A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Epiphany 1B + 2B
The text: from Mark 1:4-11 to John 1:43-51
First of all, we’re once again jumping between different gospels, which can be weird.
Second of all, we’re jumping over the first call stories.
There is definitely something to deal with here.
Different first stories
The calling of the first disciples is actually kind of complicated. Jesus famously called Peter, James, and John while they were fishing, didn’t he? They were in boats, fishing with nets and Jesus says to them that he willl have them fishing for people. And they drop their nets and go.
This call story is consistent within the Synoptics: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it is recognized by most of Christianity as the primary call story.
But John’s gospel tells it differently. In the fourth gospel, the disciples don’t start out as fishermen, but as disciples of John the Baptist. And it doesn’t begin with Jesus picking Peter, but with Peter’s brother, Andrew going to Jesus.
I think a lot of us live with these different tellings with an easy grace. We really the Synoptic version of events and kind of go “there goes John again!” when we engage him.
Or, if you stan Andrew like I do, then you’ll appreciate his role in getting the ball rolling.
Passive v. Active
It is also natural that most of us prefer the story of the disciples getting picked by Jesus over the one in which they pick him. It reads like an ancient princess story where the average American girl is picked by someone to be a royal princess of some European country. Or the “getting discovered” motif of some talent scout finding a struggling artist in the Midwest and makes them famous.
Of course, the closer-to-home reality is that we all wait to be picked. Hoping to be noticed. Waiting for the phone call.
It isn’t entirely passive, however. There is a kind of active-passive character to getting picked. Like studying in school, taking the standardized tests, and then hoping to be picked by the institution.
Our sense of control is entirely in the realm of preparing ourselves for getting picked. We call this mastery. And it offers the illusion of being an active participant in the process. But it just reinforces a selective system of getting picked by the authority—and authorized to become someone who gets to pick others.
But Andrew picks Jesus.
And that is a thousand times more significant. Because it means Andrew is an active participant in his own life.
Nathanael
The next day, Jesus finds Philip, which is an interesting way to put it. And makes Philip the only of the original disciples to be “picked” by Jesus. The first two follow by John’s pointing out that Jesus is the Messiah. Then Andrew picks Jesus and brings his brother. And Philip finds Nathanael.
We might say that we have already been picked by Jesus. But I think this undersells the point: we need to pick Jesus. That’s the main act of discipleship.
The Next Day
The first chapter of John has a fascinating chronology.
After that famously grand opening, we have the introduction of John the Baptist. And everything happens in a sequence of “the next day”s.
The next day, Jesus is baptized.
Then…
The next day, John sees Jesus and points him out and then Andrew follows him.
Then…
The next day, Jesus callse Nathanael who finds Philip.
Then chapter two begins
“On the third day…”
Obviously, this doesn’t make for a consistent timeline. Or something we ought to be taking literally at all. But as a motif, it pairs well with the idea that Jesus decides to be baptized, several of John’s disciples, including Andrew, decide to follow Jesus, etc.
Deciding, picking Jesus, means we have a next day, with new decisions, changed by the decision to follow Jesus.
In Cursillo, they talk about the eighth day. It is the day after Sunday. After we have chosen to follow Jesus. We have a whole world open to us. Changed. Like us.
To live into that freedom. Having chosen this new life. Picking it, and no longer waiting to be picked.