Old Testament: Deuteronomy 7: 7-16
Psalm 95, 31*35
Epistle: Titus 2: 1-15
Gospel: John 1: 35-42
This passage of the Gospel of John describes the initial response of Andrew and another person to Jesus. While the other person is never identified, Andrew is specifically named, partly because he brings his brother, Peter, to meet Jesus. One of my reactions to this reading has always been to imagine that Andrew and Peter were best of friends. As an only child, I fantasized about how wonderful it would be to have a sibling and what a joy it would be to share that close bond with someone. Now that I am on the other side of childhood, I understand that sibling relationships are much more complex than they appear to outsiders. Still, Andrew’s desire to include his brother makes perfect sense to me.
Another reaction that I have always had to this passage is amazement at the spontaneity, or impulsivity, of the two people. The idea that someone would drop everything to undertake a major life change puzzles me. Most of my life has been spent thinking, planning, and acting carefully after much consideration. I’ve always known that I could not afford to make a financial mistake. That knowledge has guided much of my other decision-making as well. The importance of impulse control was underscored by my experiences working as a school psychologist. Over and over I saw that the children who had the most problems, academically, behaviorally, and socially, were the ones who did not stop and think before they acted. One of my colleagues and I began to work on ways to help children begin to “stop and think.” Yet this reading from John’s Gospel appears to encourage the opposite.
In a similar vein, I have always felt sympathy for the one steward in both of the parables of the Good Steward. The poor man is terrified by the possibility that he might make a bad decision with his master’s money and buries it. When the master comes home, he is furious with the steward. Surely the master didn’t want him to rush out and invest it with the likes of Bernie Madoff!
As I ponder the extremes of decision-making, I don’t come up with any easy answers. While God wants us to use the creation wisely, I think that we are supposed to use it and use it well. We were not created to be passive, reflexive beings. Our abilities and the abundance of natural resources at our disposal can result in miracles. Throughout human history, people have taken bold steps, often with great risk, to improve life. Marie Curie’s untimely death at the age of 66 due to aplastic anemia because of exposure to radiation comes immediately to mind.
On the other hand, I have seen many people in my lifetime make spontaneous decisions which have been destructive and beneficial to no one. Sometimes these bad decisions have been at a group level, such as the Branch Davidians or the Jim Jones followers in Guyana. Other times the effect is at an individual level — less dramatic but no less tragic. We know how the decision turned out for Andrew and the other apostles, but we can’t peer into the future and learn about potential consequences in our own lives. I will keep praying and struggling with this dilemma, probably for the rest of my life. It’s one of life’s challenges that keeps me engaged in “ the journey.”
Sharon Fugate
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