Matthew 4:12-13a, 17-23
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake ….. from that time, Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake--for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
In the earliest years of Christianity, as best we can piece together from what was written down, people gathered somewhat randomly, just from a need to share their feelings about the incredible things they had learned from and about Jesus. They were excited and wanted to hear more and so they came together to talk and tell their Jesus-stories.
But in any kind of spontaneous gatherings there will always be those who can’t stand the loose nature of such things and will begin trying to impose “order” onto the proceedings because we must have rules or we might do it “wrong.” And so the informal gatherings developed into a set liturgy, and with a set liturgy came a caste of leaders to “perform” the liturgy and the people gradually became the “congregation” whose role was simply to sit, keep quiet and listen.
With small variations this has remained the pattern for Christians down through the centuries. We came to church to “find” Jesus by sitting quietly and listening to someone else talk about God. We might sing a hymn or two or recite a canned prayer but this has pretty much been it until fairly recently (and still is in many, many mainline churches, I believe.) Somehow, “following Jesus” came to equal dressing up nicely and going to church for one hour each week. Somehow we came to the point where sitting in that church pew proved that we had found Jesus and were, therefore, good people.
But I wish someone would tell me how and where we ever got the idea the Jesus is the one who is lost and has to be found? And when we decided that the only place to find Jesus is in church (on the theory, I guess that God lives there)?
In today’s reading it is clear that Simon and Andrew, James and John were not in Temple or even the local synagogue when they met Jesus. They were at work, just like millions of people every day all over the world. And they weren’t looking for Jesus. And it was Jesus who found them.
As far as the story tells us, not only were they not looking for Jesus, we don’t even know if they knew who Jesus was. What we know is that Jesus found them and called them to come walk with him. And they left their nets and followed him. Because he found them where they were and called them to something different. And that something different changed their lives forever. They didn’t just go back to work. They became new people.
That’s how it works. I’m pretty sure that even if we think that we are setting out to find Jesus it is because Jesus has already called to us first.
People all over the world have heard that call and answered it in so many different ways. Many, I suspect, have been called but turned away in fear and pretended not to hear.
Writer Kathryn Matthews, writing on the UCC lectionary site, asks these questions about being found by Jesus – and I suggest they are very important questions that we might spend some time with:
But in any kind of spontaneous gatherings there will always be those who can’t stand the loose nature of such things and will begin trying to impose “order” onto the proceedings because we must have rules or we might do it “wrong.” And so the informal gatherings developed into a set liturgy, and with a set liturgy came a caste of leaders to “perform” the liturgy and the people gradually became the “congregation” whose role was simply to sit, keep quiet and listen.
With small variations this has remained the pattern for Christians down through the centuries. We came to church to “find” Jesus by sitting quietly and listening to someone else talk about God. We might sing a hymn or two or recite a canned prayer but this has pretty much been it until fairly recently (and still is in many, many mainline churches, I believe.) Somehow, “following Jesus” came to equal dressing up nicely and going to church for one hour each week. Somehow we came to the point where sitting in that church pew proved that we had found Jesus and were, therefore, good people.
But I wish someone would tell me how and where we ever got the idea the Jesus is the one who is lost and has to be found? And when we decided that the only place to find Jesus is in church (on the theory, I guess that God lives there)?
In today’s reading it is clear that Simon and Andrew, James and John were not in Temple or even the local synagogue when they met Jesus. They were at work, just like millions of people every day all over the world. And they weren’t looking for Jesus. And it was Jesus who found them.
As far as the story tells us, not only were they not looking for Jesus, we don’t even know if they knew who Jesus was. What we know is that Jesus found them and called them to come walk with him. And they left their nets and followed him. Because he found them where they were and called them to something different. And that something different changed their lives forever. They didn’t just go back to work. They became new people.
That’s how it works. I’m pretty sure that even if we think that we are setting out to find Jesus it is because Jesus has already called to us first.
People all over the world have heard that call and answered it in so many different ways. Many, I suspect, have been called but turned away in fear and pretended not to hear.
Writer Kathryn Matthews, writing on the UCC lectionary site, asks these questions about being found by Jesus – and I suggest they are very important questions that we might spend some time with:
What is in our hearts when we encounter a call from God, individually and communally?
- What's on our minds--what are we focused on?
- What do we hunger for, when we stop to think about the big picture of our lives?
- How does this kind of story (Jesus calling the first disciples) work today, in our lives and in the life of the church?
These are tremendously important questions for us to ask ourselves … and come up with some answers, as well. Being called by Jesus is, after all, not the end-point of our believer’s journey – it is the starting point. And most of us here have been followers of Jesus for a long time, but have we ever really thought about why and how?
Matthews has one more question that we need to look at honestly: How willing, she asks, are we to have our lives turned upside down by the experience of having Jesus call us to follow?
Think about it.
Matthews has one more question that we need to look at honestly: How willing, she asks, are we to have our lives turned upside down by the experience of having Jesus call us to follow?
Think about it.
One additional note -- We decided we love the following quote:
(Tyler Edwards, Zombie Church: Breathing Life Back Into the Body of Christ )
"The problem that we are facing in the church today is that we have so many Christians who have made a decision to believe in Jesus but not a commitment to follow Him. We have people who are planning to, meaning to, trying to, wanting to, going to, we just don't have people who are doing it."
What do you think?
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