“Exciting Enough to be Contagious”
Matthew 4:18-22
Early last week I sat in my office and listened, for several hours, to a woman who lives in her van with her 32-year-old son.
She was probably about 50 but looked much older.
She had an extremely low view of herself, and had been abused by every man she had ever been in a relationship with.
She had spent a number of years living in various “tent-cities” in the Chattanooga area.
She told me that, having lived on the streets, she had been raped and left for dead on a number of occasions.
She has very little hope that things will ever get better for her.
She was talking about trying to get into an apartment that was going for $250.00 a month.
She said it was a terrible place with lots of drugs and gangs and violence, but she thought she might be able to afford it.
“What kinds of gangs?” I asked her.
She said that many of the young people are joining up with gangs such as the Aryan Nation and another one called “the Ghosts.”
She said that “the Ghosts” hate black people and gay people, and that the Ghost’s and the Aryan Nation gangs fight with one another and kill one another.
It was a very cold day as I helped get them some food and filled their tank with gasoline.
They would be sleeping, that night, in that beat-up old van with a heater that works—sometimes—if you hit a bump in the road just right, that is.
It can sometimes be quite overwhelming and perplexing when we look and see the many problems, complexities and horrible things going on in the world around us.
But that is the reason I am in the ministry—to try and make a positive difference in this world with my life.
How about you?
Why are you in the ministry?
Why are you a follower of Christ?
Nearly ten years ago, I became the pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church.
And we spent the first year or so really, really searching for our purpose.
Why had God placed that church in that location at that specific time in history?
We had a small evangelism team which would meet to pray and plan for an hour every week before Wednesday night Bible study.
And once a month that evangelism team would get together on a Saturday morning to knock on doors and take gifts to the people in the homes surrounding the church building.
For example, near Thanksgiving we would ask church members to bake little loaves of sweet bread, wrap them up real nice, and then we would take them door-to-door.
We did the same in December, but with homemade Christmas cookies.
In July, we would fill-up the back of a pick-up truck with cantaloupes and take them to folks.
The second year we did this with the cantaloupes—no one was home.
Here we were with a truck load of cantaloupes and no one to hand them out to.
What were we going to do?
Then, one person mentioned going to a nearby extended stay hotel, called the Superior Creek Lodge, and handing them out there.
When we got to the lodge, I was shocked that all kinds of young people with children came flooding out of the building hungrily grabbing up the cantaloupes.
In talking to folks, I came to find out that this hotel was where they lived.
Up to this point, I’d had no idea that people—whole families lived—full-time for years in run down hotels.
There were about 1,500 people living in the Superior Creek Lodge and within that number—100 to 150 were young children.
When we got back to the church, we looked at one another and said: “God just showed us our mission field!”
In a short-time we had an after-school tutoring, mentoring and feeding program up and running for the children of Superior Creek.
We also started picking up the kids for church and before we knew it we had 30 or so elementary and middle school children—with no parents with them on Sunday mornings.
We re-arranged the way we did everything in order to accommodate the kids.
For instance, adults became shepherds for the children in worship—having certain assigned kids sit with them each week.
Otherwise the place would have been completely out of control.
We totally changed how we did our children’s Sunday school program and we even had a group of church members who would come very early Sunday mornings and make breakfast for the children—most of whom had not had a real meal since lunch on Friday at school.
Soon, we were over at the Superior Creek Lodge helping out the folks nearly every day of the week.
We threw Christmas parties for them, and gave Christmas presents to all the kids.
We hosted free Thanksgiving dinners and weekly spaghetti dinners, and I could go on and on and on.
In the summer, when school was out we would make several hundred lunches a week to take over and hand out.
(pause)
Now, I’ve got to mention that East Ridge United Methodist Church was not a big church, nor was it a wealthy church.
Average attendance was in the 90’s to low 100’s.
And no one had a lot of money.
But we fast became known in the community as the church that “helped people.”
Eventually, we started making meals every Thursday that we would take out to the local homeless camps and also to the other extended stay hotels in the area.
We got to know all the prostitutes, drug addicts and mentally ill people in town.
It really made my faith grow.
I’ll tell you, we got more out of serving those folks than they got from us.
East Ridge United Methodist did a lot of other stuff over the nine years I was there, including opening a Food Pantry that now serves over 1,000 people a month.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because our Gospel passage for this morning is about following Jesus and fishing for people, and that is what we are all called to do.
And this world is so messed up.
And there are so many lost and hurting people.
And Jesus is the only hope for any of us.
After Jesus started His public ministry by preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” He immediately started to gather around Him a group of disciples, companions on the journey who would later form the Church.
In our passage for this morning, Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee when He sees two brothers—Simon called Peter and Andrew.
They were doing what they always did.
They were fishing—not for fun—but as a means of survival.
They were first-century fishermen who were not at the top of the economic food chain.
They were just regular folks—the working poor—doing the only thing they knew how to do…
…the only thing they expected to be doing for the rest of their lives.
