Year A 3rd Sunday after Epiphany 2023 Caught In Our Nets

 Year A 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, 22 January 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Caught In Our Nets”

Collect: Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 

Matthew 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 

the people who sat in darkness 

have seen a great light, 

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death 

light has dawned.” 

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

And so it begins. I always love when they use that in a story. And so it begins. It lets me know that something big is coming down the pike, and we are there to witness the first flick of the dominoes, the spark that lights the fuse, the moment where the ontology shifts. What was not, now is. And so it begins…

We see John’s arrest, thus ending his public ministry. We see Jesus uprooting from Nazareth, his hometown, and moving to Capernaum, Peter and Andrew’s hometown and now Jesus’ new homebase. It is a smidge over 26 miles away. A marathon’s distance if you are a runner. We see Jesus calling two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, then James and John. We see the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus as shared in Matthew and the light of his existence dawning on the world he was a part of.

This is usually in a movie when they jump to a musical  montage where a few become a few more, then a few more, then a few more, till we have a crowd, then a multitude.

But today I want us to zoom in. Instead of panning back, I want us to go in the opposite direction. I want to zoom into the tiny so that we can see the truth of this passage, for Peter and Andrew, for James and John, for you and me.

I have always been fascinated by this passage, the dropping of the nets and the immediate following of these first disciples. They let go of their worries. They let go of their allegiances. They let go of the obligations. And they let their faith lead the way.

Nets are things we use to gather, to bring in, to hold onto something, to control something. We use nets to dominate. When we hold onto our nets, we presume that we are in the driver’s seat. And we often are.

But in the calling of his disciples, he invited them to drop their nets. Friends, you and I both know, in our spiritual lives the “dropping of our nets” is a lifelong exercise at best, a lifelong struggle if you are anything like me.

What are your “nets?” What are the things that you use to control, to dominate, and yet end up dominating you?

It could be a habit. Some way of doing things that you are stuck in. Your go-to. Your automatic pilot. Your addiction? It may have started as a source of comfort or release, but like the tar-baby of fable, you are caught in it. It is a net for you. 

It could be a relationship. Toxic or codependent, you have to spend exorbitant energy to maintain something  so unhealthy. 

It could be allegiances. Some grouping or understanding or affinity, that keeps you bound with a group, even when, especially when the group no longer exists for the reason it started. These days we are seeing more and more that group identity is about affiliation giving individual identity instead of purpose. God help us!

It could be a facade that you use to hide the hurt, or pain, or trauma of your past. The smiling face that presents while inside we are crying, or cringing, or dying drip by drip.

But whatever “net” you are holding onto, Jesus is there calling you to follow him. And friends, when we each answer that call, we have to drop our nets, whatever form they may take.

But Jesus does not ask us to stop doing what we are good at, or being who we are. Peter and Andrew were fishermen. They were and always will be. Period. That is their identity. Jesus knew that. Many of you have heard me say this before. When Jesus comes in, he steps in, reframes, and invites people to a higher level. We see that here, again. Peter and Andrew were fishing, he reframes their self-understanding with his invitation, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” They stay fishermen, just transformed. Their Identities remain, but now to the glory of God.

The other set of brothers give us another image. They do not drop their nets, but they are spending their time mending their nets. If you were a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee that was a necessary task. Gaping holes in your net let the fish out. And whatever task we are about, there is a bit of net mending that is required.

Today, we will have a conversation after the 10 am service in the parish hall about just that, keeping our nets mended. But even then, while it is necessary, it is not what we are about. We do not exist just to exist. We do not mend our nets so we have nice nets. We exist to further the Kingdom of God, and to praise God’s holy name in our worship. We mend our nets so we can fish. Keep the main thing the main thing. We do what we do so that we are healthy, happy, and growing in Christ, and bringing our friends, and neighbors, and yes, even our enemies along with us. We mend our nets so that we, too, can fish for people.

We are about following Jesus, and mending our nets is just a small piece of that pie.

And so, from his homebase of Capernaum, and with the beginning of his band of followers, we see Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, James and John, to his ministry. Our Gospel reading ends with this summation of these two call stories:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

I would have loved to have seen that. I would love to hear his preaching and teaching. I would have loved to have seen his healing and some of the miracles recorded.

If Jesus were to come here now, what would he be healing among us? What is our “every sickness?” 

We still are battling this pandemic, with outbreaks continuing. It is a weekly occurrence, and the flu and RSV. Those are obvious. But in our society, you all have heard how troubled I am by the animosity and divisiveness in our society. We can no longer agree on whether the sky is blue or not, it seems. If I could pray for immediate deliverance from it I would. Actually I do, but this sin of our society is deeply entrenched and it would take a miracle. It will take one. God help us.

But divisiveness is not new. That is how Paul begins in our New Testament reading.

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

But already the factions of the church in Corinth had become as petty as schoolyard boys arguing over whose dad is best. “You were baptized by Apollo? Well I was baptized by Cephas, a.k.a. Peter!” I love how Paul actually says that he is glad he only baptized a few, and then names them.

This stream of consciousness shows you he was dictating the letter as he names Crispus and Gaius as the only ones he had baptized himself, and then remembers that he baptized Stephanas’s household, too. Most things written in this day and age would have been dictated to an amanuensis, or scribe, and here is another textual example of that.

Paul goes on to echo about being about the main thing. When those outside the church see us bickering and squabbling, they call us hypocrites and liars. And it is hard to argue. When we are about what Jesus came to do, and calls us to do, then we see God glorified and the Kingdom growing. As Paul closes,

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 

The message of the Cross is the Power of God if we just get out of the way. 

And how do we let Jesus do what he came to do?

We let go of our nets that really bind us.

We only put the necessary energy into mending our nets that we need to so that we can get to fishing for people which is our first and primary call.

And above all else, we must hear and respond to Christ’s call, “Come, follow me.”

Will we?

Friends, the world needs this message and Christ’s fisherpeople all the more. And daily, we must answer his beckon, “Follow me!” Amen