Call and Response

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Advent, be ready, choices, decisions, fishermen, Jesus, journey, Luke, Messiah, Simon Peter, St. Andrew, St. Peter, stay awake, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vocation

I was slow this morning to answer the wake up call of my alarm. Perhaps it was the cold (20F degrees) or the fading dream that made me want just a little more time under the blankets. After surrendering to the morning 15 minutes later, armed with my first cup of hot coffee, I went to read about St. Andrew, the saint of the day. I found what I already knew: that Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, a fisherman, called as one of the first disciples. There was virtually no other information about Andrew personally, except that he was the one, before the miracle of the loaves and fishes, who spoke up about the boy who had some food with him. We only have legend to tell that he preached the gospel to people in what is now Greece and Turkey and was crucified at Patras, now the third largest city in Greece.

Not satisfied, I dug a little deeper by reviewing all the canonical gospel stories of Andrew. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, his call to be a disciple is recounted in the same way. Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee and sees Andrew with his brother, Simon, plying their trade as fishermen and calls both of them with the direct, if strange invitation: Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. In Luke’s gospel, the spotlight is on Simon Peter, who has a conversation about his unworthiness to be offered such a call by Jesus; Andrew is not mentioned until chapter six where the entire group of apostles is named. John’s version of the story is altogether different as Andrew becomes a major player. Originally a disciple of John the Baptist, Andrew and another disciple of John are present when Jesus again walks into their midst the day after John first recognizes Jesus as God’s Chosen One. They follow Jesus and when he turns around to ask what they’re looking for, they answer with a question: “Rabbi, where do you stay?” At the invitation to “Come and see,” they go along. After spending the day with Jesus, the first thing Andrew does is to seek out his brother Simon to tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” Then he brings Simon to Jesus.

All of this made me consider the notion of call and where it leads when it is heard. How was it that I came to know my vocation in life? Did it grow organically or was it a lightning bolt that shifted my perspective on everything? Did someone invite me to something I had not considered or introduce me to someone who changed my life direction? Did I hear a lecture or take a course that made things fall into place for me? And what have been the events/circumstances that have occasioned the less dramatic decisions in my life, the everyday choices I have made? How do I keep on the path every day?

In this season of Advent, when the call to “Stay awake!” and “Be ready!” is the daily message, we would do well to think on these things and sharpen our ear to hear what might be a next step on our journey.

A Snap Decision?

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Andrew, Bible, casting nets, Christianity, decision, fishermen, fishers of men, impulsive decision, Jesus, life's calling, Mark, Ordinary Time, Simon, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Zebedee

Today is the first day of the first week of what some Christian Churches call “Ordinary Time” – which might be construed as what the world is like after all the Christmas hubbub is over and the best of the merchandise is gone from the stores. Actually though, it is really nothing like that unless we look at the baptism of Jesus which we celebrated yesterday as an end rather than a beginning. “Ordinary” in Church-speak doesn’t mean the opposite of extraordinary. It comes from a Latin word, ordinalis, which refers to numbers in a series and from which we get the word order, thus indicating the ordered life of the Church between the major seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. It might be akin to “It’s three weeks till school is out for the summer” but doesn’t mean that there won’t be great things learned in the interim.

Today then, we begin with chapter one of the Gospel of Mark which tells us that John the Baptist has been arrested (a story for another day) and Jesus has begun walking about preaching. It’s often frustrating that the gospels aren’t more forthcoming with details about the events. Today, for example, has this news.

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked on a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him. (MK1:16-20)

Doesn’t it make you wonder if there was any conversation in between the summons of Jesus and the responses of the fishermen? I know it wouldn’t be very economical to have all the detail (the Bible is already a very big book!) and the stories were not written down until much later, Mark’s being the first gospel that didn’t appear until sometime in the 50’s or 60’s. I wonder, though, about what appears to be an impulsive decision. I have many questions. Had they heard about Jesus before they saw him? Were they unhappy as fishermen – some of whom at least – and probably all – in the family business? What did Zebedee think about all this?? How old were they anyway? Was the presence of Jesus so compelling that it was impossible for them to refuse? Didn’t they ask him any questions about what “fishers of men” might mean?

You get my point, I’m sure. Unfortunately, we don’t have more to go on from the text. Theologians have written much through the history of Christianity about the events that we find in the gospels as well as the meaning of the words that actually appear. We can only know so much of the truth of this scenario, but we would do well, I think, to reflect on our own history of response to Christ’s invitations in our life. I know that when I entered the convent at 18 years of age, I had a strong desire to give my life to God but I had little understanding (regardless of how sure I felt) of what would be called for as I lived the life. I think this is true of most people, even if not circumstantially the same. Those who “go into the family business” might have a clearer idea at the start but the world continues to change at such a rapid pace that there is little clarity about the future these days. The evidence of the gospels tells us that most of those chosen in those early days as the closest followers of Jesus – the ones who are named anyway – failed him occasionally along the way but were able to forgive themselves and be forgiven so as to remain faithful to their commitment to the end of their lives. And I’m sure they understood then what that meant in a way that they could not even have imagined that day on the beach.

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Risky Business

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cast your nets, disciples, fishermen, Jesus, Luke, miracles, Peter, risk taking, Simon, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The gospel story this morning is about fishing and unreasonable requests (LK 5: 1-11). There’s Jesus who has obviously been doing his itinerant teaching for awhile because the crowd is “pressing in on him” as he is speaking near the lake of Gennesaret. There are the fishermen, Simon and his partners, James and John, who have been fishing all night without catching anything; they’re busy washing their nets – and probably very tired. The first request of Jesus seems a little inconsiderate if he knew anything about what kind of night the fishermen had just had; he just gets in to the boat and asks Simon to put out a little from shore where he proceeds to continue his teaching. There’s no dialogue about that request. When the teaching is over, however, Jesus gets what seems to Simon (and probably every fisherman on the shore) somewhat more unreasonable when he tells him to go deeper and lower the nets for a catch. In the gospel Simon just reminds Jesus that they’ve been out there all night having caught nothing but then acquiesces saying, “…but at your command, I will lower the nets.” I think it was probably rather more like the words of a song I know describing this situation where they’re asked to cast their nets to the other side and “with nothing short of astonishment, say “Lord, don’t you think we’ve tried?!” Whatever the response – and whether from fatigue or a sense of what crowds have been saying about Jesus or just to show Jesus the futility of his request, Simon does it and the nets are so full of fish that he has to call for help to pull them up.

Jesus uses this miracle as a lead-in to the call of Simon, the one who becomes Peter, the Rock. He says, “From now on, you will be catching men.” (and women and children…) He tells him not to be afraid of miracles – and presumably all the other challenges he and his colleagues will encounter. Good advice, as on that morning fishing had become a risky business.

Sometimes we come up against seemingly unreasonable directives that (unbeknownst to us) hold great rewards if only we can take the risk to go deeper than we have ever gone in carrying out the requests. I’m hoping, with all the young risk takers who have returned to school this week, to be brave enough to cast a wider net this time – maybe even jump out of the boat with Peter…but that’s another story for another day.