And following Jesus today
Epiphany 3B | Mark 1:14-20
What an image! A guy walks up to working fishermen and says
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
And three of them just drop their nets into the sea. And then, I assume, they dive out of the boats, swim to shore, and just go with him.
And then, we look at the edge of the frame and there’s the father. His sons have ditched him. And he’s thinking “who is going to take over the family business?” It says that the brothers “left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men”. Who is he supposed to rely on now? The hourly guys?
It’s crazy.
There’s a remarkable tension here between following Jesus and responsibility. A tension we tend to avoid thinking about.
Because we want responsibility to be a sign of following Jesus—rather than an obstacle to it.
I’m here to tell you: if that’s us, we’re going to be disappointed.
Jesus isn’t against responsibility, of course.
But it’s more like we have the wrong idea about being responsible and with regards to what.
Probably the best example of how this works in us is the Parable of the Lost Sons.
The father honors his younger son without regard to whether he deserves it. And when the son comes back, the father takes responsibility for celebrating—because the dead has been raised.
Meanwhile, the older son, who thought he was being responsible by staying home and working the family farm, resented his father for it, hated his younger brother, and leaves them both when he doesn’t get his way.
The beautiful turn in the parable is that older brother is “the responsible one.” But it doesn’t mean he takes responsibility for anything the father truly values.
And in the end, refuses to be responsible for reconciliation or truly honoring his family.
So, in our story today, when these three leave their lives behind we may be more focused on what they’ve left than where they are going.
Thinking the Best
Of course, we’re inclined to see following Jesus as a good thing. And the leaving the family business as, at most, regrettable. This is an easier one to look past.
But it isn’t too long before Jesus goes home with these disciples and calls them his real family to his mother.
And this story also should come to mind when Jesus says that he has come to divide families. Because not everybody is ready to follow Jesus when we are.
I dare say that when we are ready, the responsible choice is to follow. Not to wait. Jesus talks about that a lot. Remember what he says to the one who wants to bury a loved one who has died before he can follow? He says to let the dead bury their own.
In John’s gospel from last week, we heard the words, “come and see”. To this, let’s add Mark’s immediacy. Come and see now. When is the time? Now.
Fishing for People
While we’re chewing on this, let’s add that clever phrase to our meal.
“I will make you fish for people.”
This has to be the most clever and creepy phrase in Jesus’s teaching. Because what were these young men going to do with the fish they caught? We know what. And we don’t want our churches to be a part of that with people!
Of course, we know that human trafficking and cannibalism is not on the menu. But that he intends for these people to see themselves in a new way. That what they offer the world can be a different kind of offering for God.
Maybe the skills translate. I’m not sure fishing works as easy as, say, teaching. But we know marketers can be pretty good evangelists. And given some of the cringey church signs around town, maybe we need to go fishing for some marketers and advertisers.
What are some other ways to see our skills as gifts to offer? We have vestments and K*I*D*S Worship and a choir because our skills can become gifts.
This is the turn Jesus’s turn of phrase depends on.
Making what we have of use to God.
Because we know Jesus didn’t call the smartest students to follow him. He didn’t recruit wealthy benefactors. Or depend on the synagogue leaders to authorize his ministry. He didn’t recruit at job fairs or headhunt national merit scholars.
He found regular people who could see the vision. And he said we are enough.
Repent/Turn
And this turning of attention, from working a job to following Jesus, from fishing to proclaiming the Good News is the message the gospel begins with. The message John the Baptizer shares. And when John is arrested, Jesus picks it up himself.
The time is fulfilled. The Kin-dom is near. Repent. Believe.
Jesus brings this message, embodies this message with these fishermen.
Time is now! Turn! Believe!
And three of them come and see—now.
Then we too hear this message, that the time is now, the Kin-dom is near, turn, and believe. Maybe it is in an exquisite choral piece or in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Star Trek.
We hear the call to move. And we find, in ourselves, that we have already moved.
And then we come to this moment.
We’ve already been called. So we can reflect on our own being called through a lens of the disciples being called. But there is this new layer of hearing this again today. To live in this moment. Hearing this story now!
Being told in this, come and see, now!
That this isn’t a message for some fishermen two thousand years ago or for us at some other time only. It is for us now.
And in our hearing, we have a new invitation. One first offered by John the Baptizer and then picked up by Jesus: The time is now. The Kin-dom is near. Repent. Believe!
Turn and seek.
There’s a fearlessness to this invitation. Which shouldn’t surprise us given “do not fear” is Jesus’s favorite phrase. But it is a fearlessness to resolve to change our direction, our priorities, our very identity, our organizing structures.
And it is a message that reminds us that the Kin-dom is more than family. More than economic security. More than stability.
We’re invited to let go of inheritance, property, and well-to-do expectations.
At its core, Jesus’s message of love is a vote of confidence: in us, in our abilities and ingenuity, and in our faith.
That our love can change our own hearts and the world. A mustard seed faith and mountain-moving power.
That’s behind our invitation. An invitation we receive in hearing about Jesus inviting some fishermen to come fish for people. Knowing where this is going. Who this stupendous stranger is. And why we too receive this message. Of hope. To turn in hope. To change our own lives in hope.
That God is in the neighborhood. Now! And the best we can hope for is to try and keep up!
And we keep up in ways we are called to serve. In our gifts and skills. Not only in those ways, of course, but Jesus’s vision comes alive most through our gifts.
So artists and crafty people create. Musicians play and compose. Teachers teach. Welders weld.
And a lot of people have had their gifts suppressed because society doesn’t value them. Or we’re told we can’t make money off of them. Or maybe we’ve just never found them. Some gifts come alive in the midst of others sharing their gifts; like a song that can only be sung when a piano begins to play.
We are more than our gifts. And more than our tradition.
We are called to a gospel of love and faith and hope. Everything is built on those things. That is where responsibility comes from. Ingenuity. Devotion. Compassion. Generosity. These spring from love, faith, and hope. It all comes from this.
So we, here, now, hear this invitation again. To turn again. Follow again. Be new. Now.
This life of faith is above our tradition. Above our families and identities. And it goes well beyond political parties, cultural imperatives, and family customs.
We are invited to something better than what we know. To come and see now why it is better. To live out this better way today. And find within it a community that makes a better family than our own.
Because the bonds of affection aren’t based on blood and heritage. Nation or race. Those things we have far too long used as an excuse for oppression and abuse, slavery and genocide. All things we reject from the deepest corners of our hearts.
We join together in love, faith, and hope. That God binds us together. That God’s love supports us and our love supports those around us.
Jesus keeps picking normal people all over the world and says Come and see, now! Because we can change the world. And together, we will.