Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea– for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
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Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, Amen.
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” These are Jesus’ words to Simon and Andrew. Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Really? Fishing for people? Who wants to catch a person? People don’t taste very good, do they?
Now, I want you all to think a little bit. Put yourself in both Simon and Andrew’s shoes. Do you just drop everything and go? By nets, I mean everything. Really, this was their job and their livelihood. So, it means everything. Just quit your job and go follow Jesus? Well, in Mark’s Gospel and in the others we read about them and they do go. They follow. Simon, who is also called Peter is one of the main followers. Following so much that he makes some mistakes along the way.
Now I will be honest. I don’t think the Gospel of Mark really includes everything. Because if someone would have faced this decision, would they have just dropped everything and left? Well, there was more to it. I was doing my research this past week and found that not everything was translated in our translation. There is a lot more to it.
It actually goes more like this…
Jesus said “follow me and I will make you fish for people?”
Andrew said, “Well, we are kind of busy. Perhaps we can. I am going to go ask my mom.”
Simon said, “Andrew, we can’t go. If we don’t get some of these fish to market, our parents will be awfully mad. Besides, mom is going to have lunch ready in an hour. Sorry sir. I am sure you are on a great journey and all, but we can’t help you.”
Andrew then said, “Now wait a minute Simon, just hold on. You are always trying to boss me around and tell me what to do. That ends this instant. We’re going.”
Peter said, “Andrew, I am the older and wise of us both. You know that. I know that. We must take care of our responsibilities. Besides, lunch is almost ready.”
Andrew said, “Lunch can wait. I would certainly like to try fishing for people. It might just pay better than fishing for fish anyways. I’ll send a message to mom that we won’t be home for lunch because, well, because we dropped our nets in the water. That’s it. We dropped our nets in the water and can’t find them.”
Simon said, “We can’t lie to mom. She was even going to fix my favorite dish today - fried fish. Plus, we have no clue who this random stranger even is. Fish for people? Really? Who does he think he is? If we don’t get some fish to market, dad is going to be real upset.”
Andrew said, “What mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her. We just tell dad that the fishing was lousy.” Simon and Andrew then began to lob their fists at one another, rolling around in the dirt and fighting. With them sparring further back and forth about the merits of going along with this man, Jesus began to shake his head in disgust and thought to himself, “what am I doing?” He then went on his way to leave the two brothers to fight amongst themselves. And immediately, they left their nets and followed him.
Now, I was just as amazed as all of you to come across this section of the Gospel of Mark, that really gets to the heart of our human condition. We hold each other back. That is what we do. While I could proclaim that our sin in this entire mess is not following, that is far too simple. Really, I think the sin that we need to address is how fishing for people stinks. Really. It can be some awful stuff.
We are now at a time in which anxiety is high. It is high everywhere and in every institution. It is in every level of government and every nuclear family. The sinfulness that is to be addressed is how difficult it is to work with people. My embellished version of the Gospel shows this clearly.
When I joked about fishing for people not being very good, it is because people don’t always taste very good. They don’t. What drives many of us to do the things we do is we want to avoid the people we don’t like. Or, we hide our opinions, thoughts, and feelings, because we don’t know how to be fully honest with others we disagree with. To put it much more bluntly and thoroughly, in this gospel passage, we are compared with fish. And anyone who has ever gone fishing and caught fish, knows that fish smell.
So what is the Gospel? What is the good news? It is spelled out for us. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. The good news is that we have someone fishing for us. That fisherman is Jesus. Jesus seeking us out. Putting up with our stink, and offering to us in the same way… “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” That is the good news. The good news is that we have Jesus seeking us out, fishing for us.
So how does this relate to Epiphany? Epiphany being the discovery of God being made manifest in the world? Epiphany being the light bulb that turns on? Jesus being the light that scatters the darkness? It is the proclamation. It is shown in how Simon and Andrew drop everything to follow Jesus, knowing that this is God coming into our world.
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
