God's Good News
The Rev. Margaret W. Jones

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

According to Mark's Gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry soon after John the Baptist is arrested. He preaches a sermon which is powerful and
prophetic, and has only 19 words: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news."

The people who hear him are astounded by his presence, by his authority, and by his message. They flock to him, eager for more of his particular brand of good news.

But Jesus is not a lone ranger. He seeks companionship and community, not celebrity. So he walks around the Galilee region looking for people to help him spread the Word.

He comes to the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a huge lake. There he sees Simon and his brother Andrew, two local fishermen. They are casting a net into the lake. "Follow me," he says, "and I will make you fish for people."

Apparently, Simon and Andrew fall for him - hook, line and sinker. The
Gospel says, "immediately they left their nets and followed him." No words are exchanged, not a question is asked. What on earth happened?

One possibility is that the two men were tired of fishing. Fishing in the Sea
of Galilee was a tough business. Simon and Andrew were not two Robert
Redfords fly-fishing in a scene from The River Runs Through It. Maybe they
were delighted to have an excuse to drop their nets and go with Jesus.

Another possibility is that they loved a risky adventure. We know that later
they did indeed risk their lives, but they don't know that ahead of time in
this story. They just go along with Jesus. We really do not know why.

The three of them walk around the lakeshore, and before long Jesus sees
another pair of fishermen brothers, James and John. Their situation is quite
different from Andrew and Simon's. These men are in a boat with their father, Zebedee, and two hired hands. This means that they are rather
well-off; not everyone could afford a boat and extra workers.

But James and John respond in exactly the same way as Simon and Andrew: They get up and follow Jesus. I've always wondered about this part of the story: Did Zebedee protest, did the hired hands say anything, did the boat rock and tip as the brothers jumped out? Whether they literally rocked the boat or not, they certainly rocked the family's expectations. In those days, sons were expected to follow in their father's footsteps, not those of a migrant preacher.

All four fishermen follow Jesus, and that is the end of today's story. But
that is just the beginning of stories, sermons and hymns about the courage of these men, about the great risks they took, about how they gave up their
families, incomes, even their reputations to follow Jesus. ...

I've always concentrated on the extraordinary courage and commitment of the four new disciples, and I think I have missed the point, or at least the main point of the story. [In a brialliant Epiphany sermon] Barabra Brown Taylor says, "to stress the role of the four men is to put the accent on the wrong syllable."

"This is not a story about the power of humans to change their lives," she
says. "It is a story 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."

Looking at the story this way, not as a story about four heroes but as a
story about the power of God working in the lives of ordinary people, gives
me hope that I can follow Jesus. God may not knock me off a horse the way Paul was knocked off of his on the road to Damascus, but God has certainly knocked me off plenty of my high horses. I may not be willing to give my possessions away, like Francis of Assisi did, but I can certainly take a good look at all I have and think much harder about distributing it more fairly.

God calls each of us. But the response each of us gives will be different.
The important thing is for the response to be authentic. For some, it may be more authentic to slow down, to go fishing, to ride a horse and see the
wonder of God's world for the first time in years. For others, the authentic
response may be to take a risk that you never believed possible.

The good news is that God who creates us and loves us enables us to make the right response at the right time. When this occurs, the Kingdom of God breaks into our ordinary lives. A wise person has said that whenever a human life is brought into harmony with God's purpose the Kingdom is present.

Simon and Andrew and James and John made the right response at the right time. They knew what they had been waiting for all of their lives, and when Jesus showed up they were ready to go, whatever the cost. They stayed with him until the crucifixion. Then they proclaimed his resurrection and began to build a church that is surviving 2000 years later.

For me, there is a fifth disciple in the story - Zebedee. In my imagination,
I see him sitting in that rocking boat, watching the backs of his two beloved
sons as they wade through the water toward Jesus. There is a big lump in his throat. He had counted on his sons to be with him into old age, and they are walking out of his life.

Also, I imagine, he's embarrassed. Sons aren't supposed to walk out on
fathers. I picture Zebedee remembering the charismatic young preacher's
message: What did he say? Something like, God's time is coming, and it's not your time. Repent and believe in the good news: You are called to new life. Slowly but surely, Zebedee realizes that he can be a disciple, too. Except in his case, following Jesus does not mean going, it means staying in the boat and letting his beloved sons go.

There in the boat with tears in his eyes, Zebedee brings his life into
harmony with God's life, and the Kingdom of God draws near.

Amen.

Copyright 2000 Calvary Episcopal Church

Excerpted from a sermon delivered at Calvary Episcopal Church, Memphis, Tennessee, January 23, 2000.

Gospel: Mark 1: 14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. NRSV

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