1/24: 3rd Sunday : "Come and fish with me"

 

"Follow me and I will make you fish for people"

Mark 1: 14 - 20

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012421.cfm

This weekend as we continue our journey reflecting on discipleship with the Lord, we hear of both a reluctant prophet by the name of Jonah and the call and response of the first disciples of Jesus.  Last Sunday, it was John the Baptist who sent his disciples over to Jesus to follow him as “Lamb of God.” This week we hear of Mark’s version of the call to fishermen on the Sea of Galilee to, “Come after me, and I will make you fish for people.”

Anyone who has ever fished whether in rivers, lakes or the ocean knows that above all you need to have patience and determination.  My earliest memories of fishing as a child go back to family vacations when we would take a boat out on the lake, set the worm on a hook, attach the bobber and wait, and wait, and wait for a bite.

Obviously the more skilled fishermen would attach lures or live bait then cast out the line patiently hoping for the same. If you were lucky enough to feel a good tug on the line, the skill needed was how to get the fish to the boat and in some cases with certain fish, it was the force of a larger and stronger ones pulling on the line in order to see who was going to win this battle.  Fish against man or vice a versa.

I would suppose these early disciples of Jesus were not really looking for another trade.  These were business men, at least Simon was, who were trying to carve out a living in a common trade along the lake of Galilee and were likely doing well by ancient standards.

What amazes us, then, is how they responded so quickly: “So they left their Father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.”  Some brief history may help us understand.

Jesus came preaching in what appears to be the same theme as John the Baptist but with one important difference. He did not point the way to another but to himself: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” The time is now and is here with me.  So, his call was both immediate and a look to the future. But he implied more than just, “Drop what you’re doing and I’ll show you a better fishing hole.”

News traveled fast in the ancient world and preachers were common.  Jewish sensibility was tuned in to end times prophecy.  It was believed that the occupation of ancient Israel by the Romans was the last such event and the next to happen was the kingdom of God which would now replace all others.  From the occupation of Israel by the Assyrians, to the Babylonians, to the Romans, and now God will come in these end times and establish his kingdom on earth. The Messiah would set his power and make the nation of Israel a mighty force on earth.  To hear Jesus, then, proclaim that the “kingdom of God is at hand,” and to see his power over nature must have created an irresistible attraction and hope for the ancient people and for these early disciples as well.

Remember that Jesus had moved down to Capernaum by the Sea in a very different environment than tiny Nazareth and his reputation by now had begun to spread.  Now Jesus begins to form a kind of band of followers, disciples of a master teacher but calls them to a major disruption in their familiar lives.

It is good to know that he entered not from clouds but in the ordinary.  In the normal task of their lives, Jesus met them along the lake and recognized their useful skills that could now be applied to a new “fishing” trade. He cast out the invitation and patiently waited for their bite. 

Our first reading this Sunday all the more emphasizes the impact when one hears the Lord’s call and responds – or at first maybe resists.  Jonah, the reluctant prophet who first tried to run away from the Lord and found himself cast overboard from a ship and swallowed by a large fish now accepts the call to preach to the pagan Ninevites whose reputation was far from virtuous.  While the story of Jonah and the large fish may be more allegory it makes the point that when God calls, he continues to be persistent.  

To Jonah’s surprise and bewilderment before God, the pagan Ninevites repented!  All of them including the animals too, showed signs of contrition and “. . . God repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” God’s call is not only patient for our response but he is likewise merciful. 

And that remains the bottom line of our call to discipleship – conversion of heart and a new direction with the Lord.  To the early disciples, Jesus proposed the same process in his invitation to now go fishing no longer for simple fish but for ever greater prizes – the souls of men and women turned to the Lord.

God enters our boats or calls to us in numerous ways.  The present day uncertainty about the direction of our lives and the culture in which we live demand that we followers of the Lord be a sign of light and hope in the midst of trends that are clearly not of God: the dismissal and casualness of human life, especially the unborn, the suffering of immigrants unjustly treated, the poverty of those who through no fault of their own are deprived of basic human needs, the forgotten in prison, the division of racism and economic disparity.  However, if we’re always looking for the spectacular or expecting some vision or voice calling us, we may be greatly discouraged. 

Simon, Andrew, James and John responded to the bait that Jesus cast out.  Their ordinary lives where the Lord met them were about to set out on an extraordinary journey.  Fishing for people has become for us an undeniable image of discipleship. What it means to follow Jesus in the ordinary of our lives is to engage in the same process. 

This time of year the uncertainty has caused us a kind of paralysis.  It’s been very tough to engage the larger community since that normal community is not present but had gone into hiding.  Though efforts have been made, it’s time to go fishing again. By our gathering around the Lord’s table we find strength to follow the call as we hear it.

Where do we hear the Lord calling us along the familiar ways of my life?

What for me is ordinary not matter my age or state in life?

Where has God set out a line hoping to find myself as a good catch?

And ultimately what skills can I bring as a disciple of the Lord to assist in the basic missionary call to go and fish for others?