Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Mark 1:14-20 - After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

This biblical story has come up a number of times in the life of our church

And I’m thankful every time.

I think it is precisely the story to speak to the American church in the 21st century

For the first 35 years of my life every sermon I heard on this story focused on the idea of being “fishers of men”

That is, the focus was on evangelism and the application was always to go out and try to hook people by sharing your faith

But in recent years its the disciples leaving their nets that has struck me as the most profound thing happening here

Evangelism is good

But evangelism isn’t just about speaking a gospel presentation, it’s about being witnesses and ambassadors

A community whose lives point to something different, something more

And that only really happens when we’ve taken steps to go with Jesus, in a figurative sense

Only then do we do we understand who Jesus actually is and why the good news is actually good.

Only then do we become a set apart people with

Let’s start with our understanding of “disciple” and “discipleship”

Discipleship is apprenticeship.

It is committing to follow a master in order to become like him/her.

And as Dallas Willard says, "Jesus offers himself as God's doorway into the life that is truly life. Confidence in him leads us to become his apprentices in eternal living."

We are offered redeemed and restored life, Jesus himself is the way there, the door to get in, and the guide along the journey.

Following him into eternal living requires us to turn from the kind of living that isn’t eternal

The kind of living that’s really just all about satisfying immediate desires, animalistic competition, and so on

When we turn from the base way of life that dominates the world we can then follow Jesus into something new

This is what it means to repent because the kingdom is at hand

To become his apprentice is to listen, watch, ask, mimic, etc. in order to become like him

Shadow him, stay close to him and do what he does

I don’t think we have many models of this kind of life-changing apprenticeship in the modern west

Maybe the military is the closest

But think of like a young woman joining a convent a few centuries ago

It would have been quite literally leaving her old life behind and starting a new one

All the accounts that we have of Jesus calling the disciples reinforce this idea that responding to his invitation means a break from the old to venture into the unknown WITH Jesus

In Matthew 9 we get a brief account of Jesus calling Matthew, who at the time was a tax collector.

In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to enter the kingdom a person needs to be born again

To which Nicodemus asks, “How can someone be born when they are old?"

This is how

Go with Jesus

There is no, “leave me your card and I’ll keep in touch”

There is no retaining Jesus as a consultant

In fact we have these seemingly harsh encounters like the one in Luke 9:57-62

Where a man says he wants to follow Jesus asks to say good by to his family first and Jesus says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Isn't this all a little drastic?

Like is it necessary for them to quite literally leave everything behind?

Short answer: yes.

If Jesus is just a self-help guru who wants to help you live your best life, then this is a little drastic.

He could just help you accomplish the goals you already have in motion

But Jesus is God incarnate who means to restore all of creation, which includes making us new.

Changing our perspective, our desires, our goals

A drastic break from the old is the only way to receive what he has for you.

Bonhoeffer puts it like this, "If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps. The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible. Levi must leave the receipt of custom and Peter his nets in order to follow Jesus. One would have thought that nothing so drastic was necessary at such an early stage. Could not Jesus have initiated them into some new religious experience, and leave them as they were before? He could have done so, had he not been the incarnate Son of God. But since he is the Christ, he must make it clear from the start that his word is not an abstract doctrine, but the re-creation of the whole life of man. The only right and proper way is quite literally to go with Jesus.

Don’t mistake following Jesus n this way with earning salvation

The invitation to follow is itself grace

The opportunity to enter new life is grace

The power to do it is grace

But nothing happens if we don’t respond and follow

Not just respond and believe, but respond and follow

faith is following

If we really believe in Jesus we will trust him and if we really trust him we will go with him

What does that mean?

It means taking the risk of actually leaning into the promises of God and actually attempting to live the way Jesus calls us to

Until we do that we’re really just kind of intrigued by Jesus

We haven’t risked anything on him and on his word

And only when we do that do we really learn what it means for him to be Lord

Again, Bonhoeffer puts it like this

The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible. If he refuses to follow and stays behind, he does not learn how to believe. Faith can no longer mean sitting still and waiting – they must rise and follow him. The call frees them from all earthly ties, and binds them to Jesus Christ alone. They must burn their boats and plunge into … the impossible situation in which everything is staked solely on the word of Jesus.

If you don’t know, burning boats is an idiom that refers to when conquistadors like Cortez would arrive at the beginning of a particularly dangerous and risky mission. They would burn the boats so there would quite literally be no way of turning back.

It was pointed out to me last time that we don’t really want to hold up the likes of Cortez and exemplary.

But I think you get the point of the idiom.

No turning back. Further up and further in, whatever comes.

This doesn’t mean we’l be perfect. But take Peter here as a good example

He’s a walking example of fumbling humanity trying to follow Jesus imperfectly

But Peter stumbled AFTER leaving his nets.

Peter faltered on the water AFTER getting out of the boat at the call of Jesus

Even when he denied Jesus he was at his side after a lot of stuff had already gone down

And in the end Jesus restores him and lifts him up

For all his faults, peter WENT WITH Jesus.

I alluded to this at the beginning, but I think the witness of the church in America has been undermined because we largely haven’t gone with Jesus in a meaningful way

That is to say we largely haven’t turned from anything to risk it all on him

We largely still operate in our own power, trying to manufacture results through market strategies

We’ve still sought political power and material comfort to secure a future for ourselves

We rarely take the risk of repentance and move toward our neighbor in reconciliation, going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, and so on

We’ve seen people and institutions willing to follow the clear teaching of Jesus and leading of the spirit only up to the point that it puts their brand in jeopardy

unwilling to step out of the boat and lose followers / customers

So what we have is a church that doesn’t look much different from the unbelieving world

We end up being fishers of men into Christian culture, but that’s not the same as the way of Jesus

At the heart of it we have to wrestle with just how much we are willing to let Jesus disrupt us and call us out onto new paths that run counter to the world

That’s step one of discipleship

And as Bonhoeffer says, The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible.

Faith is following.

Is this good news or burdensome?

Well, I’d offer that for people who are discontent with both the ways of the world and the anemic expression of American Christianity it’s hopeful and exciting, if not a little scary.

The invitation is extended to us to follow Jesus into life beyond our control and beyond our imagination.

I think that’s good news we ought to let stir our hearts this morning.