Collaborate

Source

The gospel text from the Revised Common Lectionary this week is Mark 1:14-20 which reads as follows...

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

I heard about a neat approach to Scripture recently that invites people to read a specific text and then respond with either "I notice" or "I wonder."

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

I noticed that...

The first thing Jesus does after announcing the start of his public ministry in the Gospel of Mark is invite helpers. "Follow me" he says to two fishermen. How interesting that Jesus' first move is to invite coworkers for the journey! It's a strong signifier that Jesus prefers collaboration - even when it's messier and more frustrating, even when it's hard, even when it's exhausting and nobody agrees with one another. Jesus calls us to collaborate anyway, and the power of the collective...the power of putting different perspectives in the same space with a shared goal has been part of the framework of following Jesus from the start. Collaborating isn't always easy. In fact, it's usually pretty difficult and annoying. Most of us (myself included) would often rather just get things done on our own and defer to our own timeline/preferences/wishes. But today's Gospel text reminds me that there's something holy and important about the togetherness part...that maybe it isn't just that we can do "more" together but that the act of compromise/listening/trying/creating in community is redemptive all on its own - regardless of the byproducts produced.