The Call Gate (Mark 1:14-20)

In the summer of 1987 the lodge I contracted too had a fishing client from England to guide on the Rangitaiki River for a day. His name was Tony Pawson and was to later discover he had not only been a champion of the England cricket team but also was a world champion fly-fisherman. This happened within months of giving my life to the Lord in December 1986 and now it seemed a gate was opening. Tony was here technical advisor to the World Championships and researching his book.

Because of those couple of days I would feature on several pages in his book “Fly-fishing Around the World.” As if this wasn’t enough he suggested that I was just the sort of person they wanted in the World Fly-fishing Champs to be held in England in our autumn and so gave me a contact. I phoned but was informed it was already organised but for some reason as the conversation ended I offered to pay my own way if things changed.

Then out of the blue a month or so later I got the call. Sponsorship had fallen through and I was included if I paid my own way, the team of five would leave in six weeks. Imagine the excitement and turmoil of rearranging your life; getting passports in time, meetings to decide how and where and what was before us. We were an eclectic bunch thrust into representing our country. Within six months of giving my life to the Lord I was being presented a bronze medal. I felt like God had thrown a party and I was the honoured guest.

I had another call one day; this one to work with the Lord. A woman stood up the front of the church and said the Lord was asking, “Who will go for Me?” After a deathly silence from about 60 others I said, “I will,” and to cut a long story short, here I am. A call from the Lord is not a command to obey but an invitation to a place of honour alongside some of the greatest men who ever fished the sea. They were Simon and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John who left their fathers and servants and followed after Jesus on the shores of the sea of Galilee.

Jesus had simply suggested to, “Come after me and I will make you become fishers of men.” You might think it was a bit like my being invited to represent my country. The call I received in church however was much vaguer and probably more apt. I had no idea what form it would take except that it would meant go and some sort of representation for the God of all creation. No, the call to these fishermen was perhaps more of the mystery that unfolded into this which I am doing. They must have been wondering perhaps having heard the rumour of this holy One who preached saying; “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the truth!”

As they were dealing with their fishy nets, these four disciples came into proximity of this holy kingdom of God as Jesus walked by; the same holiness that was in the cloud and fire in the desert with Moses. Believe this, they would have been quietly touched by the unseen power of the kingdom of God at hand. This is the same unseen power and glory which now resides in this church. This presence is the liberating force of faith, hope and love.

Immediately we are told, ,they left their nets and followed Jesus. Immediately I got the call to the World Champs in 1987 I entered a mystery journey towards an unimagined medal. Immediately I answered the call in church I was entered a mystery gate that had to that stage been firmly shut.  The moment when God sets before us an opportunity is a moment to act in immediacy. This moment of opportunity is spoken about in Isaiah 62:10 when he says;

Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples!

Perhaps the first disciples were ready for a change, maybe they were already feeling that unease which dawns before a change in life; that feeling when you say, “I know there must be more to it than this.” Often in church there can be this feeling that the Bible says more but life just seems less. I have felt that unease for many years before God spoke through that woman in church. I was already ready for the call. When the gate that previously shut us out suddenly swings open, we need to be on-the-verge, ready to go through it.

I well know the pristine peace one finds beside the water; how many times the call of the Psalmist said, “He restores my soul.” There, as Jesus headed around Galilee, inviting them into the presence of the unseen but strongly felt kingdom of God, a gate opened into a whole new mysterious realm. Jesus proclaims he will make of them ones who catch not fish anymore, but rather men; this is a frightening, mysterious, wondrous, amazing grace to four fragrant fisher folk.

No less did I also feel untested in run up to a World Championship, and in the aftermath of messy life circumstances. Jesus needs people to train and they had to be people who were well grounded in real life; those being fishing realities actually. These four were sons used to being in between dad the boss and the workers who were helping them. They were used to being in the middle as family and also employers. They were accustomed to the thrill and hard work of catching plenty one day and the disappointment of hard work and catching naught another.

I have also gone from fisherman to fisher of men, and it’s a place of much patience, feeding, feeding, feeding in the hope of the catch of the kingdom. Sometimes it feels like you are tossing out bread on the waters but fishing in the wrong place, as if it’s a desert in ocean terms, yet I know you’re out there somewhere. It’s interesting how three years gaining an acceptable degree is likened to the three years the disciples followed the master. However a degree maketh not the man; it is rather the twenty years beforehand that maketh the man and the degree maketh him acceptable to man.

What made me what I am comes from the spirit tutor at the school of hard knocks as it is written John 14, 26, “who teaches us all things and brings to our remembrance all things that Jesus teaches us.” You see there are no schools that can teach you wisdom better than life itself. How can you mellow a hardened heart or that it okay to make mistakes? How can you know what it is to lose a loved one or lose a business or what’s behind depression? How do you teach about oppressive spirits except that a spirit bothers you? All these things I am reminded that I have had a teacher.

When you think of all the trials these four young fishermen would have to contend with before they became in the likeness of Jesus you have to wonder what they thought they were getting into. They say Jesus didn’t promise a rose garden but how beautiful a flower they became among all those thorns. Jesus only promised that he would make them become fishers of men. Isn’t that enough?

Simon would become Peter the rock or stone the church was built on and would amongst other things deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed. I have made my mistakes and for that I am sorry yet the training continues. Mistakes are part of it and perfection is elusive.

Disciples of our Lord Jesus are always learning because the teacher is always with us, in our hearts reminding us of the things we learned. In England I learned that in Christ all things are possible which once had seemed impossible. I learnt to overpower the temptations that challenge us and that God gives how He gives and we can only be astonished. In the Church I learnt that this bride, as imperfect as she can be, is still the betrothed of Christ, though molested and degraded by the enemy.

Jesus still walks beside the shores calling, inviting us, promising he will make us become fishers of men; but so many do not choose to follow him into our real potential. Often the fear of being criticised for what might become of us steals away the potential God gave us. I know this thief well as I sat in the pews for twenty years. He lies as he whispers, “You are not holy enough, not clean, and definitely not good enough for ministry.” I heard those lies but realised, neither were the fabulous four fisherman who under Jesus tutoring led the greatest movement in all history.

What does Isaiah mean when he says, “Take out the stones from the highway and lift up a banner for the people?” We think of a highway in a horizontal way but the kingdom of God is a vertical ascent, these stones are like the stones that close the dead in the grave, like the hardness of the heart and the impenetrability of the heavens above us. To one the stones falling seem like the world coming to an end but to another it is heaven opening and the kingdom of God at hand. And the banner lifted up reads “Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.”

So where are you this day as you stand in your normality as Jesus is walking by? Is the voice lost to you as it beckons “come after me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Will you form a committee and discuss the ramifications of being in the kingdom of God? Or will you fear what the others might say, or stay to help the family with the grind of normality? Or will you go through the gate that is opened to you this moment, recognise the opportunity that has been offered and come after me?

The Celtic monks had a wonderful outlook on the call in that they knew that God would all the more bless them when they are out on his business, so they would head out deliberately drawing God to them, even dangerously running after Jesus to start a colony of the kingdom of God on another isle. Stepping out is stepping away from the shackles of normality into Jesus kingdom reality.

The gate of the kingdom of God is open, the presence is here, the King is calling, “Will you answer His call?”