A sermon by Associate Minister Elsa A. Peters, August 22, 2010
Mark 1:14-20
Cue the music. Open that red book and hear the crescendo as the NBC host announces, “Andrew, disciple of Christ, this is your life.”
But, that’s about where the television special would end because we really don’t know much about Andrew. He appears in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with his brother Simon. So, there, we know he has family. We know that they work together because here they are casting their nets – and as that fact is repeated in more than one gospel account, we can safely say: They were fishermen.
If this were television, the host could flip his red book open to reveal photographs of Capernaum where Andrew lived with his brother. Or if the host were inclined to lean on the later storytelling of the Johannine community, he might try to fill in the story with other details such as the possibility that Andrew was born in Bethsaida in Galilee.
The host might even recall that Andrew was the first to follow Jesus. In some poorly focused footage, we’d see that moment that begins the story of the disciples in the last of the canonical gospels. We’d barely be able to make out Andrew listening to Jesus before he rushes to find his brother Simon. We’d see the moment left out of the gospel account where Andrew drags Simon to see this guy Jesus before it abruptly cuts to Jesus looking at Simon and saying, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas.”
The red book might have other stories to tell but none of them would reveal much more than this moment –this instant – where these two brothers are casting their nets. The only reliable information about Andrew is charged in this moment where we learn that they were fishermen.
They were fishermen who answered Jesus’ call in an instant. Immediately. The gospel repeats this word again and again. Immediately, they went. They had families whom they left behind. Andrew’s brother came with him but when Jesus found James moments later, James left his father in an instant. They all left on an impulse. They left it all behind in a single moment. In each version of the story, but especially in Mark, the immediacy is palpable. They just got up and left. Their nets abandoned. Their boats left adrift. Their families wondering what in the world just happened. “Follow me,” Jesus said and they went leaving us with confused and mixed feelings.
How could they leave their family? How could they leave their work? How could they be so brave? How could they risk everything like that? After all, they couldn’t possibly know what would come next. Could they?
The gospels don’t answer these questions. The stories we tell and retell about these first followers don’t reveal what motivated these 12 men to follow Jesus. But… They must have known who he was before this moment. They must have heard about him in stories at the market when they sold their fish. They must have understood in that instant when they decided to follow Jesus, they were choosing to follow a whole new way of life. They must have known.
For certainly, it’s a radical change. They were fishermen but not for long. That seems to be what the gospel reveals when only a few chapters later, Jesus invites these 12 new followers to a mountaintop. He appoints them. He gives them a particular task: “to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons.” It will not be easy. It will not be as simple as being with Jesus for these 12 men will be sent out to proclaim the message. There’s no further directions. In an instant, Jesus orders “them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.”
They were fishermen. They didn’t have skills beyond that. Their entire lives were turned upside down to proclaim the message. You might be a banker or a nurse. You might have worked at the telephone company or might still be working behind a desk solving the problems that can be solved. It might not have been what you were trained to do. You might have started somewhere else. Before this work, you might have been following a passion before the reality of raising a family in our present economy challenged your ability to simply be passionate. But, is your story so different from theirs?
They were fishermen. This is true but that’s not all they were. The truth of who they were couldn’t be revealed on a television series. It’s not in that red book or in the pronouncement: This is your life. It’s something deeper than that. It’s something beyond the work that we do from behind a desk or out in the world. This story of Andrew is a story about call.
Now, I heard recently at a Council meeting that this particular word is one not so easy to understand. I have no idea why this was a topic at our Council meeting, but I do remember my reaction to this church member’s aversion to the word call. He said it wasn’t something for him. No. No, he said. It was something that referred to people like… and then he pointed at me. Now, I’m a clergy person. I’m ordained to live the life of a professional Christian. I am indeed called – but the call of Christ isn’t limited to those that we dare to call Reverend. It’s not about the job we do but about those moments that this gospel emphasizes. Each instant where every thing could change. Each moment where we can hear God’s invitation.
This powerful word call “affirms that every individual life with its unique combination of gifts and limitations has divinely appointed purpose and that we are called to glorify God in all that we do.”
They were fishermen. They were ordinary people with family, a job and a life. They weren’t professionals but each had a “unique combination of gifts and limitations.” Maybe they knew those things about themselves. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they were realized in that moment where Jesus said, “Follow me.”
They were fishermen but they were called. Like you, they were called to live their faith in this world. You are called to glorify God in all you do. Every day. Every instant. Every moment.