Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

I read a story in the New York Times last week.  It was a column by their business issues and technology editor.  He voiced a common complaint, about emails.  He said that in December, he had 46,315 unread emails in his inbox.  46,315.  When he went back to work after New Year’s, he had zero.  He deleted them all.  Every single one.  Without reading them.  He said he was declaring what is known as “email bankruptcy.”  He was determined to start the New Year with an empty inbox.

That was pretty radical.  I don’t know if that would work for everyone – I’d be afraid of losing something important, even if it was something that had been sitting there for months.  But he said he was prompted to do this by the sheer volume of messages he was getting.  It was unmanageable.  And he’s not the only one.  He cited a study by a technology and market research firm in California.  The study said people send 182 billion emails each day around the world.  That adds up to more than 67 trillion messages a year.

This is what we have come to.  All those billions of notices, emails, invitations, communications… we are swamped, absolutely drowning, in messages.  Let’s be honest: how many of them do any of us keep, or even remember?  How many are important?  On any given day, I find myself getting emails about cat and dog videos… or some fortune that has been left for me in a Nigerian bank account about it… or a request to take part in a survey on a subject I know nothing about.  We’re drowning in so much that is unwanted or unnecessary.

But today, we hear a message that IS wanted and IS necessary.  “Come after me.  I will make you fishers of people.”  Plain words spoken on the shores of a lake, in a time when there was no email.  In fact, there was no post office, no telegram, no phone, no email.  Just this: a direct invitation.  “Come after me.  Let me lead you.”  In time, what they did, the choice they made, transformed the world.

Two thousand years later, that invitation is still out there.  Christ still calls.  To every one of us.  The words of this gospel are being repeated again and again today in churches around the world.  Jesus comes to us where we are – whether it’s on the banks of a lake, or an office in downtown Seattle, or a kitchen at home or at church.  He comes to us and offers that invitation.  Come after me.  I will help you do things you never imagined.  Come.  What will be our answer?

Jesus continues to extend his invitation to be missionary disciples to all of us.  Come after me.  Come after Christ.  There are no tests, no hidden fees.  The call of Christ to the fishermen all those centuries ago is also his call to us today.  Today’s gospel reminds us of one message, one invitation, that really matters.  So, check your inbox.  Jesus has sent you an invitation.  It’s not spam.  Don’t ignore him.  Don’t delete him.  Give him a reply.  Centuries ago, some fishermen did and it changed everything.  How will your response to Christ change you?

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor