Disciples of Imagination
January 22, 2012 | Anita Retzlaff

Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. God calls! God calls Jonah. Jesus calls - Simon and Andrew, James and John. God calls me too and there’s a problem. What I am often left with is guilt. I know that God calls me to be a disciple but too often I just feel like I am not responding in the way that I “should.” Even though Jonah was reluctant at first to carry out God’s mission - spending three days in very confining circumstances - he eventually gets with the program and delivers an entire city from destruction. And as far as the four fishermen are concerned they just up and leave their work. When Jesus calls them to follow they leave behind their livelihood, their father and their hired help. I don’t have that kind of nerve or commitment or spontaneity; at least that is the way that I am always left to feel. It is not that I don’t love God it is just that I have never felt that I am doing enough of the right thing in response to God’s call. 

You know, there is the story of the rich young man who wants to make it into the Kingdom of God and Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and give it to the poor. The rich man walks away because he can’t countenance parting with his wealth. I am not about to sell everything that I have either and so it keeps stacking up that I am definitely not following Jesus in the way that I should. Jesus calls people in dramatic ways, calls them to follow him in the middle-eastern society of two millennia ago. How do we interpret this today?

I have been grappling with what it means to be a faithful disciple. How do I truly follow Christ in life? Do I give up my house, my job, my family and friends in order to serve God faithfully? Most of us have asked these questions and fewer of us have come up with a tidy and livable solution. This past week as I have been reflecting upon these texts and trying to see a new message in them I was given an article and a book. One is an interview with Shane Claiborne, a modern hippy, activist and deeply spiritual young man. I heard him speak at one of our Mennonite youth assemblies a few years ago. The other is a book that keeps calling me to pay attention to a striking political interpretation of scripture; a book written by Ched Myers, brother-in-law to Diane and Peter Hooge and Gord and Lynne Driedger-Enns. I will call upon these sources of wisdom in a moment.

If I were to caricature the dilemma that we are in I would say that to follow Jesus must mean that I sacrifice until it is painful and uncomfortable, that I don’t spend too much, don’t eat too much, don’t use too much and that in my spare time I hang out in places that make me feel unsafe and unwelcome. In the end I do not believe that these are the descriptors of life as disciple. So then, what is it? How do we proclaim the good news and contribute to God’s Kingdom here and now?

Well, let’s begin with Jesus’ call of the fishermen. The writer of the gospel of Mark is on a tear! By verse 14 of the very first chapter John the Baptist has already been arrested and Jesus is an adult and out on the road preaching the message of “good news.” One of the most familiar phrases from bible stories that I remember as a child is the one that Jesus proposes to Simon, Andrew, James and John, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” According to the song that we sang back in the old days it went like this: “I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.”

Here I want to share with you what Ched Myers has written in his book Binding the Strong Man about this invitation to follow Jesus: “There is perhaps no expression more traditionally misunderstood than Jesus’ invitation to these workers to become ‘fishers of men’ (1:17). This metaphor, despite the grand old tradition of missionary interpretation, does not refer to the ‘saving of souls,’ as if Jesus were conferring upon these men instant evangelist status. Rather, the image is carefully chosen from Jeremiah 16:16, where it is used as a symbol of Yahweh’s censure [criticism] of Israel. Elsewhere the “hooking of fish” is a euphemism for judgment upon the rich (Am 4:2) and powerful (Ez 29:4). Taking this mandate for his own, Jesus is inviting common folk to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege….This is not a call “out” of this world but into an alternative social practice.” (Binding, pp. 132-133)

Let’s follow up on this idea for a moment. If Jesus invites us to challenge and change the dominant culture, to stand apart from the status quo, but remain very much engaged with this world, now that is something that I can begin to consider. If becoming a disciple means that we might do our part to call our whole society out of complacency and challenge a blind acceptance of the way things are in our world then I can see a place for myself in this ministry. War is not the way to settle disagreements. Worshipping the accumulation of wealth is not the basis of a healthy and equitable society. Religious fundamentalism is not the way to interpret divine love or the way to run a country whether it is the US or Iran. There are many inequalities in our world that need to be addressed and overturned. That is our call as disciples of Jesus. How we do that is to be accomplished in countless ways. Giving up all that you own and leaving your family behind is not necessarily the boot camp requirement of Jesus’ call. These may be the end result of choices we make along the way but becoming intentionally destitute and alone would seem to me to be an unnecessary distraction in the journey of finding a good way to live upon the earth.

