Sunday, January 18, 2026
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” —John 1:38–39
Father Richard Rohr considers the invitation to discipleship Jesus extends today:
When Jesus goes out to Galilee, his initial preaching is summed up in the verse, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15). “Repent” (or metanoia in Greek) means to turn around, to change. The first word that comes out of Jesus’s mouth is repent, change.
Jesus calls us to be willing to change, but many of us are not willing to change, simply because we’re not willing to turn away from ourselves! Usually, we’re not in love with God. Instead, we’re in love with our way of thinking, our way of explaining, our way of doing things. One of the greatest ways to protect ourselves from God, from truth and grace, is simply to buy into some kind of cheap conventionalism and call it tradition.
But great traditions always call people on a journey of faith to keep changing. There’s no other way the human person can open up to all that God is asking of us. There’s no way we can open up to all we have to learn or experience, unless we’re willing to let go of the idols of yesterday and the idols of today. The best protection from the next word of God is the last word of God. We take what we heard from God last year (or from authority figures in our first half of life) and we build a whole system around it—and then we sit there for the rest of our lives.
Immediately after he begins preaching, Jesus calls his first four disciples. Jesus just says, “Follow me” and immediately they leave their nets and follow him (Matthew 4:19–20). But today, the way I see people transformed doesn’t happen this quickly. Maybe it happened that way with Jesus and the disciples; I don’t want to say that it didn’t. A true disciple will have that kind of readiness. Most of us, though, would prefer some process of conversion, a series of conversations over a few weeks, with Jesus saying, “Hey, I’m into something new. Do you want to be a part of it? Let’s go.”
I hope we realize that we’re all called to discipleship. We hope that the point comes when we’re ready to let go of our nets: our sense of self, our security systems, and the way it’s always been. Fishing is Simon (Peter) and Andrew’s economic livelihood, and Jesus says to let go of it. He says essentially, “I’m going to teach you how to fish in a new way, to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19). What he means is that he’s going to give them a new vocation. Hearing this Gospel passage, I hope we’re inspired to ask, “What is God asking us to do? Where is God asking us to go?”
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Abraham’s Call
Monday, January 19, 2026
The story of Abraham is a mythic, primeval story, so much so that it became the founding myth of the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
—Richard Rohr, Soul Brothers
CAC faculty member Brian McLaren describes how God called Abraham (initially Abram) and Sarah to a new covenant:
According to the ancient stories of Genesis, God is up to something surprising and amazing in our world. While we’re busy plotting evil, God is plotting goodness…. While we plot ways to use God to get blessings for ourselves, God stays focused on the big picture of blessing the world—which includes blessing us in the process.
You see this pattern unfold when God chooses a man named Abram and a woman named Sara. They are from a prominent family in an ancient city-state known as Ur, one of the first ancient Middle Eastern civilizations. Like all civilizations, Ur has a dirty little secret: its affluence is built on violence, oppression, and exploitation….
God tells this couple to leave their life of privilege in this great civilization. He sends them out into the unknown as wanderers and adventurers. No longer will Abram and Sara have the armies and wealth and comforts of Ur at their disposal. All they will have is a promise—that God will be with them and show them a better way. From now on, they will make a new road by walking.
Abraham and Sarah’s trust in God’s call is a model for our faith:
This story also tells us something about true faith. Faith is stepping off the map of what’s known and making a new road by walking into the unknown. It’s responding to God’s call to adventure, stepping out on a quest for goodness, trusting that the status quo isn’t as good as it gets, believing a promise that a better life is possible.
True faith isn’t a deal where we use God to get the inside track or a special advantage or a secret magic formula for success. It isn’t a mark of superiority or exclusion. True faith is about joining God in God’s love for everyone. It’s about seeking goodness with others, not at the expense of others. True faith is seeing a bigger circle in which we are all connected, all included, all loved, all blessed….
Sadly, for many people, faith has been reduced to a list. For some, it’s a list of beliefs: ideas or statements that we have to memorize and assent to if we want to be blessed. For others, it’s a list of dos and don’ts: rituals or rules that we have to perform…. But Abram didn’t have much in the way of beliefs, rules, or rituals. He had no Bibles, doctrines, temples, commandments, or ceremonies. For him, true faith was simply trusting a promise of being blessed to be a blessing. It wasn’t a way of being religious: it was a way of being alive.
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John Ortberg asked his mentor Dallas Willard what it would take to live the kind of life Dallas was always talking about—a life caught up in the goodness of God, a life lived from the kingdom of God, an abundant life of prayerful love. In short, the life of a disciple.
Dallas paused for a moment and said, “John, you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
John wrote that down and said, “Okay, I got it, what else?”
Long pause.
“That is all. There is nothing else.”
That’s Dallas Willard for you. But…how can that be all there is? At the risk of trying to speak for Uncle Dallas, perhaps what he meant, in part, is this: All of God’s abundance is there. The grace, the power, the resource of God has already been given. You simply need to become aware of it. And you become aware—and you become transformed—by slowing down. You must slow down into the life of God.
