“Following Jesus”

  January 30, 2005

Scripture Reading: Matthew 4:12-23

Rev. Dr. Carol L. Kerr

Blue Point Congregational Church

 

Done anything impulsive lately?  I have.  On Wednesday morning when it was -5 degrees out,  I was sick of my feet being cold.  So, I impulsively called Lands End and order shearling slippers.  I didn’t order just one pair.  My feet were really cold.  I ordered two different kinds, clogs and moccasins. 

Done anything impulsive lately?  You know those little balls of Swiss chocolate that is sold at the cash register at Borders books.  70 calories, but who cares?  Buy one and pop it into your mouth.  These are small impulsive things and there are bigger impulsive things.  Did you ever go to the animal shelter just to look, and you come home with a dog?  Or, someone might impulsively skipped work and go skiing.  Just couldn’t stand the idea of facing their boss that day. 

We all do impulsive things.  It’s part of being human.  But, in society being impulsive is usually seen as bad, or as lacking discipline.  In psychology we have a name for it, “impulse control disorder” which we say with a scowl.  Us parents spend years trying to get our teenagers to quit acting impulsively.  We say things like: “Do your homework first.  Then play.”  “Think!” or “You did what!  You took our car out into a raging blizzard in order to get a pizza?!”  “What were you thinking!?”   When we say someone was “impulsive” it is not a compliment.

However, in today’s scripture reading there is no other way of describing the disciples except for completely impulsive.  As Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew casting a net into the sea.  They were fishermen.  Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”  Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 

That’s it.  This is a no frills passage.  Matthew does not attempt to prepare us for the fishermen suddenly leaving their nets.  He does not attempt to explain why they did it.  Simply, Jesus said, Follow me. And they followed him.  How impulsive is that?  They didn’t ask a single question of Jesus.  They didn’t ask where he was going.  They didn’t ask what exactly did he mean by “fish for people.”  They didn’t ask what was the job description and the parameters of the operation?  Who knows?   Jesus spoke and they obeyed. 

When we bring new members into our church I say something like this which is from the Book of Worship that our denomination puts out.   These persons have found nurture and support in the midst of the family of Christ.  Through prayer and study they have been led by the Holy Spirit to affirm their baptism and to claim their covenantal relationship with Christ and the members of this church.  We like to make sure that no one can find anything impulsive going on when they decide to become members of the church.  The language of the recommended service seems to stamp out any hint of a sudden urge on the part of new members. The implication is that there were yards of prayer and study and nurture and support rendered carefully over many years.  Finally after talking to the minister for hours about the translations of Nicene Creed, the person maturely agrees that they should become a member. 

However, if the disciples back then were to have a new member service for them the words would have had to go something like this, These persons having never thought about it before that moment were unaccountably led by the Holy Spirit to drop everything that they were doing, their nets, fishing, their families, everything and follow Jesus who they hardly knew….So let us who are members of the local church, all who are able to stand, and affirm our mutual ministry…

We wonder in amazement at the disciples impulsivity.  How could they do such a thing?  Were they nuts?   Back then too it was highly unusual. At that time it was unusual for a rabbi to ask people to follow him.  What usually happened was that students would seek out a rabbi and ask him if they could follow and learn from him.   Because it was so unusual and impulsive today and back then the gospel is trying to tell us something by the drop-everything-right-now approach.

What could be good by the disciples responding so impulsively?  We may begin to understand if we look at the one last thing that we all accept as often impulsive yet we celebrate it, sing about it, write poems about it, and acclaim it as one of the best things that can happen to a person.  This is falling in love.   The eastern mystic Rumi writes that for lover, In the sight of love fear isn’t even as great as a single hair:  in the law of love everything is offered as sacrifice.  Bystanders who know people in love will think that they are crazy.  They think that lovers have their feet firmly placed in mid air.  But, lovers don’t care.  They are answering to a higher truth that they alone hear.

There is even the amazing phenomena, “love at first sight.”   Anyone here fall in love at first sight?  I recently met a couple who got engaged on the first date.  Here they were about 35 years or more later, still going strong.  I fell in love at first sight.  When I first met Dave we were going to a movie with a bunch of friends.  He was in the front seat and I got into the back seat.  I only saw the back of his head and thought to myself, “Gee I would really like to marry that guy!”  Go figure.  I have no idea what about the back of his head brought on such strong feelings.  Being the rational person I am, I probably would not have accepted if Dave had asked me on the first date, although I did think about it.  I would have held out to three or four dates.  In fact, he didn’t ask me until three years later.  He was so slow!!!

