Jesus Calls

Last Sunday, we began our journey with Jesus to the mount of Transfiguration as we read about the calling of Andrew, his friend, and his brother Simon. We saw in the story four intersections between the biblical world and our own: to be disciple is to have Jesus as our goal; to be a disciple is to follow after the Lamb of God; to be a disciple is to gain spiritual insight; and to be a disciple is to make invite others into the same discipleship. 

We continue in the same vein this week as we read another call story. It involves some of the same people, but it is reset in terms of its location (from the Jordan, near the Dead Sea we move now to the sea of Galilee, near the village of Capernaum). And the action is recast: instead of Andrew and his friend catching up to Jesus, Jesus now comes striding up to two pairs of fishermen. 

Our text falls into two paragraphs. The opening paragraph, vv. 14-15, tells us how Mark understands the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry.  There are a number of important observations to make. 

First, Jesus's ministry is a preaching ministry. It is about the Word. John, the forerunner, has had his role come to an end. He has been put into prison. Now, after his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus comes back to Galilee, whence he'd come to be baptized by John. And Jesus’ ministry will focus on the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom. Whatever else happens in the Gospel of Mark—whatever miracles, whatever controversies, whatever callings—whatever else happens will serve to illustrate his preaching. The proclamation of the Word is central. 

Second, notice the content of that Word. It is condensed into two announcements followed by two commands. First, Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled.” The time, in other words, that the prophets—the last and greatest of which was John himself—looked forward to was now here. The second announcement then elaborates on the first. The time is fulfilled because the Kingdom of God is present. With the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, God’s rule has, in fact, already entered history. Remember what we heard at Advent: Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down! Remember what we saw and heard at Jordan River: I saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit descend upon him and I heard a voice saying, "You are my Beloved Son. With you I am well pleased." And now, full of the Holy Spirit, tested in the wilderness, here comes the heavens-tearing, earth-melting Kingdom. Because here comes the King. He is the Good News he proclaims. He is the Messiah, the Son of God. 

Third, consider what Jesus's hearers are to do with that Word. To start, repent; that is, change your ways. The Greek word means, literally, change your mind. Metaphorically it means change your behavior. Both are implied here. To respond to the Gospel is first of all to be converted. It is to have one's whole way of living, one's whole way of looking at life overturned. Repentance is not a "one-trip-to-the-altar-feeling-bad." Repentance is the mode of life of the disciple. Repentance is always opening oneself up to the Lordship of Jesus. Conversion is not once and done. Being converted by the power of the Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel is always and ongoing. 

Then, believe in the Gospel—in other words, trust that in Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the kingdom of God has come and is here. As Mark presents it, there is in Jesus’ message a deliberate confusion of the proclaimer—Jesus—and the proclaimed—the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus is both the one through whom the Good News is being preached and the one in whom the Kingdom comes. Believing the Gospel, in other words, is not to embrace a philosophy. It may require those who are so inclined to think deep thoughts. But it is not a philosophy. Believing the Gospel is not to embrace a social ethic. It may require us to act in ways that are odd, off putting, even scorned. But it is not an ethic. Believing the Gospel is certainly not adding a little religious sentimentality to an otherwise happy life. The Gospel embraces our emotions, but it is not sentimentalism. To believe the Gospel is to trust that in Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the kingdom of God has come and is here.

In the next paragraph, where I want to focus our attention today, we move to the call of the first four disciples: Simon, Andrew, James and John. Mark’s story opens as Jesus is walking by the sea of Galilee. And Jesus’ eyes fall upon Andrew and Peter, fishing. “Follow me,” he says, “And I will make you fish for people,” And immediately (one of Mark’s favourite phrases) they left their nets and followed him. He then walks just a little further up the beach, I imagine Andrew and Peter racing to catch up from behind, to where he sees James and John. And the scene is repeated. “And immediately” Jesus calls and the brothers leave their nets to follow Jesus (no one knows what Zebedee thought as he saw his RRSPs walking away; nobody knows what the four fishermen thought as they left what looks like a fairly profitable family business—Mark speaks of hired men—behind).  

