Mark 1:14-20
Maybe it was because they were fishermen and knew how to read the signs of the earth. Where the fish were running that day, where is the beet place to cast our nets, when is the next storm coming, look see the difference in the colors, they just seemed to know. This is why they immediately left their nets that day. They could see some sort of sign. Some hidden understanding that escapes others.
They left everything, immediately and followed this stranger, only knowing they were now fishing for a different catch. What were they thinking. There is no description that says they were guaranteed a place to stay, money, great security and yet they go, throwing away the only life they have ever known. Could you do that? Do we do that?
God has a call for each and every one of us. Sometimes we'd like to hire that call and believe its all taken care of. Sometimes we think that a call is too elaborate and only for people who are spiritual. We are all supposed to be spiritual though, all supposed to be disciples. Isn't that what we choose when we are confirmed, baptized, received into a place? Isn't there some sort of unfinished work we feel as though was just for us? Do we believe we can give a healing touch, encounter Christ in another, show Christ to someone else, or did we just join in to sit like bumps on a log waiting for some romantic day when we would be touched by the Spirit to fulfill some God purpose we don't know about.
When we read scriptures like today's we may think of it as some deep mystery. I think the deeper mystery lies in the immediacy with which Mark's gospel lays this story out. Remember we're still in chapter one and only in the fourteenth verse. What has happened so far in this gospel? We met John the Baptist who is not the true one, then comes Jesus who is and is baptized, then immediately Jesus is in the wilderness, now John is arrested and has died and Jesus calls the disciples.
It's time, it's time for us too. We live believing in the gospel, good news because its something to share, something we are called to do. No it doesn't mean we are keeping the markers and storing up our own score board of look I've done this good thing. It may mean we are the ones who are changed, we are the ones who encounter Jesus in place we never knew, we are the ones learning, but isn't that what disciple means?
What did Jesus see in a bunch of uneducated fishermen? When they kept not getting his role of change was in peace and he would die for that and they just didn't seem to get it did Jesus kick them to the curb and say, "sorry, your not fit"? Did they keep learning their whole walk with him? Didn't they keep trying to do what he did, let other people know about the good news, what is that good news? Maybe, just maybe if we start to claim our call we'll begin to know that gospel ourselves.
Maybe it was because they were fishermen and knew how to read the signs of the earth. Where the fish were running that day, where is the beet place to cast our nets, when is the next storm coming, look see the difference in the colors, they just seemed to know. This is why they immediately left their nets that day. They could see some sort of sign. Some hidden understanding that escapes others.
They left everything, immediately and followed this stranger, only knowing they were now fishing for a different catch. What were they thinking. There is no description that says they were guaranteed a place to stay, money, great security and yet they go, throwing away the only life they have ever known. Could you do that? Do we do that?
God has a call for each and every one of us. Sometimes we'd like to hire that call and believe its all taken care of. Sometimes we think that a call is too elaborate and only for people who are spiritual. We are all supposed to be spiritual though, all supposed to be disciples. Isn't that what we choose when we are confirmed, baptized, received into a place? Isn't there some sort of unfinished work we feel as though was just for us? Do we believe we can give a healing touch, encounter Christ in another, show Christ to someone else, or did we just join in to sit like bumps on a log waiting for some romantic day when we would be touched by the Spirit to fulfill some God purpose we don't know about.
When we read scriptures like today's we may think of it as some deep mystery. I think the deeper mystery lies in the immediacy with which Mark's gospel lays this story out. Remember we're still in chapter one and only in the fourteenth verse. What has happened so far in this gospel? We met John the Baptist who is not the true one, then comes Jesus who is and is baptized, then immediately Jesus is in the wilderness, now John is arrested and has died and Jesus calls the disciples.
It's time, it's time for us too. We live believing in the gospel, good news because its something to share, something we are called to do. No it doesn't mean we are keeping the markers and storing up our own score board of look I've done this good thing. It may mean we are the ones who are changed, we are the ones who encounter Jesus in place we never knew, we are the ones learning, but isn't that what disciple means?
What did Jesus see in a bunch of uneducated fishermen? When they kept not getting his role of change was in peace and he would die for that and they just didn't seem to get it did Jesus kick them to the curb and say, "sorry, your not fit"? Did they keep learning their whole walk with him? Didn't they keep trying to do what he did, let other people know about the good news, what is that good news? Maybe, just maybe if we start to claim our call we'll begin to know that gospel ourselves.
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