Matthew 4:12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 "Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." 17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 18 As he 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. 19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
There was once a young
woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the
question on the application that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being
both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the
application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter
from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms
reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are
accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one
follower." (S.
I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases)
We tend to talk a lot in the church about leadership, especially
at the first of the year when new committees are forming, or days like today
when we have a leadership retreat this afternoon. As the chairperson of the
nominations committee I can tell you that many of you in the church can relate
to this woman’s anxiety because I often hear it when I ask someone to take a
leadership role. The person responds, “Oh, I’m not a leader!”
Well, it turns out, that is ok because before any of us can be
leaders we must first be followers.
Last week we began a new sermon series called The Great
Invitation and for the next several weeks we will explore just what it means to
be called by God. Last week we recognized the invitation is first, come and see
who Jesus is and today we find the invitation expanding to follow Jesus, but
what does that really mean?
We live in an age where invitations are filled with high
expectations. Think about it, most of us lived in a time when if you wanted to
take someone to the prom you asked them in the hallway on your way to class or
if you were too shy you slipped a note in their locker. Now an invitation to the
prom is expected to be more grand than a marriage proposal. They call them
“promposals.”
If asking someone to the prom requires limos and sky writing
airplanes it would seem that inviting someone to dedicate their life to
following Christ should be even more glorious but oddly enough, in Matthew’s
gospel, it feels more like the old days of simply asking while passing in the
hallway.
The story Matthew tells us is intriguing. Jesus, ready to begin a
ministry that will rock the world and bring salvation to all, doesn’t seek out
the most educated, prominent people with which to build a ministry team.
Instead, he goes to Galilee of the gentiles and selects fishermen. We can
surmise from other biblical texts that their accents give them away as working
class Galileans; men the educated and prominent would look down on.
Yet, walking along the lakeshore Jesus sees something in these
men. Matthew doesn’t bother to tell us what that is. He gives us no hint that
they even knew who Jesus was before he called to them that fateful day.
“Follow me,” he says, “I will make you fish for people.” Did
they even know what that meant? I seriously doubt it. I also doubt that if
Jesus had hit them up front with the news that following meant they would
sacrifice much, they would be persecuted and ridiculed and in the end be
martyred or exiled – well, I doubt they would have dropped those nets so
quickly.
I would imagine that if Jesus had called and said, “Follow me
and I will make you a great leader, and you will build a church that will serve
the world for centuries to come” they probably would have laughed and said,
“But we aren’t leaders, we don’t know how to do any of that.”
Perhaps therein lies the problem with our understanding this
scripture and the invitation to follow Jesus. We try to associate that call
with what we DO, what we can offer, what services we can render, what abilities
we have. In that case, we see Jesus as the master headhunter walking down the
beach looking to fill up his leadership list with capable employees.
What if, however, we could see that Jesus isn’t that interested
in what we DO? What if his first invitation to us is simply to BE? What if the
invitation is simply to be His…to be God’s child…to be loved….to be showered
upon by grace and mercy.
What if his invitation to follow is heard as, “Come as you are and
together we will be something new.” I think what Simon Peter, Andrew, James and
John really heard was, “Follow me, because I love you, because I want you with
me, because you belong.”
The great invitation to follow isn’t issued because Jesus needs
us. Jesus doesn’t need more soldiers for his army, or more team leaders in his
operations division. The call isn’t given because of what you can do for Jesus;
it is issued because of what Jesus can for you.
Jesus went after men and women who recognized God’s invitation
to be more that they were. Remember Matthew was a tax collector, one of the
most hated of professions, seen as a puppet office of Rome. Jesus called
Matthew and said come and be loved by me. The woman at the well who had been
tossed back and forth by men her whole life and was filled with shame – Jesus
said, you are more than your reputation, be mine. How about Mary and Martha? Martha
always “doing” but Jesus said Mary chose the better way. Mary chose to simply “be”
at the feet of Jesus. Jesus invites us all to be more than sick, more than
outcast, more than dead…God’s invitation is to be God’s beloved.
For me, that is one of intentions of Sabbath. It is why I
believe it is important to come to worship each week. It calls us to
intentionally take time out of our lives to just “be” in the presence of God; to
recognize that we are God’s beloved children and to give honor to God as our
beloved parent.
This certainly doesn’t mean that “doing” doesn’t eventually
become part of following Jesus. We will see soon enough in Matthew’s Gospel
that it does. The initial call to follow, however, isn’t about what you will do
for God, it is simply the love note slipped in your locker that says, “I love
you, do you love me?” if so, go with me, follow me, let’s be together.”
So today I hope you will hear the call to follow as an
invitation to belong to Jesus – just as you are – for no reason other than he
loves you, he wants you, and he invites you.
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