‎Good morning: Buenos dias. This Christmas weekend-morning, we have witnessed Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ enter humanity. His entrance is the first page of the beginning of a calling, a vocation for all of us. This morning, let us pray and think about vocation, God’s special and beautiful calling to us all. Every one of us has a vocation to become Disciples and Followers of Christ. Each of you receive the invitation to follow Christ with Jesus’ own words, “…come follow me…” If someone were to come up to you and say: “….come follow me!” what would your reaction be? Am I under arrest? No, you got the wrong person. My mommy said never to talk to strangers. Sorry, bubba, I do not want any. How much is it going to cost me? Didn’t I see you on TV? If you are trying to sell me kingdom keys, you will get us both into trouble. Are you an undercover cop or something? ‎ Let’s pray for a moment over the words “…come follow me…” in the New Testament. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea ‎of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother ‎Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. He invited them to come and follow him. (Matthew 4:18). Later, he would call them to change their jobs and become Sheppards of his flock. We must notice something here. The vocation of obedience, love and service is the same, but the job at hand is different. ‎ Dietrick Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, executed by the Germans in World War II, wrote that Jesus calls upon men to follow him, not as an educator or a model of the good existence, but as ‎the Christ, the Son of God.‎‎ We are not expected to contemplate the disciple, but only him who calls, and his absolute authority.‎ ‎ According to our text, there is no road to faith or discipleship, no other road only ‎obedience to the call of Jesus.‎ And what does the text inform us about the content of discipleship? Follow me, run ‎along behind me! That is all.‎ The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity. Again it is no universal law.‎ Rather is it the exact opposite of all legality.‎‎ No other significance. ‎ There is a striking parallel between the way that Peter and Andrew receive their call to discipleship and Matthew’s call. Notice that our Lord does not engage in lengthy interviews, background checks, psychiatrist’s reports, and so on. His call is simple. He wants his disciples to immediately follow him and effectively learn as they go, imitating His example. After accepting their call, they are instructed and empowered with different skill sets appropriate to their ministry. Notice how learning and empowerment come after they accept and obey Jesus’ call to ministry and not before. This tells us that we must ask what He wants us to do as we turn our wills and our lives over to the care of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then. Become Sheppards? Become fishermen? Maybe both. But our vocation of love and service is the same. From the moment we are baptized by water and the spirit, we Jesus calls us to follow Him, each moment of our lives being a progressive deepening of our commitment. Our Church, our bible, and our life’s experiences continually beckon us to renew this call with discipleship. ‎ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man ‎named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told ‎him, and Matthew got up and followed him (Matthew 9:9). ‎Then Jesus went around teaching from ‎village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two ‎and gave them authority over evil spirits (Mark 6:7). ‎ ‎Bonhoffer also notes the following: When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to ‎his person.‎ ‎ The grace of his call bursts all the bonds of legalism.‎‎ It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment.‎‎ It transcends the difference between the law and the gospel.‎ Discipleship without Jesus Christ is a way of our own choosing. ‎ It may even lead to martyrdom, but it is devoid of all promise.‎ The initial calls that Jesus makes in the New Testament sometimes surprise and astonish us. ‎After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by ‎the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him (Luke 5:27). The gospel of Luke tells us that Levi was called while sitting at his tax booth, the site probably heavily disliked by the people. When Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, the other disciples must have wondered why Christ would want someone who was probably very disliked by the public at large since they had to pay taxes to the Roman and local government. Tax collectors then and even now in the form of IRS agents cause consternation, stress, and anxiety. Bonhoeffer looks at the responses of all the disciples and apostles and poses a very interesting question. What comes first, a confession of faith in Jesus or obedience to his call? What do you think? Bonhoeffer answers that obedience precedes an expression of faith. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in ‎Jesus.‎ ‎ It displays not the slightest interest in the psychological reasons for a person’s religious ‎decisions.‎ ‎And why? For the simple reason that the cause behind the immediate following of call by ‎response is Jesus Christ himself.‎ It is Jesus who calls, and because it is Jesus, Levi follows at once.‎ Another element of discipleship is a total redefinition of one’s life. A true disciple does not engage in nefarious activities, egocentric pursuits of money, self-centered political activity, or the blatant discrimination of any member of God’s church. St. Paul even reminds us in Two Thessalonians that we should pray for the guidance to allow God to fulfill every good ‎purpose and every act prompted by faith (2 Thessalonians 1:11). ‎If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps.‎‎ The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence.‎‎ ‎The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible.‎ ‎ Lastly, we should always be conscious and appreciative that God imbues discipleship on all of humankind, whether they are within organized religion or not. The triune God invites all of humanity to receive God into their lives and to follow him. In a book entitled Alcoholic Anonymous, the authors propose a plan of recovery - a plan of recovery within a community of other addicts and alcoholics in which the troubled and possessed addict not only tries to sober up from drugs and alcohol, but endeavors to seek after a spiritual life that allows them to turn their will and their lives over to the care of God as they understand God. A.A. proposes a twelve-step program whose spirituality is unquestionable. As one enters into the third step, those fighting addiction find a prayer for all to pray and meditate upon which reflects all the elements of a divine call to obedience and leaving one’s self behind. In the shadow of Bonhoeffer, the addict, in communion with others in AA, recognize God by being obedient to His will and engaging in a willingness to do God’s will always. ‎God, I offer myself to you--to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve ‎‎me of the bondage of self, that I may better do your will. Take away my ‎difficulties, ‎that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of your ‎Power, your ‎Love, and your way of life. ‎May I do your will always!"‎ Today as leave this worship service within our Church, let is open our minds and our hearts to recognize that all of us as Christ’s disciples both within and without the Church, rich and poor, sick and healthy, are called. Let us work together, supporting each other in our common quest to follow the God and the Christ of our understanding as disciples. All of us are called. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. New York City: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 2001. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Macmillan, 1959. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version. s.l: Oxford University Press, 2007.