and became his followers. And then we hear no more of them in the passage. It is Jesus who goes around doing stuff – teaching, proclaiming the good news and healing. Presumably the four at least were with him but in Matthew’s gospel the apostles themselves do very little for several more chapters. After this reading follows the sermon on the mount, then more stories of Jesus’ teaching and healing, until in Ch10 we come to a list of the 12 apostles and their sending out. However it actually happened, Matthew is clearly making the point that Jesus has called men to work alongside him – as followers just like other rabbis of the time - but in order to live out that calling they had first to learn from him – to observe and listen and absorb the good news, before being sent out fully to minister for themselves.

We know, of course, that they were sent out and that by the time of Paul there were many followers continuing the mission of the crucified and risen Jesus. This huge growth had lead to problems as we heard in the epistle reading. Factions had developed in the emerging church in Corinth with people claiming to follow different leaders – Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Jesus. Each presumably believed that the preferences in the teachings of their group was the most favourable. So those following Paul may well have been mainly gentiles who celebrated their freedom from the Jewish law, while the Cephas party may have been followers of Peter who wanted to integrate the law into their new faith. The Apollos group may have been intellectual Greek Jews and one group may simply have believed that as those who belonged to Christ they were the only true believers.

In a sense the growth of factions within the one church was bound to occur, especially in such a large and cosmopolitan city as Corinth. What Paul needed to remind those early followers was that which group they belonged to was irrelevant – the fact was that they had been baptised into the name of Jesus. By being baptised into his name both they - and all we who are baptised since then – come into Jesus’ possession – that was what the Greek phrase meant – into the utter possession of someone. And so both they and we are not just Jesus’ possession but in some way identified wholly with him. The different Corinthian Christians could retain their own identities, indeed elsewhere in Paul’s writings he celebrates differences in believers – but they could not escape the fact that baptism brought them into one family and members of the whole body of Christ – which in turn had implications for mission and vocation. If that were true then, it is true now.

By virtue of our baptism we are members of the body of Jesus and we have a calling to live out. There are two ways of understanding that calling, and we need both aspects. The first concerns our beliefs, our values and our lifestyles. Although we may have different ways of expressing our belief in Jesus, there are certain values and givens by which we must live as witnesses in the world. The second part of our vocation is to determine what it is that God is asking of us in ministry – in our work, in the church, in our family life and relationships. Our whole life is bound up with Jesus, we cannot compartmentalise bits - this is not the Sunday bit, it is part of a whole. Everything merges as a beautiful tapestry.

Jesus left Nazareth. He went to Galilee and he started his ministry. God had prepared him through the affirmation of his baptism and through the desert experience of temptation. He chose wisely a place to start where there was a good chance of being listened to. He called others to work alongside him. Those early apostles learned from him and were affirmed in their calling and sending out. It was not easy for them, as we known from the gospel accounts, especially at the end of Jesus’ life.

So what is God calling us to do? What does he ask of us in terms of lifestyle? What does he ask of us in terms of ministry? For some that may be, as it was for Jesus, a break with the past and perhaps an initially painful new direction to follow. I am certainly seeing that in my own life and that of many fellow ordinands as we face our new curacies and moves away from the familiar to new pastures, with all that entails. For some here it may be that we are not yet following the ministry that God has for us at work and that may mean huge change and challenge. For others it may be taking on new ministry in church or a different family relationship. For others it may be that God wants to minister through the familiar – perhaps through praying for others or through our family life. For all there may well be preparation and ‘training’ as there was for those early followers, through watching others, listening, talking with Geoffrey or others or through formal programmes. And of course prayer and Bible reading are important aspects of personal training in our Christian ministry.

Jesus was called by God to proclaim the good news of God’s reign on earth, he called apostles and disciples to minister with him, he calls us too. Each of us will have a different and complimentary part to play in bringing in the kingdom. As we start the week of prayer for Christian unity we are reminded that we share this mission with brothers and sisters who are like us and different to us in this town, country and all over the world. Individually we are baptised into the name of Jesus so that together we support each other in our vocations to share his love with a world which in many places still walks in darkness. May we each reflect this morning on what he is calling us to do for him.

Amen