Sun 18th Jan Sermon

Sermon
I don’t know about you, but elements of today’s Gospel reading had always prompted feelings of surprise and perhaps even disbelief. I talk specifically about the line right at the beginning of the reading John 1:43, “come follow me” We can often overlook this simple phrase, or not give it much thought, but for me it raised more questions than it answered. If you read with this the passage in Mark 1: 16
“One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon£ and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 17Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 18And they left their nets at once and followed him.”
The call to follow is even starker. But what exactly am I getting at? Well my point of confusion is that those called to “come follow me” just did. No questions, no hesitation, no explanation and no handover period, they just did what Jesus asked. I don’t know about you, but that is a difficult concept for me to comprehend, you just don’t give up everything you have because some stranger asks you to. Ok, it is probably true that they recognised Jesus via his reputation, word would have been spreading. He had just been baptised by John the Baptist and declared the Christ by him, and John was a pretty well known character at that time. But even so, why would you give up everything for someone you know of only by reputation and word of mouth?
To explore this a little more fully and to perhaps shed some light on what to us may seem a little bizarre, we need to think about how the education system worked at the time of Jesus.
At about the ages of 5 or 6, most Jewish children were sent to the synagogue’s to start their education. They would spend their time learning the Tora, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Not only would they study them, but they would memorize them. From the age of ten, most students were no longer at school, but were at home learning the family trade. Only the best of the original students would continue in their education. They would spend a further 4 years memorizing the remainder of the Hebrew scriptures, by the end they would know off by heart Genesis through Malachi. Again, by this stage some would already have been deemed not good enough to continue and would be learning the family trade, but those that got to the end would be able to continue to the final and most exclusive stage. They would approach a Rabbi with whose ideals and interpretations they agree and apply to be his disciple. The Rabbi would spend time quizzing and examining the student, with the aim of determining whether the student could preach his ideals – in other words, can this kid be like me and do what I do. If the answer was no, they would return to the family trade, but if the answer is yes, he Rabbi would invite him to come follow me,. At this point the new disciple would leave family friends home and village and devote their time to being like their Rabbi.
So when Jesus approaches his early disciples and offers the words ‘Come, follow me’ he is saying I think you can be like me and do what I do, I chose you! Those were powerful words for the disciples to hear. They would have been through that early tuition cycle and faced the disappointment of not being good enough and being rejected. We know this because in all cases they are plying the family trade. So here was a Rabi of growing reputation approaching them and offering them the dream job, and paying them the highest honour by saying ‘I think you can be like me and do what I do’. It’s no wonder they dropped what they were doing and jumped at the chance!
This brings about the powerful, and life changing concept that God chooses us, no matter how worthless we think we are, God sees worth.
How do we apply this thinking to our lives today? In good Methodist tradition, I have three points to raise.
My first is how this relates to us personally. It is often difficult to accept what God is calling us to do. This could be for a couple of reasons – we may feel that we have more important thing to do at this time and can’t possibly do the job justice whilst we are getting on with this or that. We may also feel that God has made a mistake, he can’t possibly be calling me, there is no way I can do what is being asked of me. I am sure there are other arguments we could make, but most will have roots in either not wanting to give up our current lifestyle, or not feeling we are up for the job, whether that be because we don’t think we have the skills, or we don’t think we are worthy to serve. I personally have found myself in both camps at some point or another, and am sure I will again! For those that know Chesterton, my home Church, you will know we have a band in which I sing and play guitar. For a long time I fought against both jobs not thinking I was good enough at either to successfully serve God with them. I was of course wrong, now I am far from a great singer or guitarist, but I have skill enough to make a difference and use just what I can do to make a difference in my Church and community. I also tried all I could to avoid starting local preaching, I thought my life was already busy enough and I didn’t need something else. Todays reading and the subsequent unpacking, both challenges and comforts. We are challenged to respond as those first disciples did, with joy and eager to be like our Rabbi. Few will have to sacrifice quite so much as those first disciples in order to follow, learn from and be like Christ, we almost certainly wont have to give up families and friends, homes and belongings, but we might have to sacrifice something we enjoy in order to free up time to serve. But with the starkness of the challenge there is the comfort that God values us and our contribution, he chooses us when we may have been rejected elsewhere. He sees worth when perhaps we see none.
My second point related to the challenges we face as Church communities. We can often fall into the trap of running our Chruches in a nice comfortable manner. We know what we can do and we know those people that can do the things we can’t. This often leads to us settling into what we feel is a nicely run and happy Church. But how often do we see those on the fringes of our communities struggling to find a way to better serve. Or if approached with a request for service how often do we reject that so as not to rock the boat, or because we don’t think that person is right for the job? Today’s reading challenges us to see other people and what they have to offer as Christ did. He saw their worth and chose them for service no matter how they had been rejected in the past and not matter what position they held in their societies. This is not an easy thing to do, and not one that our current society is used to doing, but as Disciples of Christ – a people trying to be like our Rabbi – we must try and see people as he does. Our Old Testament reading today in which Eli helps Samuel recognise that God is attempting to speak to him helps highlight the role of our Churches in nurturing those less experienced and helping them grow in maturity – what would have happened to Samuel and the plans God had for him if Eli, in his maturity, hadn’t recognised what was going on. Or worse, had thought Samuel not ready and persuaded him he was hearing things? The same challenge exists today in our Churches today.
My third point is with regards to how the Church is perceived in the ‘outside world’. You often hear from people when asked why they don’t go to Church the words ‘Oh, I am not good enough to go to Church, some of the things I have done…’ Like it or not, there is amongst some a perception that you have to be perfect to be accepted by God. This is far from the message in the gospels, but one the Church has to find a way to deal with. How we go about doing this is not an easy question to answer, the Church can often amplify these feelings of inadequacy by sitting behind certain rules and regulations, often forgetting to love and accept people for what they are – that is perhaps the most difficult and the most important challenge our Church’s need to undertake.
So to conclude, I ask the following question – where is Christ calling you today and how will you respond. Do you have some personal sense of calling that you need to respond to but have been putting off for some of the reasons stated? Or do you have a heart to see all in our Church’s feel they have something worthwhile to contribute and grow in their Christian maturity. Or do you have a passion for those outside our Church walls, do you want to see them coming to faith and having lives transformed as they realise they are worth something to God? Whatever the questions we have to answer we do so with both the challenge and the comfort of today’s readings behind us. The challenge to respond when called to follow, and the assurance that we are worthy, Christ thinks we can be like him!

Amen