January 21, 2018

Epiphany 3

Mark 1:14-20

Now after John the Baptizer was arrested Jesus started going around preaching the good news saying, “The time has come.  The Kingdom of God is near; repent or turn around and believe in the Good News.”

Simon and Andrew had awakened early that morning.  That was their habit.  Ever since they had started their now prosperous fishing business, they were always the first boat out.  On his desk Andrew even had the motto “The early worm gets the fish.”  They were casting their nets that morning as usual.  These were new nets and the latest model boat too.  “Only the best!”  Simon always said. “Why bother waste time and money trying to make old tools do new jobs.  Get the best and give your best.”

This was just another working day for S & A Fisheries, Inc.  Then Jesus came along.  They had heard of Jesus, a healer and holy man – from Nazareth of all places.  He had a new way of preaching with authority like he knew first hand that what he said was true.  He seemed a real man of God maybe even the Messiah.

When Jesus saw Simon and Andrew he called to them from the shore.  “Simon, Andrew, come follow me and you can fish for people.”

It is not every day that a prophet calls you.  So they came ashore and Simon and Andrew left their new boat and new nets behind to follow Jesus.

Meanwhile the Zebedee boys James and John were still near shore.  Their father was one who didn’t believe in throwing anything away.  “A penny saved is a penny earned,” he always said.  He ought to know because their family had been in the fishing business for generations.  Zebedee and Sons was an institution on the Sea of Galilee.  On the boats you could still see where Zebedee, Sr. had added “& Sons” on the side of the boats.  And so there they sat mending their old nets and keeping the family business going.

James and John like Simon and Andrew had heard about Jesus.  They had even heard him preach and seen him heal and cast out demons.  Their father was glad to see them take an interest in Jesus.  Mr. Zebedee believed in the old time religion.  Jesus reminded him of Elijah or one of the other prophets.  Jesus was a teacher that said what he meant and then backed it up with action.  He was not like the Pharisees.  Sometimes you weren’t even sure if the Pharisees knew what they were saying.  And their actions certainly did not back up what they were saying.

So when Jesus came along with Simon and Andrew and called James and John, they put down their nets and followed him.  Zebedee had the hired hands to help him.  So James and John left their Dad and the family business and followed Jesus.

It is important to see the kinds of things that the disciples left behind.  It is easy to say that these four disciples dropped their nets to follow Jesus.  Some mistakenly think that did not mean much.  They assume that these were poor men who were not leaving much behind.  Like homeless men leaving their makeshift fishing poles at the waterfront while they try their luck at the downtown missions.  On the contrary, these four disciples left a lot behind when they dropped their nets but for each of them those nets represented different things.

For Simon and Andrew those nets represented their life’s work.  They were hard working men who had built up a prosperous business.  The Bible tells us that when Jesus came they were out in their boat casting their nets.  I imagine that they spent a lot of time casting their nets.  They were not only the first boat out each day and but the last one back in at night.  So when they dropped those nets they were leaving a healthy growing business in which they had made a deep personal investment.

For James and John it was different.  They were in the boat when Jesus came but they were not casting their nets.  They were repairing them.  Here were two young men who identified very closely with their Father and his business.  But it was more than business.  It was family.  Unlike Simon and Andrew they were not building something new they were mending and maintaining something old and valuable.  When they left to follow Jesus the Bible says they left their Father with the hired men.  The business would go on.  Zebedee had trusted employees who could carry on.  The business wasn’t the issue.  It was their Father that James and John were leaving behind.

These disciples left a lot to follow Jesus.  And today there are still people who leave a lot to follow him.

So the question for us today is where are our nets?  What have we left behind to follow Jesus?  It is not just Apostles that drop their nets to follow Jesus.  We all had to give up something.  For some of the early Christians is meant giving up their lives.  For some today following Jesus still means facing persecution and death.

Every one who follows Jesus leaves something behind.  For some it is the apathy of not loving our neighbor.  It is so much easier to ignore our neighbor than to love them.  Because to love them means we have to reach out to them and help them in their troubles.  For some it means leaving behind the comfort of the status quo.  Being a follower of Jesus means we have to stand up against the evil forces of our world.  Sometimes that means opposing things that are popular like slavery and child labor.  For some it means leaving behind professions and friends.  Some professions cannot be carried on by Christians or if they are carried on in a Christian way others push them out.  Sometimes friends who are accustomed to our old ungodly ways shun us when we start acting in a Godly way.  For some it means giving up Sunday mornings doing what we would like to do.

Sometimes even churches have to drop their nets to follow Jesus.  They have to drop old ideas of who they are so they can be what God is calling them to be in today’s world.

Where are our nets?  Where did we drop them when we started following Jesus?  Or did we drop them?  These four disciples in our Gospel reading dropped their nets but most people try to follow Jesus without dropping their nets.  They simply drag them along.  The result is they often get tangled up in their old lives.

If we are truly honest with ourselves, myself included, we all are dragging some nets.  There are things in our lives that are hindering our walk with Jesus: old ideas and prejudice, dreams and commitments.  As we try to follow Jesus our feet keep getting caught in them.  We stumble and fall in our Christian walk because we are dragging instead of dropping our nets.

Jesus is asking us to bring those nets to the altar and leave them there.  Jesus is calling us to go with him and proclaim the Good News but these nets are getting in the way.

Amen