Our Collect for today: "Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works . . . "(BCP, p.215). Take some time now to recall the times you hear Jesus calling folks to come in the gospels.

Some that come to me include these: in last Sunday's gospel when two of John the Baptist's disciples were wondering about Jesus, he called them to "Come and see" (Jn.1:39), and then we have the calls of Peter and Andrew, James and John in today's gospel. Remember Jesus calling, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down" (Lk. 19:5), and when Peter wanted to walk on the water with him, Jesus said, "Come" (Mt.14:28) Peter stepped out of the boat, and we know the rest of that story. One of my favorites is the invitation to rest and refreshment: "Come away to a deserted place by yourselves" (Mk.6:31), along with "Come to me, all you who are weary" (Mt.11:28), and "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me." (Jn.7:37) Similarly the invitations to the escatological feast: "Come to the wedding banquet," (Mt.22:4) and "Come and have breakfast" with the resurrected Jesus. (Jn.21:12) For healing, Jesus called the man with the withered hand in the synagogue to "Come forward" (Mk.3:3) and to the demons in Mark 9:25 to "come out of him and never enter him again," and to his friend in the tomb, "Lazarus, come out." (Jn.11:43). This is no way an exclusive list; other examples may have come to you.

Over and over Christ Jesus calls us to come nearer, to join him on the way, to trust him in all things, to accept the opportunities the Holy One puts before us to share our experience of God's grace with others. May our ears be open to hear those calls and our hearts ready to respond readily to the invitations with our names on them.