Sermon 02-01-09 Called!

If you're sitting at your desk, you may simply reach out and pick up the receiver and say "Hello." If you and your phone are separated by some distance, you may run across the room to reach it before the ringing stops and the caller goes away. A new twist for me in answering the phone -at home or my cell phone- is checking to see who is calling, before I answer. At home, where I get dozens of "unknown caller" calls it has been a true blessing not to have to listen to the sales pitches of this or that person who just wants a moment of my time. But whether I answer the call or simply check the caller ID and decide to ignore it, the ringing of the phone interrupts what I am doing and demands a response.

In much the same way, Mark presents us with the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. "The time is fulfilled," Jesus said "the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in, the good news."(Mark 1:15) This is no sideshow attraction to observe from a distance. This is a call for change, change that begins in the heart and spreads to the world. But to understand the depth of this change, we need to look at what Jesus meant by the phrase kingdom of God. In Jesus spoken language of Aramaic, the phrase is malkuta da Alaha, which has layers of meaning that could be translated "God's Empowering Vision" or "the Divine 'I CAN' that gives us the power to be and do." So we might paraphrase Jesus' message as "The time for action is now! God's Empowering Vision is within and among you; the Divine 'I CAN' is here now; turn around, change the focus of your living, give up your hopelessness and despair and trust the good news of God's 'I CAN' in your life."

Then as if to underscore the immediacy of the call and the urgency of the response Mark moves with six short words to the Sea of Galilee where we meet "Simon and his brother Andrew [who are] casting a net into the sea" and "James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets." (Mark 1:16) To each of them Jesus says simply, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." (Mark 1:17) Simon and Andrew, James and John are called and in that call they face a moment of decision, a time that will alter all future times. "And immediately they left their nets and followed him." (Mark 1:18)

When we hear such a story, we wonder. Is this really the first contact these four had with Jesus? Without the aid of Caller ID, did they even know who it was that called them to leave their nets and follow him? What was it that moved them to respond, seemingly without a moment's hesitation? And more importantly if their story is somehow our story, could we do the same?

Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that we're missing the point if we linger on such questions. This is a story about God, not the disciples or us, she claims in her sermon, Miracle on the Beach. To focus on what the disciples gave up (and whether we could do the same), is "to put the accent on the wrong syllable." This "miracle story," as she calls it, is really about "the power of God--to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before."[1]

A few years ago I heard a sermon by Rob Bell in which he talked about the educational system of Jesus day. In that sermon he said that only the best of the best of the best, the smartest and the brightest of all the young people were selected to be disciples -that is students or followers- of the local Rabbis. He said that the Rabbis selected disciples who they believed had the ability to learn what the Rabbi knew and do what the Rabbi did and thus to carry on the work of the Rabbi once the Rabbi was gone. And the words that signaled to the potential disciples that there were the chosen  ones were, "Come, follow me." The fact that Simon and Andrew, James and John are there on the lakeshore, casting and mending their nets would mean then that they were "the not-good-enoughs, the B team," the ones no other Rabbi wanted."

Yet it was these very men Jesus called to be his first disciples. Perhaps that is the key to the miracle in this story, the good news of God that Jesus proclaimed. God sees in us -each and every one of us- the potential for what lives can be. God knows the fullness of joy that is possible for us. God's vision will empower our lives if we dare to trust it and turn our lives and our hearts toward the One who can and will show us the way.

 "Come, follow me," Jesus said to those fishermen "and I will make you fish for people." Now if you look at the recorded calls of others who weren't fishermen, you won't find these words about fishing for people. More than the unpleasant image of being caught like a fish, what I think Jesus is saying is that he will use who these men already are, all that they have already experienced and everything they already know to open the doorway to new possibilities for what they can do and be. Jesus meets us where we are and invites us to bring all that we are -the successes and the failures, the joys and the sorrows, the hope and the fear- as we live into the fullness of God's Empowering Vision for our lives and our world.

Some of us may be called to leave our nets or seek other shores, while others may be called to continue fishing in the same place but in a new way with a new sense of purpose and a new understanding of who we are and what God dreams for our lives. But the truth is that we are called; called "to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God;"[2] called to the fullness of God's Vision for our lives and our world.

The response of these fishermen was immediate. But it was a response they would need to make again and again and again, for the decision to follow, to trust God's leading and the Spirit's empowering presence is a dynamic, one day at a time, one decision at a time, one moment at a time commitment. So it is for us as well.

 "Come follow me," Christ still says to women and men, young and old, gay and straight, rich and poor, "and be who you were created to be."

"Come follow me," Christ still says to those who are held captive to addictions, "and let me empower you to break the chains that bind you and free you to live, really live in God's love."

"Come follow me," Christ still says to all who have known hardship and pain, "and with your life and your story teach others my compassion and hope."

"Come follow me," Christ still says to all who are left out because of mental or physical limitations, "and do great things for God.'

"Come follow me," Christ still says to those have lost their way, "and live my forgiving love and healing grace, so that others will see what is possible for them."

"Come follow me," Christ still says to us all. "Come follow me, walk with me, learn from me, trust me, become like me. Be my love; be my compassion; be my healing and hope for the world. YOU CAN DO IT! Come follow me..." Amen.