There are three aspects about discipleship in this call story that draw our attention. The first is this: Jesus calls. This intensifies the theme found in last week’s text. Jesus emerges on the scene. Jesus calls the disciples solely by means of an authoritative summons. The disciples did not choose their master—a fairly common characteristic in other Jewish call stories, and was the pattern followed last week. Now, the master chose them. And they obeyed. 

Second, Jesus’ call has both negative and positive responses. Negatively, the disciples leave. They leave their nets; which is to say, their occupations. They leave the only means of financial security they have ever known. They leave the only means of providing for their families for which they have been trained. Not only do they leave their occupation, but James and John at least leave also their father behind. The call to discipleship for these followers of Jesus meant a radical and immediate severing of social and family ties. The theme introduced here—which will slowly intensify throughout the Gospel—is that of the cost of discipleship. Gospel inspired repentance, Gospel inspired conversion, Gospel inspired changing of patterns of thought and patterns of behaviour, may require us to forsake good things for the sake of Gospel things! 

Positively, Andrew, Peter, James, and John responded by following Jesus immediately. He called; they followed. There is no mention of deliberation. Peter did not stop fishing, call Andrew aside and weight the pros and cons. James and John did not contact an accountant and sit down with Zebedee to make the appropriate financial arrangements for the family business before they left it behind. The immediacy of their response is reinforced and intensified by Mark’s repetition of the phrase, “and immediately.” Immediacy is something we do well and easily with trivial things. Indeed, the relative wealth we all enjoy makes the immediacy of small decisions easy to overlook. What will be have for dinner tonight? I think I might like new sneakers. There's a birthday coming up. What are we going to do? None of these require a great deal of planning, of thought, of deliberation. BUT, should I sell the business? That takes time. And that's the kind of question that is posed when Jesus walks into our lives just as he walks into the lives of the SImon and Andrew, James and John today. Immediately, they followed. 

Third, Jesus promises that these new disciples will have a new vocation. No longer will they fish for, well, fish. Now, they will fish for men and women. Why does Jesus make such a strange statement? Remember, we’re dealing with a call story. Call stories are not uncommon. They grow up around influential rabbis. Mark’s call story follows the right form, but some of the details are strikingly different. We have already seen one:. Where in a typical call story we would find the disciples searching out their master, Mark has Jesus calling Andrew, Peter, James and John. Now, we observe another striking, if small, change. Instead of the master saying to the new followers that they will, under him, become students of the Law, the Torah, he says now they will fish for people. 

The significance is remarkable. For in these words, Jesus has obliterated any permanent distinction in terms of status between his disciples and himself. The disciples will accompany Jesus. The disciples will learn from Jesus. The disciples will be commissioned by Jesus. All of this is true. But they will not be his inferiors. They will be trained to share in his ministry and eventually to continue it. That he called two pairs of brothers probably foreshadows the further development of this theme when Jesus will in chapter 6 send out the disciples two by two to minister to the people in the same manner as he had. 

Jesus calls. Disciples follow. New vocations are given. 

What does the Gospel have to say to us this morning? First, Jesus calls. I know. It’s a carry-over from last week. But bear with me. Far too often we want to jump to the latter part of the story. To the response of the disciples. To the stories emphasis on the immediacy and cost of discipleship. But that’s premature. Before we focus on the negative response (what we have to give up) and positive response (what we must do) to Jesus call, we must focus on the call itself. 

When we do not, it is a short step to the subtle and deadly deception that we have, by our response, actually earned the call. That our response is not a response at all. That we have taken the initiative. That we have found Jesus. That we remain in control of our lives. That we have an occasion to brag. To think ourselves better than those who have not. But scripture does not say that. Scripture says that Jesus calls. Without Jesus’ call, Andrew and Peter would have kept on fishing. Without Jesus’ call, James and John would have kept on mending their nets with their Dad. The Scriptures say that God in his grace found them before they were even looking for him. 

In every decision that is made, Jesus is in control. It will be our task not orchestrate events but to pray and to work in such a way that any orchestration is left to Jesus. He will call. Our job is first to listen, and then to act. 

