Bloomsbury
Central Baptist Church
25/1/15
Mark 1.14-20
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.
The concept of
‘calling’ is a strange one isn’t it,
when you stop and think
about it?
I mean, we take the word ‘call’
and use it in so many
different contexts:
At a basic level,
it’s to do with naming something
·
What are you
called?
·
What are
your children called?
·
Renault 5 -
What’s yours called?
(that’s one for those of us with a few years,
or
should I say miles, on the clock)
But then ‘calling’
is also an action
·
I called
after her, but she didn’t hear me!
·
I called
round for a cup of tea
·
I just
called to say I love you
(another one for those of us with longer memories!)[1]
And then there’s
the idea of us receiving a Call
and here we’re getting a bit closer
to the way we often use language of calling in
Christian circles.
So, we might speak of:
·
The Call of
the wild
·
The Call of
nature
·
Call of Duty
·
Call of Duty
V
(that reference might be for those of us who are a bit younger, I
suspect)
And so we come to
the specifically Christian use of the word Call;
the idea that some of us, at least,
might receive a call from God.
In some Christian
circles,
the
language of being called by God to do something is de rigueur;
and it becomes necessary to speak
the language of calling if we are to
fit in,
we have to be able to say we are ‘called’
if
we are to be acceptable to those
who
look for God’s calling behind every action.
Both Ruth and I have spent a lot of time over the
years,
involved
in interviews of those
who
believe that they are being ‘called’ into Christian ministry.
And ministerial selection panels often have, as one of
their key criteria,
a
requirement that the prospective minister
be
able to clearly articulate their sense of call to the role.
And, I have to say, as the years have gone by,
and
as the candidates and interviews have ticked round,
I’ve become far more cynical about the idea of call,
and
far less sure about what actually is meant by it in the first place.
I mean, if a prospective minister comes to be
interviewed,
and
the panel asks them to tell the story of their call to ministry,
what is likely to get the person through without any
awkward questions
is a
kind of ‘humble-but-bewildered-growing-conviction’,
where
the candidate speaks of a deepening inner persuasion,
matched
by the affirmation and encouragement of those around them.
A person who comes into their ministerial selection
interview,
and
says that they know they are called to be a minister,
because
they have just heard God’s voice, clear as a bell,
speaking
to them in the night,
telling
them exactly what he wanted to do with their life,
is,
I’m afraid, unlikely to make it to the next round.
And I am coming to
the conclusion
that any such language of having
been ‘called’ by God to anything,
from being a
Baptist Minister, to being a parent, to being a teacher,
is, frankly, incredible.
The idea that each
of us can, in some way, expect to receive a call from God
that tells us exactly what we should
do with our lives,
is something I find less and less
convincing.
And so we come to
our Gospel reading for this morning.
In this
oh-so-familiar story from Mark’s Gospel
we meet the story often known as
‘The calling of Simon, Andrew, James,
and John’.
It’s a story many
of us have known since childhood,
and we may have heard sermon after
sermon,
and Sunday-school lesson after
Sunday-school lesson,
inviting and
exhorting us to also leave our nets
and become fishers of people.
As I speak I have that
old, exclusively languaged, Sunday-school chorus
running round in my head:
I
will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men
I
will make you fishers of men, if you fol-low me
The point seems
clear: we should give up everything and follow Jesus
leaving the equivalent of our own
nets and boats
in order to answer the call of God
on our lives
Except, the awkward
part of my brain wonders,
where does this
leave the person called to the fishing industry?
or, if I may be a bit less than
literal in my application
the person called to the classroom, or
the hospital,
or the building site, or the home?
Does the call of
Jesus on our lives
really mean that we should walk away
from our careers
and our livelihoods?
Well, for those who
believe they are following a call to full time ministry
it is likely to mean just that…
There are those of
us in Baptist ministry today
who have given up or passed by lucrative
and fulfilling careers
to answer their
so-called ‘call to ministry’
But that kind of
extreme ‘call’ is only ever going to be a minority sport, so to speak.
The call of Jesus cannot mean, for
everyone,
that they should leave it all
behind, whatever ‘it’ is,
to follow wherever the wind of the
Spirit blows them.
This kind of call
is not, surely, what it means for us to follow Jesus?
This story isn’t really a simple lesson
about the necessity of turning our
backs on the things of this world
if we want to follow Jesus.
