On March 13, 1943 , a small plane, a German plane, took off from an air strip in Smolensk , Russia . Smolensk has the unenviable position of being a “crossroads” city. Which means, in times of conflict, it was always being invaded or occupied and, more often than not, largely destroyed. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, Smolensk was fiercely defended but ultimately succumbed to the German Panzer Corps. It became Germany 's foothold in Russia for the next three years.
Aboard that plane which took off that day, heading for Smolensk back to Germany , were several members of the German high command, Adolph Hitler, and a bomb. The bomb was on a timer and never went off. It was, however, discovered.
Within a month, several people had been arrested and jailed in connection with the plot. Among them were military officers, international aid workers, and a pastor – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (click here or on his photo above to explore a link detailing his life and works).
To say the least, Bonhoeffer is an intriguing – and I would add troubling – character. Early on, it appeared he was called to music. He was playing Mozart concerti, on the piano, by the time he was ten years old. He was also an star athlete all the way through school. But his passion was theology. Originally, he felt called to the lectern as a professor. Once there, he felt his call move further – to the pulpit and ministry. All of this happened before he was thirty years old. The rise of Nazism and the outbreak of World War II forced him to re-think his Christianity and develop a radical allegiance to the word of the Gospel, and the life that Jesus modeled. Which includes, of course, non-violence.
And yet he felt called to join in a plot to kill Hitler.
How do you square this radical allegiance to the Gospel and taking someone's life? Or multiple lives for that matter? Is it right to say Bonhoeffer was “called” to do this? Is he a saint or is he crazy?
***
Peter seems more than a little crazy in today's passage. In fact, he seems like a certifiable lunatic.
We have to pull ourselves away from the Hallmark aisle Christianity, the Kodak moments Christianity, the Jesus-on-the-prayer card Christianity and put ourselves back in first-century Galilee to understand just how crazy Peter must have seemed to those around him.
Call? Schmall. You're an idiot, Peter. Good job. Good family. And you're going to do what? You're going to follow who?
But before we get to that, we have to back up. Remember this is a story that we're telling. The story according to Luke. About a month ago, we talked about Jesus' baptism by John. Then Jesus went into the wilderness. After which, he returns to Nazareth and gets run out of town.
But right about here, the fortunes of Jesus shift. He goes from Nazareth to Capernaum. Not far. Maybe twenty miles. But far enough. He goes into the synagogue there, and immediately heals a man possessed of evil spirits. Word starts to spread. There is a healer in town. He goes to Peter's house and heals Peter's mother-in-law. Word starts to spread. And later that day, with the Sabbath ending, people starting carrying the lame and the blind and the incurable to where Jesus was so he could heal them. And he laid his hands on them and cured them all. And word started to spread.
Now Capernaum, where this is going on, is a small fishing village right at the very tip of the Sea of Galilee . Back in first century Palestine , it would have been a relatively pleasant place to live. The air would have been fresh with the breeze coming off the lake. The surrounding countryside was, unlike most of Palestine , green and ripe with fruits and vegetables. The work was hard and dangerous – fishing – but it provided a way of life for those who lived there.
Which brings us to today's passage. Jesus is at the shoreline, preaching. He asks Peter if he can get in his boat to go a little off shore to reach more people. Peter complies with this request.
Now this is understandable. We've just talked about how word is spreading about Jesus – he's gaining a reputation. So Peter might consider it advantageous to hook up with this guy. And, we also know that one of the people that Jesus has healed is Peter's mother-in-law.
But then Jesus tells him where to go fish. Now, I don't know a whole lot about fishing. But I do know a couple of things. First, no one ever really tells you where the fish are biting. You know those little general stores you go to up in New Hampshire and Maine , where they have all the curled Polaroids of people holding these huge fish, with these gaping mouths, and you can't really tell who the fish is and the person is? You don't ask them where they're biting. Because they're going to send you to some godforsaken place where all you'll catch are Coke cans.
Second thing, if you really must ask someone where they're biting, you might want to pick a fisherman. Not a carpenter. But Peter does exactly what Jesus says. Why? Well, OK, let's give Peter the benefit of the doubt here. Jesus is on a roll. I'm reminded of Howard Dean back in early January. He's got the buzz. He's got momentum around him. He's shown himself to be a man of wisdom with incredible healing powers. Someone to be reckoned with. OK, Peter is probably thinking, maybe these powers of multi-faceted. Maybe he does know where fish are. Which apparently, he did.
Now before we get to Peter's “call,” it's important to look at first-century Palestine again. Jesus was not the only itinerant Jewish healer. In fact, there are more than fifty documented cases of Jewish healers who gained some kind of notoriety during the first century. Jesus was not alone.
So when Peter, at the end of this passage, “leaves everything to follow him,” – and notice that Jesus doesn't even say “Come follow me” – that's from the Gospel of Mark – we must ask some practical questions. For example, what does Peter's wife think about this?
What do Peter's children think about this?
What about the men who worked Peter's boat?
Do you think as Peter was walking down the shore of the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, people were saying: “Good career move, Peter.”
I don't think so.
It was probably something more like:
“What are you crazy? You've got a wife. You've got kids. You've got boat payments. What are you doing?”
He was answering the call. And call sometimes overrides questions.
***
From 1943 to 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a good deal of time to think about the questions related to call. For the bulk of that time, he was in Tegel Prison just outside Berlin . Subsequently, he was moved to Buchenwald and then to Flossenburg. His “Letters From Prison” – listen to his irony: the last three weeks we have read letters written from prison by Christians responding to call – two from Paul and one from Martin Luther King, Jr. – shows his uncompromising view on responding to call. It was here that Bonhoeffer elaborated on his idea of “cost of discipleship” – another way of saying, it costs you to be a Christian.
Listen to these word that Bonhoeffer wrote from prison:
This is not cotton-candy Christianity. It's the type of Christianity that leads, on occasion, to the gallows. It did for Dietrich Bonhoeffer – he was executed April 9 th , 1945 – just a few short days before the camp he was in was liberated. It did for Oscar Romero, the bishop of El Salvador . It did for Steve Biko in South Africa .
***
Call can be a terrifying thing. It has ramifications that effect all those around the person called. Today is not just a simple fish story. It is a profoundly deep experience of Christ and the willingness to respond.
It is, perhaps, a good thing that call is so seldom experienced on this level. I'm not sure how we could possibly exist in a culture that doesn't recognize the authenticity of living life at such a radical level.
But there is good news.
I believe we are at a point, in the church at large, where we have to move our boats. We have to re-arrange our thinking as to what we are called to do in this culture. I think there are churches, whether they know it or not, who are moving into the museum business. They have buildings and statues and artifacts. And every Sunday people come in and take a tour and have a cup of tea and go home.
We are not in the museum business.
We have a long-distance call to spread the good news, to love justice and kindness not just in the abstract, but in reality.
