Prep Time

So I have been working on the sermon for Sunday. There are some cool pieces to the Lectionary. This week it is the story of Jonah calling for repentance in Ninevah and the calling of the first disciples on the Sea of Galilee. I chose the sermon title "casting your net" and was surprised to find another blogger looking at the same ideas of the text. Awesome work Enter the Rainbow. I needed to take another look.
There is a theme of casting the net, and the things we face in casting the nets of the church to make disciples. A couple of things came to the fore in my readings this time. Jonah casts the net, but doesn't really want to catch anything. It is kinda like using a little fisher's net to grab the fish when you have caught them on the pole. God was rather deliberate in his fishing for Jonah, kinda like using a pole, with a particular lure to catch him. The real revelation came after reading the message of Mark's Gospel.
Here is the NRSV text:

Mark 1:14-20

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” ¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Jesus appears in this reading to call to the men in the boat (James/John/Zebedee and the hired men), and only James and John come. The fisherman's net is cast out on the sea and doesn't catch all the fish, nor is it intended to do so, only those that are large enough to get caught in the netting, and small enough not to throw off the net when it falls upon them.
Now for the real challenge of what the appropriate corrollary might be for study, who are the fish that are too small, and those that are too large?
Peace,