Risk-takers

Feast of St Andrew, Apostle (Friday, 30 November 2018)

Romans 10:9-18. Psalm 19:2-5. Matthew 4:18-22.

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men and women. At once, leaving their nets, their boat and their father, they followed Jesus.”

The gospel reading is Matthew’s account of the calling of the first four disciples. “Come after me and I will make you fishers of people,” he says and they drop everything and go after him. They leave behind all their security and means of livelihood and even their family. They follow Jesus in complete trust, unaware of where he is going or what will happen to them. Following Jesus is a liberating experience. To be a Christian is to be free. Let us never forget that.

Yet the story is more symbolic than actual because we know that later they would return to their boats and their fishing and their family. The point of the gospel is that Jesus gave people major vision and challenge. Jesus always appeals to risk-takers. Somehow he did fascinate people and with some ease they left the things that they we doing, and followed him.

Shockingly, those men called by Jesus leave two things. They leave their families and their occupation. A heresy, perhaps! Family and occupation are the two sacred cows of kinship culture. One doesn't call those into question. Yet Jesus does! Family and job are not bad things. But falling into easy pattern can keep us from asking new questions about life. But we also need to mention that if we are open to love's demands, our family relationships can challenge us to the core. Coming to the gospel story again, it's also significant that Jesus does not tell his followers to stop drinking and burn their Playboys—the hot sins—and then come and follow. He says leave your father and your nets and come follow me now.

What does this mean? Jesus is calling you to break away from your Mama's and Daddy's dreams for you and get a bigger worldview. It may not mean to leave your family geographically (although sometimes it can help), but eventually you have to leave them spiritually and psychologically. You must look at their values critically and form your own, not necessarily opposed to theirs, but not just have some values just because they are parents' values. You need to break away from the conventional family wisdom that tells you to be a nice kid! You need to find your own soul. That means you have to leave your comfort zone and discover your True Self.

It also means you need to be critical or at least question even what is obvious. In many organizations, there are questions you cannot ask. Even if these questions may not be against the law, you will certainly find yourself in a spot of bother. Can business persons be critical of maximizing profit at the expense of workers, communities or the environment? Can a military person question individual wars? Can a person in the church question the Vatican for its policies? Will people ever move beyond their families' emotional permissions?

Think of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, who has become a dissident, traitor and criminal just because he questioned and even acted against the mass surveillance policies that the various governments and companies were involved in. He states, “I don't want to live in a world where everything I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity and love or friendship is recorded.” [Ed Snowden is an American computer professional, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments.]

To follow Jesus would mean to be a high risk-taker. Jesus is meant for no security-monger!