Year B, 3 Epiphany, Mark 1:14-20
UNEDITED
It’s funny the things that stay with us in our memories. In addition to the substantial things, there are the small, seemingly inconsequential details that for whatever reason are lodged in our memories and stand out.
Today we have a memory of Simon Peter’s, a most substantial and significant memory shared with John Mark who then recorded it in the gospel. John Mark was in many ways the translator, the recorder of the eye-witness experiences and details that Peter shared with him of the things that Jesus said and did. We gather in Galilee today, along the seashore, amongst the fishing boats and nets, and as we do so we hear the account of Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John being called by Jesus to come and follow him. Along with the substance of this call we see the intriguing, seemingly small eye-witness details that go along with the call. That James and John were in their boat, that they were mending their nets, that they were with their father Zebedee, that when Jesus called them they immediately left their nets, and their boat, and began to follow Jesus.
As we are taken along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, amongst the nets and the fishing boats that thought it is a beautiful place, it is certainly not, in worldly terms, a substantial place. Likewise, Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John, in worldly terms, were not substantial people. If you were choosing a place for a grand debut, Galilee would not be the place. And yet, this is the place that God chose. This is the place that Jesus came forth into to say that the time is now, that the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the good news, come and follow me.
As we hear this memory of Peter’s, of the time in which Jesus called them to come and be fishers of men, inevitably my mind is drawn to the sights and smells, the bits and snatches of memories made on Woody Wood’s dock on Sullivan’s Island. Woody is a friend and was a great neighbor and the kids and I spent many hours on his dock fishing and swimming, throwing the cast net and pulling up the crab pots.
At the right time, with the right tides, you could throw the net into the water and as it sinks to the bottom it gathers in everything underneath it. I remember Jack and Maizie’s delight, and mine too, when we would pull up the net and drop onto the dock shrimp and crabs and flounder and menhaden, and all sorts of fabulous creatures. I remember the sights and smells and tastes that accompanied the rise and fall of the tides on the salt marsh.
It was there, on Cove Avenue, that Jack learned to fish. We started with the little snoopy fishing pole and soon moved up to a full sized rod. For practice we would tie weights onto the end of the line and he would practice casting for hours in the front yard, the playroom, everywhere. After this we tied on a crank-bait that I had removed the treble hooks from and this brings us to a surprising moment that stands out in my memory.
It had rained hard for days on end and as we had more than a little cabin fever and I can still visualize it as Jack and I put on our raincoats and boots and went out into the pouring rain to go fishing, We were on Woody’s dock and I certainly didn’t expect to catch anything except perhaps a cold and then something happened. Jack was casting his lure without the hooks and reeling it in and he said, “Dad, I got one.” Naturally I thought sure you do pal, but when I looked down into the rain pocked water, sure enough, there was a fish grabbing his lure. After this I quickly tied on a lure with hooks and Jack, to my great delight, landed a beautiful fish.
For me this is a fabulous memory, a remarkable memory of the time when Jack became a fisherman. This moment, in the grand scheme, was a simple moment in a little place, but a moment that has remained with me; one I pray will always remain with me. Common people, a common place, but its impact in our lives is anything but common. The details of it and the significance of that moment remain. Something changed that day, as Jack became a fisherman.
Common people, a common place, but an impact that is anything but common can be used to describe the encounter that we read about in the gospel according to Mark. There is, I believe, a pattern shown to us and there is a word that I hope each of you will hear, a word of encouragement, a word of good news. The word is that our extraordinary God comes forth into the lives of ordinary people. God, in his great love and mercy comes to ordinary places to seek ordinary people like you and me. For Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John, this was a day at the office and Jesus appears in the midst of their daily lives and calls them into relationship with him who is our life and our salvation. They were in the midst of their ordinary lives when Jesus came to gather them and so to for you and me.
An additional word of encouragement to you and me is that Jesus did not call Simon and Andrew, James and John, because they had acquired a particular standing. He did not call them because of their substantial biblical knowledge. He did not call them because they had at this point sought him long enough and had their act together enough that he said, ‘ok, I’ll meet with you now.’
No, we see that Jesus appears to them and calls them in the mundane, day to day activities of their lives. In the midst of their everyday lives Jesus himself comes to them and calls them into relationship with himself, calls them to come and follow him. The word that I pray that each of you will hear is that just as it is true for each of them, it is true for you and me as well. The Lord Jesus came into the world because we have a deep and desperate need of him, because we need a savior. He comes to seek and save us, he comes and calls people like you and me in the midst of our ordinary lives.
At God’s initiative he comes and invades history in order to secure our redemption. He comes into our lives in all our mess and brokenness, yes, but also in all of the mundane day to day of our lives. He comes forth into the world and calls us into a relationship with himself.
There is also here a sense of urgency here because in Jesus, the critical and decisive moment of all time has come. We are confronted by the call to repent- to change our mind about ourselves and about Jesus, and we are called to follow. We are confronted and called to a radical decision. Is Jesus who he claims to be and if so, what does this mean to me? We are called to come and follow him. Later in the gospel Jesus will say who do you say that I am. There is a sense of urgency here in the way that we respond to the invitation that comes to us.
Now as I share this let me say that I know all about procrastination. It is a specialty of mine. I would put my procrastination up against anybody’s…tomorrow.
Inevitably, too, with all of us gathered there is a spectrum in what you think about Jesus and where you are in relationship with him. Maybe you’re lukewarm, maybe your relationship is hostile, or warm or cold, indifferent or unsure. Maybe you felt that you were there with him, but you have fallen to the point that you’re not sure whether it was real in the first place.
If that is where you are I simply point you to the terrible track record of the disciples and Jesus’ great love for them, his power made perfect in their weakness, that Jesus is the good news given to us from God that secures us, that our security is not in ourselves. The good news that goes out to all is the invitation from Jesus to follow him. To find our hope and strength, are not found in our sufficiency, but in Jesus’ who has come forth into the world to seek and to save the lost. He has come to seek and save sinners, to call us out of the commonness of our lives, in all of our searches for significance, for answers, for purpose and direction, to himself, who is the end and lone provider of all of our needs.
Simon and Andrew, James and John, followed and their lives came alive as they followed the one who is the life. We too are called to follow not perfectly, or once we’ve got it together, but now. Jesus burst forth into the world to gather us, he entered into common humanity to win us, and in him is life.
The answer to our hunger and longings are found in being caught up, swept up in the great net that God in his mercy has cast in Jesus to gather us. May God who is our life and our salvation now draw us and gather us, we beg in Jesus name. Amen.
