“Discipleship—Our Greatest Joy”
Matthew 4:12-22
Recently, I read something about the elephant seal of Argentina.
Soon after giving birth to her seal pup, the mother seal will leave the pup on the shore in order to go feed in the waters off the coast.
After feeding, the mother seal will often become disoriented and return to a different part of the beach.
When that happens, she will start calling for her baby and then listen for a response.
Eventually, by following each other’s voices and scents, the mother and pup find one another.
You see, from the moment of birth, the sound and scent of the pup are imprinted on the mother’s memory, and the sound and scent of the mother are imprinted on the pup’s memory.
And, I think that is how it is with God.
We are imprinted with a memory of God, and God is imprinted with a memory of us, and even if it takes a lifetime, we will find each other.
I think we have an unfulfilled longing in this life—a longing to be with God—to be fully restored to the right relationship for which we were created—and we might not even be aware of it.
Before our Scripture passage for this morning Jesus, having been baptized in the Jordan by John, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And what the temptations have in common is they were aimed at having Jesus use His own status, as God’s Son, to launch some kind of movement that would bring Him worldly power, privilege and glory.
They were meant stop Him from carrying out God’s calling which was to give His life for the salvation of the world.
And the temptations we all face, day by day and at critical times of decision in our lives, may be very different from the temptations Jesus faced, but they have the same point.
They aren’t just simply trying to entice us into committing this or that sin.
They are meant to distract us, to turn us aside from the relationship with God and the path of discipleship for which we were born.
There are many voices in this world, telling us to go different ways and choose different things—but God’s Voice is calling us to come to Him—to do His will and fulfill His calling as those who are meant bring God’s love and light into this dark world.
And so, after having been tested, Jesus begins His ministry.
And He starts by preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
The word “repent” means to “change direction; go the other way; or stop what you are doing and do the opposite instead.”
Or in the case of the disoriented Momma Seal, “turn around—you are headed the wrong way.”
This past week, my sister Lisa asked me what angle I was going to take in my sermon for Sunday.
I told her I was going to talk about God’s calling on our lives.
Her response was, “Maybe you can try and put it in terms for a lay person to relate.”
“For instance, I know that ministers are called but how do other people know what a calling is?”
“How do you know that you are really being called to something or if it’s just in your head?”
I replied, “Well, it has to be God’s will for your life, and there are a lot of different voices calling us to do other things.”
“But those aren’t callings,” she said.
“For instance, God didn’t call me to go into Finance.
It’s a choice I made.”
Then I asked, “So, you are saying that a calling means only to do the good things God wants you to do with your life?”
“That’s right,” she said.
Well, I think she got it, how about you?
I understand that if you go to Galilee today they will show you a boat that might have belonged to Andrew and Peter, or perhaps the Zebedee family.
Back in 1986 it was found sticking out of mud when the level of the Sea of Galilee dropped in a period of dry weather.
Archaeologists lifted it clear of the sea bottom, cleaned and preserved it.
Now, in a special exhibit, millions of visitors can see the sort of boat Jesus’ first followers used for fishing.
It has been carbon-dated to exactly the period of Jesus’ life.
The boat is a vivid reminder of the day-to-day existence of Jesus’ followers—and what it cost them to give it all up and follow Him.
They were, in today’s language, small business owners, working as families not for huge profits but to make enough to live on and have a little left over.
And they were probably reasonably happy doing this.
It was what they always knew they would do.
They never expected to be doing anything else.
That is, until Jesus came along.
Walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John, “Come follow me.”
The amazing thing is that they immediately left their nets, their boat, their father, and followed Jesus.
And discipleship is just that: hearing God’s call and obeying it even if it means radical changes of direction in life.
Perhaps they were simply responding to what had already been imprinted on their souls from birth—the knowledge of the voice of God—so that when they heard the voice, they knew Whose it was.
Jesus called, they made the decision to follow.
I often wonder how many other people Jesus called who did not follow.
How many of us, today, are called but do not follow?
We may think to ourselves, “Oh, I’ll get around to it someday,” or “I’ll wait until I retire,” or whatever…
…but do we get around to it?
Life sure does fly by, does it not?
One of the requirements I did while preparing for ordination was to take what is called Clinical Pastoral Education, or CPE.
It is serving as a Chaplain in a clinical setting for a year and being evaluated by an instructor and your peers.
I worked in a Hospice Unit.
I spent most of my time speaking with and listening to persons who were near the end of their lives.
I spoke with a whole lot of folks who had a bunch of regrets.
But I never heard anyone say they regretted having followed Jesus.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the call to “follow me” is a call “to absolute discipleship,” and that only in surrendering ourselves to Jesus’ command can we know our greatest joy.
Don’t be afraid to give all you have for something infinitely more.
For me it’s a lifelong process.
It’s something I try and fail at all the time.
But, I think the more I follow, the more I inch forward to being more fully restored to God.
It’s been said that “sometimes Jesus’ call comes slowly, starting like a faint murmur and growing until we can no longer ignore it.
And sometimes He calls people as suddenly and dramatically as He called the first disciples.”
When Jesus first called Peter, Andrew, James and John I don’t think they had any idea where it was all going to lead.
“I will send you out to fish for people,” Jesus said.
What did they think it would mean?
Did they have any inkling that they would watch as Jesus healed multitudes—lepers, the blind, the crippled, the lame?
Did they have a clue that they would take part in feeding 5,000 people on a hillside, or watch as Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration?
Did they have the slightest idea that within a few years Jesus would be crucified, killed by those in powerful places and that He would rise again?
Did Peter and Andrew know they would end up being killed themselves for following Him and making other disciples—that is, fishing for people?
No, they didn’t.
God, in His mercy, reveals things little by little.
They didn’t have a clue about the glory or the pain that day when a young man walked by the Sea of Galilee.
They only saw Him and heard His call; and that was enough.
And it’s the same today.
Why does a person give up a promising legal career to become a preacher?
Why does a person become a missionary?
Why does another work in a homeless shelter or volunteer their time at a food pantry or in a ministry for middle school kids to go after school?
Why do people by the millions regularly give up lifestyles that look attractive and posh in order to seek to live with honesty, integrity, faith, hope and most of all—love?
The answer can only be found in Jesus Himself.
For the past week and a half my sisters and I watched our mother die.
It was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done, but I am so thankful I was given the grace to be there.
We were able to celebrate Communion together, laugh, cry and remember.
We were also given the opportunity to reflect on just how much we love our mother and what her life meant to us and so many others.
I don’t think my Mom would have thought of herself as a person who “fished for people,” but she did.
She did it through her devotion and love for Christ and others.
She did it by reading her Bible and the Upper Room Devotional along with her prayer list every morning.
She did it by her involvement in Christ’s Church.
She did it by visiting people who were sick, cooking and carrying meals to folks who had lost loved ones and giving amazingly insightful wise counsel—without even being aware of it—on what it means to love like Jesus.
And her faith became my faith, and I know her faith was also used by God to bring many others closer to Him.
And that’s what it’s about isn’t it.
Jesus calls out to us in many ways, but most of all, I think Jesus calls us through those who are doing their best to follow Him.
One day Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee and He saw two brothers.
They were casting a net into the lake, because they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me and I will send you out to fish for people,” and that is exactly what they did.
May it be that way for us as well.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake.
Amen.
