For Sunday
Epiphany 3A
Collect
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; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Matthew 4:12-23
“Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.”
Reflection
This week, our gospel is a call story. In this particular case, the calling of Jesus’s first four disciples.
The astute reader will notice that last week, the first two disciples were followers of John the Baptist. Matthew offers a different image. Here, they are fishermen.
It is notable that these four come as a pair of pairs. Two sets of brothers. In a sense, their kinship as siblings is as essential as the fact that there are two of them. And two pairs.
Eventually, Jesus will send them out. In pairs, of course. Because the ministry is communal and from camaraderie. It isn’t solitary. Or at least, it isn’t supposed to be. We’re always supposed to have partners.
They worked together.
Jesus will have them continue to work together. Just for a different purpose.
This, however, is different from family. Families can have other priorities and obligations.
Jesus doesn’t call the Zebedee family.
He calls these two brothers. Sons whose notoriety comes from their father. In other words, he calls them from their family, their father, to be of service to the Kin-dom without him.
This reminds us of the teaching Jesus will offer later: that following Jesus will divide families. An uncomfortable and difficult idea. And one the church has so frequently chosen to preach the opposite.
Across the spectrum of church teaching, the priority has almost always been to support families; demand families, even. Teachings which have reinforced setting up a nuclear family to produce children, raising them in the church, and bemoaning any separation between family members as sin.
It makes sense theologically, but I’m wary of our motivations. Families often choose preservation over right, stability over justice, and obedience over joy.
When Jesus calls James and John, he calls them out of a family to be disciples. To be more than sons of their father: the liberators of other sons and daughters. And they will share in something bigger than their family: God’s Kin-dom.