Well, at this
point, I find myself tempted to pull that old favourite preachers’ trick,
of suggesting that it’s all a metaphor.
It’s tempting to
say that it’s not actually about
everyone actually leaving
their nets and boats,
or indeed giving up their jobs and
careers;
but rather it’s
about not holding these things too closely,
and being prepared to give them up if Jesus asks us
(whilst secretly hoping that he
won’t).
So it’s OK to be a
GP, as long as you’re ready to resign your practice
if Jesus asks you to…
It’s OK to be a
rich young ruler, as long as you’re ready to give it all away
if Jesus asks you to…
Is this what this
passage means?
Is this the message we should take from it this morning?
I’m not so sure…
Perhaps we’ll come back to this one
in a few minutes…
I wonder if, for
now, maybe we will have a bit more joy
if we turn our attention away from
the conundrum
of what it is that we’re called from,
and towards the question
of what it is that we’re called to…
Perhaps this will
be a bit more straightforward?
After all, Jesus is
quite clear on this one, isn’t he?
He calls the disciples to become
‘fishers of people’.
In a neat little
pun on their artisan fisherman lifestyle
Simon and Andrew, and James and John,
are called to leave
their earthly nets
and
become instead fishers of people.
Which sounds pretty
straightforward, doesn’t it…?
at least, it does until we start to
ask
just what it means to fish for people…
What does it mean to fish for people?
Is this about
saving souls?
Is there really a
metaphorical ocean of souls out there?
Is our task to randomly let down our spiritual nets
in the hope of catching a big shoal of them?
Is this a mandate for large-scale evangelistic rallies,
or appeals broadcast
round-the-clock on the God-channel,
imploring people to ‘turn to Jesus’?
Or is a bit more
subtle?
Is this about fishing with a lure,
where
we make our churches so attractive
that people are enticed in through the doors,
and it’s only once they’re in that we
spring the trap and never let them leave?
Is this a mandate for back to church
Sunday?
for seeker services?
for Alpha courses?
Is this what it
means to fish for people?
Is this what Jesus is getting at?
Again, I’m not so
sure…
On the face of it,
the call of Jesus to his first disciples, the call to ‘fish for people’
is not the most gripping of calls…
There’s nothing
here about the keys of the kingdom,
nothing here about binding and loosing
nothing here about planting churches,
receiving the gifts of the spirit
or living for eternity in paradise.
Just this strange
call to fish for people…
You can almost hear
the disciples’ excitement:
What’s
that you say, Jesus?
You’re
calling us away from a life of back-breaking labour
where
often the rewards don’t come close to the effort expended?
You’re
calling us away from a life of fishing…
Fantastic!
And
what are we called to?
Oh,
more fishing!... Great… Thanks…
But I wonder if,
when pay attention to the Old Testament background
to this image of fishing
it might start to get a bit more interesting?
Ched Myers points
out that in the Hebrew Bible,
the metaphor of ‘fishing for people’ carries a very specific meaning:
Which is that of overturning
the structures
of power and privilege in the world.
The image Jesus
that uses here
comes from the book of Jeremiah,
Where Jeremiah
declares that the Lord will send for many fishermen
who will catch the unfaithful people of Israel
and bring them back to him (Jer. 16.16).
In other words, this
image of fishing for people, the way Jeremiah uses it,
is about restoring those who have
drifted away
back
to their rightful place among God’s people.
It’s about releasing those who have
become ensnared in the trappings of the world,
and drawing them back to
right relationship with God.
It’s about challenging the
oppressive powers that be,
by breaking the hold
that these worldly structures have
over the lives and
spirits of human beings.
And also elsewhere
in the Old Testament,
the image of ‘hooking people like
fish’
appears as a euphemism for judgment
on the rich and powerful
So we find Amos proclaiming
the judgment of God
on the apostate nation of Israel,
which had been oppressing the poor and crushing the
needy.
To this end Amos declared:
‘The
time is surely coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with
hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.’
(Amos 4.2)
And in a similar
manner, Ezekiel announced the judgment of God
against the might of the Pharaoh of Egypt:
‘Thus
says the Lord GOD: I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt…
I
will put hooks in your jaws,
and
make the fish of your channels stick to your scales’. (Ezek. 29.3-4)
So when Jesus
approaches the four fishermen by the sea of Galilee
and says that they should leave
their nets and come fish for people
this isn’t some
trite call to missionary service;
neither is it the instant conferring
of evangelist status
on a group of young fishermen.
