If you ever have, or every thought of opening your own business, you know there must be a plan. And you probably discovered what most entrepreneurs know … starting a business requires some help… and almost always, its from their friends. (SLIDE)
How many remember when the Beatles sang “With a Little Help From My Friends” back in the 1960s? They probably didn’t realize it, but, they were expressing a concept that applies not only to social relationships but to business ventures, too.
Now I realize there are at least some of you here this morning that may remember the first part of that song… and it’s theme: “The song’s about getting stoned, as in ‘I get high with a little help from my friends.’”
That’s not the kind of help we’re talking about. (MOVE)
Rich Mintzer of Entrepreneur magazine says there are “four people every business owner needs.”
These are “four types of supporters who serve as emotional backers and/or advisers. According to Mintzer, the four types are:
• The Cheerleader: Cheerleaders are those who will rally behind an idea and provide encouragement, especially during the initial headaches of a business start-up… “Clearly, you need to have positive-thinking people around you at all times,” says business coach Marian Banker. “You’ll notice the word courage is in there, which is also something very important a cheerleader helps you develop.”
• The Role Model: This is the “follow me and do as I do” person. Watch this person, take mentoring from him or her, and you begin to see important principles at work. A role model could be a teacher or mentor. It could also be someone close to you, including family. Family members with a good work ethic or wise business insight can be worth their weight in gold in a growing business.
• The Expert: It’s always good to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you about certain areas. Experts provide the missing pieces for the new business owner who may be gifted in one part of the business but need help and advice in another. Experts fill in the gaps by asking questions that begin with, “Have you given any thought to …”
• The Techie: In today’s world, these are folks who are wizards with things: computers, communication systems, manufacturing, infrastructure and the like. Someone with the ability to provide efficient and timely technical support and advice can be a godsend in today’s business world. (MOVE)
While there may be other types of supporters needed in a start-up venture, the point is that it takes a team (SLIDE) to really be successful. (MOVE)
In this week’s gospel lesson, we see that Jesus is beginning a sort of entrepreneurial venture. But Jesus is not starting a “business,” and he’s not just some entrepreneur trying to make a buck. Jesus isn’t going to be your CEO to help you get rich. He’s doing something a bit more ambitious, like PROCLAIMING THE ARRIVAL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD (1:15).
In this scripture we see Jesus gather about Him… friends. He knew He need friends to accomplish His mission. And if Jesus — Son of the living God, God of God — believed this to be true, we’d better believe it, too. Jesus surrounded himself with a team… Yes, we can understand part of the idea of choosing 12 disciples was to provide a metaphor for a reconstructed and renewed 12 tribes of Israel.
None-the-less, the practical side of Jesus’ mission required the help and participation of others. He doesn’t wait for them to come to him but at the outset of his ministry spends time going after candidates, most who are nothing like himself.
So what kind of friend is Jesus looking for? Who are these “friends” of Jesus?
If the call of the first disciples is any indication, Jesus wasn’t looking for experts in religious discourse, cheerleaders who would be part of an entourage, role models of high moral character and religious piety or techies versed in communication theory and practice. He doesn’t go headhunting at the local synagogue or collect resumes from Jerusalem.
Instead, he goes to the lake shore that probably doesn’t smell real good. If you’ve ever been around a commercial fishing dock, you know what I mean. There is a distinct odor of fish, and it is here Jesus invites some fishermen to be on his team.
While the text gives us no indication of the specific roles Jesus was looking for in Simon, Andrew, James and John, we can get a clue at least about the basic character of the disciples he was calling and, indeed, still calls today.
Before we go there, though, we have to remember that any entrepreneurial venture worth its salt begins with a solid mission statement. (SLIDE) Here it is: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (1:15). The time is now, God is here, change your ways and believe the good news.
