Lectionary Reading – Luke 5:1-11 (NRSV)
"Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him."
To Sacrifice and Follow
As I reflected on the reading from Luke this week, I remembered that at different points in the past I have wanted to do what Simon, James, and John had done. I’ve wanted to drop everything and go -- go and swim the truly deep waters for the cause of God’s Just and Peaceable Kingdom here on earth. And in that existence, I have wanted to be so completely absorbed in that work of the Peaceable Kingdom that there could be no mistaking that lives and communities were healing and finding wholeness, wellness, and enthusiasm.
More often than not, what I have found instead is life that is hemmed in by a bevy of systems and processes and individuals so full of complacency, self-serving interests, and intentional resistance toward God’s Peaceable Kingdom that little if anything ever does change -- and little if anything ever tackles this kind of evil in order to better the common good. Sometimes out of that frustration I’ve even taken a long hard look in the mirror and thought, “Well, I’m just not smart enough or wise enough or rich enough or powerful enough or talented-enough or charismatic enough or good-looking enough (sorry, I couldn’t resist that) to be any genuine force for change.” And sometimes that script has been so loud in my head that I’ve simply decided that it was no use to struggle against the powers that be and therefore wiser to leave such situations and move on. I thank my psychology background for helping me to realize when I’m in such situations and have banged my head against a brick wall longer than I or anyone else should have ever had to do.
So the question arises for me of what is it about life today or life in the past that makes change so hard for us or makes the idea of doing what Simon, James, and John did so fearful? Even from the words Jesus told these men millennia long ago in a much simpler time and existence, we can sense how they feared for how they would provide for themselves in leaving their livelihoods behind and following Jesus. And what Jesus said in response may not have helped them much. In fact it might have seemed rather nonsensical to be told “fear not” because from that point on they would be catching people rather than fish. Maybe those words implied something that might be hard for us to understand even now. My only guess is that Jesus meant they would sustain themselves from the hospitality that others would show them in the course of providing their ministry, message, and mission regarding God’s Peaceable Kingdom.
Now some of us would probably consider that to be a pretty thin thing to depend on, especially in today’s self-absorbed world. Even for those of us who work full time for churches and denominations today know that such hospitality appears to be growing thinner with each passing year as Christian church membership ages and declines in number. There simply is less and less resource from the good-will of members and friends to pay ministers’ salaries and benefits. Staff are being let go, laid off, even retirements are being postponed by some denominational authorities because there isn’t enough young people entering professional ministry, mostly because of the poor salaries and highly stressful nature of the work.
So I’m not sure what one can say or do in relation to the need for courageous no-nonsense change agents willing to leave everything behind and the horde or bevy of things that keep people pinned down, constrained, discouraged, and demoralized in terms of making God’s Just and Peaceable Kingdom a reality here on earth. It seems somehow that we have to find a way to stand over and against the selfishness that’s behind so much of life and is so pervasive at the individual, group, and larger collective/corporate level. We have to do that because such selfishness depends upon breeding helplessness and keeping things helpless. I’ve known and seen it in so many different terms and forms, both within ecclesiastical life as well as secular life. Perhaps United Methodist minister and contributing Sojourners editor, Bill Wylie-Kellerman, said it best in a Sojourners Magazine article in April 1985 when he wrote that so much of life depends upon our brokenness, infirmity, blindness, division, and even death in order to rule over us. And for me, I think that we often fail to see or understand our collusion or complicity with it and we’re even more glacial when it comes to confronting it.
What it seems that we must do is not allow our voices to be silenced by anyone. It’s here that I have felt a sort of amusement toward colleagues who have suggested directly or not so directly at one point or another that I move on from a job. I find that such things tend to happen because my outspokenness is not convenient or comfortable for them. More often than not that outspokenness has been related to a clear issue of justice, but speaking out on the matter and calling a spade a spade and advocating that something be done about it and even challenging a colleague regarding their own collusion and complicity can get pretty uncomfortable or annoying for that person. So it becomes easier to maneuver the outspoken person out of the way, and truth be told, sometimes in some situations it simply makes sense to move on.
For the courageous person however who’s willing to move out into the deep water and at the bid of the Spirit try something completely different even as Simon, James, and John did at the bid of Christ, do remember that you too must find community and/or a medium through which your voice can be heard and magnified for the cause of the Peaceable Kingdom. I found that opportunity this past Sunday at a local church where I provided the morning message. The message was comprised mostly of the blog content from my last posting which is why I maintain this blog since my job entails preaching from time to time. What surprised me about the blog that became a sermon is how overwhelmingly positive the response was from people, including the pastor who thanked me for how I shared about healthcare reform as a justice issue for which people of faith ought to advocate. The pastor then noted that the congregation had been trying to envision peace and justice advocacy and that what I shared will help to inform their next steps.
So my friend, even if things seem constraining and it feels that a Simon, James, and John option is not workable in your life or you feel that you’ve got no one is in your corner, just remember this – you have your voice and people want to hear it. Exercise that voice, let it say what it needs to say, and if it seems there isn’t a physical world place for it, then know that there’s an online community of countless millions and even billions who are ready, waiting, and willing to know what's in your heart.
After reading the above, a friend of mine illustrated the point I’m trying to make with this post. She said, “Last night I went to a movie with a friend. She recently quit a job at a non-profit because there was a woman there who was misusing her power in their board meetings. She would block decisions the rest of the board favored because no decision could be ratified without consensus of everyone. My friend watched this happen for a period of couple of months and then began to speak up. She soon found out that the board was afraid of this woman who was so petty that she refused an opportunity to rent much needed inexpensive space simply because she didn’t like the owner. It soon became apparent that the woman had zero ability to put the organization’s needs ahead of what she herself wanted. Finally my friend quit as she could not change what was happening and she could no longer support the dynamics of what was going on. Interestingly enough, the petty board member is now gone and the first thing that happened is that the board has asked my friend to come back and implement the constructive and creative ideas she had suggested before.. She has decided to accept the offer as originally she had taken the job because she felt called to work for the organization and their social purpose -- then she felt called to speak up when everyone else was afraid. Truly it reflects the power one voice.”
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