When I served in my first church over in Walker, MN, there was yet a ministerial association. Through one of the pastors, he arranged for us to go out with a fishing guide, and five of us responded. One of my friends said it sounded like the beginning of a joke, "Five pastors went out fishing one day..." I am not a fisherman, though I did fish when I was the kid, so I knew the basics. Anyway, we got into this 20' Ranger with a lot of horsepower on the back and a small troller on the front, and away we went. I figured that I wouldn't catch anything, but hoped that if I did, it would the biggest one, and we would while away the afternoon just sitting there talking and just relaxing. Nope! We zoomed to this place and the fishing guide turned on his radar and it showed very little fish, so before I could bait my hook, he throttled it to the next one. I don't think we stayed in any of his 'favorite' spots for more than fifteen minutes, we were there to catch fish. I think a couple of the pastors got a couple of fish, and some of them were fisherman so they talked lures, baits, and spots, but they had to shout over the engine and the splashing water. It was fun, but I really didn't get to know any of the other pastors better.
Right now we have an administration and a movement in our country that believes that quick actions with bring quick results, rallying in this place and then the next, flooding our government with executive orders, and not caring about anyone but themselves. They believe that slogans of fear and hate can change the world, even destroy it. It is time to remember our relationships forged throughout the years as communities, businesses, states, bodies of faith, and as a nation. We are seeing that some relationships can be broken and undone quickly. We are seeing that it may be impossible to fix or renew them right now. At least one of those pastor's whom I went fishing with, whom I already knew well and prayed with weekly, jumped on the MAGA band wagon a long time ago. He and his family helped me through the grief of losing my first wife. I will forever be thankful to them. I do not know if we could have a civil conversation right now. Hopefully, in time, we can in the future.
How many times did the writer of the Gospel of Mark use the word 'immediately' or its variation in just 16 chapters? ...(42). Especially in the Gospel of Mark, we have Jesus zooming over there, turning on his spiritual radar, healing and catching a two-legged or two and then zooming on to the next place. Mark's Jesus was a man on a mission to get his disciples lined up and ready and then exit, 'stage left.' The writer of the Gospel of Luke mixes and lengthens the story, not just a little bit, but a lot. In Mark and Matthew, Jesus calls Simon(Peter) and his brother Andrew to drop everything and follow him and they do: got them, "hook, line, and sinker" and then they go to the synagogue, heal a man with a withered hand. Then on to Simon Peter's house and his mother-in-law was sick and Jesus healed her and everyone brought the sick there and the next morning he leaves. Twenty four hours and four new disciples later, he is gone and moving around the surrounding region.
The writer of Luke tells a different timeline. Jesus first enters Capernaum and enters the synagogue and heals the man with the withered hand and then went to Simon's house where his mother-in-law has a fever and Jesus rebukes it and she is rises to serve them. This may imply that Simon Peter already has a relationship with Jesus to invite him to his house, maybe. Just like Mark, everyone arrives at sundown and he heals everyone and casts out the demons. And in the morning, in Luke, he leaves without Simon Peter and goes and preaches in other synagogues in Judea, or other translations read Galilee. I looked it up and Galilee in Jesus' time was about a little over half the size of Cook County, about eighteen hundred square miles as compared to our thirty three hundred square miles. Let's say Jesus didn't go to them all, but maybe up to the Gunflint Trail Center to Hovland down to Lutsen and back. All this down by walking it would take days if he just stayed twenty four hours, maybe a week or two or more if he just didn't burn through town. It reads that he preached in the synagogues, which means he preached on Friday nights or Saturday mornings, which is once a week, which even stretches out the timeline further in possibly months.
So let's say Jesus comes back 'two' months later and now the reputation is really going. He is no longer just preaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath, but he is now teaching as well. We don't know what Jesus taught. It may be a variation of Isaiah's "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" that almost got him killed in his hometown or it may be a variation of the 'Sermon on the Mount' shared in the Gospel of Matthew or just going through the parables that are later shared in this and other gospels. But the crowd is so big that they press in on him and he uses Simon Peter's boat to push away from the crowd and speak to them. Afterwards, he tells Simon and Andrew to load up their nets and try once again, just after they cleaned them and probably stored them away. They know Jesus, he stayed at their house, he healed the sick and cast out demons and he has preached and taught them. Simon Peter replies, "We will do as you say." And it is such a huge catch they need their partners, James and John, to bring out their canoe. It almost capsizes both boats. Here it seems that Jesus just calls the disciples and whisks them away, with out a 'good-bye' or 'we'll be back.' The four men (more than likely in the twenties, if not late teens for they married young in those days) leave everything and follow him. I like to think here that Jesus just didn't abandon the people and have these four new disciples abandon the families. He left this huge catch of fish that will sustain them while they are away. I do imagine that everyone in the large crowd is happy to pitch him and help them clean and prepare them and enough to feed everyone that day without too much trouble.
Now Peter Simon, Andrew, James, and John start to follow him, help him, walk with him day in and day out, and as the Gospel of Mark shows, not so much Luke, they constantly pester Jesus asking him to explain what he just told the crowd and struggling to understand what Jesus is saying and doing. They are spending months with him and based upon the Gospel of John, they spend three years with him, earning their Masters of Divinity degree with their Wisdomkeeper, their Rabbi, whom they come to know as the Christ.
This probably why we have three years to get our masters to be ordained when in other fields, they can get most masters in one or two years. This is why I stretched out my confirmation program (done right) to three years and our discipleship group that I lead is over three years. It isn't just knowledge, wisdom, and how to that Jesus invites them to, it is relationship.
We must continue to strengthen those relationships, build new ones, and do it on the foundation of love, compassion, and justice. It will see us through this turbulent time. It will bring an end this current race to fascism. We can overcome. Jesus still shows us and teaches us the way. Let us walk together. Amen.
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