It’s Okay to Leave Your safety Net

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

Simon Peter and his brother Andrew didn’t attend career day during their Sr. Year in High School. They never sat around a warm fire on a chilly evening and talked with their father about what they wanted to do when they grew up. There was only one option, they would be fishermen on the Sea of Galilee for their entire lives. 

Today, some children know they will take over their family business after they have completed college and then earned an MBA. 

Peter and Andrew were different; they never knew a childhood without labor on the Sea of Galilee. From the time they were strong enough to cast a net into the water and clean it afterward, they know their lot in life was to smell of fish, salt, and sweat. 

Their friends, James and John, were born into the life too. Six days a week, they worked all night and half of the day. They were in a bubble, and except for going south to Jerusalem, they wouldn’t ever travel outside a few miles of where they were born. 

That makes me wonder… did these four men, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, have a secret? Messianic expectations were at an all-time high in the 20s and 30s A.D. Did they daydream of getting away from it all in a new Kingdom where the Christ would rule?  

I think they did, and I think Jesus knew it. 

Before we go any further, let me point out something important: The disciples desired change: spiritual change, social change, political change, financial change, and most of all, religious change. Be careful what you wish for.  

Excitement for a new beginning. 

When we catch up to them in the first chapter of Mark, they are stuck in their predetermined lives, fishing the same waters they fished for decades before. 

They were ready for change. So when Jesus comes along and says “follow me.” they do not hesitate, they do not overthink it, they do not form a committee to decide if Jesus really called them; Mark says, “immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

We can respect that kind of commitment. They still had to do three years of seminary and supervised ministry before they were ready to take the message of resurrection and love to the Mediterranean world. But in one moment, their mundane lives drastically shifted. 

Jesus knew they wanted more from life than the smell of sardines. Jesus also knew their hearts were prepared for the Messiah’s arrival. They were the perfect candidates to be the first followers of Christ. 

Sometimes life presents us crucibles, moments where the trajectory of our life is decided in one instant. Those four men made a choice for a new beginning…and that choice continues to… feed the hungry, heal the sick, affirm the shamed, comfort the fearful, strengthen the weak, and change the shape of the world. 

Don’t miss your moment. 

A Call to Kingdom Work

Following Christ wasn’t just about being part of his entourage, it was also saying yes to the hard work of the Kingdom. 

All my life I’ve heard, “If the disciples had known what they were getting into, they would have had second thoughts.” I think we’ve had that wrong. There’s something in this text that tells us that these four men did know what they were doing. It’s been hiding in plain sight: “Follow me, and I’ll make you fish for people.”

Wait… they know what it means to fish. 

They know how exhausting it is to have patience when the fish are not moving. They know strength is required to heave nets full of fish and sea creatures to the beach. They know the frustration of sewing linen nets back together every single morning after a night of fishing. And perhaps most importantly, they know the way people in town look at a fisherman who reek of salted sardines. 

“Hey Peter, Andrew… I’ll make you do what you do now, except I’m going to add the complexity of humanity.”

They want to escape fishing, and when the opportunity comes along, they find out they will still be fishing… but this time it’s for for more difficult catch. 

Those first four disciples knew that following Jesus meant hard work… real Christianity—not pseudo-faith—is not a behavioral checklist. It is accepting a call to a new beginning… and a call to the work of the Kingdom.

Letting Go of the Security Net

But there is one thing that I’m still trying to figure out about this text. Maybe y’all can help me out in a moment. 

I find it odd that the Gospel writer says that immediately Peter and Andrew dropped their nets on the beach and followed Jesus. He also says that James and John were in a boat with their father and their servants. When Jesus called them, they left their father Zebedee in the boat with their nets and immediately followed him. 

In a culture of patriarchal honor, abandoning one’s family seems like an insult to everything they hold sacred. They leave families, parents, jobs, and all other responsibilities, to wander around with an itinerant preacher. 

They didn’t even have to think about their decision. What could cause a man to do that? 

The Central Question… What does it mean?

They leave everything they know behind to follow Jesus. They surrender to possibility, with the full knowledge that this is the biggest risk of their lives. 

Why?

What does it mean when four men, groomed from birth to live and die in one vocation, walk away without a moment’s notice to walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon?

What is the spiritual lesson tied up in men leaving their nets on the beach to follow Jesus?

I don’t have the perfect answer. I have my suspicion… Could it be that following Christ actually means letting go of your safety nets?

Amen.