Sermon: Mark1. I will make you fishers of men I have never quite understood the argument that it's morally more acceptable to eat fish than meat. Fishing seems to me to be rather a brutal business. A flailing, silver, vibrant creature is impaled by its mouth on a sharp hook, dragged from its watery home and the hook ripped from its mouth as it writhes for oxygen before being tossed into a box for disposal. Some recreational fishermen throw them back, saying they enjoy the sport but don't want to be in at the kill. Even so, the hook in the mouth bit still worries me when I think about what those fish go through whether it's for sport or to feed us. On the other hand it's not hard to appreciate the pleasure and ambiance of the fishing experience. Men sitting alone on the bank of a river or lake, thinking thoughts, at peace away from their wives and work, at one with nature. In my experience it's a fine sight to cross the Galata Bridge in Istanbul and see dozens of men lined up along it, lines stretched out far into the Bosphorus. My friend says her greatest passion in life is to go fishing in the rivers of Scotland and Oxfordshire, and she has no qualms about landing salmon and trout to bring home to cook. And if you haven't done it, it's pretty much impossible to walk on the shore of the Sea of on a balmy morning, the sun twinkling on the rippling water, fishing boats bobbing up and down, and not to think, well that's not a bad way to earn a living. And it is today, as it must have been over the centuries. And so it would have been for the two sets of brothers, Andrew and Peter, James and John, sons of , in first century Palestine, as it would have been for their forefathers before them. Inheriting the boat from father to son, a settled job, a steady income, healthy energetic working conditions. A predictable life. Who could have imagined what was going to happen to turn that upside down. We read in John's that after His baptism and temptation remained for a time in in a ministry that overlapped with 's. After John’s imprisonment and murder, Jesus returned to Galilee and it was there, Mark tells us that his public ministry began. The time of fulfillment had come. Jesus’ public ministry would be mainly in Galilee from this point on, so here he was, back in his home territory where he had grown up, with people he was familiar with. But Galilee was rather an insignificant place, especially after with all its political and religious tensions, and therefore basing his ministry there was an interesting move to make. The religious leaders in Jerusalem had been hostile to Jesus, but in Galilee, far away from the temple and the religious bureaucracy, Jesus was warmly welcomed. And when Jesus started his ministry, his message followed on from John, who had called on people to repent and believe that the kingdom of God was drawing near. First and foremost, Mark writes, Jesus was a preacher. That Jesus went out and proclaimed the word of God, the word proclaimed, translating as preaching. He continues later in the chapter saying Jesus' message was the good news that the kingdom of God had drawn near in his own person. And he brought this message to the people. People had gone out to John; here, we note, Jesus came to them. The kingdom of God is God’s rule, and the fact that it was near meant that it would be made public in the world. God is the King who rules, but his rule is often hidden or veiled. Now tells Mark, it will be made visible and it will be obvious that God has come among mankind. Next to the revelation of the kingdom of God at the end of time, never will the reign of God have been more manifested than it was in the life and , God himself made flesh. And when God’s reign is made visible and manifest, it requires mankind to make commitment to Jesus by giving up their old lives, believing in Him, following Him. You might remember that after the drama of Jesus' baptism, there was something of an anti climax. There was no cosmic episode to make the presence of the trinity. And we note in Mark's Gospel that the first recorded act of the Jesus' ministry is not a miracle or a sermon stirring a great congregation. Instead, it’s Jesus apparently randomly walking on the shore and encountering four fishermen who he asks to follow him and serve him.

One of the great themes of Mark's Gospel is that the Messiah had been expected to do things differently from what he did, to be a different King from how he came to be. After Jesus' Baptism, we might have expected thunder and lightning at least, some drama to mark the occasion, but instead we get a morning stroll along the shore and a short conversation with a bunch of fishermen. And it happens of course by the , – which is actually a lake, seven miles by thirteen – and this will be the epicenter of his ministry for the next three years. Josephus, the important Jewish Historian left a wealth of detail about life in first Century Palestine. He wrote about the pure sweet waters of t Galilee, its profusion of fish, the fertile soil around and about. It was a region, he said, in which “nature has taken pride.” Fishing was a key enterprise in the Galilean economy. Fish caught in Galilee was transported as far away as Alexandria in Egypt. Galilean fishermen were quite the business men, which meant probably spoke Greek, the business language of the day. Andrew is a Greek name. Yet Jesus was never known to have ventured to the Hellenistic cities, venturing beyond his own home turf. Jesus put himself where he wanted to be, and he chose his followers from local Jewish people. Later in his ministry he would say he was called to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and it would be his disciples who would take the good news to the world. We note too in Mark's gospel that the call of the fishermen reads like an eyewitness account. Simon and Andrew were about to cast their net into the water; James and John were sitting repairing their nets, when Jesus turned up. These are details remembered by someone who was there, very probably Simon, later to be called Peter by his Lord and master. And just as he said last week to Philip and Nathaneal “Come, follow me” he says it again to these men. This would have gone against all the rules of becoming a rabbi in those days. To become a student, or of a rabbi, meant electing to go to rabbinical school, something prompted by a sense of calling and entirely at the initiative of the disciple, never by a rabbi appointing them. And furthermore, the focus for the disciple would have been the Torah, the Holy Scriptures, not a particular rabbi. But see here how Jesus turns it all around. Jesus went looking for his disciples, found them going about their daily routine, and simply by his own authority told them to leave their nets and follow him. And he told them he would make them fishers of men. That was a metaphor quite often used in the OT but always with a negative meaning. The OT prophets catch men for judgment not for salvation. They are like hunters stalking game. Those caught will be punished. Like fish on the hook it would be their fate. But here, the purpose is positive. They are to catch people not to ensnare them, but to rescue them, and bring them to salvation. The point about Jesus calling the fishermen to ministry is the surprise of it. The unexpected. The way the radical rabbi just called them. And the surprise also is that they did. They just did. They left their nice, comfortable traditional way of life, their heritage, their wives and their families, and they went with him. They headed straight out in faith and trust. They took a big risk. They didn't stop to count the cost, the call was too compelling. When God meets us and calls us, are we surprised and are we prepared? Probably not and it may take a while or a long time to answer. I certainly wasn't when God asked me to give up my highly enjoyable life and career and follow him. But God calls ordinary people like you and me to be the church, the body of Christ in the world today. You don't have to be particularly gifted, you might be a rocket scientist but you might be a fisherman. When he calls you he will ask you to put your personal agendas beneath his bidding, reflect the light of Christ to those around you, and look for opportunities to share with others what it means to have embraced the teachings of Jesus Christ. Do you want to follow Jesus? Do you want to be a fisher of men? Or is it lip service? If you do here's what you do. You let go of everything that keeps you from following Him. You allow God to work in you and through you as He wills. You let Him teach you to catch fish. AMEN