Drop Your Net

Mark 1: 14-20

January 25, 2015

Jesus calls the disciples,

And tells them to follow him right in the middle of work.

Right in the middle of their fishing day,
Fishing was not a relaxing hobby.
Their safety, their relatively quiet life,

He tells them to put down their whatever they’re doing and follow him.

Imagine being at your job, or doing whatever you do in your daily life

and being asked to drop it all.

Would you do it?

Do you feel you could do it?

What would hold you back from interrupting your life?

Maybe we don’t even have to consider

leaving everything behind like the disciples did.

Do you even feel like if you were called,

that you could even change your

patterns, your habits, your thought processes,

 your expectations, your plans for the future?

Could you drop those things to follow?

Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John and the others

didn’t seem to even think about it.

They just left everything.

Now we have to remember that in Jesus time,

being a fisherman was different than it is today.

Or a way to live independently as a business owner.

Fishing was a very hard, usually unrewarding jobs.

You didn’t even own your own boat.

Basically, the leader rented a boat from the big, rich boat owners,

you put a net down into the water every day.

And you hoped there were enough fish in it at the end

to pay for the boat and the little pay your crew asked for.

Maybe there was some left over and you made a little money.

But if there weren’t enough fish, then you owed the boat owners money.

The crew didn’t get paid, you would end up working the next day,

just to pay for your previous days work.

Most fishing people lived in debt.

So maybe giving up their fishing nets was not

that much to give up.

But it was a kind of security. It was known.

It was what they were accustomed to.

It was familiar. Their lives were built around it.

That fishing net was their safety net – as weak as it was.

And that’s often enough to stop people from changing.

My uncle used to tell me:

“If we’re left to our own devices, most people will stay in a pile of poo

because, well, at least it’s warm in there.”

But thankfully, we are not left to our own devices.

We are called by Jesus to do something more.

To be transformed and to help transform the world.

Individually and as a church community.

But how can we pick up a new thing,

when our hands are busy clinging to another thing?

Not all of us are asked to leave our jobs, or our families,

and everything we’ve ever known.

But we are asked to trade in something.

Those things that give us security, but don’t give back to us.

Those things that stand in the way of being what God wants us to be.

Maybe it’s our love of money

Maybe its an addiction to something.

Maybe it’s being alone or isolated.

Maybe we’re asked to give up our free time,

our perceived freedom, or lack of commitment.

Maybe as a church it’s some old programs, some committee meetings.

The way we’ve been doing things for the longest time

Following Jesus requires change.

We have to drop things in order to pick things up.

There is always a trade,

from the known to the unknown.

We talked about Martin Luther King Jr.’s

call to service as Civil Right’s Leader in the 1950’s.

Imagine the things that he was asked to give up:

A quiet private life. His anonymity.

Time as a pastor in a community church.

Time at home with his family and friends.

His safety and the safety of his family.

Eventually, his call cost him his life.

And the black community in Montgomery had to give up things too.

The suffering of segregation was hard,

But to get out of it, they had to trade

the life that they knew.

their free time.

They had to put down what they knew

and venture into the unknown.

Yesterday we were planning a vision for our future.

A lot of visions and plans were talked about

plans for partnering with our community,

for sharing our faith with others,

for focusing outside ourselves rather than inside.

  

These are all great visions. Visions from the Spirit.

Calls from God to follow Jesus and his way.

But to reach those visions, we will have to put down something.

Maybe its some of the things that we currently do,

But it’s about more than that.

We will have to change our ways our habits.

Put aside our old thought patterns,

give away some of our routine,

some of our comfort, we have to put down

some of our old hopes the dreams that we had before

and take up new ones.

We have to put down the known

in order for us to venture into the unknown.

So, what is the net that you need to put down?

What are the nets that we have to put down as a church?

If you are in this room right now,

God has chosen you to do something wonderful in this world.

Jesus has called you to go to places unknown,

by roads that we’re unfamiliar with.

God has called us to put down our nets and follow.

Let’s pray.

Gracious God. Show us the path that Jesus wants us to take.

Help us to put down those things that stand in our way.

Help us to rely on you and not our own devices or plans,

for security. Help us to drop our nets and follow you.