January 22, 2006
(Third Sunday after the Epiphany)

Burning the Boats

By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

Jeremiah 3:21-4:2  •  Psalm 130  •  1 Corinthians 7:17-23  •  Mark 1:14-20
(From The Lectionary Page)

"If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day.
"If you teach a man to fish…he will never be home on the weekends."

That delightful twist on an African proverb is thoroughly American, or at least thoroughly land-locked American. Fishing for most of us is recreational—it can also be frustrating, but it is still recreational, it is not how we earn a living.

For Andrew, Peter, James, and John, fishing was work, like the job or jobs each of us now has, or have held. The long hours worked by these four fishermen, at the very least, supplied food for a table that sat in a house that protected their families and kept them dry.

If you like to re-work Scripture lessons, re-create today’s Gospel along these lines: It is a typical work day for you and three of your co-workers, when suddenly Jesus appears, saying: "Allow me to take your present life, and I’ll mold it to fit into my mission of bringing people to God. Stop what you are doing, never look back, and follow me."

And we would. In fact, we already have. And that is why you are right now – whether we know it or not.

The Gospel reading says that these four men immediately responded. You can almost hear Erma Bombeck saying, "It would be amazing to see four men do anything immediately." That wit aside, we should be either amazed or puzzled that four people, then and there, felt utterly compelled to follow Jesus. They were reckless in their commitment. And I cannot shake the notion that St. Mark is challenging us to add ‘recklessness’ to our list of desirable parish gifts.

An English bishop once said, "Everywhere St. Paul went there was a revolution. Everywhere I go, they serve tea." In my former parishes on the Sunday of the bishop’s visit I’ve been guilty of serving everything from high tea and scones to pig roasted Cuban style and beer from a keg. But I never served revolution.

Menu aside, it is easy to identify with the sentiment of the English bishop. The obvious sense of urgency found in the response of the first four disciples is so very rarely how we operate. In the 45 verses of the first chapter of Mark, the word “immediately” is used 8 times. Do we, can we, as a community of faith, crave the utter recklessness with which these four fishermen responded? Can we commit to do what it takes to be serving at the center of Our Lord’s ongoing revolution?

St. Mark writes that after Jesus called Andrew and Peter, they just walked away from their nets and followed him. James and John did them one better: they left their father and employees behind in their boat and followed.

What causes us to drop everything? Hearing your child cry, or someone calling for help causes us to stop what we are doing. How about a message from your boss’ administrative assistant: "Good morning, Dean. This is Angela in the Bishop’s Office and Bishop Howe was wondering if you would be free to come to see him today?" I’d be there in a heartbeat: “Outta my way, coming through!” Something at least as powerful motivated these four fishermen.

I think it is this. Jesus gives his disciples what we all desire: a worthwhile purpose – something beyond ourselves, described here as fishing for people. Our Lord uses us to share his grace with others. When we follow Christ, our strengths and even more so, our weaknesses are used to build life-giving relationships with God, filled with forgiveness, wholeness and light. We are needed for this work. Immediately.

Malcolm Muggeridge writes in Jesus, the Man Who Lives, how he was taught as youngster that Jesus was a "superlatively good man…a great moral teacher, a kind of super Emerson, Schweitzer" … [or we add today, Mother Teresa…] This seemed to him, even as a child, to be "singularly flaccid and unconvincing."

Such a portrait of Jesus fits well into a structure that spends great energy insuring that no upset, no crisis, and no call to "drop everything and go" is heard. Instead of fishing for people, such a church fishes for caffeine to keep awake what people might remain.

Muggeridge then quotes CS Lewis on this matter:

"A man who said the things that Jesus said, [such as follow me and I expect you to leave immediately] would not be a great moral teacher. Either he was a fool (to be ignored), or a demon deserving to be destroyed, or he was and is the one at whose feet we should fall as we confess him our Lord and God." Jesus never gave us the option to consider him a moral teacher. He said, “Follow me.”

The Roman legions crossed the English Channel, and landed their small ships at the foot of the cliffs of Dover. The Britons looked down, saw them, and laughed, thinking these Romans could pose no real threat to them. But, the Roman commander ordered his soldiers to burn their boats. There would be no turning back. They were there to stay. They had left their boats for good. And the mission which followed was rather successful.

My friends: to be worthy successors of these fishermen we must leave some things behind, for good. Friends, neighbors, people we know and people we don’t know, are just like us: hungry to encounter God, in search of a community that takes Scripture, Tradition, and Reason seriously, where questioning is expected and discrimination is never justified, and where God is found not only in the sure and certain forms of the Sacraments, but also in the ambiguity and complexity of life.

To respond immediately as these four men is not to say: we know it all, we have every answer, we are finished products. To respond immediately means to be reckless in our commitment to follow Jesus. We are called. You are called. That is why each one of us is here this morning. Whether we are in the 95th year of our baptism, or whether we haven’t done much for thirty years since our baptism, or especially if this is the first time that we have ever entered a church – it is because Jesus has walked right up to us and personally invited us to follow. And thanks to the TV series The Book of Daniel we now know both what Jesus looks like and sounds like.

To respond extravagantly to Jesus is reckless, it defies reason to burn the fishing boats and never go back. But I’m guessing it’s worth it. Life with Jesus always is.