This sermon was preached at Glenwood Lutheran Church on January 26, 2020. It’s based on Matthew 4:12-23. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson. I’m indebted to Pastor John Hagberg for his notes on this text and to Pastor Amy Zalk Larson for sharing them with those who gathered for text study this week.
Matthew 4:12-23
12Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—16the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
17From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
18As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
In a recent article for the Holden Village Voice, Pastor Melinda Pupillo writes: How do we wake up and rise into the new life that the Gospel calls us toward? We have to decide what’s dead.1
What a stark, necessary invitation.
Peter and Andrew, James and John, woke up at the sound of Jesus calling to them. They rose into the new life that Jesus called them toward, a life where they would no longer be fishing for fish but for people. They did so, Matthew tells us, immediately. It didn’t take them any time at all to decide what was dead.
Scholars point out that fishing on the Sea of Galilee was regulated by Rome through taxation and purchase of permits to fish. Underlying this idea was that all of the fish in the Sea of Galilee belonged to the Emperor.
Taxes ran as high as 40% and the sale of fish was allowed only through authorized dealers. Average peasant consumption of fish was 1.4 ounces per week, usually in the form of a paste made from fish parts.
The majority of the catch went to the elites. Thus, Peter, Andrew, James, and John worked as fishermen but most of their catch went to Rome or to the local powers that be. It was not a lucrative family business that these four walked away from. They left an abusive economic system and followed Jesus in his new, alternative community of justice and mercy.2
Immediately they left their nets and followed Jesus. They decided the system they supported through their labor was dead. It offered no life for anyone but the wealthiest and most powerful. Jesus—the gospel, the Good News of God—called them to leave behind that old life and rise into a new life of justice and mercy.
It wasn’t long before those first disciples witnessed firsthand the abundance of life in this new community. You know the story. A great crowd was gathered. It was getting late and they were hungry. The disciples thought the best plan would be to send them away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus saw another way.
You give them something to eat, he told the disciples.
We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish, they replied.
But in the hands of Jesus, five loaves and two fish became more than enough. More than 5,000 people were fed—all ate and were filled—and there were twelve baskets of leftovers when it was all said and done. People who were accustomed to 1.4 ounces of fish paste a week ate their fill of real fish that day.
And in the very next chapter, as though to make his point abundantly clear, Matthew tells a similar story of another feeding. This time there are seven loaves and a few small fish. And again, all the people (over 4,000 this time) ate and were filled. And again, there were leftovers.
Real fish for real people—people no longer invisible on the margins of society, people no longer used and abused so that the wealthy and powerful could continue living a life of ease, people seen and heard and healed by the good news of God present and among them in Jesus.
We worship a God who clearly sees what’s dead, what must be buried and left behind so that new life can emerge. We worship a God who seeks out places of death in order that they might be transformed into places of life.
Matthew makes a point of telling his readers that Jesus left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.
I imagine, today, it might be like Jesus beginning his ministry in the first places to be directly impacted by rising sea levels created by climate change, places like Kiribati, East Island in Hawaii, Micronesia and the Solomon Islands.
Zebulun and Naphtali were the first tribes to disappear when the Assyrians conquered Israel in 721 B.C.3 Jesus shows up and goes to work in a place of death, of loss, of defeat and despair.
Where land has been swallowed up by conquering forces, where land has been swallowed up by rising sea levels, where congregations and individuals sit in the shadow of death, Jesus shows up and proclaims that God is with us: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Pastor John Hagberg puts it this way: Jesus establishes a kingdom, but not a kingdom with borders or palaces, not a kingdom with the power of armies or the might of money. It is a kingdom of people, gathered forever in the darkness of the cross, bearing hurts and pains of the world, daring to trust God’s eternal promise of light and resurrection. It is a kingdom in which people like Peter and Andrew, James and John, you and me, are called to follow Jesus in a new way of life, a life of compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.4
What is dead in your life? What is harmful? What is no longer needed? What is preventing you from eating your fill of real fish and being satisfied?
In the life of our congregation we might ask these same kinds of questions. What is dead? What prevents us from seeing the new things God is doing? What encourages us to hold on for dear life instead of releasing our grasp, trusting God to be at work, embracing new possibilities with nimbleness and curiosity?
What makes it hard for us to believe there will be enough when Jesus commands us, You give them something to eat?
We are called to follow Jesus into a life of justice and mercy. We are called to walk away from systems that benefit only a few. We are called to cast an alternative vision—one where all are fed in abundance, one where the light of Christ transforms the shadow of death.
The lost are found. The last are first. The light of Christ shines in a world beloved by God.
Jesus, help us to follow where you lead.
Amen.
1 Holden Village Voice. Winter 2019-20. Awakening the Imagination by Pastor Melinda Pupillo, pp. 36-37.
2, 3, 4 Text Notes by Rev. John F. Hagberg. That Flesh Might Become Word, Lectionary 3A.