“Zebedee looks around at the nets still to be mended, no sons to help with the work, his remaining employees staring at him wondering what to do next. ‘It looks like they’re gone, lads” he says to the rest of the crew. ‘We’ll all need to do a bit more until I can take on more help.’
“He blames himself. Zebedee inherited a boat and the love of
fishing from his own father, and he has built it into something. [But] things
have always been hard with those boys, James and John. They did not love
fishing in the way that he did. So their
departure all of a sudden with Jesus could not be called a complete surprise.
“Zebedee likes Jesus. A young
man with morals and strength of character, and he loves the things Jesus says
about God. He loves what he says about justice for the poor. Zebedee’s sons
listen, too, along with their friend Simon. Zebedee noticed they were working
harder, were more pleasant to be with, and he finally had the relationship he’s
always wanted with his sons, sons who, he believed, could be real business
partners with him. The sons who were turning into moral and just men.
“Then, one day, this day,
Jesus came and said, ‘It’s time. Let’s go.’
And they just followed him. They left Zebedee with kisses but no tears.
They seemed so happy and excited, and very, very gone.
“Why were they so eager to
go? Did he not appreciate them enough? And what about his own spiritual life? Even
at his age, wouldn’t he love to go have this spiritual adventure? He
couldn’t get up and leave even if he wanted to. He has responsibilities—the
boat, his home, his wife, his other sons and daughters, not to mention his
customers and the poor widows in the community, who rely on the
unsold fish he gives them at the end of the day. Who would feed them all if
he left?
“The next day Zebedee fishes,
then he sits at the dock with the workers, mending nets and talking. He misses
his sons so much his chest aches, he envies their new adventure, yet his
own call continues. He is here at home, mending, fishing, feeding. His
sons were called to go with Jesus; Zebedee is called to stay behind: to
pray, to work, to love, to do.”
This story, adapted from a
story by Melissa Bane Sevier, imagines both the backstory and consequences of Luke’s
account of the calling of Simon Peter and his partners in fishing, the sons of
Zebedee, James and John. And indeed, every
time we hear the call of Jesus, there is a call to something but also a
call away from something. And
while Luke focuses on the excitement of the venture for those who were willing
to drop everything and follow, and the possibility of an abundant catch in the
name of Jesus, there is always in the background a Zebedee, an empty boat, nets
that will need to be mended by someone else.
And as we consider our call to discipleship, this rightly gives us
pause.
I am so thankful to my
friend, Melissa, for retelling the story in a way that helps me see with
Zebedee’s eyes. You see, Zebedee is a “stayer” while I come from a long line of
“leavers” – people who have left the family home to pursue new
opportunities. My grandfather left the
family farm in Lambton County, Ontario 110 years ago to pursue a call to
Ministry; my parents moved our family west to Regina in 1964, never to return
to Ontario except for visits; Shannon and I left Saskatchewan for good in 1994
when we came to Alberta and now BC; and by the time they were in their early
20s, all three of our children had moved on. Many of you have made moves far
more dramatic than this, perhaps even when you moved to the South Okanagan. With each of those moves away, we have left,
but there have been folks who have stayed behind, who have felt the pain of
separation without going anywhere. Each
decision has its own set of costs and benefits, as we embrace a call to stay,
or a call to leave.
What might that mean for us,
in our time and place? What is the call
that Christ has for your life, and does it feel mostly like a call toward
something, or a call away from something, or a call to dig in where you are and
go deeper?
It could be, that the call
for your life is like call of Zebedee: the call to stay, while change is all
around you. Perhaps it dates to a big
change in your employment, or the ending of a primary relationship, or when you
retired; perhaps you are recently or not-so-recently bereaved, or impacted by chronic
health concerns; whatever it is, you may be the one left with the task of
figuring out what life has for you where you are. Jesus spoke about the Kin-dom of God as
something that was “near” or “at hand”– in one sense, already within arm’s
reach where you are. Parker Palmer writes, (pp.114-115): “in silence and
solitude, alone with the [Holy One]… God’s promise of abundance comes to us not
as future possibility but as a present reality.” As we go deep with God, even amidst experiences
of emptiness, or loneliness, or loss due to change, we have opportunities to
rediscover the One who has loved us since the beginning and listen for hints as
to who we are to be amidst these new realities.
It could also be, that the
calling to us is shaped more like the calling that Jesus issued to his first
disciples: a calling away, a calling toward.
Jesus had good news to share, and knew that he could not possibly share
it all on his own, so he enlisted helpers from all walks of life. While many of us recoil at the notion of
“evangelism,” perhaps recalling wild-eyed efforts to rescue us from the fires
of hell, the reality is that the life-affirming message of Jesus Christ
is not heard often enough these days. We need to be “Jesus people” once again,
to proclaim the good news by acts of courage and kindness done in Christ’s
name. We need to embrace the notion that
the abundance described by Luke may still be possible! From my experience, people who associate
Church with judgmentalism and anti-scientific narrowness, are often amazed when
they actually hear of the openness and sophistication of Christ’s teachings,
the courage of how he lived it out, and the way his followers are called to
have a broad, inclusive, reconciling, justice-seeking love in response to his
calling on our lives. The more we embrace and live out the love of
Christ Jesus, the more the world will know and benefit from his unbridled love.
During an interim time, we
have three questions before us: who are
we? Who are our neighbours? And, what is God calling us to? So what about that third question, what might
we being called toward, or away from, or what are we to do more of? Are
there actions or involvements that you have been mulling, callings that have
been pestering you lately? Or are there
wonderings in your heart and mind, such as “I wonder why our Church doesn’t
do…?” or “I wonder if we have the capacity as a Church to…?” Are there older versions of Church life that
we need to let go of, in order for new ways of being to arise? Or are there specific needs in these south
Okanagan communities that we could more actively engage?
Rather than giving today’s
sermon a nice, neat ending, all wrapped up and tied with a bow, by putting
forward an answer to these questions, it is more wise and more faithful to
leave these as open questions. If these
kinds of wonderings about our calling as a faith community are bubbling within
you, Shannon and I invite you to write them down and share them with us and
with the Transition Team. At coffee time
today, you will find a sheet of paper for that purpose: if you’ve got something
to share right away, please write it down & leave your page in the basket
provided; if you need to mull on this a bit, take the sheet home and bring it
to Church next Sunday, or give it to a member of the transition team! (Anita,
Nancy and Cathie - Osoyoos, Doreen, Anna and Heather - Oliver). And as we consider those things we are called
to do and be, please know that some of what we are called to are things
we are already doing. As we gather this information from you, we do so with
hopes of new ideas, but also invite you to name any efforts we are already
undertaking that make the good news of Jesus Christ real for us and others.
To all of you: the “leavers”
and the “stayers,” the planners and the doers, the ones who give us roots and
the ones who give us wings: know that the loving call of Christ is a call to
you, and to us as congregations, to embody love and life and light where you
are and, perhaps, in new places or in new ways.
It is also a call to unexpected sources of abundance, for hanging out
with Jesus does tend to have surprising results! What an exciting possibility, and what good
people to have with you on the journey.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
References cited:
Bane Sevier, Melissa. “Left Behind,” a posting on her
“Contemplative Viewfinder” blog: https://melissabanesevier.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/left-behind/
(NOTE: the italicized portions are edits from Melissa’s original story)
Palmer, Parker. The Promise of Paradox. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980.
© 2025 Rev Greg Wooley,
Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge
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