January 27 Matthew 4:12–23 Called to Follow

 Someone said my leaving is like cutting the head off the church. I hope and pray that’s not the case. Remember that the leader we follow is not Jack Lohr but Jesus Christ. And he is not the leader who tells us how to move every finger and toe. As followers of Jesus we are nobody’s fools and everybody’s slaves. Corny Baker said Jesus asks us to trust God and to use all the gifts that God has given us. As Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me…” the statement of a dedicated non-victim! Just so, no one takes our life, our intelligence or our will from us.

Are you "Called to Follow"? Do you have a call? Do you understand that every person is called to follow God’s way by Jesus? Calling is not just for clergy, or elders and deacons. There is no two-tier discipleship in this Church! We say it as clearly as possible when we put on the bulletin cover: “Ministers: All the Members.” As Paul wrote to all the saints in Ephesus: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” (Ephesians 4:1)

 One of my favorite verses is in the gospel of John where Jesus tells his followers that they will do even greater things than he. (John 14:12) That’s the kind of head we have. That’s the leader to follow. Not someone who wants to keep us in our childhood dependency all our days. Jesus who himself grew up, and expects his followers to do the same. Jesus who said, “Why do you not decide for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57)

 Barbara Kellam Scott in this week's Bible study shared some materials from Warren Carter's comments in the New Interpreter's Study Bible that profoundly change the way I’ve seen these verses by inviting us to think about the social context of the people who were called by Jesus to follow him. It is remarkable!

 Jesus moves north to the small village of Capernaum, located in Zebulon and Naphtali. These are the names of two Israelite tribes with land allocations in the promised land (Josh 19:10-16, 32-39). Jesus is in the land that God has given, over which God should have sovereignty but now Rome claims that land.... Jesus heals people. The Gospel is full of sick people despite Roman claims to have blessed the world with good health. Roman control was hazardous for one's health. Rural peasants comprised most of the population. Their production was removed by heavy taxes imposed by Rome, by cities, by wealthy landowners, and by Jerusalem's priests. The elite supported itself on the backs of the poor! Hunger, malnutrition, poor hygiene, hard work, anxiety mean poor health.... In healing, Jesus counters the sinful effects of the imperial system, and anticipates the promised time when God's empire ensures blessings of plenty and health for all. (Isa 35:4-10; 58:6-14; Matt 25:41).

Albert Schweitzer has almost disappeared from the awareness of popular culture. Our children grow up never having heard of him. But his life of sacrificial discipleship could inspire our young people today. I urge parents and grandparents to revisit Schweitzer’s ethic of “Reverence for Life,” and tell stories about this dedicated and amazing musician, theologian and medical missionary.

According to Schweitzer, the Kingdom of God on earth was the goal towards which Christ taught his followers to work and pray. A world in which God's will would be "done on earth, as it is in heaven" was a world in which compassion, kindness and love were the rule. It was a world in which Reverence for Life, meant reverence for all living things.

Schweitzer said that the Christ who called men and women of his own time, is the same Christ who calls us to do the works of mercy and love today. "He speaks to us the same words, 'Follow thou me' and then sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time."

 Now I suppose this call, this vocation, like most of my sermons, can cut in two directions. There is a danger for some people in the church, to be too dependent. To defer to others who might know more, be better equipped theological words, have more experience, or in some other way seem to be more powerful. If that’s your kind of discipleship, you need to challenge yourself to look deeper into the gifts God has given you and use them. Others may not bring enough of themselves to the project of being and building the church. They are the ones who might be called lackadaisical. Who hold back from commitment, who don’t give themselves completely to the effort. Who see the church as one more club to which they belong. And if that’s your situation, you may need to be challenged to a deeper commitment.

 The preaching of the Gospel is intended to make a difference in our lives and in the world. My friend and mentor many years ago, the Rev. Dr. Alison R. Bryan, told me of going as a young banker to a service in Chicago led by Robert E. Speer. Something in his sermon touched Alison’s heart. He left the world of banking and became a missionary to India. That’s the call to follow! And it’s the call that comes to each of us. You don’t have to be missionaries to India, but to give our lives to a purpose greater than ourselves. To dedicate our energies to building something that will last longer than our own time on earth. It’s what Jesus did, gloriously, and it’s what we can do as well.

 The emotions in the choir anthem speak of a deep yearning that most of us might identify with. A yearning to enlist all of our gifts in the service of a great cause.

Barbara Kellam Scott tells me that it was a sermon I preached on this text 12 years ago that led her to follow a road less traveled, giving up her regular source of income to become a freelance writer. I find myself in these days identifying increasingly with Abraham who answered God’s summons to follow a call to places unknown. It’s one of those texts that truly can change a life! But it may also qualify as a “text of terror.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time"

 So… You’re all ministers. You have your own authority, because each of you is Called to Follow! The power of PCFL will be realized as the whole community comes together, with each of you saying YES to your call.

 I pray, invite, and challenge you to hear your call in these words from the closing paragraph of Albert Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus:

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is. AMEN.