At that time, as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left their boat and their father, and followed him. And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.
The stained glass icon of St. Peter in our church has a panel beneath it that appears from a distance as an urn, but a closer examination reveals it to be a net full of fish. This is a direct reference to the words that we just heard, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
We see in this story an image of the early Church; here we find two key elements of the Church. Jesus calls the Apostles and through them the entire world. The Apostles respond. First, Peter and Andrew “left their nets and followed him.” Later we read that James and John “left their boat and their father, and followed him.” The Apostles were indeed human and we often note their human frailties, but we also remember their devotion. They gave up everything to follow Jesus.
One phenomenon of the last few decades is the meteoric rise of what some call the “independent churches.” These are the churches that refuse to accept any denominational name; they bristle when we refer to them a Protestants, saying, “I am a Christian, not a Protestant”; and they are among the fastest growing churches not only in America but throughout the world.
What we believe they are missing is the connection with the Apostolic Church. Somehow in their world view the Church swiftly declined after the death of the last Apostle, and that they have somehow miraculously revived it in the last few years. They have no concept of history, no idea of how the Bible was compiled into a single book. It was indeed the product of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which defined the text of the Bible only in the fourth century.
On our part we treasure our apostolic roots. The church of Corinth, the church of Thessalonika, the church of Athens, the church of Jerusalem, and the church of Antioch that we read about in the New Testament are still living churches, and they are Orthodox Churches. Though church leaders have often displayed human imperfection, the Holy Spirit has always been alive and well in the Church. The martyrs of the ancient and modern church amply prove this. The generations of faithful likewise illustrate this.
What was the Church doing in those days? Today’s gospel says they were “teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and infirmity among the people.” I want to emphasize this last task, “healing every disease and infirmity.” Clearly the Lord was concerned with the physical well-being of the people that He encountered. One might say that He did so in order to grab people’s attention or in order to validate what He was teaching, but without a doubt He was caring for people.
After His Ascension into heaven, an argument happened that is recorded in Acts 6. The complaint was that some widows were better cared for than others. Obviously there was a social ministry going on. Three centuries later an opponent of Christianity known as the Emperor Julian the Apostate complained about his fellow pagans, saying, “It is disgraceful that when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galileans [i.e. Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us” (quoted in J. G. Gager, Kingdom and Community, pp. 130-131). Again, what do we see, if not Christians caring for the poor?
A few weeks ago we had a Parish Assembly I which we discussed at length a proposal to designate the proceeds of our Sunday trays to philanthropy. I have no wish to offend people who argued against the proposal; the specifics of this and any proposal are open to debate. What is not open to debate is that caring for the poor and suffering is a core ministry of the Church and has been since the beginning of Christianity. It is part and parcel of Christianity, and not something we do after the bills are paid and we have some spare change.
St. Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). We need to read on ponder stories such as the one we read today. It is necessary that we from time to time revisit the roots of our Tradition. When we do, we see that churches are by definition charitable and Apostolic. I leave you with the words of St. Paul taken from today’s epistle, “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”