Matthew 4: 12-23 (Epiphany 3A)

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— ¹⁶the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” ¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Simon got up early that morning.  No big surprise there…he ALWAYS got up early.  He was always the first one up in the morning, hurriedly dressing and then going behind the house to untangle the still-damp nets from the day before.  As he got them ready for yet another day of fishing, he smelled the fish cooking in olive oil and the fresh bread baking in the oven.  It smelled good just like it does every morning.   He began to hear stirring in the house as the children got up and began to help their mother. It was just an ordinary day.

After breakfast he made his way the mile or so down to the shore where he and his brother had left the boat.  It was a good, sturdy boat and they felt so fortunate that they were finally doing well enough to buy it.  He carried the heavy nets that still smelled of yesterday’s catch.  As he approached the boat, he saw that Andrew was waiting for him and had already begun to untie the boat and ready it for the day.  So without even saying good morning to each other, they together hoisted the heavy nets up to the boat, Andrew got on, and Simon pushed the boat into the water, walking into the lake until it was about waste deep.  He then pulled himself up into the boat as it moved toward the middle of the lake.

This was his favorite part of the morning—that quiet trip from Bethsaida down the shores of the lake.  They were headed toward Tabgha this morning, near the Capernaum side of the lake but it was usually not near as busy.  The fog was lifting and you could see all around the lake itself.  Then they slowed and, without speaking, Simon and Andrew put their nets down into the lake to see what they could catch.  Yes, it was just another ordinary day.  

After about two hours of a really unbelievable catch, Simon steered the boat back toward the shores below Capernaum.   He looked up on the hill and saw the synagogue at the top of the hill.  It made him feel good just to look at it.  He hoped that someday he would be able to make the trip to Jerusalem and see the temple that it faced.  As they neared the shore, they began to drop their net again hoping to snare some of the common musht fish that tended to congregate there at the shore.  As the net went down, he looked up.  There on the shore was a man, a man he had seen before around the lake, a man that he thought they called Jesus. He had heard about this man, a rabbi, he thought.  Just then the man spoke:  “Follow me.”  Simon turned around expecting to see the one whom Jesus was calling standing behind him.   But there was only lake.  He touched Andrew’s arm and they both looked up.  “Follow me,” Jesus said again, “and I will make you fishers of people.”

But something happened.  Simon and Andrew looked at each other in disbelief.  You want me to do WHAT? After all, they were fishermen.  They had nothing to offer and no real gifts.  But Jesus repeated his call.  They knew that he was asking them to join him, to join him in ministry.  And they both knew that they would go.  They lifted up the nets, now filled with fish—more fish than they had seen in the last two weeks combined.  They pulled the nets up out of the water and then tied the boat to the shore.  As they stepped into the water, the sun seemed to shine brighter than ever.  The synagogue on the hill was radiant in light.  It was just an ordinary day.  But life would never be the same again.  And they couldn’t do anything else.

OK, I took a little poetic license with the story.  But the point is that Simon and Andrew were not especially gifted people.  In the first century around this lake called Galilee, Simon and Andrew were pretty ordinary.  But Jesus asked them to follow anyway.  And they went.  In fact, the text says they went immediately.  They didn’t wait until they had enough money or enough time or enough talent.  They didn’t hold back because they thought they were too old or too settled.  They just went.

Simon would become Peter, the “rock”, one of Jesus’ apostles and ultimately would be made a saint in the tradition of the church.  Frederick Buechner says, “Our calling is where our deepest gladness and the world’s deepest hunger meet.”  Think about what that means.  God calls us.  Sometimes it’s pretty scary.  Sometimes we want to run away.  Sometimes we try to hide on the back pew hoping no one will notice that we’re there.  Sometimes it means that we have to leave the life we’ve built behind.  And sometimes it just means that we need to do something different.  But following wherever God leads means that we will truly find joy.  We will finally know what it’s all about.  So, what about you?  Where is God calling you?  We are all called but it usually means that we have to fish in different waters and look at things in different ways.  And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we will find that we can’t do anything else.  God is calling you.  So, what now?  Just go…

God…leads us step by step, from event to event.  Only afterwards, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us. (Paul Tournier)

Grace and Peace,

Shelli