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John the Baptist had been arrested. As soon as Jesus heard about it, he left his home in Nazareth to go to Capernaum. Actually, the text says “Capernaum by the sea.” That makes it sound like a beach resort, doesn’t it? Early in our relationship, my husband now of 33 years, David, said he’d marry an itinerant Methodist minister as long as I only accepted appointments to places with the words “beach” or “by the sea” in the name. Like Christ Church By the Sea in Newport Beach or something. Well, it took awhile, but we finally landed in “Santa Monica by the sea…” and have been here ever since.

But Jesus withdrew to Capernaum by the sea. So don’t let that fool you. On the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum was a rough and tumble seaport where exiles lived, this tough lot who had fought the Midianites, endured deportation to the region at the hands of the Assyrians, now living under the rule of the Roman government, namely, Pontius Pilate and King Herod. These are the people of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote: “land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, the people who sat in darkness.”

There Jesus begins his ministry. In the land of darkness.

Now this could well sound like the run up to the book “Zealot” that so many of you have been asking me about. Written by Reza Aslan, it tells the story of Jesus as a story of political intrigue and insurrection. The Jesus you never knew, revealed at last to be not the messiah, not the savior, but a revolutionary leader of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And, as one reviewer put it, “few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.”

Now there’s a lot to like about this book, and frankly, anything that gets lots of people –all kinds of people--talking about Jesus is good. But I have several quarrels with it as well, the most fundamental of which is the image of Jesus it leaves in our minds. Aslan makes Jesus into something our culture can easily grasp—an action hero, a celebrity, a bad-boy celebrity at that, a cult hero. It’s no wonder that, with apologies to all you TV and movie people out there, that “Zealot “ will soon become “Zealot: The movie”.

“Zealot” has indeed created quite a buzz. If you’re intrigued by it, great. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s fine, too. In any case, listen carefully today to Matthew’s version of who Jesus is and why he’s come and what he’s about. It’s a rather different story.

According to Matthew, as soon as Jesus made his home in Capernaum by the sea, light dawns for those who lived there in the shadow of death. From there Jesus begins to move throughout the whole region of Galilee, teaching about the kingdom of God that, in him, was at last coming near, and preaching the good news, and healing every disease and affliction of the people. Jesus comes. The light dawns. And as the teaching, preaching and healing begin to spread, like light in the darkness, the kingdom of God dawns. And Jesus calls others to join him in its creation.

We’re off and running now. Jesus is working his plan. And I hope you’ll see from the beginning that what he’s up to here is very different from tossing out the imperial army or overthrowing the government. He’s building a new community. He’s changing humanity from the inside out, not the outside in. He’s changing lives, profoundly, but simply, rather organically, we might say. Here’s what I mean.

Apparently, according to Matthew’s account, Jesus just calls the first two guys he sees. He’s walking by the sea and sees two fisherman. Nothing too strange or operationally strategic about that. Matthew tells that they were brothers and were casting their nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. Well, that is why you would cast a net into the sea, after all, isn’t it? “Follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fish for people.” Now you’ve got to be careful with this story, it seems to me, because really, this is not a very appealing image. Have you ever seen fish caught in a net? It’s not really anywhere you’d want to be yourself, right?

You know that I lived in the great seaport city of Marseille, France, as an exchange student years ago. One of my favorite things was to go down to the port with one of the aunts in the family, the one who did most all the cooking, when she would buy fish. Flore was about 5’ tall and intrepid. She would face down any crusty old fisherman until she had the best, freshest fish of the day’s catch. She knew her fish and she knew exactly what she needed for that day’s lunch. But for me, a desert girl from Arizona, it took a lot of faith to get from those hapless fish flopping around in a net to what would become the most delicious meals I’d ever had.

The point is, Jesus isn’t drawing a direct parallel between people and fish here. Making disciples of Jesus Christ does not ask us to get a big net ourselves and haul people in against their will. I think something very different is happening in this story. Jesus sees two fishermen and speaks to them in language they will understand. He talks with them about nets and fish. If he had seen two farmers in a field first, he would have talked to them about sowing and planting. If he had seen two women at the well first, he would have talked to them about buckets and water.

This is the lesson for us. Jesus meets people where they are, as they are, for who they are, and says: hey. God has sent us some really good news. I’d like you to be part of living into it, in ways that are familiar and comfortable to you, using language you already speak, bringing who you are and what you know, the gifts you already have—to reach out and share this great good news with others so that God’s light may shine in their places of darkness as well.

Right from the get go in his ministry, Jesus is not doing things the way a leader would typically do it. It was traditional for disciples to seek out teachers, or for military officers to commandeer recruits. In contrast, the very first things Jesus does is to call followers to become part of something new and immediately empowers them to do the same, to invite more followers. If this is a net, it is a net of relationships, of people connecting with other people naturally, the people they see during the day, the people they pass, the people they work with, the people they know, and sharing with them something that will sound good to their ears and to their hearts and to their souls. Jesus, this divine free agent of mercy and grace, sets out to expand and deepen people’s experience of God through a new community of faithful living and speaking and healing that brings wholeness and happiness and light.

The light of God brings healing. The light of God brings truth. The light of God lifts spirits. The light of God brings hope.

Our Haiti Work Team flew out Wednesday night last week and arrived safely at the Guest House in Haiti on Thursday. Robert’s email said they “made it safe and sound to the guest house, excited, tired and waiting for all that is in store for us!”

A team of 10, five from here and five from the Simi Valley UMC, they will help rebuild a church in a rural part of Haiti near the town of Les Cayes by the sea. They will be working with the pastors and members of the Methodist Church in Haiti. Beyond that, they will have soccer games with the neighborhood kids. They’ll provide a community lunch or two. They took down a travel-size guitar so they can join in music and then leave it for the folks there. Our last team included a doctor so they participated in a local health clinic. They took Prayer Squares that each will leave with someone in Haiti. They will worship and pray together.

Our team is a current expression of the very work that Jesus initiated by the sea so long ago. They are joining together in his work of teaching and healing and building and sharing good news, bringing light into places that have known terrible darkness, fear and sorrow, bringing hope to sustain hearts and spirits through these long years of rebuilding churches and homes and schools and lives. They are expanding and deepening the experience of God’s great love within themselves and within all those they meet and serve.

We’ll be sending another team next year and some of you may want to go. But for others, schedules and aptitudes may lead you to different ways of sharing and inviting others in. What we want to remember today from the story of Simon Peter and Andrew is to stay with what is familiar to us and find ways, in the daily living of our lives, to share what faith means to us in ways that are authentic and that connect fairly easily with others who share our same longings and spiritual need. If you stay with what you know, you will find that you have what you need to share with others and invite them to be followers of Christ as you are.

Paul says it in his letter to the church in Corinth that we heard earlier: “In every way, you have been enriched in Christ, in speech and knowledge of every kind, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift…God is faithful. God has called you into this fellowship of Jesus Christ.”

You’ve got the gifts, Paul assures us. They come from God, and God is faithful. You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to be perfect or have it all together. You just have to say OK, I’ll start following you, Jesus. Step by step. Day by day. For I believe that you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And I see now that all you ask is that I follow, that I get caught up in all that you are saying and doing and revealing and sharing. That I live with you, and in you, and everything else will follow.

For the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near and the light shines.

Thanks be to God.

Notes:

Reza Aslan. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Random House, 2013.