Second, Jesus calls ordinary people. Andrew and Peter, James and John. Fishermen. Business men. Not aristocracy. Caesar is in Rome, Herod in one of his palaces, Pilate in his administrative offices in Jerusalem. Jesus was in Galillee. Jesus was calling fishermen. Jesus passed over the powerful. Jesus evaded the elite. Jesus went to the weak. Jesus walked among the ordinary and the everyday in a backwater province of the Roman Empire. And when he called, he called ordinary everyday people. 

And he still calls ordinary, everyday people. He called a Polish actor and student in the midst of the Nazi reign of terror in the 1930s. “And immediately,” Karol Wojtyla ended a romantic relationship, entered seminary (a capital offense under the Nazi government of Poland), and became a priest. His message—delivered by candlelight in secret meetings—to Poles under the Nazis: “Do not be afraid. Christ has triumphed. So will you.” When the Nazis were replaced by the Communists, he became a bishop. His message to Poles under a second foreign occupation was now delivered openly, but otherwise unchanged. “Do not be afraid. Christ has triumphed. So will you.” When, in 1981, he stood on the balcony outside the papal apartments, his message to Poles and to all under the repressive government of the Soviet empire was “Do not be afraid. Christ has triumphed. So will you. Open wide the doors to Christ!” This prompted one Baptist observer to remark to his Catholic friend, "You guys have a Pope who knows how to Pope!" 

How much of the 20th century was shaped by this Polish actor who heard the call of Jesus and changed the world. The real story of the collapse of Soviet style communism is not the story of power plays and armies and political machinations. It is the story of ordinary people who became convinced of the truth of the Gospel. Who became convinced that because Christ had triumphed they could look death in the eye and not blink because He had gone ahead of them and come out the other side. 

Now this morning, you may well be thinking I’m not cut out to be a minister. I’m no great leader. I have no profound moral vision. And all of those statements may be perfectly true. But Jesus doesn’t call the great and the powerful. Jesus calls fishermen and actors. These are the people Jesus uses to change the world. Jesus calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. So, what is Jesus calling you to do? What is Jesus calling us to do? 

This congregation has been talking since well before I came about a building project. The needs for it are still present: We are engaging our community through pre-K, Shawville Shenanigans, and the youth group.  All of these groups are making do  with less than adequate resources. Our Gospel mission to moms and children—did you know the Bible speaks a lot about moms and children and how important they are to God?--is not being fulfilled as well as it might be. We are entering into joyful worship. It's fabulous to have the platform crowded every Sunday. But how much better would it be had we space for all who wished to play? Our town is getting older and people are finding our stairs difficult to navigate. It is not navel gazing to say our Gospel mission to Shawville would be better served if a hall and washrooms and worship space were all on one level.  

I am convinced, in my bones, that Jesus has called us—us!--to these ministries. Not because we're great. Not because we're important. Not because we're wonderful. But simply because Jesus calls ordinary people to be faithful in ordinary and sometimes extraordinaryr ways. We have had the wind taken out of our sails a couple of times now, for various reasons and there's no need to discuss them further here. Here's the point: if Jesus has called us to build for the sake of his mission in Shawville—and I believe he hasl do you?--then it is incumbent upon us to hear the words of Mark: "And immediately they followed." 

Practically, "immediately they followed" looks like this: Pray for the building team. We have plans that are great and a quote that we can't afford. Our building committee needs an abundance of spiritual discernment, practical wisdom, and, frankly, street-smarts. Will you pray for them as they work to find ways to reduce costs? Donate to the building fund. Not a one-off donation, but a regular part of your giving that is over and above your regular support of New Hope's work. Will you give? Invite others to worship, to Bible study, to youth group, to shenanigans. This is not about us or for us. This is about the Gospel being offered in a winsome way in a blue collar English hamlet in Quebec.  Would you say to your friends, even as Andrew said to his brother last week, "We have found the Messiah!" Volunteer your time. We are not a wealthy church. I get that. Some of you can't give more financially than what you are doing already. When the time comes, will you pick up a paintbrush? Sandpaper? A broom? Would you make sandwiches for the folks who can when they donate their evenings? 

The call of Jesus comes to all of us, but it comes in ways that are unique to our skills, talents,  time, and treasure. The question is are we ready to respond "immediately"?