You
see, Jesus turns up at the waterside. And when Jesus turns up at the waterside
(or anywhere else for that matter) things are going happen. They may have met
him before. Perhaps they had heard about him. But it doesn’t really matter. No,
today Jesus calls them to a new beginning taking place. Jesus glances at these
working men, with their nets and their hard-won catch, and he announces, in a
voice perhaps both cosmic and comic, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for
people.” This landlubber on shore has just issued a challenge.
The
call narratives in the bible have many things in common, three of them
important for our story today.
First, God calls to a place. God calls us to a place in the world where we are already
going. There is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of stories to be told.
There are a lot of fish to be caught. God sends us now into the world in peace
to the place where we already are to make disciples. But moreso, God calls to have
a place in and with Jesus. Why did those four respond? Why did the other before
them respond? Were they sick of being fishermen? I tend to think not. Instead, possibly,
they sensed in John the Baptist a glimmer of hope. Perhaps they realized a new
opportunity in this dynamic preacher from Nazareth. Maybe they found in Jesus the
place where they were intended to be. Having a place is really important. When
they sinned, Adam and Eve were tossed out of their place. Cain was doomed to
wander without a place. Abraham and Sarah were called to journey from a place
to a still better place – a promised place. The children of Israel were
delivered from Egypt and again promised of a place – a place flowing with milk
and honey. As he fled from Saul, David had no place to lay his head but upon
victory with God had a place in the palace in Jerusalem. We all need a place.
In Jesus, the disciples found a place where they could find mercy, purpose,
stability, forgiveness, security, and a sameness that gave unity to their
lives.
Second, God calls us to a time. And that time is the same for us
all. The story heard today reports that the four in the gospel responded “immediately.”
They left their father in the boat! Other call stories are similar. Immediately
is the trend. Immediately is the time. Jesus calls us to “now.” “The kingdom is
near.” The moment is now. Opportunity awaits. Seize it. “The kingdom is near.”
So without delay, they followed him.
Third,
God calls us to adventure. GK Chesterton writes, “An adventure is by its
nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing
that we choose.” While other rabbis would have waited for disciples to come to
them, this Rabbi Jesus goes out and finds his own. What’s more, he looks not
among those likely and typical candidates. He doesn’t look among the smartest,
the brightest, the most well-trained and well-connected. No, he looks down at
the docks, interrupting fishermen at their work. Discipleship would be a great
adventure. We are taken away from predictable lives, plunged into adventure and
woe to anyone who dilutes this adventure with dullness. Woe to anyone who makes
discipleship into something safe. But blessed are they for whom the adventure remains
forever sharp, who find themselves always at a new beginning.
Are
these four men – Andrew, Simon, James, and John – ready and equipped for the
adventure that comes to them, that chooses them? Are they ready for this
adventure of discipleship? Jesus at the waterside does not collect resumes nor
he does check references. The personal histories of these four do not have the
last word about their futures. Christ's call means a new beginning. He takes a
wide-open risk by inviting them. They do the same in response.
Indeed,
subsequent events demonstrate their imperfection. Simon Peter will betray Jesus
with a boldfaced lie. James and John, the Sons of Thunder, are not always the
most agreeable pair, indulging in dreams of their own enthronement. Andrew doesn’t
really appear again does he? Maybe his flaw was playing it safe. Yet Jesus
never withdraws his invitation to adventure. They are partners with Jesus to the
end.
“Any
real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it ... the
end of safety,” wrote novelist James Baldwin. “The call to discipleship of
these four fishermen, the beginning their story represents, implies the breakup
of their familiar world, the end of their safety.” They leave behind old
securities: the waterside, the boat, the nets, those days of fishing that so
resembled one another, and even old Zebedee, the father of James and John,
standing astonished in the boat as his two sons suddenly walk away. The new
beginning requires this. Disciples must walk away into the future. They may be
afraid but they are not so afraid that their faith does not lead them forward.
The
story today tells us of a new beginning for four fishermen. They are called out
from their occupation as fishermen about which they know a great deal and into
a new occupation as fisher’s of people, about which they claim no knowledge.
Likewise,
discipleship for each of us here gathered is new beginning, such that appear
before us again and again. We experience the end of safety and comfort so that
we may participate in a new world, finding ourselves engaged in Christ and with
Christ. So, here’s the thing: However strangely it happened, Christ has come to
us – to each one of us. However unjustifiable we may think it is, Christ
chooses us. However ill-prepared we might think we are, Christ sends us out
into the world to be the next new beginning.
Are you ready for the adventure – here and now?
No comments:
Post a Comment