Turning and Following

Mark 1:14–20 NRSV

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” 16 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. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Fishers of men?

Growing up in the church, we used to sing a song about fishing for men.

Anyone remember it?

I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men, I will make you fishers of men if you follow me. If you follow me, if you follow me. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.

It’s a cute, easy to remember little tune. And it will stay with me, I’m sure, my whole life long.

I love that. I know many of us can look back at our childhood experiences of faith and learning about the Jesus story and we can have mixed feelings. Sometimes, we look back on the stories of our youth and cringe at what we may have learned or been exposed to. But there are also sweet memories, glimmers of the good seeds that were sown in our lives, coming to maturity through the years.

As I approach this text, though, I have to wonder — is this all that it’s about? Learning how to transfer your skills from being a fisherman to an evangelist? Is that what we’re supposed to hear in this story of another group being called by Jesus to serve and become a part of his movement?

And what are we to do with this metaphor that doesn’t quite transfer well? Certainly, the Pacific Northwest is a region familiar with fishing. But it’s few of us who are out on the seas, casting nets, hauling in fish. We might have leisurely cast a line in the pond at Whatcom Falls Park or gone out on the Sound with a friend, but really, we’re removed from the whole fishing industry at this point and the metaphor is harder to connect to.

So what else might be going on in this text? What is it about Jesus’ words that makes these fishermen drop their nets, walk away from the family business, and set out on this journey?

Prayer

I want to look at the opening words of this reading, because I think they tell us some of the context for this story of awakening and calling. They illuminate a much broader part of this story, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and the calling of these disciples.

Let’s look again at Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 NRSV

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

We know from a number of our recent Scriptures, during the season of Advent and in the story of Jesus’ baptism that John the Baptist figures directly into the opening of Jesus’ ministry.

He’s the one who claimed to not be worthy to untie the sandals of the one who would come after him. John was the voice crying out in the wilderness, the one preparing the way for the Messiah.

And so we then read in the opening of Mark that John has been arrested. We don’t know about John’s death yet, which doesn’t happen in Mark until much later, in Ch. 6.

Immediately preceding our reading today, also, is the brief story in Mark of Jesus’ time in the wilderness. Mark 1:12-13 says,

Mark 1:12–13 NRSV

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Jesus has become the new John the Baptist, in some sense, as he is now also one who has experienced the Spirit’s call in the wild places and has gone to receive his transformation and calling, as well.

Mark’s gospel moves rapidly, as we have heard, and now Mark is telling us that John the Baptist has been taken off the scene. We’ll hear about John’s followers later in Mark, but there is something key in that Mark acknowledges John is absent.

Let’s get to the heart of what is happening here, because Jesus tells us in his opening words:

Mark 1:15 (NRSV) — Jesus describes what is going to happen.

15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

The time is fulfilled.

In the Scriptures, there are two main ways time is spoken of. One is chronos time, the word we use to get our understanding of chronological time. This is time as in counting the days, numbering the calendar. We’re in the season of Epiphany, in the Third Week. It’s January 21, 2024. I am 41 years old. It is…what time is it?

And the other way the Scriptures speak of time is the way Jesus is doing so here…and that is kairos time.

This text uses the word kairos. Jesus says this moment is the fulfilment of kairos.

Kairos is “just the right time.” It’s “you’ll know it when it happens” time. It is the appropriate time, the fulfillment of things time.

You see, Jesus is saying that now is the right time. It is the season to begin, the time to commence. John’s ministry is finished, he’s pointed to the Messiah and now, it’s the right time for Jesus to begin his work.

Do you have a sense for kairos time?

Asher asked me recently how long Stacy and I dated. Stacy and I met at the end of our sophomore years of college. We started dating right away and got married about 2 years and 3 months later.

But a lot of things happened in that time of dating. Kairos things.

I don’t know about you, but I felt that it was conventional for us to not get married the week after we started dating. Prudent, I suppose.

But there were signs, along the way, that were pointing us towards lifelong commitment. I love this story. Blockbuster video, do you all remember Blockbuster video? Well, when Stacy and I were dating, we really took things to the next level and we got ourselves a joint Blockbuster video account. I know big stuff. We drove on down to the Blockbuster on Samish Parkway and got ourselves a shared membership. It seemed right…the kairos time of it.

However, we still didn’t want to rush into the full commitment, we needed time for our blossoming love to grow. So, next, guess what we did?

We got a cell phone plan together.

