Epiphany 3/B: 1/23/12
The Rev. Dee Anne Dodd
St. Paul's, Wallingford CT

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call
of our Savior Jesus Christ and
proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation . . .

So, what happened to the father?
What happened to old man Zebedee?

That's the unspoken cliffhanger of today's
action-packed gospel.
There's Jesus, passing by the Sea of Galilee,
when he calls out to the fishermen Simon and Andrew,
"Follow me and I will make you fish for people."
Immediately they leave their nets and follow him.
Soon after they encounter two more fisherman,
James son of Zebedee and his brother John.
And as soon as Jesus calls them,they
"left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men."

So again I ask:  What happened to the father?
Did he sink?  Get the hired hands to row him ashore?
What happened?

Maybe that's not your idea of a cliffhanger.
Maybe you never even noticed the poor guy before.
But there he is in flesh and blood and alive as you or me.
A father.  Husband.  Fisherman.  Child of God.

His sons and their friends hog all the attention, don't they?
They heard the call, dropped everything and
followed Jesus.
The only problem is that this gives the impression
that the sons went off in a vacuum.
It makes it sound so easy.

Well, God knows life is complicated.
It's not that easy to untangle life and family commitments
(even if we want to sometimes).

And we know that Jesus never cut off anyone;
if anything his ministry is all about expanding
the definition of family.
In Jesus there are no outcasts.

So I'm wondering if in the interest of time --
of moving along the narrative in this first and
shortest of gospels --
St. Mark the author felt as if he had to
limit his focus to the sons at the expense of the father.
After all, I'm guessing that St. Mark was a very busy man.

Surely it's not that the father's not important;
aren't we taught in Church School that we're all precious
in God's eyes?

Maybe it's just that the father's story
is still waiting to be told.
So I ask your indulgence as I take considerable license
and offer my own, unauthorized, uncensored version
of what happened to Papa Zebedee; here goes:

After James and John left,
their father Zebedee sat staring out at the water.
Even with the hired hands, the boat felt empty.

He tried to catch a few more fish, without much luck.
So he headed home,
but loneliness stalked him even there.
Come to find out that his wife had been bitten
by the same bug.
All she could do during dinner was talk about
that fascinating fellow Jesus.

Not a man given to deep introspection,
Papa Zebedee was surprised to find himself
tossing and turning that night.
He didn't know whether to feel angry or abandoned or
maybe even happy for those boys.

As time wore on he saw that the change in them
as real and lasting,
and for the better.
He might not like the fact that it took them so far away,
or that Jesus got them mixed up in one controversy
after another.
But there was something about Jesus:
the preaching, the healings,
ruffling the feathers of the powers-that-be.
Something was happening.

And even though Papa Zebedee wasn't the
sentimental type,
he couldn't help but feel, well, loved
when he thought of Jesus.

In time,
Papa Zebedee began to sense a change within himself.
Dare he call it. . . repentance --
turning to God and believing the Good News
that Jesus offered.

But being a simple man, with a business to run,
Zebedee wasn't about to take off for the countryside
like those crazy kids.
He pretty much stayed where he was,
fishing, living his life as best he could.

And all up and down the seashore,
other fishermen came to repent and believe
in the Good News of Jesus Christ.

So there you have it:  The gospel according to Dee Anne.
It's never going to be the subject of our Adult Forum
now studying St. Mark.
But it's good news
about one ordinary person
going about his life trying to follow Jesus
who changes the lives of other ordinary people
going about theirs.
It's a story about different ways of answering Jesus' call,
different ways of accepting Jesus' invitation
into God's story.
Just last week we were blessed to hear Ellie Foster's report
about her recent trip to India to serve
among orphaned and exploited children.
That's one exciting way of answering Jesus' invitation
into God's story.

But there are plenty of others. 
Now that Ellie's back in school, I've no doubt that she -- like all of our students --
is invited into God's story closer to home.

Jesus Christ -- God's Word made flesh --
comes to people wherever they are.
He starts with those fishermen but he doesn't stop there.
He goes to the tax collectors, the infirm, the poor,
the high-profile, and, yes, the invisible.
God in Christ embraces those whom the rest of the world
might not notice,
and offers them a starring role in God's story.

No one's excluded, not even us.
All are invited to offer our stories --
however humble, however checkered --
into God's story of redemption and power and love.

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily
the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and
proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation...

AMEN.