Until Jesus found them and said: “Come, follow me and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James and John.
They were fishermen as well.
Jesus called them and they immediately left their nets, their boat, their father, their means of making a living, their life’s career and all their previous plans and followed Jesus.
They had no idea where Jesus was going to lead them.
But they trusted in the One Who sought them out and called them.
They trusted Him to faithfully lead them from what they knew and what was comfortable into what was unknown and many times uncomfortable.
And, in doing so, they became part of something much bigger than themselves.
They ended up in places they never would have imagined going, and doing things they never would have imagined themselves doing and sharing life, fellowship, service, and worship with people they would have never imagined themselves interacting with.
They joined something much larger than themselves and their lives took on a meaning and a purpose they never could have otherwise known existed nor was even possible.
And because they chose to follow Christ when He called, millions upon millions upon billions of people--all the way down to our very selves have been positively impacted by their decision.
Don’t you want to be a part of that?
I do.
A friend of mine was telling me about a time when she was ministering to children in a summer camp.
She asked the children to draw a picture of the church.
She assumed that the children would draw a picture of a church building.
But one eight-year-old girl din not “go along with the program” and stole her lesson.
She had five pictures drawn on her paper.
In the upper left corner, she drew a picture of a woman in bed with people surrounding her.
She explained that that was her grandmother in a hospital bed and the people around her were the pastor and members from the church praying for her healing.
In the upper right corner, she drew a picture of a can.
She said that there were hungry people in the world and God does not want people to be hungry so the church shares its food.
In the bottom right corner, she drew a picture of a group of children playing.
In the bottom left corner, she drew music notes with people of different sizes and of different colors.
She said that God loves all people, and the church gathers to sing thank-you to God.
In the middle of the paper, big enough to invade the space of each picture’s space and unite them, she drew a big heart—God is love, and we are called to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
When we make the decision to follow Jesus we enter into a way of knowing God and God’s reign that requires that we actually embody what we believe.
Following Christ is not a concept—it is a way of life, and the Church—that’s you and me—we are a means through which God works to fulfill God’s divine purposes.
The fact that Peter, Andrew, James and John left behind their nets, boats and fathers is an indication that discipleship is not cheap.
They left their old lives behind in order to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
It is the moment when things began to change.
And it’s the same for us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the call to “follow Jesus” is a call “to absolute discipleship,” and that only in surrendering ourselves to Jesus’ command can we know our greatest joy!
Is life a bit stagnant right now?
Do you have little hope that things are gonna get better?
Are you bored?
Are you tired?
Do you find yourself complaining a bit too much?
Are you missing out on being swept up into something bigger than yourself?
A week or so ago the current Pastor over at East Ridge United Methodist Church sent me a letter that had been sent in the mail to that church.
She put a sticky note on it which reads: “Thought you should read this.”
I want to read some of it to you this morning.
It starts with this: “I wanted to write you a letter to tell you how much your ministry meant to my family and I years ago.
Our family lived at Superior Creek Lodge.
Although I never attended your church services, I have for years remembered the light and love that your church showed of Jesus.
It has made a great impact on my life.
You accepted those often seen as outcasts in society and treated us as valuable human beings.
To live at Superior Creek Lodge was met with many hardships just from the physical address from which we lived.
I remember being turned down for car loans, apartment leases, and even had to get a special letter of occupancy to get a car registered in Hamilton County, all of these because of the address I resided at.
But your church loved us though it all…and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
My children, one a sophomore in college now at Appalachian State University serves at a Christian Camp for disadvantaged Youth and Children every summer.
And my now 12-year-old who was only in Kindergarten when we lived at Superior Creek Lodge have such fond memories of your Christian fellowship, your kindness, your church van coming to get them…
…of you being so excited to see them and calling them by name.
Your Thanksgiving meals prepared just for Superior Creek Lodge with transportation to get to the church will always have a special place in my heart.
I asked for two plates of left-overs one holiday and our family of four ate on them for two days—for that was all we had to eat.”
She goes on, “Thank you for teaching me and my children about Jesus.
Thank you for your kindness many years ago and the lasting impact you made in our lives.
I have come to be born again in Christ.
My faith in God and the way I live my life now has so much to do with what your church showed others about Christianity, Jesus and Faith.
We have moved away from Chattanooga and I am now making ministry bags with Bibles, my own testimonial of Christ, socks, snacks, water and even pet food to give to others who are in the position I was once in.
All because of what you taught others.”
Who knew what a day of giving out cantaloupes would lead to?
Jesus’ calling of the disciples is the beginning of the formation of the church—the community of men, women and children “called out” to be engaged in God’s mission in this lost world.
The church isn’t an end in itself, but rather a means through which God works to fulfill God’s purposes—and we are called to be a part of THAT!!!
Why has God placed Red Bank United Methodist Church in this location at this specific time in history?
What is our mission field?
Where does Jesus want to lead us?
What lives will be changed because of our decision to leave our nets, our boats, our whatever behind and instead go fishing for people?
I can’t wait to find out!!!