Matthew in the gospel is trying to say that there is something about following Jesus that is a lot like falling in love even love at first sight.  The disciples felt something grab them that came from outside of them.  Something stronger than who they thought they were came along.  In the gospel of John it says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.”  (Jn 15:16) 

During college orientations the college officials and faculty often say something to the effect:  We are here, students, to teach you to think for yourselves, not to accept ideas just because someone says that you should.  You have to make your own choices, determine your own values.”  The message of the whole culture is “It’s up to you.  There’s nothing you can count on, nothing you can trust, rely on, turn to, or are accountable before – except yourself.”  As much as I love thinking for myself, and want people to think for themselves, there is something in discipleship that is not about our thinking for ourselves.  It is about being chosen.  There is something in discipleship that is not about our determining our own lives, and being the captain of our own ship.  It is about putting ourselves in the hands of an Other and seeing where we are taken.  Anyway, it is not true that we are completely in charge of our own destinies anyhow.  Life happens.  Alone isn’t enough. We run into things, feel broken,  become lost.

One of my favorite Peanuts Cartoons starts with Lucy at her five cent psychology booth, where Charlie Brown has stopped for advice about life:

Life is like a deck chair, Charlie, she says.  On the cruise ship of life, some people place their deck chair at the rear of the ship so they can see where they’ve been.  Others place their deck chair at the front of the ship so they can see where they’re going.    

The good “doctor” looks at her puzzled client and asks, which way is your deck chair facing?  Without hesitating, Charlie replies glumly, I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded. 

It is as if someone came along to Charlie Brown and said, “Forget the view from the back.  Forget the view from the front.  Follow me and I will take you to the highest deck and we will look at the stars.”  Charlie Brown would drop that deck chair and go.  There was something exciting the offer.  There was something adventuresome.   There was something outside of himself that was bigger than he was the stars.  After all, he couldn’t figure out the dumb chair anyhow. 

The person who wrote the gospel of Matthew was trying to say that discipleship is about answering something that is greater than you are.  Sure there might be times of careful consideration, thoughtful analysis.  But, discipleship is more than that.   It is something like falling in love at first sight.  Something in your soul resonates with something in Jesus.  When it does the stuff that you struggle with all day long, even the stuff that you think is important now, will seem not important, maybe even trivial, certainly more boring. 

The disciples were lucky because Jesus walked by them and said, Follow me.  But now days, Jesus doesn’t do that for us.   So how do we hear the call?  C.S. Lewis said the sign posts to God are feelings of joy.   C.S. Lewis is the author of many books on Christianity, and the children’s book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which the children are using for Sunday school the next 7 weeks.  I agree with Lewis.  Joy is a lot like love.  It comes upon us from somewhere outside of ourselves.  It reminds us that we are related to something great whereas before we were unrelated.   We also do impulsive things when we feel joy.  That is we will suddenly blurt out some sort of praise.  We will spontaneously say something like, “Yes!” or “How beautiful!”  or  “Wonderful.”  Ziggy, in the cartoon, was one time looking at a fabulous sunset from the top of a high cliff.  The sky was a cosmic kalaidescopic dance.  Ziggy had his arms outstretched and the caption read, “Go God!”  Ziggy felt joy.   Ziggy impulsively praised God. 

In the Bible there are over 400 instances of joy, joyfulness and rejoicing.  Most of them are in the context of spiritual joy.  Joy is a byproduct of the life with God.  The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8:10)  Restore me to the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:21)  Even creation joins its voice in joy, all trees of the forest will sing for joy (Psalm 96:12)  The mountains are called on to “sing together in joy.”  (Psalm 98:6)  There is a deep power of joy by demonstrating it to be more constant and more enduring than any adverse circumstance.  ‘So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and you hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” 

I bet a lot of us didn’t join the church by careful study.  I bet there was something impulsive about what we did.  I bet somehow we felt a twang of joy at the thought and so we went ahead and just did it.  The joy could have been packaged in different ways.  We liked the stained glass window or the sound of the organ.  Perhaps we were looking for something not sure what and we felt bigger a funny good feeling about the church.  So maybe the words to one new member service should not be so staid and plodding along like everything was wrapped up tightly when the person decided to become a member of our church.  Perhaps the words for one service should go something like this, This person after thinking about joining our church was more confused than ever.  So they went to sleep and went for a walk on the beach.  Looking at a star fish they suddenly thought the world is beautiful.  They said, “Wow!” and threw the animal back into the waves.  That is when they thought, “What the heck, I’ll join.  Creation is amazing.  The God who made this must be amazing.  I’ll see where it takes me.”  In fact, they are standing here and can’t quite believe that they are doing this.  But something bigger than them is moving them.  Some might call it joy, some call it love.  They still are just saying, “Wow!” and “O.K.!”    We like to call it the Holy Spirit.  So let us who are members of the local church and who are able to stand affirm our mutual ministry.  Let us remember the times we impulsively decided to follow Jesus too.

Done anything impulsive lately?  How about following Jesus?