Epiphany 3

Epiphany 3 A GOD OF SECOND CHANCES 1/19 & 22/06

This week, scarcely 14 verses into the Gospel according to Saint Mark, Jesus is calling His disciples. What a way to begin this world-saving movement! Jesus, having been introduced to us at His Baptism as the Messiah, the Son of God, begins His ministry by calling a group of extra-ordinarily “ordinary” people to be His disciples! Mark, compared to Matthew, Luke, and John, offers the most unflattering portrayal of the disciples. They are uncomprehending of Jesus and His mission from start to finish, which makes the fact that Jesus first chooses these people as His disciples seem all the more amazing. Jesus chooses not to do His work without them. He invites, inspires, educates, equips, and empowers them to be His disciples. They leave everything and follow. Along the way, they fail to understand nearly everything about Jesus. Time and again they will disappoint Him. Yet, He will stick with them, will give them all that He has, will lead them to the doors of the kingdom, and daily offer them a second chance.

After His dramatic Baptism, Jesus strides forth to recapture enemy territory. At last, according to the common belief of that day, the long awaited Messiah had come to eliminate the enemy and restore the chosen people of God! God breaks forth from heaven to earth to rightly reclaim what belongs to Him. Let the revolution, long-anticipated, begin! And what is the first thing Jesus does? What is His first dramatic, earth-shattering, world-altering, decisive act of revolutionary reclamation? He sees a couple of “fish-smelling” men mending their nets beside the Sea of Galilee and says to them, “Follow me.” (Mark 1:17) What? Jesus calls these, and such as these? We are not told that Simon, Andrew, James, and John have any prior training in discipleship, nor that they have any particular natural gifts for following Jesus. We have no biblical evidence that they had diligently filled out their Time and Talent sheets, nor had completed their spiritual gifts survey. Nevertheless, they stumble after Jesus and the kingdom of God on earth gets underway!

That day began for them like every other day, holding no promise of something new. Rome was still in charge, they were still waiting for the Messiah, and they still experienced sickness, evil, and death everyday. Jesus met up with four fishermen on the shores of the sea, just average, hard-working, not overly-educated nor socially-polished people. They fished because their fathers fished. It was conventional wisdom to stay in the family business, so they did. It was a hard life, but stable, conventional life. That is, until Jesus extended His invitation. This journey would for them---and will for us--- prove more than an excursion or diversion from daily activities. They leave behind fishing boats, family, friends, and their dependence upon conventional wisdom. They burn the bridges and, by following Jesus, will change the world. The same might be said about this extra-ordinarily ordinary group here gathered.

Human beings, especially Americans, are big on their decisions, the sum of our choices. We imagine our lives as our self-creations, shrewd concoctions, self-made. But, our lessons this week invite us all to consider our lives as the sum of God’s decisions, a project of the living Christ, something that Jesus makes and molds through His relentless reach toward us. W. H. Auden, in his Christmas Oratorio, wrote that after the birth of Jesus, we are no longer in pursuit of God. “Our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit, but of surrender to Him who is always and everywhere present.” Jesus says to you and me, this day and everyday, “Follow me and I will make you what you are supposed to be.” Everyday of life begins with this invitation!

We are here, together at this time, because we were put here. We are here, I believe, because of God’s decision, not so much our own. People decide to go to the theater or concert, thumbing through the Saturday newspaper and saying to themselves, “That looks interesting, let’s go!” But, that’s not how a person gets to church. We move toward the kingdom of God, by God…by invitation, inspiration, education, equipping, and empowering…and this is all of God. Being in the family of God, living and dying as a disciple of Jesus Christ, is by invitation only. You have to be called. I’m reminded of the hymn: “Listen God is calling, through His Word inviting, offering forgiveness, comfort and joy.” (#712 WOV)

It is not so easy to follow Jesus, despite what some charlatans might teach. Following Jesus means we leave behind what we know in order to follow the One we’ve come to know! Conventional wisdom teaches us never to “burn our bridges,” but discipleship is not conventional wisdom. We must “burn our bridges” because we need not come back this way again. Discipleship, following Jesus, is not a replay of our former life…it is new life, it is to be reborn, it is to start fresh and new, surrendering to our Lord’s leadership in grateful thanksgiving for a second chance! Amen.