January 22, 2017
1 Corinthians 1.10-18; Matthew 4.12-23
+ I know this won’t come as too much of a surprise to many of you.
Or maybe it will. Either way, I feel the need to confess this, I think. I have
never found this idea of “following” a great one. I know I preach a lot about
following Jesus and how a Christian is a follower. But, deep down, such talk
really grates on me at times. Being a follower in my understanding has never
been something I enjoyed.
I was never a follower. I’ve always kind of done my own thing. And
so when we come across this talk of Jesus telling us to follow him, I will do
it. I get it. I understand it. And I try hard to do it. But it has not been
easy for me at times.
And I can imagine if I had lived in his time, I would’ve been the
one who would have done so a bit reluctantly. I would have been the disciple
standing off to the side, with my arms crossed. I’d be there. I’d be listening.
And I would follow. But I’d do so
with a big of a drag in my feet as I did it. And you know what? That’s all
right.
The fact is, we don’t all have to follow Jesus in the same way. Some
of us might be enthusiastic. Some of us might…not. Following Jesus doesn’t mean conforming. It
doesn’t mean being a stereotype. It doesn’t mean I have to follow him the same
way you follow him. We can follow in our own particular way.
The key isn’t how we
follow him. The key is that we simply do follow in whatever we can. Following—and this is real point for me in all
of this—doesn’t mean conforming.
Which is what makes us, especially here at St. Stephen’s, so…how
shall I say it...eclectic. Notice that I didn’t say eccentric. Though we are definitely
that as well. And following Jesus in our
own unique ways sometimes means that there will be differences of opinions.
There are divisions in our churches and—I guess I don’t have to
really say this—there are divisions in our society right now. If you don’t think so—uh, where were you this
past week? We are divided. Even here this morning, there are diverse views in
our divisions regarding where we are in this country and society. And it’s
unfortunate that such divisions have to exist.
But, in our following Jesus, although there can variety, although
we can be eclectic, we cannot allow ourselves to be divided from each other. We
can have differences of opinions. We can argue about semantics. We can debate
the fine aspects of how to live our lives as Christians. But if we are
following Jesus, we cannot be divided from each other in our following.
“Has Christ been divided?” Paul asks this morning his letter to
the Corinthians. The answer, of course,
is no. Christ cannot be divided. And that same thinking can be applied to
Christ’s Church. Yes, there may be denominational divisions, or, as we are
seeing right now, political divisions or
even physical divisions, but the fact remains that the Church continues to be
the Church Undivided in even the midst of all the wrangling and fighting and
misunderstanding.
Even death does not divide us. We are also part of the Church that dwells now
in the nearer Presence of God. We are
living, at this moment—all of us—with a certain level of fear. In our lives, in this country of ours and in
the world. And it is a fear that can truly destroy and wreak havoc.
If we as Christians are to face what seems to be overwhelming fear
in our country, we need to be united. We cannot let these fears divide us. When we gather together—even two or three of
us—Christ himself and the whole Church, both here on earth and in the nearer
Presence of God is present fully and completely.
And the great reminder to us of this undivided Body of Christ is
baptism. We are sealed against division, against fear, against the forces of
darkness that may seem at times to prevail in this world by our baptism.
A few weeks ago I preached about how, in these waters of baptism all
of us were made
We are all equally loved children of God. We are essentially on equal ground under that
pall. We are all the same.
And, in so many ways, that pall represents baptism as well. Just
as the pall is the great equalizer at funerals, baptism is the truly great
equalizer in our Christian lives. Our
baptism—that singular event that made us Christians—is the starting out point
of our lives as Christians and the common factor in those lives. And just as importantly, that holy moment in
our lives was the first moment when we were all compelled to preach the Kingdom
of God. Without fear.
Yes, many of us are living in fear. But, our fears died in those waters in which
we were washed. Our baptismal call is to stand up—strongly, surely, and without
fear—to proclaim our equality before God. Without fear. To a large extent, what happened at our
baptisms was the first major step in our direction of being followers of Jesus.
It was the day in which we essentially
were called by Jesus , as Jesus called the disciples in today’s Gospel, to be
fishers of people.
Baptism is the first of many steps in following Jesus. And when we see that—when we see our following
of Jesus beginning at that very moment in our lives in which we were
baptized—we realize how following Jesus is truly a life-long experience.
In our collect for today, we prayed
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior
Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we
and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works…
That is what Baptism does. It
compels us to answer the call of Jesus and to proclaim to all people the Good
News of the Kingdom of God. And the
first volley of that proclamation began at our baptism.
In today’s Gospel, when we find Jesus and his first followers
going through Galilee, “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom,” we realize
that call to us to be “fishers of people” is not necessarily a call to holier-than-thou.
It is not a call to be exactly like everyone else in our proclamation. Proclaiming the good news and being fishers
of people might simply involve us communicating the truth of that reality in
our own unique way It means proclaiming Christ through our demeanor, through
the choices we make in our lives and the very way we live our lives. It means standing up for what is right in our
way. And it means doing so without fear.
If we do so in such a way, our whole life then becomes a kind of
walking sermon, even if we personally don’t say a word. And to a large extent this unique personhood that
we received from God was formed in the waters of baptism.
“Follow me and I will make you fishers for people,” Jesus said to
those first followers. And he continues to say that to each of us this morning.
So, let us follow him. Let
us follow him from the waters in which we were washed to whatever place he
leads us in our lives. Let us stand up for truth. Without fear. Let us not let
fear win out in our lives and in this world.
We are the ones who can stand up and fight against fear and
injustice and inequality by simply being who we are. We have nothing to fear. We have been formed and blessed in those
waters of baptism. As baptized followers of Jesus we are protected in a unique
and holy way. Let us go out and proclaim
this amazing message in our own unique and eclectic way. Let us fish for people
and let us bring in a hearty harvest. This is what it is all about. This is how we truly follow Jesus where he
leads. And knowing this—truly knowing
that—we can follow him with joy and gladness singing in our hearts.
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