September 3, 2006 Church of the Covenant Printer-Friendly Version The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell
Beach Stories
Exodus 4:10-17
Mark 1:14-20
As I walk the beach in the mornings, I often see men surf fishing. I think it's a way to avoid the morning noise and clambering of the house waking up; breakfast dishes, kids filled with energy ready for a new day, chaos and clamber. They never seem to catch anything. I usually tease them about what's for dinner. Sometimes the men have their sons or little brothers with them. The youngsters are filled with hope. On occasion when schools of fish are running, you can't get a line in fast enough.
Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee. He saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, throwing out their nets. They were fishermen, that rough, tough long-shore man kind. The difference between Jesus and me is that he said, "Follow," and they did. If I said that they would look at me like I was a nut. But Jesus said follow and they did and I've always wondered if they were boys filled with hope or just avoiding the living of their days. Whatever the case, they had to make a life changing choice.
Sometimes I think we make too much of the choices we have. Where will we live? How we will become success-filled; whom we will love; what we will do to pay the bills for the rest of our lives? All those choices are important. We'd be crazy to take them lightly, but when we agonize over them too much, we can fall into the trap of thinking somehow those choices can make us right with God. That somehow we can bargain with God and get the upper hand. It's that old delusion that if we do all the right things and make the right moves, God will smile and life will be good. We tell ourselves that if we just work a little harder, pray a little longer, do enough good things for others, then God will be pleased with us and help us pass that test. After all we too want to be counted as Jesus' disciples or at least noticed by God.
It's a form of idolatry. Maybe uniquely American because we have so many choices. "God helps those who help themselves kind of idolatry." The trouble with that kind of thinking is that we lose sight of God's power to invade the worst of lives. God's power to recruit those living in the ruins of the worst of choices.
We listen to this morning's gospel or to that wonderful old account of Moses, "But God I can't give any speeches, send someone else," and on the one hand, we can identify with Moses on the other we know full well we'd probably not drop what we were doing to follow Jesus, let alone some voice we hear coming from a cloud or bush. How do we know there's a proven business plan?
Besides, it wasn't the way things were done back in Jesus' day any more than now. Rabbis didn't recruit students. It was the other way around. It was perhaps like some of you students here this morning who only a few months ago were waiting for that letter of acceptance. Every mail delivery being greeted with hopes and fear. Rabbis waited for people to come to them, interviewed them, selected a very few with promise. No self-respecting rabbi would ever recruit and even if he was desperate he would never have chosen the first two he laid eyes on.
By doing what he did, the way he did it, Jesus, like God throughout the history of the Bible's story, shows a different admissions policy.
Yet the strangest thing about Mark's account is that the two brothers went with Jesus. Amazing! What courage, what commitment, what stupidity! But, according to the story it wasn't hard. Jesus motioned and they dropped everything and went with him. Chances are they wouldn't have described themselves as "the religious type." But they took one look at him and off they went. No weighing the pros and cons; no calculating the income loss; no contemplation of their resume when this little lark was over. They just went. It was if something beyond their control had taken over.
Some label both of this morning's accounts as "hero stories," but they are really miracle stories. Ones that are as full of God's power as feeding 5000 people or raising the dead or healing the blind. God's commands seem to always be crisp and clear, "go and do!" Jesus simply says things like, "Take your bed and walk." "Follow me!"
God's ways never seem to be about people's ability to make choices. Throughout the Bible the accounts of God calling from the heavens or through the voice of Jesus are not about us. They are stories about God. They are about God moving into the midst of the every day and creating faith where a split second before there wasn't any. These stories are about God's ability not only to summon, but also to create within a person the ability to follow. People are able to do so simply because they can't take their eyes off the one doing the calling. They are able because God somehow begins to interest them more than anything else. People are able to follow because God seems to somehow knows what they are really hungry for.
These are miracle stories and to reduce them to accounts about small men and women willing to make sacrifice is to make them too small for God. If they do anything under their own power it is to allow themselves to fall in love with that which is most often seen as un-lovable, impossible, and illogical. There on the beach, Jesus showed up, God acted and Peter and his brother let their nets wash out to sea.
The implications are clear; expensive nets lost, they gave up their livelihood, and they would give up much more before the adventure was over. But we need to put the accent on the right syllables. They weren't thinking about what they were leaving. They were thinking about what they were joining. They didn't worry about the cost, they were challenged by what they could do and in that God-soaked moment their lives began to flow in the same direction as the waters of life. God's world opened to them for a glimpse and they were drawn in, probably in spite of themselves. That wonderful Old Testament account of Moses is the same. No excuses Moses, just get with the program!
Sometimes I think we read these stores two closely. I'm not so sure following God is always leaving things behind so much as it is opening ourselves up. Opening up to the experience of being swept along by God's undertow, and the experience will be different for each and every one of us.
When you're caught in an undertow at the shore, the worst thing you can do is fight it. It will wear you out and put you under and later dump your remains on the beach. But if you go with the current, it will eventually abate and you can swim to shore and get on with your life. I've seen all kinds of swimmers caught. Some swim on their backs, some simply float conserving energy. What's most important is not to fight it.
When God calls, sometimes following means leaving home, but it may mean letting others do the heavy lifting yet being there to see what needs to happen, gets the opportunity. It may mean taking care of old Simon Zebedee when he gets too weak to fish or becoming Moses' mouthpiece. It might mean casting the same old nets out into the same old places, but in new ways. Maybe it means doing something different with the fish you catch or reorganizing the whole fishing business so that the drifters down at the docks have meaning-filled work. It may mean doing less every day so that there is time to watch the light play upon the surf and your thoughts can be moved to better understand the rhythms of life and the wisdom of our Lord.
The possibilities of following are endless. Sometimes they will be demanding, but sometimes they will come as seemingly insignificant moments; the smile on a child's face, the gentle touch of a hand, that special present that cost more than its worth or the other one that cost nothing but seems to be worth its weight in gold.
It would be a mistake to focus too hard on our doings and miss the miracle of the moments when we allow ourselves to get caught up in God's doings, God's world in our midst. It seems to me that's what these stories are telling us.
The God who calls can be counted on to create in us the ability to follow. Whenever, however, when our wills spill into God's will, the time is fulfilled immediately! The kingdom is at hand in those moments! The challenge is simply to be open enough to allow it to happen.
Two brothers were out fishing one morning, caught up in their daily routine. A stranger walked by and said, "follow," and they dropped everything.
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