And this is where the interview with Shane Claiborne comes in. He is asked the question: “Jesus calls us to pray prayers that seem idealistic since they place faith in a superior reality that can invade the present one. What is the biggest challenge you see facing today’s church as they pursue the life of Jesus and walk in his footsteps?” What do you think Shane’s answer is? He says, “Imagination.” Imagination! Not selling our houses or leaving family behind but it is imagination that is required? He goes on in his answer, “The book of Romans really offers that in the 12th chapter when it says do not be conformed to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It really is about having a new imagination that is sparked by the spirit of God and having the openness to see the possibilities beyond what exists. That’s what faith is all about…. There is an element of being able to imagine a world where people have their daily bread and folks don’t die of senseless diseases that cost a few dollars to prevent. The church has really lost a lot of its imagination…” Shane goes on to say, “When I was in Iraq one of the hospital managers threw his hands up as the bombs were falling and cried, “This is for a world that has lost its imagination!” It echoes in my soul that so many of the patterns that we see right now stem from a loss of imagination but there is a hunger stirring around the world to try to imagine different patterns than the status quo.”

O.K. sign me up for the “hooking of fish.” It isn’t irresponsible to imagine that all people should have daily bread not just those of us who are “richer than you think” according to one bank advertisement. It is not stupid to imagine peace on earth as it is in God’s kingdom, right here, right now. 

Both Jonah and Nineveh “woke up” to the reality of God’s call. They believed God and changed their practices. We don’t know the details of what they turned from but we hear that they changed their ways and repented. They believed God. In other words they took on the ways of God; justice, righteousness and steadfast love and they turned their world around. Even God turns around as a result, “changed his mind” the scripture says and does not bring upon the people the calamity that was sure to result from their faithlessness. Jonah followed the word of the LORD and as a result changed a whole city!
These ordinary fisherfolk followed Jesus’ call to change the messed up reality of the world in which they lived. They chose to leave behind the stability of their lives to help with stabilizing life for others. Sacrifice – yes! Painful – maybe not! We don’t know the whole story. Whatever the details were, the point is, Jesus’ call was so compelling some individuals took up the cause immediately. The Spirit of God is powerful and adaptable and ever on the move; throwing Jesus into his work in short order; adding disciples quickly along the way. There is urgency in spreading the good news.

“The Kingdom of God is come near,” says Jesus. In other words Jesus is here! Stand apart! Stand out! Become a disciple. Shane Claiborne defines discipleship as “the formation of people into the likeness of Christ, or as Mother Teresa said, “to carry the fragrance of Christ.” To the world, Christians are supposed to remind the world of Jesus.” When people see you in action they will be reminded of Jesus. When people see me in action they will be reminded of Jesus. How we go about doing this is as unique as we are individuals. Imagination! As the church we are lacking it these days. We can change that.

We will strive for the time when all will be “given this day their daily bread.” That is not a stupid or unrealistic goal and we must not lose sight of it. It is faithful discipleship. It is also not foolishness to think that someday the world will live at peace. We are called to imagine possibilities. That is hope. We are called to proclaim our hope. That means sharing the good news. Jesus calls us to act on that hope. That is faithful discipleship. Sarah, Helen and Patrick some things you do will remind people of Jesus. That might be a guide to help us to figure out “if” we are doing what we “should” be doing and saving us from a non-productive guilt. Imagine that in our actions people will be reminded of the saving grace of Jesus!

Prayer – O Lord our God you who gave Jesus to the world that we might be reminded of you. May we now go into that world and behave in such a way that we remind others of Jesus. May we be faithful disciples! AMEN