Midweek Lenten Vespers
Wednesday, February 13
Transferred to Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
Follow Me: The Call to Discipleship (Matthew
4:18-22)
Today we begin a series of five messages based on the
Follow me sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
We were going to start this series this past
Wednesday night, but the ice kept that from happening.
So we begin today, and then were back on schedule
for this coming Wednesday.
Follow Me: Jesus Calls Us to Discipleship is our
series theme. Note: Calls us. For as we hear
Jesus calling disciples in the first century, he is
also speaking to us in the twenty-first century,
saying to us even now, Follow Me.
Our first entry in this series has to do precisely
with The Call to Discipleship, as we hear it in our
text for today, Matthew 4:18-22:
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two
brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishermen. And he said to them, Follow me, and I
will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left
their nets and followed him. And going on from there
he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee
and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their
father, mending their nets, and he called them.
Immediately they left the boat and their father and
followed him.
Today I want us to consider three points about The
Call to Discipleship: 1) The call comes from Jesus;
2) The call is surprisingly simple; and 3) The call is
profoundly transformative.
First, the call comes from Jesus. By that I mean, the
initiative lies all with him, not with us. Notice how
the direction of the call goes: While walking by the
Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers . . . casting
a net into the sea. . . . And he said to them, Follow
me. . . . And going on from there he saw two other
brothers . . . mending their nets, and he called
them.
The direction is all from Jesus to the ones he calls.
Jesus went walking and he found them. He saw them
when they were just going about their business, not
looking for him. They didnt do one darn thing to
merit or earn his attention. There was nothing about
them that was so special. They didnt seek Jesus. He
sought them. And he said to them, he called them,
Follow me. It was all at his initiative.
In his book, Follow Me: Discipleship According to
Saint Matthew, Martin Franzmann writes:
Jesus takes the initiative and calls the disciples.
In many respects the circle of disciples gathered
about Jesus was no startling novelty in first-century
Palestine: In the terminology of rabbi and
disciple, in the fact that they followed their
Master. . . . But in this point, in the genesis of the
circle of disciples, there is a striking difference.
In rabbinical circles the initiative in discipleship
lay with the disciple. Take to yourself a teacher,
is the advice given to the aspiring disciple by a
Jewish teacher. . . . We have no record of a call
issued by a Jewish rabbi to a disciple in all rabbinic
literature. . . . What in Judaism was the pious duty
of the disciple is here the sovereign act of the
Master. . . . Jesus reserves the initiative for
Himself.
As with those first disciples, so also with us, Jesus
disciples today. We didnt seek him. He sought us,
and found us, and called us to be his own. Jesus said
he came to seek and to save the lost. That was us.
We were lost, lost in our sin and darkness, and we
didnt even know it. Like those first disciples, like
all the lost people in the world today, we were just
going about our everyday business, casting our nets
and mending our nets, but unable to mend our
relationship with God. That net was torn beyond
repair, and we couldnt fix it. Thats what it means
to be lost, lost in sin and heading toward death,
eternal death apart from God.
But then Jesus comes walking. He sees us, he finds us
where we are. He speaks to us, words of life and
forgiveness, because it is the call to come and follow
him. Jesus calls us in the gospel. He called you in
your baptism, when you didnt do a darn thing to
choose him. You were dead, and he brought you to
life. You didnt decide to follow Jesus. He chose to
call you.
The call comes from Jesus. The initiative lies all
with him, not with us. Jesus chooses us, we dont
choose him. Its like we will sing later on in the
hymn:
Lord, tis not that I did choose Thee;
That, I know, could never be;
For this heart would still refuse Thee
Had Thy grace not chosen me.
So the first point, the call comes from Jesus.
Second, the call is surprisingly simple. By that I
mean, it is surprisingly simple in its content. Its
just Jesus saying, Follow me.
Suppose I wanted you to get from here to my house.
There are two ways I could give you directions. Here
is one way:
Go north on Summit St. three-tenths of a mile to Hwy.
47. Turn right and go three-tenths of a mile to Hwy.
67. Take Hwy. 67 north 23 miles to I-55. Go north on
I-55 19 miles to Exit 193. Get off the interstate and
take a left onto Meramec Bottom Rd. Go two-tenths of
a mile till you get to Kerth Rd. Take a right and go
north on Kerth Rd. eight-tenths of a mile till you get
to the Karamar subdivision. Turn left on Karamar Dr.,
go two-tenths of a mile--it winds around--till you get
to a stop sign. Thats Melissa Jo Ln. Take a right,
and were the third house on the right, 4749. Got all
that?
OK, thats one way to do it. Heres another way: Get
in your car and follow me. Thats it. Just, follow
me and youll get there. No complicated formulas.
Pretty simple. Follow me.
