“Follow Me”

A Sermon Based on Matthew 4:12-23

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, January 22, 2023

In 1997 there was a government research scientist specializing in groundwater. A colleague contacted him to ask if he would like to go with him to Haiti as a volunteer to put in a water well for the town of Saint Michel, north of Port-au-Prince. The 70,000 people who lived there had no good source of drinking water, except the Guayamouco River, which was polluted. As a result, water-borne diseases were rife, and many children died every year of preventable diarrhea. The scientist went with his colleague to Haiti and they put in the well. Of course, one well was not enough for so many people, but it helped. People lined up from sun-up to sun-down to get clean water.

A year later, the same friend called again. Could he help with a well in Bassin-Bleu, in northwestern Haiti? The Catholic priest there saw that his people had no good source of drinking water and was asking for someone to come and drill a well. Again, the scientist went, and again, he helped drill the well.

As the first water was pumped out, it ran over the ground, creating a large puddle. The priest, in his black robes, began to dance in the water, splashing it all around, praising God that his prayers for his people had been answered.

You may have figured out that the research scientist was my husband, Joe, at that time a hydrologist working for the U.S. Geological Survey. Nineteen short-term mission trips later, he realized that God was calling him to provide clean water for people who had none. So, he quit his government job and we moved to the Central African Republic. Well, it wasn’t quite that simple, but that is where Joe’s calling led us – and my calling, too, but that’s a different story.

 Frederick Buechner, author, Presbyterian minister, and theologian, wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet,” in other words, where your skills and what you really enjoy doing intersect with the needs of the world.

I wonder what Peter, Andrew, James and John thought when Jesus called them to follow him.

What deep need caused them to leave everything and answer Jesus’ call? Did they believe, as John the Baptist had said, that he was the Messiah? Did they think his teachings might hold the answer to their questions about God? Were they just curious or merely excited at the prospect of doing something new, seeing new places, meeting new people?

We’ll never know exactly what went through the fishermen’s minds that day when Jesus called them by the Sea of Galilee, but they followed him. I wonder how many people Jesus might have called who just looked at him and said, “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong person, Jesus. Maybe I’ll follow you later - when I’m not so busy.” These guys, Andrew, Peter, James, and John didn’t say that – that’s why we know their names now, almost 2000 years later.

Jesus still calls people today. And, like the first disciples, we can still choose to follow him or to ignore him and go the other way. But in order to follow Jesus, like them, we must leave some things behind. We must be willing to go wherever he leads, no matter what the cost. Otherwise, we cannot be his disciples.

What did the fishermen leave behind in order to follow Jesus?   Peter and Andrew “left their nets.” James and John “left the boat and their father.” To follow Jesus they had to leave behind their livelihood, their wealth, their security, even their family, at least for a while. They had to learn to depend on God. They had to take on a new identity: fishers of people, not of fish; followers of Jesus Christ.

Theologian Justo Gonzalez, writes: “…Simon, Andrew, James, and John must abandon their nets. In and of themselves, nets are good. They provide food and livelihood. But in this case these four men cannot follow Jesus unless they leave their nets behind. To carry their nets with them would make no sense….They would be completely useless along the roads of Galilee and Judea…And the boat!  Can you imagine them trying to cart a fishing boat up and down the roads of Galilee?”  Dr. Gonzalez goes on to talk about how we, too, when we decide to follow Jesus, must “[leave] behind those things that will become a hindrance or that will be entirely inappropriate for the path we are taking.” Of course, those things might not be possessions, but attitudes and habits. For example, we might need to leave behind anger, impatience, or pride. Right before he called the four fishermen to follow him, Jesus was preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Before they followed Jesus, perhaps they had been thinking about what they needed to repent of.

