HEAR LEAVE FOLLOW
Homily:Jan 22 – 3rd Sunday After Epiphany, Year B
Mark 1:14-20
Something I really enjoy is fly fishing – fly fishing for trout. I can’t really call myself a flyfisherman, I am more of a guy who goes out on the water and splashes around with a fly rod…But there is something magical about hunting this elusive fish. Wading down a river, one’s awareness and attentiveness shifts…. The trout swim together and have patterns and instincts formed in community for generations.
On those rare occasions, when I just manage to get it right, the excitement of that hit is amazing, the snap of the line, the bend in the rod, as you carefully bring the fish in…and I always wonder, if I can manage to get it into my net, and raise the fish out of the water to remove the little hook – what is happening in the mind of the fish – suddenly stolen from the only world it knows, encountering a whole new universe that it does not even have the faculties to properly perceive. Is this fish changed when it returns to the community, is it awakened to something beyond what it has always known? Have I done it a great service?
Well, probably not, and certainly not if I whack it on the head and pan fry it with a little butter and lemon. But none the less, I wonder if this is where our Gospel has invited us this morning:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
“As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Notice, the action in this beautiful text: When Jesus calls, the disciples HEAR, LEAVE, and FOLLOW – We hear our call, attracted and found anew in relationship, we leave the world we once knew, and we follow entering a whole new universe, a vision, a reality beyond our capacity to imagine, a universe of faith, wherever Jesus is, the kingdom has come near.
Perhaps you or someone you know may have had to deal with addiciton. The thing with addiction, is that it creeps up on you, you don’t realize you are being consumed, it becomes normalized, the constant need to fulfill a craving to normalize yourself, to distress, to cope, to soothe, one unknowingly creates a universe where your drug, your buzz becomes integral to your life rythm, you can’t see how, like a weed it has woven its way into your self understanding, your bank finances, your relationships, your socializing, your recreation, your self-affirmation, control. You end up swimming in a lagoon, with a community of like-minded others and really have no idea that there is a whole universe just beyond.
It may happen that in your lagoon, in your hunger, in your yearning, you find yourself attracted to something, a call that starts as an awareness, you swim around it, you retreat, and maybe in your curiosity – or maybe your desperation, you strike, and by Grace alone you are pulled out of the river, and you find yourself in a new world, a world of recovery where at first you cannot breathe.
Once out of your familiar territory, all of the structures, the relationships, the way you spend your time, the intensity of emotion which was always caudorized becomes overwhelming, the loneliness, the sorrow, the overwhelming shame…but in time, by grace, you may find a path in this new world, through the darkness, and rebuild, and again, by grace might eventually discover a new vision, an entirely refreshed perspective on reality, on oneself, a whole universe unfolds you could not have imagined when swimming in the pond.
One hears, leaves and follows. But first one hears.
And it is the same invitation that comes from Jesus to us all, for all of us suffer in the lagoon of the human condition. You see, Addiction is a spiritual disease for it attacks the heart of the soul – the will. Addiction decapitates the crown jewel of our spiritual nature – the ability to choose freely: addiction usurps human freedom. Although substance addiction may be the most apparent and possibly self – destructive, especially when it is of the type that is not socially accepted – there are myriads of ways we are kept in the same old pond – often by means that are socially acceptable or even encouraged. Faith addresses the human condition – the ways we all suffer from addiction.
Are we slaves to our fears? Our financial concerns? How about our over-identification with a group? How about our unconscious need for affirmation and esteem, for power and control or security? Are we free when we are blind to our feelings of shame, or unworthiness, our pride, our inability freely give and receive? Do we work countless hours, devoted to some cause, profession or a business, or caring for another, or some ‘holy activity as the only means to find an identity, to avoid loneliness, or our hidden pain? or are we bowing to the God of achievement or success, or duty?
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Once we Hear – we LEAVE
The invitation, to hear the call, is a call to response – repentance. Repentance is the naming and turning away from the idols that have bound our freedom, the veils through which our vision is withheld, the ropes and chains that have bound this self. Repentance is coming into right relationship with the one who calls us, the one who knows us, the one in whom we find our deepest truth.
As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.” And when we Leave we Follow
When we leave the idols…when we have left everything behind, the familiar paths and have come into relationship with He who Loved us first, we follow – otherwise, we would quickly find our way back to the lagoon. We follow Him on an unknown road, to an uncertain future, a path, illumined by faith alone. Though strange, and even fearfull at first, before we know it, a horizon, a universe opens before us, indeed, more than we could ask or imagine.
Like me when fly fishing, God is hunting for you, calling to each of us, sending a lure customized just for you, in your particular lagoon. Unlike me, God is a pro – and just as I can’t force that trout to bite my hook, God does not force you, it is your choice – but listen for the great fisherman, for he is calling you, casting his nets, and see the example of Simon and Andrew, James and John. Pay attention, HEAR, LEAVE and FOLLOW.
Love this bit…
“Are we slaves to our fears? Our financial concerns? How about our over-identification with a group? How about our unconscious need for affirmation and esteem, for power and control or security? Are we free when we are blind to our feelings of shame, or unworthiness, our pride, our inability freely give and receive? Do we work countless hours, devoted to some cause, profession or a business, or caring for another, or some ‘holy activity as the only means to find an identity, to avoid loneliness, or our hidden pain? or are we bowing to the God of achievement or success, or duty?”