There is an urgency about all three readings today. Jonah gives the people of Nineveh forty days to mend their ways............or else! Paul is apocalyptic in his urgency: "Our time is growing short....the world as we know it is passing away." In our gospel extract, Jesus is now preaching in a new context: with the arrest of John, Jesus becomes acutely aware of Herod's growing determination to snuff out this movement. He preaches with a new-found urgency: "The time has come, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News."

Those who first responded to that invitation were fishermen. (In time other professions will have representatives). It has been the traditional assumption that Jesus called poor fishermen as his first helpers. "Follow me", he said, "and I will make you into fishers of men." But some contemporary scholars have called into question the traditional assumption that they were poor people, that they were for all practical purposes vagabonds. The biblical scholar, Raymond Browne, has written to the contrary. He has argued convincingly that, in the area around the sea of Galilee, fishing was a very lucrative business. Palestine had a long and lucrative coastline. The infrastructure of the Roman Empire provided them with healthy markets for their produce. The business was organised around families and clans. Many of these families had grown enormously wealthy in the trade. Browne argues that the fact that the first disciples were fishermen was evidence of their wealth rather than their poverty. Compared with shepherds and herdsmen, for example, fishermen were in a very different economic league indeed.

The biblical evidence we have of the call of the disciples would fit in with Browne's pattern. The scriptures make the point that these men abandoned family businesses. "Leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him." This wasn't a question of throwing the two fish back into the sea and trying out something else. This represented a whole change of lifestyle. And that change is brought about by the forceful conviction of the preacher, Jesus himself. And the skills that were required in their original profession will stand them in good stead in their new way of life: the patience and the hope that characterises every successful fisherman will be required too in their new profession as 'fishers of men'.

Conflict and division is rife where people gather. The first disciples were no different. They are very different personalities. Each one is burdened with his own unique set of limitations. Peter, the rock upon which the whole foundation stands, is tempestuous, erratic and given to violent outbursts. At one point Jesus declared him a spokesman for Satan. Peter of course would eventually deny the Master. Hence the call of the disciples is preceded by a call to repentance. If they are to bring about change in the world they must first change themselves. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we learn that the sons of Zebedee, James and John, were extremists. Jesus dubbed them 'Sons of Thunder'. Thomas famously called the whole project into question after the Resurrection. He was convinced it was all a grand con-trick. Simon the Zealot was an extreme nationalist, who opposed Roman rule. Matthew was a tax-collector, a supporter of Roman rule.

In short, the disciples chosen by Jesus represented the broad spectrum of human sin and frailty. Hence, the call to repentance precedes the call to discipleship. If they are to change the world, the disciples must first furnish evidence that they are willing to change themselves. And they furnished that evidence by abandoning their lucrative fishing businesses. In human terms the project was doomed from the beginning. But redemption rather than success was the aim of Jesus. Redemption is brought about because of sin, not despite it. This is the good new of Jesus Christ. His church is founded on human weakness. That suits most of us just fine!

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