Matthew 4:12-23
“Following”
January 22, 2023
Following ain’t what it used to be.
Currently, there are a couple of former presidents, a prime minister, 5 singers, a billionaire, and an elite athlete that make up the top 10 list of humans on the planet that have the most followers on Twitter.
Full disclosure – I am a follower of one of these 10.
Each of them has anywhere from 78 to 133 million fellow earthlings who find them compelling enough or entertaining enough to pay attention to the 280 character messages they generate with their thumbs, expressing their perspective on the state of the world or promoting whatever is their latest product or cause.
Following of this kind is pretty easy and probably not likely to change one’s life much, other than to sometimes become somewhat of a time waster.
Following these individuals, especially if one does not take the bait and respond with an opinion, is fairly safe except for adding more information out there in the cloud about one’s preferences which are a boon to marketing types and could come back to bite you if you were ever to want to join the FBI, the CIA or run for public office.
Why follow someone on Twitter?
Curiosity, connection to someone leading a life you admire or maybe despise, or it could just be a simple case of FOMO – fear of missing out.
Today’s account of Jesus calling to these men who make their livings on the water has so often been used to speak of making the choice to follow Jesus.
We hear of how these four dropped everything and set off to follow Jesus, when we don’t even know if they knew what they were doing, and we find ourselves saying “I don’t think I’m cut out to be that kind of hard core follower – walk away from family, job, friends, home and walk into the unknown – it’s beyond my imagining.”
And then we start thinking of those folks as saintly and otherworldly and we look at our flawed yet familiar lives and think, phew – thank God, I’m too ordinary and unremarkable – I’m off the hook.
I can just be a disciple from a distance because Jesus is never handpicking me for anything special.
But what if this story is not all about us.
It’s not about whether we have or don’t have the right characteristics Jesus is looking for.
It is not that we live an extraordinarily holy life, apart from all of the everyday mistakes and sometime self-centeredness that is the place most of us dwell day-to-day.
What if this isn’t about whether we can follow a specific path and thus be a model disciple, letting go of all of the pettiness and ambition and occasional greed that many of us have embodied at some point in our lives.
Instead of making this about us – let’s make it about God at work.
Barbara Brown Taylor calls this story the “Miracle on the Beach.” (Home by Another Way)
The practice of Jesus’ time was not one of evangelism.
The rabbis and teachers then did not go out and choose people.
Rabbis would have interested students come to them to be interviewed and then it would be determined whether they would be selected to be disciples.
And no self-respecting rabbi of the time would choose the first 4 men he saw.
Jesus did something radical.
He went out where folks were working and said, “Follow me” and the miracle of this story is that they did.
They’d never seen him before, had no idea what he was asking of them.
They didn’t make a decision.
This happened to them.
Jesus took them just as they were, probably stinking of fish and with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
He didn’t expect them to contort themselves into some form of perfect human being.
No, they came to him with whatever childhood had formed them, with the life experiences of working on the water, and with all the ordinary emotions we each carry.
When we separate ourselves as disciples and say, hey, yeah, I’m a follower of Jesus but I’m no Desmond Tutu or Mother Teresa, we are being harder on ourselves than God is.
God is calling each of us not just for what could be but also for our lived lives, all of those experiences that make us who we are right now.
As followers of Jesus, we’re being embraced for who we are, whatever that authentic part of ourselves is.
As one writer put it, “When Jesus promises to ‘make us,’ it’s a commitment to nurture us, not a threat to sever us from all we love.
It’s a promise rooted in gentleness and respect – not violence and coercion…Most importantly, it is a promise from God to us – not from us to God.” (Debie Thomas, 1/19/20, Journey with Jesus.net)
Jesus is inviting us to use our gifts to reflect that good news.
What gift – that authentic, natural, loving part of you – do you have to share so that others will know they are loved and valued for who they are.
What is your good news about the presence of God in your life comes through in your words and actions?
Following Jesus does not necessarily mean leaving everything behind.
It was for Andrew, Simon, James, and John but it means different things for each of us.
It will be a unique story for each one of us.
The fact that God has called us means we’ve already been made followers.
As followers, maybe we’re not meant to do more but rather to do whatever we do with more purpose and more appreciation and more mindfulness.
We’re mindful on this Annual Meeting Sunday of what we did this past year as individual followers who brought their gifts together to be church.
Some did that from home.
Some got a little sweaty.
Some shared of abundance.
Some created.
Some were behind the scenes.
Some were more public.
There was no one way of following Jesus last year and there certainly won’t be one way to be a follower this coming year – thank goodness.
We may be fishing in the same sea but we’re all bringing different gear.
Let us pray these words from Lutheran Bishop Kevin Strickland:
“God, who calls, summon in us the faith to go out with good courage and follow you. In that following, may our lives summon others into your light, and direct our steps into the way of your love. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.” (day1.org)