Mark 1:14-20
After John was arrested, Jesus came from Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled. 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, casting a net into the sea, for they were fisherman. He said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed him. As he walked a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, in their boat mending the nets. Immediately, he called them and they left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
We have engaged a pretty serious training regimen for our new puppy Rosie – something I’ve never done with any other dogs in my life. She’ll be a year-old in March and she spent a week away from home at a place called “Purpose Driven K9” a few weeks ago, learning how to do a few things – like “heel,” which means to walk in-stride, always to the left, and slightly behind the person who is holding her leash. And she’s learning to “auto-sit,” too, which means that when her person stops walking, not only does she stop walking, but she sits without her human having to say or do much to encourage it. And she’s also learning to “place,” or to “stay” in one spot – and be glad about it, too.
If you’ve ever met a puppy – especially a puppy named Rosie, who lives at my house – you can imagine that the idea of staying in “place” – and being glad about it – is a pretty high bar.
All of it is in service to, what her trainers and the program call, achieving “Coffee Shop Mentality.” “Coffee Shop Mentality” is achieved when your dog can sit still, maintain a relaxed state of mind and a calm presence – even out and about in the world – sitting at the coffee shop, perhaps, in spite of whatever dogs or people or squirrels might be around to otherwise tempt and distract and excite them.
But it all seems to begin with following. So, of course, today’s Gospel brought it to mind.
Jesus is out and about, rounding up followers and, unlike Rosie, James and John and Simon and Andrew just seem to follow, to do what they’re told, right out of the gate. No cynical questions, like Nathanael asked last week, when he first met Jesus. (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”) No hesitation that – Mark’s Gospel reports, anyway. No tangible end-game, either, really – except for this strange promise of “fishing for people,” which isn’t really all that tempting a lot of days is it? (Sometimes I’d rather just fish for fish, or nothing at all.)
But Jesus seems to simply walk on by, extend the invitation, and those first disciples follow him. They “heel,” if you will. Like perfectly trained, purpose driven puppies.
And what I love about Jesus is the same thing I wondered about when I saw the handful of dogs in Rosie’s obedience class – every one of them different from the next and nothing but a bunch of mutts. We’re not exactly sure what Rosie is … some mix of black lab and German Shepherd, we were told. Her canine classmates included one possibly purebred Husky, but otherwise the breed or pedigree of the other hounds was unclear to me. Again, nothing but a bunch of mutts as far as I could tell.
And Jesus’ disciples weren’t much to crow about when it came to pedigree, either. Fishermen, tax collectors, some women who never even get named right out of the gate. But, just like any good dog trainer, Jesus seems to think he can work with anyone – and that everyone has something to learn, some way to grow, something to offer with a little guidance, some inspiration, a good example, and a whole lot of love.
And I think that’s because the time had come near for him. Like Jonah in our Old Testament reading, so many generations before, Jesus was calling anyone who would listen to pay attention to what was going on in their lives and in the world around them, to recognize their part in it, and to repent, to change, to be transformed by the Good News God was trying to bring to bear upon the world, instead.
See, Jonah was driven to speak out against the wickedness and evil and violence among the people of Ninevah.
Jesus was moved by much of the same, and motivated by the arrest of his friend John the Baptist. He was feeling the call upon his life from that day down by the river, when he was declared “beloved,” and “Son of God,” and “the one with whom God was well pleased.” So, Jesus was moved to help that Good News come to pass, to get the ball of God’s grace for the sake of the world rolling in a new, big, abundant sort of way.
And there’s enough in our lives and plenty going on in the world that I hope moves us to want to live more faithfully, to recognize more honestly our part in the brokenness that surrounds us. As hard as it can be to acknowledge and admit, we are the people of Ninevah, I believe, with plenty of wickedness and evil and violence for which to repent and long to repair. (I’ll spare you the litany of those specifics for now. I feel like I’ve been banging that drum enough lately.)
But, like those first disciples by the sea (and like my dog, Rosie, too), our ability to change and to be changed, to be transformed and to find and live into our purpose, begins with following.
In the face of all that surrounds us, we stay close… and behind… and keep our eyes trained on our master.
We stop every once in a while and we listen carefully for the next command – because there are so many distractions and temptations to do otherwise.
And sometimes God leads us to green, peaceful pastures and beside still waters.
Sometimes there are mountains and sometimes there are valleys. There are rough places and straight paths, too.
Sometimes God leads us into the center of Ninevah or toward no place we’d recognize or choose if we could.
Sometimes God leads us through sickness and fear and grief and gladness.
But the hope and point of it all, is that God is always leading and always calling us to follow. And God has already arrived and is always waiting, too, in whatever lies ahead for us.
So I’ve decided our “coffee-shop mentality” as Rosie’s trainer calls it, is something, like what it means to live and to be in the world, but not of the world as people of Good News: to know and understand and be grateful for our place in the grip of God’s grace, such that the hardships and challenges and temptations that surround us don’t have the power to unsettle or tempt or distract so much that we lose our focus on where God is leading:
Always home. Always toward mercy and forgiveness and redemption. Always in the name of Jesus, the one who calls us and leads the way, first – even through death and the grave, so that we might follow him with obedience, faith, and hope toward resurrection and new life in his name.
Amen
