For our fishermen today this divine initiative is imperative because without it
there is no way that they would have 'left their nets' to follow Christ.
The are men already working, already doing something useful,
something important,
we have no reason to believe that they were actively looking for some
kind of new life.

These are not folk like some of the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures
who are wailing around the streets and deserts looking for an answer.
These are not folk, as far as we know who were crying out to God
'How Long! Or 'Where are you'! Or 'Why are you taking so long?'
No these are everyday people living everyday lives
and this call from Christ does not appear to be filling some obvious vacuum
or desperate need in their souls.

And its an intrusive call, it pulls them away from friends and family.
It is a disruptive call, unsettling and decisive.
And it's a call which comes directly from God.
From God through Christ,
Christ who stands by the shifting lake and says 'Follow me'.
Of course this call, does not only come to us through the Christ.
or not,
at least,
only through the incarnated Christ of flesh and word.
This call comes to some in the shining light
pouring through the passion of summer tree's,
it comes to others in a grandchild's song,
it comes to some in the Sufi whirl,
it comes to others in the Buddha's smile,
it comes to some as a strirring for justice
it comes to others as a hunger for change.
It comes to some as a dream
It comes to others as a whisper

But it always comes, the question is and always has been:
Do we have the ears to hear and will we put down our nets and follow.
One woman who famously heard and heeded the call of God was Sheila
Cassidy Many of you may have heard of Cassidy a British doctor who
went to Chile during the dictatorial rule of Augusto Pinochet back in
the 1970s.

She used her medical skills to minister in the name of Christ.
Because she treated any who requested her help,
including one who opposed the regime,
she was arrested and imprisoned and brutally tortured.
Eventually she was expelled from the country and today she ministers
to the terminally ill in England.
In her autobiography, 'Audacity to Believe',
Shelia tells of the time when she heard and accepted the call of God.
"How can one convey the agony and the ecstasy of being called by God?
At one moment one is overawed by the immensity of the honor,
and in the same breath one screams,
'No! No! Please, not me, I can't take it!'
That which seconds ago was a privilege
becomes an outrageously unfair demand."

But then she adds, "I thought about it, and I knew that I did not want
to say no and that, however much it hurt, I could only humbly accept.'
Refecting on this call some years later Shelia went on to ask:
'Have you heard of Oscar Romero,
who went from right-wing priest to a prophet who was eventually shot?
There is no doubt he was called as a prophet,
to speak for those who have no voice.
Think about the nature of call.

One of the ways to understand it is to look at some of the call stories
in scriptures: look at Abraham, for example;
a real man from Ur, the country we now know as Iraq,
his was a call into the unknown:
'Leave your people and go to a land I will show you'.
In fact all of us are called into the unknown,
We do not know what will happen when we say Yes to God.
Then look at the call of Moses.

Remember he was a murderer who had to flee the police into the desert.
He saw the burning bush, and God spoke to him from the bush;
and he said he was a stutterer, and God said  'You go'
God calls the unsuitable, we are all unsuitable.
I was a non-political student who ended up as a prophet for South America.
Most times when we are called by God we don't go willingly, we protest.
Like the prophet Jeremiah who says to God
'You have seduced me'. Jeremiah was very unwilling.
But you are drawn on to do things by the fire in your belly
and because it seems right.

Shelia Cassidy's call story is full of drama.
The call of our fisherfolk from the gospel is much simpler.
What is your call story?
Or at least, what is one of your call stories,
for God, in her many forms does not just call us once,
no, God,
like a lover, like a mother like a true friend
calls us over and over and over again.

When you came in this morning you were given a fish.
A little paper fish and a pen.
Take a few moments to reflect on this question.
This question of Gods call in your life
and then write down a memory of a moment in your life
when you have heard Gods voice,
literally or metaphorically, a moment when you have heard Gods voice
and said yes.

We are then going to gather up these fishes,
gather them up in a net and share from a few of them,
the stories of Gods call.