That’s right, I got my very first cell phone in college, when we were juniors. We signed a contract and made at least a 2 year commitment to have a cellphone plan together. While my parents were still paying for my sister’s phone plan back home, I’d set out into the wild frontier of contractual commitment with this beautiful woman who I was otherwise not bound to. Scary, committed, growing territory, right?

Finally, finally, when time had matured and grown to the appropriate place for Stacy and me, we got engaged. People had been nudging me, wondering, asking when it might happen. And so, Thanksgiving weekend of our Senior year of college, I went home to Edmonds, got Stacy’s ring from the little jewelry store downtown, and came back up here to Whatcom County and asked Stacy to marry me.

It turns out, it was the right time. She said yes.

And the preparations ensued and by July 29, 2005, we were married.

Ok. To you see it - kairos time? The appropriate time. The moment.

Jesus is moving into the moment, the kairos time, the appropriate time. The kingdom, as he says, has come near. As in, the work of God’s people, the gathering up of the ministry of the good news, it is happening in this moment of our reading.

He says: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”

We’ll get to the second part of his statement in a moment, but let’s sit with this first part for just a bit longer. The time is fulfilled. It is the time.

Think then about the fishermen - it is time. When you’ve worked a long day and know that it is time to stop - this is kairos. It is the right time.

Mark points to it in the way he tells of the calling of Simon and Andrew - immediately they left their nets and followed him. Remember, from last week, these two men are the ones who Nathaneal and Philip had heard about. They immediately dropped their nets. Now, there’s a bit of dramatic flare in how Mark tells the story, but it is to highlight the “kairos” of the story. Immediately, because the time was right.

Let’s finish with what Jesus says at the beginning of his ministry:

Repent and believe in the good news.

Once again, taken out of context this instruction is strange.

But when we put it into the larger from of the appropriate time and kairos and the end of John’s ministry, we can see this: Jesus is making a statement, declaring that the time is now for him, the one the prophets have foretold and pointed to and expected - Jesus is now calling them to a new life and good news.

Before we lose sight of this or zone out because of the call to repentence, let’s get clear on that word’s meaning, too: Repent comes from the concept of metanoia, the Greek word for changing your mind. Jesus is saying, repent, turn, see things differently. Change your mind, change our direction, reorient yourself. Wake up.

Jesus is declaring that something new is about to take place. Not just something new, but something good. The good news. The euangelion. Directly translated as good tidings. Good news.

What kind of news is good news?

It’s the kind that comes at the right time. It’s news of an engagement. It’s the declaration of a cease fire and end to conflict. It’s a verdict of justice. It’s a statement of release.

Jesus calls these fishermen to come and hear a new, freeing message of life beyond their circumstances. No longer would Andrew, Simon, James, or John be bound to the way things were. Now the time is upon them and they are moving into a new chapter of their lives. They get to go be a part of this movement of capturing hearts instead of fish, welcoming strangers into the family of God, sharing good news of freedom for captives and healing for the sick.

New callings involve turning and following

Friends, our passage this morning is one that should move us, nudge us, push us.

And the question we have to wrestle with is this: How are we being called to go with Christ, today?

How are we called?

What are our nets, our fish?

And what do we leave behind to set out and share the good news?

I told the story of growing into love and commitment to Stacy. The call, there, was to move beyond being single people to make a decision to weave our lives together into one. It was a new direction for us. In a sense, we repented of or turned from whatever else we had been doing to say, ok, we’re in this together.

So what are you called to move from or move to?

Perhaps you’ve already made that turn. Perhaps you left something behind to turn and follow Jesus. Perhaps you’ve learned to set down the nets of pride or greed or self-loathing or something else, and you’ve turned to follow Jesus.

Perhaps you’re pondering making that turn, but haven’t yet. That’s ok. The point in all of this is that Jesus invites us all to turn and find good news.

Let me close with this: What is the good news?

Jesus’ first acts following this passage are to cast out an evil spirit and to heal people.

That’s the good news. It’s a message, yes, but it is also the practical healing and restoration of humanity. So what do we do when we repent, we turn? We start being the kind of people who do like Jesus did: we help others, we set ourselves free, we let go of what has held us back and we turn towards what will lead to a flourishing life. We set aside our addictions, our grumblings, our judgements, and we turn to life. We wake up.

Friends - turn, follow. There is much for us to do in bringing and being this good news, so let us begin. The time is now.