Third Epiphany, 2006: 

     There was an old country preacher who had a teenage son, and it was getting time that the boy should give some thought about choosing a profession.  Like many young men, then and now, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do and he didn’t seem overly concerned about it. 

     One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment.  What he did was, he went into the boy’s room and placed on his desk a Bible, a silver dollar, and a bottle of bourbon.

     “Now then,” the preacher said to himself, “I’ll just hide behind the door here, and when my son comes home from school this afternoon, I’ll see which of these three objects he picks up.  If he picks up the Bible, he’s going to follow in my footsteps and what a blessing that would be!  If he picks up the silver dollar, he’s going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too.  But if he picks up the bourbon, he’s going to be a sot and a souse and Lord, what a shame that would be.”

     The old man was anxious as he waited, and soon he heard his son’s footsteps as he came into the house whistling and headed back to his room.  The boy deposited his books on the bed, as a matter of routine, and as he turned around to leave the room he spotted the objects on his desk.

     With a curious look, he walked over to the desk to inspect them.  What he finally did was, he picked up the Bible and tucked it under his arm.  He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into a shirt pocket.  He unscrewed the cap from the bourbon and took a big swig.

     “Lord have mercy,” the old preacher whispered, “He’s gonna be a United States Senator!”

      There might be just enough proof in that story to make it less funny than it would otherwise be.  No doubt, I need to repent for even telling a story like that.  But, that’s one of the problems with repentance; we don’t always see the need ourselves.  That’s what good friends or do-gooders are for.

     We have reached the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of Mark and find that Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist, has endured the desert temptations, John has been arrested, and Jesus comes into Galilee to begin his public ministry.  He proclaims the Good News of God and says, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Good News.”  As he passes by the Sea of Galilee, he sees two men, Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea and he issues to the two the greatest invitation ever given.  He simply says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

     There are some things about that invitation that apply just as forcefully to us as they did to Simon Peter, Andrew, and the other ten original followers.  Notice that Jesus accepted what they were.  They were ordinary, hardworking folks.  No one ever believed in ordinary people like the one called Jesus the Christ.  He looked for people who understood the demands of life, making a living, providing for a family, meeting day-to-day responsibilities, making a payroll, paying off debts on time, letting a hand- shake become a bond, and being faithful to God’s call.  We should never think so much of what we are as what God in Christ can make us.  Following means we are not so much interested in leaving footprints as we are in watching footsteps.  We are invited, in the course of our everyday lives, to continue issuing the “come and see” invitation.  That’s what makes us “fish for people.”

     The two brothers were called not while they sat doing nothing but while they were doing what needed to be done.  They were not idly sitting around hoping someone would come and take them out of their pitiful existence.  No, they were doing the work they believed they should be doing.  The call of God in Christ can come to a person, and very often does, not only in the house of God, not just in the secret places, but in the middle of a day’s work.  When we are aware that we live in a world filled with the presence of God, we accept the fact that we cannot escape God.

     Notice how the brothers were called.  Jesus did not say to them, “I have a theological system that I would like for you to investigate and see how many others you can entice in.”  He did not say, “I have certain theories about human beings that I would like you to try for me.”  Nor did he say, “I have a rigorous ethical framework for life that I would like you to follow.”  No doubt, all of those are included in the Christian faith, but they are never first.  First is, “Follow me!”  Discipleship is a personal reaction to a personal invitation.  Discipleship begins with a personal reaction of the heart and not the mind.  It was true then; it is true today.  Our commitment to follow Jesus the Christ must come not from anything he might have said, done, or taught but on who he is.  

     So, we are accepted into the fold created by God in Christ just as we are, while we are doing what needs to be done, and called to personal discipleship.  We also need to be clear about what we are being offered in all this.  He gives us a task.  We are invited to hard work; to service in a world that rejected him.  We, too, no doubt will be rejected.  Discipleship is not an invitation to live on “easy street,” but in the rough and tumble world of sin and death.  We will fall short.  If we have not walked too far in front, if we have not bought into the notion that we can find our own way, and if we have practiced hearing his still, small voice we will very often feel his strong arms reaching down to lift us up.  He will wipe away the tear-smudged dirt from our faces, dust us off with an encouraging pat on the back, and send us back into the work he has given us to do.  We are given work in which our life can be invested.  In that service we find a sure-fire way of finding ourselves.  By giving up selfish motives, by putting obedience to God’s will as first priority, by placing all that we are and all that we have at his disposal, and through investing it all for his sake and the sake of the Good News, we find abundant life.  He offered it to the first disciples; that offer has not been recalled and is just as valid today as it was when he first made the offer.

     So, dear friends, what are you, what are you doing, how are you being called, and what are you being offered?  I would suggest that you are a servant of God in Christ, living and true, and you are being offered life.  Amen.