The B Team

The First Sunday in Lent
March 1, 2009
Pastor Caroline Satre
Exodus 3:1-12; Mark 1:16-20

The B Team

Those of you who were here in worship on December 28 know my father-in-law has a way with words. So… to help us get into God’s word this morning… here’s a story from his childhood in his own words. His story begins…

I don’t think that I was ever the captain… in the eyes of the others huddled around home plate on the diamond we had laid out in the vacant lots kiddy corner from Art Johnson’s store and across the road from Lund’s Dairy. I just didn’t have the “right stuff ” to be a captain, I guess .That honor always went to the two best players in the neighborhood. One of them would throw the bat into the air and the other would catch it… and then working hand over hand to the heel, one of them would end up holding the knob… it was the way we figured out who was going to get the first choice, with the one holding the knob saying,

“I’ll take Billy… ” Billy was always the first choice because he could hit the ball farther than anyone on the block…

“OK then, I want Bobby… ” He was always the second one chosen because he was the next best hitter and played first base better than anyone…

“Ron,” the first captain would say… He was kind of small, but played pretty well…

“Ok then, Marvin… ” I always thought he was sort of ordinary, but he always got picked early…

“We’ll take John,” the second captain would say as his turn came up… and John didn’t play the game

all that well, but he was bigger than most of us, so I guess the captains always figured he

ought to play pretty well…

“OK, we’ll take Eddie and you guys can have Orville… ” Eddie was kind of a skinny kid, but not too

bad a ball player… and I think Orville always got picked early because he was the only one

who had a real catcher’s mit and if he wasn’t chosen NO ONE got to use his mit.

That’s about the way it went… with me the last one chosen… just ahead of the girls in those days; although, today I think some of the girls in the neighborhood would have been chosen ahead of some of the guys!

Actually, I wasn’t always last… sometimes Alton was there… and occasionally, someone’s cousin from Glenburn or Benedict was there on the lot with us. And because everyone knew how bad Alton was… (“swings like a rusty gate,” we used to holler at him when he was standing at the plate… “can’t hit the broad side of a barn”… although I didn’t say too much lest the other team do the same to me). And as for those visiting cousins: well, no one knew much of anything about them, so they were chosen last along with Alton on those days when they were standing there to be chosen, too.

And I can remember how hard it was to wait… and hope (I hope he picks me next)… and wonder (will he choose me before he chooses Marvin this time)… and even pray a little (please let him pick me before he picks John)… and get angry inside where it couldn’t be seen at the unfairness of it all (if only I had a catcher’s mit, maybe they’d pick me before they picked Orville!)

And the wonder of it all is that every one was chosen… even Alton and the cousins from Glenburn and Benedict that no one knew. Each of us was chosen… and although I never considered it so at the time, it was an early lesson in the wonder and magnificence of grace.

And so it is with today’s Gospel story. Oh, I realize it isn’t the way we’ve usually thought about the calling of the disciples. But the fact that Jesus chose Simon and Andrew and James and John to follow him is a magnificent act of grace.

You see… when Jesus was growing up, the people in his hometown believed that while their ancestors “were camped at the base of Mount Sinai, their leader, a man named Moses, went up the mountain and received words from God. They believed not only that God had spoken to Moses, but that God had actually given Moses a copy of what God said. The first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—were a copy of what God had said. They called these five books the Torah. Torah can mean teachings or instructions or simply “Way.” They believed the Torah was the way, the truth, and the life. They believed the best way to live was how the Torah said to live. And so the central passion of the people of Jesus’ world was teaching, living, and obeying the Torah.”

Since this was long before the printing press and Gideon Bibles in every hotel room, copies of the Torah were scarce. The only way to access “the way” on a daily basis was to memorize it. Starting at the age of six, students would start memorizing the Torah and would usually know every word of all five books by the age of ten. By that time a rabbi would know who had the ability to continue this kind of rigorous education. While those young people continued to study, the others began learning the family business. The best of the best continued on with a rabbi, the others began learning carpentry or tent-making or fishing… which is, of course, where we find Simon and Andrew and James and John in today’s Gospel: we find them engaged in the family business of fishing. This means that, like my father-in-law on the softball field, they were not the first to be chosen by a rabbi… not by any means. As Rob Bell puts it, they are “the JV, the B team, the ‘not-good’-enoughs.’” Yet, these are the folks a teacher named Jesus chooses to follow him.

If we were to read further in any of the Gospels, we’d find Jesus getting frustrated with these fishermen turned disciples. Why? Because they really couldn’t keep up? Because they really weren’t capable of learning and doing what Jesus did? No… because they were capable; they just didn’t always believe it for themselves.

And so it still goes. Jesus says,“I choose you. Come, follow me.” It doesn’t matter whether you have the skills or the natural ability… it doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old, rich or poor, brilliant or just sort of average… it doesn’t even matter whether you have a catcher’s mit or not. Jesus believes you have what it takes to follow. You may not believe it some days, but he does.

So on those days when you are feeling as if you aren’t good enough or smart enough… when you are feeling as self-conscious as a 10-year-old on the softball field waiting to hear his name called… remember that Jesus believes in you enough to say to you,“Come. Follow me.”