Introduction
If we pluck up the courage to invite someone to consider
Christianity, what is our typical response? ‘Come to church.’ Or, ‘Come to this
meeting with me.’ So churches have put on evangelistic services or ‘guest
services’; groups of churches have organised evangelistic crusades. We hold a
programme of meetings at the church, and so on.
And if someone wants to train and study further as a
Christian – either to explore further or because they feel ‘called’ to
something – what do we do? We recommend they go away to college.
Suppose I were to say that Jesus’ methods of discipleship
were nothing like this? No ‘come to church’ or ‘go to college’ for him. Jesus
founded a discipleship school that took place not in church, nor at a religious
event or in a college. The discipleship school of Jesus was held in the world, in the midst
of life with all its hurly-burly and mess.
I do not disdain our church meetings and I do not despise
the fact that I went to theological college – after all, I went to two colleges
(although the less said about my Methodist college the better). There is an
important place for discipleship that happens within the Christian community.
But if we limit our vision to that we miss an important strand of Jesus’
strategy: discipleship happens in the world. Here in our Gospel story is Jesus
doing precisely that at the lakeside, where Simon and his friends plied their
trade. This is discipleship at the office.
And so this morning I’d like to explore with you some of the
simple ways in which Jesus disciples us in the world.
1. Teaching in the World
Jesus ‘sat down’ (verse 3) – the classic posture of the
Jewish rabbi. We are used to preachers standing, but the rabbi’s sign of
authority to teach was that he sat down.
But where did he sit down? To read the full sentence, ‘Then
he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.’ (verse 3) Not in the
synagogue, in the boat. Imagine a crowd following him through the centre of Chelmsford, along the
High Street and into Duke Street. Jesus then strides into County Hall. The throng keeps following him. He finds his way into the Highways Department where he spots a few friends, sits down in the middle of an office where they are talking about reducing congestion by increasing the capacity of the Park and Ride scheme, and causes his own congestion by gathering everyone around him there to talk about the kingdom of God.
Is that ridiculous? But it’s a modern equivalent to what
Jesus did when ‘he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.’ It only seems
crazy because we don’t think we’ve witnessed anything like that ourselves.
But what we don’t realise is that Jesus is still doing the
same today, invisibly by his Spirit. He is present in the world, creating
opportunities for us to learn of him and put it into practice, every bit as
much in the world as at church. Our expectations have not led us to expect
this, though. The Spirit goes ahead of us to sit in the boat and teach us what
it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
And is this not why Jesus uses images from everyday working
life in his teaching? We remark on the way parables are set in a farming
context – but that was typical work for many in his society. Surely one of the
reasons Jesus does this is because he is locating his teaching not in abstract
philosophy but rather he is teaching us his ways in and through our life in the
world, not just our life in church.
My most vivid experience of this happened when I was a civil
servant. Much against my personal instincts, the office was a learning place
because I had a distinct call to take up the job of the office union secretary.
It was not what I wanted: I didn’t want to be labelled a militant, and I didn’t
fancy the thought of difficult negotiations with the management, bearing in
mind this was the era of Margaret Thatcher and she used the civil service as a
political football every bit as much as subsequent Prime Ministers have used
the teaching profession – and, worse, the children at our schools.
But my call to serve God by taking up that union post was
clearer than my call to be a Local Preacher. It came as I read the familiar
story of Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh with the cry, ‘Let my people go.’
‘Let my people go’ came to have a different meaning for me, but one that was no
less clear. With fear and trembling I accepted the nomination and got involved
as a Christian. The office was to be the place where I learned the application
of Scripture for me.
Perhaps it is for similar reasons that in 1 Corinthians
7:17, Paul says that his rule in all the churches is, ‘let each of you lead the
life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you.’ Whatever your place
in life is, unless God directs you otherwise, stay there. This is the place he
has assigned for you to learn of him.
2. Transformation in the World
‘When he had finished speaking’ (verse 4): Jesus had
finished teaching. Hadn’t he?
No. The lesson was only just beginning for his prospective
disciples. ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch,’
says Jesus to Simon (verse 4). And Simon replies with famous, pregnant words:
‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say
so, I will let down the nets.’ (verse 5) The result? So many fish that their
nets break and they have to call for the second boat, and even then it’s a
struggle (verses 6-7).
Jesus transforms the hard, fruitless toil of the fishermen. Wouldn’t
we just love that? How often does our work or daily life seem pointless – or
worse? Life drains the life out of us. Conflict, greed and power games leave us
despairing. Or we put our heart and soul into our work and see none of the
fruit that would be sufficient reward for us.
But when Jesus says, ‘Put out into the deep water,’ he is
offering hope. It doesn’t have to be this way. And I can feel Simon starting to
doubt and disbelieve Jesus. ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have
caught nothing.’ It’s as if Simon is saying, ‘Jesus, we are the fishermen, we know
our trade. You are a carpenter. What do you know about fishing?’
But he stops. He has called Jesus ‘Master’. And so he
changes tack. ‘Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ And when he does,
the transformation comes.
Simon’s decision to let down the nets is an act of crazy
obedience. They had fished all night – the best time – but caught nothing. But
he obeys this carpenter – this ‘more than a carpenter’ – and now he and his
business partners are so weighed down with blessing they nearly sink.
It’s not as some Christians might make you think that the
crazier the act of faith the more likely it is to be truly spiritual. It is a
simple case of saying to Jesus, I don’t understand but you know best.