Rather, by issuing
this invitation to the fishing brothers,
Jesus is inviting some ordinary,
everyday people
to
join him in his struggle
of overturning the
existing order of power and privilege
This call to become
‘fishers for people’
is actually a call to rescue people
from their slavery to
the satanic forces
which oppress and
suppress humanity.
It’s about joining
Jesus on the journey to the cross,
and it’s about partnering with him
in seeing the kingdom of heaven
come into being on the earth.
It’s about proclaiming the good news
that the kingdom of
heaven is at hand
as the kingdoms of the
earth are shaken to their very foundations
This call of Jesus,
when it comes,
is a call which subverts all our expectations…
Whatever it is we think we’re called to,
Jesus subverts it when he calls us to be fishers for people
Maybe we think
we’re called to the church?
…maybe we think we’re called to this
church?
But if so, what are
we called to?
… to build a bigger congregation?
… to fill once again
this great Victorian preaching barn?
… to see a church that is purposefully driven,
contagiously Christian, and healthily growing?…
Not quite, says
Jesus…
who calls us instead to a life of service,
to a life dedicated to
sharing with him
in the
raising up of those
who are vulnerable, downtrodden, and bruised
by their experience of life.
Do we think we’re
called to proclaim the gospel?
…to see people come to a point of decision
where they choose to follow Jesus themselves?
Not quite, says
Jesus…
who calls us instead to lives of faithful proclamation through steadfast
service,
where we echo in our
deeds and our words
the messiah
who recognises the image of God in all those he meets,
and who nurtures the spark of faith wherever it is
encountered.
Do we think the
call to be fishers of people
is a call to glorious mission,
to revival in our time
to church
growth par excellance?
Not quite, says
Jesus…
who calls us instead to a life of
suffering, struggle and stubborn persistence,
as
we join him in his battle
against the
principalities and powers
of power and
privilege
But let us never be
mistaken!
This is a high
calling!
– it is a call to participate in the
in-breaking kingdom of heaven
which
sees release for the captives,
recovery
of sight for the blind,
and
good news to the poor.
And it is a calling
which involves a cost,
which those who hear the call and answer it will have to bear.
And this is where
we return to the issue
of what it is we are called from…
The fishermen in Mark’s
gospel were called to abandon their trade,
they were called to abandon their
boats,
to
abandon their livelihoods.
These fishermen
weren’t people who lived in poverty,
rather, they owned their boats, they
could afford to hire day labourers.
They were young men
who came from established fishing families,
where son took over from father,
and so on down the generations.
And the call from
Jesus to break with their past,
carried for them both economic and
social-security implications,
because it was a
call which required a fundamental reordering
of way they lived in the world.
If they were
serious about fishing for people,
if they were serious about joining
Jesus
in overturning the
oppressive structures
of power and privilege,
then the first step
in this dismantling of the dominant social order
must be the overturning of their own
‘world’.
And so what about
us?
Are we up for
joining Jesus is fishing for people?
Are we ‘hearing the call’?
Because, if so, there
will be a cost to be paid…
This is a call which will turn our
world upside down!
The call to follow
Jesus is one which turns on its head
our attitude towards our possessions
and our own security.
This isn’t a call
‘out’ of the world,
but a call to an alternative way of
living ‘in’ the world.
It is a call to
radically re-orientate ourselves,
it is an urgent, uncompromising
invitation
to break with ‘business as usual’.
It is a call to
take a long hard look at our lives,
and especially our attitude towards our
money, our possessions,
our power, and our privilege,
and to consider whether our
behaviour in this regard
represents the good news
of the kingdom of God
that a call to follow
Jesus entails.
This call to fish
for people, the call to become prophetic fishermen,
is a call on us all to break with
our dependency on material possessions,
and to turn our backs on
our shared obsession with material gain.
The world of
oppression, satanic seduction, and materialism
is challenged to its core by the
call of Jesus.
The kingdom has
dawned, and it is at hand,
and those of us who join with Jesus
in the adventure of discipleship,
those of us who hear his
call,
become those who live as citizens of
this coming kingdom.
And so we learn to
fish for people,
we learn to challenge the powers
that be,
to see kingdom come on earth, as in
heaven.
And it begins with
us,
with our attitudes, and our actions,
as we leave our
nets and boats,
and turn to follow the one who calls
us.
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