The announcement of the kingdom must have sounded both exciting and dangerous to those hearing Jesus by the Galilean lake. It was exciting because it meant that God was going to act decisively on Israel’s behalf, but dangerous because that meant a challenge to the prevailing Roman authority. In fact, for many first-century Jews, “kingdom of God” was a revolutionary slogan that foretold of a violent revolt against Roman power.
Jesus, however, used the slogan quite differently. For Jesus, the coming kingdom was a sign God was going to do something on behalf of all of creation, redeeming God’s people from sin, making outsiders to be insiders and decisively defeating evil and death. That was the “good news” that required a response.
Would you agree, it seems as though Jesus was looking for a response as he came to the lake shore. He was doing his own “fishing” for people when he came upon Simon and Andrew, and invited them to join him in his work.
James and John were next, leaving their undoubtedly astounded father by the boats with the hired help as they, too, set out after Jesus. Many readers of the gospels assume these fishermen were poor, destitute individuals with nothing to lose who follow Jesus to try and break the monotony of their everyday lives. This is a wrong assumption
A close reading of Mark reveals quite a different scene. The truth is that these four fishermen were likely quite prosperous. We learn later that Simon and Andrew had a house and an extended family. (Mark 1:29-31) James and John, along with their father Zebedee, were wealthy enough to be able to hire additional help for their fishing business.
Chances are that with this kind of background these men may have had some education. These weren’t desperate drifters with nothing to lose, but well-established businessmen in a culture where prosperity and family were everything.
Following Jesus, then, was no small disruption of their lives but a complete change of course. Throwing in with Jesus meant throwing out their security, their reputations and their livelihoods.
Do you think Jesus was looking for a cheerleader, a role model, an expert and a techie?
The political and religious establishment would come to think of him as a radical subversive — an ideological terrorist. But Jesus wasn’t looking for a weapons expert, bomb-maker, P.R. person and so on. Rather than looking for four specific role definitions, Jesus wanted people with just one primary qualification for discipleship: a willingness to follow, regardless of cost.
Yes, the disciples took on different roles as the group formed around Jesus. Simon Peter became the leader, spokesman and conscience of the group, John was the “beloved” disciple and closest friend of Jesus, Andrew may have been the hospitality coordinator, and so forth. Regardless of his role, however, each disciple shared a common trait: They said “Yes” to Jesus’ invitation, gambling their own futures on His vision for a new world.
It’s probably true; they didn’t exactly understand the ramifications at first. Mark is pretty hard on the disciples, who seem to be a bit slow on the uptake at times when trying to understand what Jesus was teaching them.
The courage they displayed that day on the lake shore turned into panic in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet they recovered by the resurrection and they moved the kingdom message out into the world, a move that cost most of them their lives.
Imagine Jesus walking into an office building, a factory or a grocery store and tapping a secretary, a welder or a checkout clerk on the shoulder saying, “Follow me.” Imagine the looks on the faces of his coworkers when the employee walks out, leaving the Penske file open, the doors of a new car un-welded and the groceries un-bagged.
We have a hard time comprehending that kind of response… and how many of us would probably chalk it up to some kind of cult-like mind control on the part of the spiritual guru making the call. We like the idea of religious devotion to a cause, but only as far as it doesn’t get in the way of our “normal” lives.
If that is our thinking, we miss the fact that Jesus is all about disrupting our normal lives. (SLIDE) Jesus announcement of the kingdom was a proclamation that everything was changing. Later, these same disciples would be accused of “turning the world upside down” through their preaching and activity in the name of Jesus (Acts 17:6).
Being a disciple means being willing to drop our own agendas for life and get on board with the kingdom agenda of Jesus. We’re not called to simply be advisers and supporters of Jesus, but true “friends” and investors who stake our lives and livelihoods on his vision for the world (John 15:14).
Whatever the job we’re working, Jesus challenges us to see our primary vocation as being kingdom people, spiritual entrepreneurs who are fully invested — body, mind, spirit, wallet, time — in that venture!