Well, thats kind of what Jesus does when he calls his
disciples. The call is surprisingly simple in its
content: Follow me. Thats it. Follow Jesus, come
after him. Not a lot of complicated directions to
remember. Just one person to follow. Follow Jesus,
keep on following him, and you will get to where you
need to go.
To be sure, the disciples will find out more, a whole
lot more, along the way. They will grow in their
understanding of what all is involved in being
Christs disciples. But at its heart, the call is
essentially and surprisingly simple: Follow Jesus.
Stick close to him. He is the way.
So it is for us. We follow Jesus. We follow him in
faith. We stick close to him. That means being where
he continues to speak to us, which is in his word.
Through the preaching and teaching of his word,
through the administration of his sacraments, Jesus is
here, with his church, speaking to us, leading us
onward. We follow Jesus through the church year,
every year, from his birth to his public ministry to
his passion to his return at the last day.
Discipleship is very personal. It means being
attached to Jesus. He leads, and we follow. Jesus
takes us where he is going. He will lead us through
our daily lives, he will lead us to that neighbor in
need, he will lead us all the way to our home in
heaven.
Which leads us to our third point: The call to
discipleship is profoundly transformative. By that I
mean, it is transformative in its effects. The call
changes things, profoundly. It changes the direction
of our life.
Look how that happened for the disciples, Peter and
Andrew, James and John. They were going about their
business, casting their nets and mending their nets,
for they were fishermen, it says. Then Jesus comes
and calls them, Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men. The impact, the effect?
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
And again, Immediately they left the boat and their
father and followed him.
Whoa, thats pretty dramatic! From fishermen to
disciples to fishers of men! And to leave their
previous lives behind so immediately! Is that how
it goes for us? Well, yes and no.
No, in the sense that not all of us are called to be
fishers of men like Peter and Andrew and James and
John were. They were not only called to be disciples,
they were called to be apostles, which is like pastors
on steroids. There aint no more apostles! Now there
are pastors, but not all of us are called to be
pastors. But all of us are called to be disciples, to
follow Jesus, and that will indeed change things for
us.
It changes things for us, first of all, in that it
gives us life! We were dead, but now we are alive, in
Christ! For to follow Jesus is to see him go to the
cross, where he suffers and dies for all his failing
and faltering disciples. By his blood, the holy,
precious blood of the sinless Son of God, all our sins
are forgiven, and we are washed clean. The net is
mended, that torn net of our relationship with God.
Jesus mended it for us, made it right. Now we have
life, now we have hope, the sure hope of everlasting
life. That is the most profound change that comes
with following Jesus. It changes the entire course of
our eternity.
And it changes things even now in our daily life. Now
we are disciples of Jesus, and our life takes a new
direction. Now there is something more to do in our
lives than just fishing. That doesnt necessarily
mean we run off and go to seminary, although that can
happen. But the call to discipleship does transform
our daily life, even if we stay in our current
occupation. Our vocation, our calling, is
transformed. It changes, even if it doesnt
change. Get what I mean? You may still be a
commercial fisherman, or an auto mechanic, or a
retiree, or a mom, but now your life is different,
even if it outwardly looks the same.
Now you know you can lead a God-pleasing life within
your ordinary vocation. You can serve God and serve
your neighbor as a mechanic or a mom, and your work is
accepted as good work before God. Thats because it
is cleansed by Christ, proceeds out of faith in him,
is animated by the Holy Spirit, and serves as a
channel of the Fathers love and blessing toward
others. Thats the new and different direction that
our lives take as Jesus disciples. We dont need our
works to climb our way up to God. God came down to us
in Christ and his completed work does it all for us.
Now we are free to give away our good works to our
neighbor who needs them. The love of Christ flows
through us to others.
For those original disciples who were also apostles,
for Peter and Andrew, James and John, the call to
discipleship meant being fishers of men as fulltime
preachers and apostles. For us, for Josh and Laura,
Jim and Lisa, the call to discipleship means living
out our vocation wherever God may place us. Now that
can include also our individual part in the churchs
task of casting the gospel net. It can mean
supporting the gospel outreach with our offerings. It
can mean inviting our friends and neighbors to come
join us here at church, where they too can hear the
good news for them, where Jesus will speak to them and
call them also to follow him. Hey, its all good!
So this call that comes from Jesus does transform our
lives, profoundly, both in the way we live now and in
the life we have waiting for us forever.
My friends, today we have heard The Call to
Discipleship. The call comes from Jesus. The
initiative lies all with him. The call is
surprisingly simple in its content. Its simply Jesus
calling us to follow him. And that call is profoundly
transformative in its effects. It changes our lives
now and gives us a life that will last eternally. So,
disciples of Jesus, keep listening during this Lenten
season, as our Master calls us, day after day, Follow
me.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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