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 Reflections for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, the 10^th of November 2024, in the pew notes at St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne.  Written by Philip Harvey.

Immediacy is a hallmark of the Gospel of Mark. The storytelling is constantly in the business of cutting to the chase, leaving the listener to intuit the finer detail. The very declaration that “the time is fulfilled” (Mark 1: 14-20) is a case of medium in sync with message: we are placed in the immediate now, and faced with a choice.

Jesus’ ministry starts where he’s at, in the here and now. He calls certain local fishermen to follow him. This doesn’t look like some takeover master plan. It’s entirely relational and personal, just between them. What happens next is anyone’s guess, though the first step we are told is to repent.

 

We also learn immediately that Jesus is deft with a pun. These fishermen can be fishers of other people. What can this mean? The line dangles. Net-working takes on a new meaning. The men’s work and livelihood is affirmed, but at the same time they are challenged with something new. It’s not even clear what this new thing is, but it doesn’t seem to be just something extra thrown in.

 

Reading this call of the first disciples, we know that the Gospel is the outcome of long and deep experience. Reflection on all of the subsequent events has taken considerable time, focused prayer, difficult learning, and transformed awareness. Yet the recollection of that calling is, for them, its immediacy. They drop everything, even the family business, and follow. They are determined to find out what’s going on.

 

They are about to discover Jesus, a person who exists in the present moment. His teachings, his sermons, his actions and miracles are immediate responses to the need of the moment. His stunning talent for analogy is so breathtaking that they start talking in parables themselves, the world around them coming to life in whole new ways. Half the time, they don’t even get what he’s on about, yet later the way they recount what he did and said shows they learnt well. They know their own limits. His presence never leaves them and must be declared to others. The need of the moment is met through attention to his presence.

 

It is this openness to the unexpected call that animates their first encounter, and every subsequent encounter. And it is this story, retold in clear-cut immediate words of a parable, that we ourselves hear now. In turn, it is not just that we are confronted with change in our lives, but that change is possible.