“What Call’s About” [Spanish Jerusalem Bible Series - Luke 5:27-28]

Now Levi had good paying work
Requiring him to be a jerk
In eyes of folks quite close to him –
In eyes of cultured life within –

The area in which he worked
As publican – like little squirt
Down in the town of Jericho
Who climbed a tree that he could know –

Just who this Jesus was (he’d heard
Some tales, perhaps thought, “That’s absurd –
Messiah? Levi’s friend? Let’s see” –
To do so he then climbed that tree).

Not so with Levi – did his task
There in the marketplace – he asked
Each person to pay up their part
Of tax load – each year he’d re-start.

He worked for Roman government;
That’s how his working days were spent
’Till Jesus said, “Come follow me”,
Which he embraced quite willingly.

It had been quite well-paying work,
“Percent above” (hence viewed as jerk
By friends and neighbors) – just like Zach;
Friends of his pay-grade lived like that.

But then I notice he held feast
Back at his home – it seems to me
The dejándolo todo phrase,
Is ’bout career’s well-paying ways –

It’s not about, “Left cash and goods
’Bout wealth and home, where e’er that stood” –
It was about how he would spend
Remaining days until life’s end

So, dejándolo todo (left it all),
Speaks to my heart at time of call
To enter on this winding track
That’s been “Career”, “Not looking back” –

As pointed out that winter’s day,
When, chatting, all else fell away,
And focus came into my life,
With mystery – “Sharp turn to right”.

I notice also, fisher-boys
Left all (with same expression) – toys
And tools they used, were left behind,
As new involvements came to mind.

However for each one this comes,
While toiling, sitting on our bums,
The choice remains – to go or stay –
It’s up to us – then, as today.

The fisher-boys turned fleetingly
Back to their fishing, could not see
How it would work – Christ on the cross,
And all the rest as somehow lost.

But then You came and asked again,
“You love me more than this?” Then came
Instruction, “Tend My sheep, My man
(My other ten) – move ’cross the land –

And seas, complete the task that’s yours –
To take the Kingdom-news to shores
Of foreign cultures, who, in need
Of bread of life, I want to feed.

So Levi (one of ten guys left),
With down-lines working like the rest,
Pressed on, as “Matthew”; wrote his tome,
Now read world-wide, far from his home.

“Apostle” – boundary-crossing type
(Who leaps the border holding tight
Each cultured group since Babel’s gift) –
On Kingdom-layer skates over it.

Lord, thanks for Your assuring word
That our confusion You have heard;
That You can work with each, despite
Our lives a jumble in the night.

Thanks for Your call to us in ways
Appropriate to each; which lays
Foundation for some later task
In calm, or midst some stormy blast.

It’s single-purpose which I hear
In call to Levi, that part’s clear –
“Say, Peter, do you love Me more
Than all of this – what “Call” is for.

Thanks Lord for this.

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