January 21, 2024 Third Sunday After Epiphany The text is Mark 1:14-20.

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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.

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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Often the broadcaster will announce that the news program is “following a rapidly developing story”.  Well, that seems to be the case in Mark’s gospel so far.  In just a few short verses we read that the Good News of God in Jesus Christ has begun.  John the Baptist has seemingly come out of nowhere to baptize the Judean populace in the Jordan River.  This same John, Jesus’ cousin has baptized Jesus, the Holy Spirit has come upon him and God has proclaimed Jesus as his Son and that this pleases God greatly.  We might be forgiven if we were to conclude that things would continue at this rapid pace, but instead the Spirit has driven Jesus into the wilderness, where he will be tested by Satan for forty days, before being tended to by angels.  Mark recounts that this happened right after Jesus emerged from the baptismal waters.

Jesus may have thought himself ready to get down to the business of saving the world, but the Holy Spirit determined that 40 days of trial would be necessary before Jesus would be ready to spread the gospel in earnest.

Now that this period of hardship is over Jesus may finally commence the mission that the Father has sent him to undertake.  He wastes no time in proclaiming the same message that cousin John had preached; and Mark narrates the very first words Jesus speaks in his gospel account.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  Jesus decides to make the area of Galilee the home base for his ministry and by the time he comes across Simon and Andrew tossing out their fishing nets, there was likely already some who had heard what Jesus had begun to preach.  Apparently, no persuasion was needed to convince these two brothers to abandon their nets and follow Jesus in his ministry.  Mark tells us that they followed Jesus “immediately”.  A little further along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus encounters another pair of brothers, James and John.  The same rather cryptic invitation to “fish for people” is offered and they too “immediately” abandon their livelihood, leaving dear old dad, Zebedee behind in the family fishing boat.

This calling of the first of Jesus’ followers leaves no doubt that some people are willing to respond to God’s invitation to discipleship without hesitation, and perhaps even without giving too much thought to whether or not this is a good idea.  Note that the very first verse in this morning’s reading discloses that John the Baptist has been arrested.  In spite of what this likely means for Jesus and those who choose to follow him, both leader and disciples make the decision to move ahead with the mission at hand.  These two pairs of brothers immediately walk away from their life’s work and dedicate themselves to the ministry that Jesus now embarks upon.  All because Jesus said to them, “follow me”.

Let’s take a look at the other end of the spectrum, Jonah.  In our First Reading this morning we are told that God has commanded Jonah a second time to proclaim God’s message to the people of Ninevah, a people whom Jonah despises.  Jonah’s earlier response to this call to action by God was by fleeing and attempting to avoid doing what is commanded of him.  Jonah thinks it’s possible to outrun God.

You will recall that Jonah finds himself onboard a ship in distress in a violent storm, and the crew determine that this is Jonah’s fault for having defied God.  Over the side of the ship goes Jonah only to find himself rescued by God, having ensured that a great whale was nearby to swallow him up.  Jonah spends three days and nights in the belly of the great fish and is eventually ejected on to dry land.  It is at this point we read that God again, persistently calls on Jonah to proclaim God’s message to Ninevah.  In the verses not read this morning Jonah displays great anger that he was forced by God to do something he adamantly wished to avoid doing.  He was so upset he told God that he would rather die than have to accept that God showed compassion to the people of Ninevah.  It seems that Jonah would have resorted to anything in order to not have to respond to God’s call.

God the Son, Jesus simply states, “follow me” and otherwise completely happy fishermen abandon their jobs and families and “immediately” devote themselves to Jesus’ mission.  God the Father resorts to extreme actions to convince a resistant, and rather petulant Jonah to simply deliver God’s message of the need for repentance in order that the entire city of Ninevah might be spared.  Jonah’s response is quite clearly the opposite of immediate.  Rather than declare his willingness to answer God’s call he is defiant to the point where he is content to be fish food.  Simon and Andrew, James and John; they immediately recognize Jesus’ invitation to discipleship and commit fully to following him.  Jonah; he puts up all the resistance he possibly can, in order to not have to act as God calls him to.

If we look at these two responses as opposite ends of a spectrum, we can see that they constitute the extreme ways that people answer the call to discipleship.  At one end is the immediate willingness to leave everything behind and follow; on the other is the absolute refusal to answer the call to devote oneself to loyal commitment to God’s will.  And as is the case with any range of behavior there is the much larger set of options that occur within the extremes.  As those called to follow Christ Jesus, our response may fall anywhere along the scale, from stubborn refusal to immediate acceptance.  And our reply to the invitation to respond as we are called will inevitably depend on the action that God has called us to perform.  It’s quite easy to “immediately” follow Jesus when the work we’re called to do doesn’t involve too much risk to us; financially, socially, to our reputation, or causing us too much difficulty.

When the call to follow Jesus puts stress on any of these, that’s when we may be tempted to emulate Jonah, and resist God’s call.  More often than not, though, what we’re called by God to engage in tends to fall somewhere in the middle of the scale; not fully at one end or the other.  There may be some financial risk, but not enough that we refuse God’s invitation to act.  Some in our social circle might be put off by our actions, but we conclude that the answer to Jesus’ call more than makes up for this.  The work may be a bit difficult, but we figure that we can still manage it without throwing our back out.

The truth is that we’re hardly ever the unwilling Jonah or the “immediate” Simon Peter; our life situations dictate how we respond to Jesus’ call to follow him and may vary from day to day.  God, however, is patient, persistent, and always ready to give us another chance.  God will never give up on us, is constantly reaching out to us.  Jesus does not say “follow me” one time and walk away if we don’t drop our nets and leave the boat behind.  And that’s the amazing thing about the One who calls us; whether we are willing fishermen on the shore of the Galilee or a Nineveh-hating prophet, stubbornly refusing to obey the call.  The invitation to follow is constant, unwavering, and always open to us, whether we answer it “immediately” or we do all we can to ignore it.  We will not be left behind, on the Galilean shoreline, in the belly of a fish, or in our own n eighborhoods; our Savior God will not stop calling out to us; “follow me”.                  

Will you pray with me?  Good, and gracious, and holy God, give us the strength to answer your Son’s call to walk with him in his ministry and mission.  Reassure us that you will always reach out to us, even when we refuse to heed your call.  Remind us that we are loved by you whether we answer “yes” or “no”.  And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who calls out to us daily, saying “follow me”.      

God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.