They might have needed to leave behind their fear – even though it’s a scary thing to set out on a different road, doing something other than fishing. But if Jesus is with us, we don’t need to be afraid. After all, the Psalm says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

What is Jesus calling you to leave behind in order to follow Him more closely? Maybe Jesus has not called you to literally get up and leave family and possessions behind, as he called these first disciples. Yet, if Christ’s call does not re-order our priorities, if following Jesus is not more important than anything else in our lives, we cannot claim to be his disciples. Years ago, at a retreat, I remember being challenged to examine my priorities in life: “Look at your agenda and your checkbook,” said the speaker. “What do you spend your time on?  What do you spend your money on? 

The answers to those questions will reveal your priorities.” Not that we need to spend all our time and money in church – just that we need to examine our priorities and see if they are in line with how God would have us live our lives. Are our priorities those of a follower of Christ? 

 But what does following Jesus mean?  How do we follow Jesus?  For the first disciples, it was simple: literally go wherever Jesus went and do whatever he asked them to do. Not that this was easy; it meant beginning a new, radically different life - a difficult, and even dangerous journey that would lead to a cross. Yet their choice was clear: follow Jesus or stay put. Become a fisher of people or remain a fisher of fish.

It isn’t as easy for us today. We say we follow Jesus, but do we?  Where would Jesus go?  What would Jesus do?  Where exactly is he calling us to follow?  Some say, “It’s all spelled out in the Bible.”  But is it?  The Bible doesn’t tell us what job we should take, or where we should live, or even which church to attend. It’s easy to understand why some people prefer a church or a religion that tells them, in black and white, “do this,” “don’t do that,” but is following a set of rules what being a Christian is all about?

Others would say that responding to Jesus’ call is simply praying a prayer: confessing our sins, and accepting Christ as our Savior. Well, that’s a good start, but it’s only the first step. Following Jesus is more than praying a prayer.

I recall when, as a thirteen year old, I first heard Jesus’ call clearly. When a friend invited me to her church, I heard that I could ask Jesus into my heart and he would forgive my sins, and I would become a Christian. That sounded like what I had been looking for, so I did just that. But that night I also made a promise, a promise to follow Jesus for the rest of my life, and to do whatever it was that God wanted me to do. And now, looking back on that experience over fifty years ago, I think that promise is what really made me a follower of Christ. For it is in the lifelong struggle to follow Jesus that one truly becomes a disciple.

Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal Church – best known for speaking at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding – wrote: “Being a Christian is not essentially about joining a church or being a nice person, but about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing helping to change the world from our nightmare into God’s dream.” 

The promise I made as a teen, to do whatever God wanted me to with my life, has led me here, to this pulpit today. But it is not necessary to be a pastor to follow Christ. God leads us each on a different path, according to the gifts and talents given us. We all have a place in God’s kingdom. God doesn’t call a pastor. God calls a people. God calls some of his people to be pastors. God calls others to be accountants, nurses, teachers, mechanics, administrators, housekeepers, scientists. God even calls some to be lawyers, despite all the lawyer jokes we hear to the contrary. No calling is higher than any other. None of us has any greater or lesser part in God’s kingdom due to our calling, but we all have a place no one else can fill. And all of us are called to follow Jesus, and to reflect God’s love in our lives, wherever we are.

One final point: God never calls us to an easy task. Otherwise we would need no calling. We can easily amble through life, without much of a purpose. It takes a certain amount of thought and discipline to ask ourselves: what does God want me to do?

 – not just with my life as a whole, but here, today, now. On the other hand, this call is a gift: it gives our lives eternal significance in what sometimes appears to be a meaningless universe.

Nearly two thousand years ago Jesus walked the shores of Lake Galilee, looking for those who would accept the challenge to follow him. Today we hear his call anew. Like those first disciples, we can say “yes” to Jesus. Or, we can ignore his call and stay on the sidelines – after all, it’s safer there, or so we think.  This world holds many illusions of safety – illusions that are far more easily shattered than we would dare to imagine. It may be that the safest place, or at least the place where our lives can make the most difference in this storm-tossed world, is found in following the footsteps of Jesus, even if those footsteps lead to a cross. Amen.

Curry, Michael. Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus, Morehouse Publishing, 2013.

Gonzalez, Justo. When Christ Lives in Us: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Abingdon Press, 1996.

Deborah Troester © 2023