God Doesn't Stutter (Reflections on Epiphany 3, Year B 2024)

 

"Calling of Peter & Andrew" J. Tissot (French 19th Cent.)

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” ¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

Don’t you ever, when you read the above gospel lesson, wonder what Old Man Zebedee was thinking? I see this old guy sitting alone in his boat, looking up at God and saying, “Have I offend thee, O Lord, that thou hast given me two schmendricks for sons? Did I do something wrong that my boys should leave a perfectly good job in the fishing industry to follow this meshuggeneh rabbi from Nazareth? Please tell me, God! Oy vey!”

I guess when you have to go, you have to go. This lesson is the second “call story” we get in the Revised Common Lectionary during the Epiphany season. Unlike last week’s stories, there’s nothing ambiguous going on here. There’s no questioning or wrestling with God in either the gospel or the First Lesson (Jonah 3:1-5, 10).

In my last post I referenced the great C.S. Lewis who turned his back on Christianity as an adolescent (as many of us do), endured some real lousy times, and found his way back to a mature and profound faith in Christ later in life. I also mentioned the wonderful Rachel Held Evans who was raised in a fundamentalist Evangelical tradition, began to question the church’s teachings, but staggered her way to an expression of Christianity which seemed authentic and genuinely compassionate and congruent with the Jesus she experienced in Scripture. Our Epiphany 2 lessons featured a snarky, questioning Nathanael and a very confused Samuel. There’s none of that groping, questioning, or debating in the lessons for Epiphany 3. God is calling. It’s time to leave the nets and follow.

The difference between these “call” stories is, I think, the difference between our call to faith and our call to discipleship. The call to faith is—and I think it always should be—a process. Throughout our lives we should keep questioning, debating with ourselves and others, and seeking a better understanding of God and our Church’s core beliefs. We can never have too much knowledge, can we? And we have to expect that our perspectives will—and should—change as we get older.

The call to discipleship, on the other hand, can be very specific and very immediate. Luke’s version of the call of the first disciples gives a convenient miracle story about an amazing catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11) to explain the reaction of the fishermen to Jesus’ invitation to be his followers. Matthew and Mark give us bupkis as to why these guys would bail on their livelihood and just walk off behind Jesus. Jesus just says, “Follow me,” and off they go. It makes me wonder if there were some in Galilee who said, “No thanks, Jesus. I’d rather stay here and fish.” You think? But maybe our heroes Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt in their hearts the pressing and immediate need to hear this rabbi and be part of whatever mission he was on. I wonder if there wasn’t a certain sense of desperation in the land that told them the time to act is right now.

The RCL marries this call story to the second call of Jonah in that delightful and wickedly funny little novella tucked in to the canon of the Minor Prophets, Jonah. Jonah, if you remember, gets called to go to the Assyrian capital of Ninevah—the headquarters of some real badass folks—to proclaim God’s displeasure and intention to open a giant can of whoop ‘em on the whole town. Quite naturally, Jonah doesn’t want to heed God’s very direct call to preach to people who are his enemies and will probably kill him for his trouble. You know the story: he runs away to sea, get eaten by a fish, repents, gets barfed out on land, yadda, yadda.

The thing which strikes me about this story and its RCL juxtaposition with the gospel lesson is that God doesn’t stutter in either of these tales. Jesus says “follow me.” God tells Jonah, “Go and do this thing.” The characters in the stories know God is calling, and know they must answer in the affirmative.

They also know there’s going to be a cost. The fishermen leave a sure thing for something uncertain. James and John also, I’m sure, upset their old man by abandoning the family business and leaving him to fish by himself. Jonah goes on a dangerous mission to save people he really doesn’t like. Sometimes the Holy Spirit tells us to do something we wish she hadn’t mentioned.

But sometimes the time is now. It’s time to make a change, confront an issue, or speak a word of exhortation. It might be about something in your home or here in church or in your community. It’s time to ask yourself, “What do I really care about?” and “What do I do about it?” It’s time to say, as Samuel did last week, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” and be ready to hear the answer.

May God be with you this week to grant you wisdom and courage in all you do!