Wrong Number, II

In my church, each week I am responsible for recruiting a lector – a lay person who will read the scripture passage during worship.  I try to ask lots of different people to serve, and I never really know what the answer to my request will be.   One morning I asked Maria (name changed), and her response was, “Oh, I can’t do that.   Ask my husband; he’ll do it, but I could never do that.”   Her response demonstrated a lack of confidence in her abilities.

Do we sometimes hesitate to say yes to God because we don’t think we are good enough, capable enough, righteous enough, talented enough or perfect enough to serve God?

Picture for a moment the events related to us in the passage from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is walking along shore of the Sea of Galilee, and he calls out to the brothers, Simon and Andrew.   I don’t doubt for a moment that Jesus knew who they were – and that he knew they were not perfect men.   He knew their flaws, he knew their weaknesses.   He knew their sins.   And yet – he called them.   Calls are initiated by God, and he knows us.   He put us together, created our very being, and he knows even the deepest, darkest parts of our souls, and yet HE CALLS US.  He calls us anyway – maybe in spite of who we are, or maybe because of who we are.   William Barclay wrote in his Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, “We should never think so much of what we are as of what Jesus Christ can make us. What can Jesus do in the world through us if we will only trust in his choice of us when he calls?

Five minutes after Maria told me that she could never read scripture in church, she came back up to me and aid, “OK, I’ll do it.” Her confidence in God inspires me.