3 Epiphany 2015

3 Epiphany 2015

Today’s Gospel reading is something of a continuation of the story of Jesus calling his disciples—even though last week we read from John’s Gospel, and today pick up in Mark’s. It’s a surprisingly short reading, but one that packs some punch if we’re paying attention.

We’re told that John the Baptist had been arrested, and Jesus shows up on the scene preaching the same message John had been, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." It’s a simple message, but one which had all of Judea rushing to the riverside to meet John (apparently)—not for fear of the coming wrath, but because (I think) these people hadn’t heard such good solid truth in all their born days, and (I also think) what John preached then, and what Jesus is preaching here was not cheap…

Anyway, as Jesus made his way along the waterfront, (a little like Karl Malden’s Fr. Berry), he finds these guys—dockworkers at best—at their daily labor. We know from what happens next that this is probably work all of them had done their entire lives—this was a family business. All the same, with a simple invitation, Jesus convinces Simon (later called Peter), Andrew and the two “Sons of Thunder” (James and John) to leave everything behind to become fishers of people.

Now, I can’t give you any absolute idea of what these men were like, but I don’t suppose they were the type of guys who spent their free time studying Torah. We can gather this from nicknames like Peter (which means rock) and “Sons of Thunder,” names better suited to a boxing ring than a mission from God.

Still…they knew enough that when a rabbi invites you to be a disciple, it’s an honor. Then again, how many rabbis could these guys have known? How sensible would leaving their lives and livelihood behind sound to men who worked hard for their daily bread? In other words, what on earth would cause these men to drop everything and follow Jesus?

Well, our natural inclination might be to say that they followed because he’s Jesus… But we have to remember that this is right at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He’s still preaching John’s sermons, and isn’t famous enough to appear on grilled cheese sandwiches yet. However, if I were to hazard a guess, I would say that they responded to Jesus, because like John, what Jesus was preaching was hope, and truth—and it seems to me that Simon, Andrew, James and John were dying for it. And in a world that was probably buzzing with the legalism of the Pharisees and Sadducees; brimming with the angst of oppression; and near-bursting with the energy of revolution—promises of salvation were a dime-a-dozen, and there was probably a messiah on every street corner. But, a guy who preached truth, and invited people to a new life, and a new way of living—that was something. More importantly, what Jesus promised was far from cheap, and is why everyone on a boat that day wasn’t following him like the pied-piper.

Then again, we know that as Jesus’ ministry began to pick up steam, there were times when the crowds were so thick, it was all he could do to get away to pray once in a while. So long as Jesus was doing miracles, feeding thousands of people and preaching good sermons—the people couldn’t get enough.

Of course, it’s not until he sets his sights on Jerusalem and warns the people about the cost of discipleship that the crowd begins to go thin. This, of course, is because for all that what Jesus promises is true, it also comes at great risk, and personal cost.

And this is something that I think many people find too difficult to accept.

In the spiritual classic The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks at length about what true discipleship asks of us. Bonhoeffer, of course, was a pastor and theologian who was martyred in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 because of his work against the Nazi party. So, I suppose we can trust that he knows what he’s talking about in this regard.

Warning against what he terms “cheap grace,” Bonhoeffer says:

          The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and,                             because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing... Cheap grace is the grace we                   bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring                             repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession,                                   absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace                     without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate...

         

          [Costly grace] is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye                         which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his                     nets and follows him...

                  Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to           follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it                        gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it                        justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son.

There is this wonderful hymn in our hymnals that not too many people get to see. It’s Hymn 661, and it’s called “They cast their nets in Galilee.” Strangely enough, the hymn tune is sort of calm, and lovely—but if you take a moment to read the words of the hymn—the contrast is almost startling. 

They say:

 They cast their nets in Galilee
Just off the hills of brown
Such happy simple fisherfolk
Before the Lord came down

Contented peaceful fishermen
Before they ever knew
The peace of God That fill'd their hearts
Brimful and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head-down was crucified.

The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod,
Yet, let us, pray for but one thing -
The marvelous peace of God.

 I suppose we can guess why it doesn’t get a lot of air play. It’s far from happy-clappy, and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of “good news” in it—especially for a church hymn. But, what I think I find so amazing about it is that it’s true. It doesn’t try to sugar coat what was waiting for the disciples when they followed Jesus that day. It doesn’t water-down what the Gospel cost them, and it doesn’t obscure what our faith asks of all of us. Because the call of Jesus on our lives is the call to follow wherever the road leads—and if his way is any indication, we know that the way leads to the cross, on this side of things.

And yet, I have to believe for people in our day and age who live in a culture of plastic, illusion and false promises—a little bit of truth goes a long, long way…even if it means our lives. Because, like Simon, Andrew, James and John; I feel like we’re treading the water of a very selfish culture that tempts us with all that we think we could want. On the other hand we want to play with the gasoline of faith, and the fire of the Holy Spirit… And do we think that this combination is going to lead to anything good?

It seems to me then, that we’re people just as desperate for something real as Simon, Andrew, and the Sons of Thunder… “Our hearts drunk with the wine of the world,” we wait for something true, something good, something real to rouse us from the dizzy muddle. Today we hear the words again, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people…” It’s as much a call to us today, as it was to those four disciples 2,000 years ago. And, as the great umpire, Bill Klem, said famously, “[a pitch] ain’t nothing till I call it.”

So, today, like every day, we have a choice to make. Will it be cheap grace, that asks very little of us, but does little for us or anyone besides? Or will we choose costly grace? Grace which tempts us to drop our nets and follow; grace which asks everything of us, and will doubtless break our hearts and us right along with it.

I’ll just say that we don’t have to look very far to see what cheap grace is worth. The news, local and global, are proof enough of what cheap grace costs us. So, with that in mind, and for all that it will cost us, are we willing to choose costly grace? Because we’re all dying for it, and so is the world…