And it’s not that obeying what he says automatically makes
work and the everyday world a fun place to be. Our fallen universe is located
east of Eden and in the wake of sin the tilling of the ground by Adam’s race is subject to
frustration. But blessing is possible from time to time, and purpose certainly
is possible. What do I mean? Perhaps this will help.
Graham
Dow, the Bishop
of Carlisle, used to lecture Anglican ordinands. He reflected in a
book about the essays he used to ask ordinands to write about their previous employment. What divine purpose for human beings was seen in that occupation? Where did sin afflict the relationships and structures in that employment? Was the organisation’s purpose consistent with God’s kingdom? But he said their understanding of God’s call didn’t get beyond ‘getting to work on time, not pinching the office stationery and witnessing about Christ to those they worked alongside.’ (p3)
Dow said, however, that in biblical terms there were three
potential good purposes for work. The first was ‘creative management of God’s
world’, the second was ‘moral management for the good of all’ and the third was
‘a community of good relationships.’
Too often in our churches we think the only occupations
worthy of prayer are ministers, missionaries, doctors and teachers (because
each in some way has a parallel in the life of Jesus). But Jesus wants to
transform our entire life in the world, even if we still live with the
frustrations of sin. It may be in a paid occupation, it may be in serving the
community or it may be in the way we mix socially with people. ‘Put out into
deep water,’ he says. ‘Take the risk of trusting your everyday life and work to
me. And let me transform it, because I want to meet you as much there as I do
in church.’
3. Training in the World
A member in a previous church I served had been confirmed by
my predecessor. At the confirmation service, when he laid hands on her and
prayed for the Holy Spirit to confirm her faith, she had a powerful experience
of the Spirit. But she got scared, and never wanted anything to do with talk of
the Holy Spirit afterwards.
What happened to that woman in a church context seems
similar to what happened to Simon in our story. Jesus does something wonderful,
powerful, mystifying and disturbing in directing him to the overwhelming catch
of fish. Simon says, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ (verse 8).
James and John are as amazed (and disturbed?) as he is (verses 9-10).
But Jesus in reply says, ‘I’m not going away – you’re coming
with me.’ Or as we know it better, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be
catching people’ (verse 10). And off they went with him (verse 11).
Perhaps you sang, ‘I will make you fishers of men, fishers
of men, fishers of men, I will make you fishers of men if you follow me’ when
you were younger. Whatever my childhood memories of this story I now find the
most important aspect to be the fact that Jesus linked Simon, James and John’s
professional background as fishermen to the call he placed on their lives. Their
prior experience was important for their future discipleship.
It might not be the first example in the Bible of someone’s
ordinary daily working life being a foundation for the call of God when it
came. In the Tuesday morning Bible study group we are currently looking at the
Psalms. Last week we looked at the twenty-third Psalm. While that Psalm is not
explicitly attributed to David, what if it were? It contains images both of a
shepherd (which David was) and of kingship – ‘You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies’ – another aspect of David’s life. I challenged the
group to find images for God and his work from their life experiences. It’s a
scriptural thing to do, but we’re not used to it because we have wrongly
confined our experience of Christ teaching us to church. What if we expanded
our vision?
Looking back I can see some ways in which prior experiences
which had no obvious religious dimension became foundations for my call into
ordained ministry. One was that time as the union secretary. Here is one story.
The details became public: I am not betraying a confidence.
A young woman in the office was struggling with her work and
she knew her manager was displeased with her efforts. She came to me for help,
fearing discipline or worse. She spilled out her story, explaining what had
been affecting her work. She had been dating a young man from the office and
they had gone away on holiday to Majorca. While they were there she discovered he was bisexual. When she confronted him with this he beat her senseless and she woke in a hospital where she knew no Spanish and the staff knew no English. It would have been bad enough for anyone, but now she was back at the office and had to see this (by now former) boyfriend every day.
With my support she recounted this to senior management, who were immediately more sympathetic to her and offered support, not criticism. It was my first major experience of coming alongside someone in a life crisis. I don’t pretend I’m great at it, but just as I brought that young woman to management so now I bring others to an even more compassionate heavenly Father.
The other experience was a few years later. While still at work I had three times one summer suffered from a collapsed lung. I should have had surgery the third time but the consultant was on holiday. I then went over three years without a recurrence. By the time it happened again I was doing my first Theology degree. I was taken to Casualty at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and told I would have to attend another hospital in Bristol, early the next week, for an appointment where my operation would be confirmed.
When I got back to college from Casualty I learned that a friend of mine’s father had been visiting. His father was a retired vicar with a healing ministry. How I wanted this man to pray for me that I might be healed and not have to face surgery. But Mark’s parents had left by the time I
returned. I had to have the operation. Eleven days in hospital, four weeks’ convalescence from college and three months before I was fully fit. Much as I didn’t want that surgery I frequently remember it now when I visit someone in hospital. You may not want to be there, either. You might not like the treatment or operation you have had. God allowed me that unwanted experience for the sake of future pastoral ministry. The union work and the hospital ward were as much part of my training as the college classroom.
Conclusion
What, then, are your expectations as you leave ‘church’ this morning and go home? Is it that you have had your weekly meeting with Jesus and
now you must slog through a Godforsaken world for six more days? May I urge you to see that Jesus is not confined to the church building?
Or is your response one of knowing that while living in a fallen world is far from easy it is the same world Jesus inhabited in the flesh and where his Spirit meets us today? If so, you can grow in your discipleship between now and next Sunday, or between now and a midweek church meeting. Who will embrace the possibilities of Jesus discipling them in the wilds of the
world?
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