Are You Prepared to Follow Jesus?

January 22, 2023 Matthew 4:12-23 Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A Are you prepared to follow Jesus? Opening Song Welcome Call to Worship One: As we come together to worship God, we remember Many: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, One: and for those who sat in the shadow of death, light has dawned.” Many: In the light, our joy is increased! One: The weight of our burdens is relieved, Many: and we offer thanks to the Lord, our God! (Disciples of Christ, Center for Faith and Giving) Opening Prayer Mighty God, we rejoice today like those who celebrate an abundant harvest! Your actions lift us up. As the days grow longer and we’re drawn closer to you, we eagerly anticipate seeing signs of your Realm, the kin-dom of heaven, coming near. Cue in us the joy of our salvation. Renew our desire to repent – to turn once more toward your love, made visible in the light of Jesus. AMEN (Disciples of Christ, Center for Faith and Giving) Song Jesus Calls Us UMH 398 Children’s Sermon Greet the children, bringing up some fishing equipment. Hello, children of God! You know what? I think I would like to do some fishing. Have any of you ever been fishing before? What do you need to do when you fish? I have with me some equipment that people sometimes use when they go fishing. (Hold up items as you discuss) So here is a fishing “rod”: you put some kind of “bait” on the end, and then you hold it until a fish comes along and bites at it. Then you turn this crank and try to reel it in! Here’s another kind of item you might use…it’s a net. This kind of tool might make it easy to scoop up fish if you had a lot of them in one spot. Sometimes people use really big nets to pull in fish. This was probably how people used to fish in the times of Jesus, in fact. They had huge nets that they would toss into the water to see what they could pull up. Here are some pictures of boats that might help people catch fish. So why are we talking about fishing? Well, here’s another question: have you ever been fishing for people? Wait, how does that work?? Can you catch people in a net?? (pretend to “catch” one of the students) That seems strange… But you know what, in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus invited His disciples to be fishers of men. He met a man named Peter, who had a fishing boat. Jesus began to preach from the middle of the lake, right on this boat! Then He told Peter to put his nets down to catch fish…Peter tried to explain that he hadn’t caught any fish all night, but he followed the directions of Jesus and put his net down again. When he did, he caught more fish than he could even carry! This made him realize that Jesus was something very special, was SomeONE very special. Peter bowed before Jesus. He was willing to do whatever it might take to follow this teacher. Peter left his fishing boat and his old job in order to become a disciple. Jesus told Peter and his brother Andrew that they would become “fishers of men.” This meant that He was going to use the former fishers in a special way. They would be gathering more followers for Jesus, and would serve people and help people just like Jesus did. Would you like to be a fisher for disciples? You can! Instead of sitting by a lake or scooping up fish in a pond, you can be a fisher by telling others about Jesus. You can share His love by loving others. Jesus wants us to tell everyone about Him and “make disciples” for Him. We can be fishers of friends! This is an amazing blessing and privilege that we have from God. We can still work at regular jobs, of course. But we can also spread the love of Jesus and “catch” other people to be part of God’s family! We need to be willing to follow Him, and encourage others to do the same. Why don’t we say a prayer about that now? ________________________________________ Children’s Prayer Moment (Have kids repeat each line) Dear God, Thank you for the love of Jesus Help us to follow Him and know what that means. Help us share His love with one another. Thank you that we can be disciples, too. Thank you for your love. We love you, God! Kristin Schmidt, Ministry to Children Prayer of Confession (Isaiah 9, Psalm 27,1 Corinthians 1, Matthew 4) God of our light and our salvation, sometimes we prefer to live in dakness, embracing the safety and anonymity of the shadows; sometimes we delight in our divisions, believing we are better than others; sometimes the yoke of our calling feels too heavy, and we seek to slip out from under the bar across our shoulders. Forgive our fear. Forgive our aversion to the light. Forgive our unresponsiveness to your call. Forgive our willful blindness and deafness to the Way. Help us know deep in our souls that you are our light and our salvation, our joy and our wonder, our very life. Hear us as we cry aloud in our need. Amen. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Joanne Carlson Brown) Words of Assurance (Psalm 27) Our God of light and love hears us when we cry aloud. We have nothing to fear. Know that this God of light wraps us in comforting arms, lifts us from the darkness of our guilt and sin, and forgives us once and for all. Know that we will dwell in safety in God’s house, now and forevermore. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Joanne Carlson Brown) Passing the Peace of Christ (Psalm 27) Greet one another with these words: “The God of light and love and salvation surrounds you with joy and peace.” (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Joanne Carlson Brown) Prayer of Preparation (Isaiah 9) Open the eyes of our hearts, O God, to the dawning light of your words of love and salvation. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Joanne Carlson Brown) Scripture Matthew 4:12-28 Sermon Are you prepared to follow Jesus? The key words to our sermon today are fishing, followers and fascination – fishers of men, followers of Jesus and then there is fascination. There was a woman who was the director of a drug rehabilitation center. One day a tall, strong man with a baseball bat entered the reception area. He was shouting obscenities and began banging the bat on the secretaries desk and the admitting personnel. They jumped back and tried to get as far away from him as possible. One ran into the back room and called the police. The woman who directed the center came our and walked right up to the screaming man waving the bat. She ducked under his reach wrapped his arm around his chest. In a heartfelt voice she repeated, oh you poor man. They stood together in that strange embrace for a while, and then the man began to sob. The woman led him to a chair. He slumped into it and waited for the police. He never let go of the baseball bat. That woman’s courage must be a fascinating story. I suspect she may be a follower of Christ. We can be also. In new testament times, people must have had that type of fascination with John the Baptist. – They wanted to know what was in him that made him so bold, so determined to meet a goal, what made him so able to cut through the chase. They were so fascinated with him that they flocked to the desert to see him. Even Jesus was drawn to his charisma, his ministry, his command to repent. No one knows why – but all of the gospels writers agree that Jesus never started his ministry until John the Baptist was arrested. Perhaps it was out of respect, perhaps out of fascination that Jesus waited. Of course when Jesus did go out and begin to tell others about the Kingdom of God, that fascination for John the Baptist – transfers to the ministry of Jesus. People were naturally drawn. Last week John the gospel writer talked about 2 disciples, today Matthew mentions 4 – Andrew, Simon, James and John. They all literally walk away from family, job, destiny and follow Jesus. Jesus tells them to put down your nets, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. In Israel, on the Lake of Galilee, there is this popular tourist sight called Peter’s boat. It was dark by the time that we got there, so there was not much to see. I just remember this old boat in the middle of the lake that was covered in mud. This was supposedly the place where Jesus first met Andrew and Simon Peter. Right next to the lake is a restaurant – I think it’s called Peter’s Place. There specialty is Peter’s catch of the day. I don’t remember what kind of fish it was, but I do remember that it was fried, really tasty, but way too big to eat all of it. But seriously, Jesus encourages us all to become fishers of Men. Fishing Takes Practice Ernest Hemingway loved fishing as much as he loved writing. He would never have been a great writer had he not fished, and he would never have been a great fisherman had he not written. Maybe his great work "The Old Man and the Sea" is so powerful because it is at one time so dramatically simple and also so dramatically deep. But "The Old Man and The Sea" is only one of Hemingway's great stories about fishing. His favorite saying apparently was this-something he learned while fishing and writing: Il faut (d'abord) durer. "It is necessary, above all else, to endure. It is necessary to endure," he said. Yes, fishing remains one of the great models of Jesus for the kingdom of God. Maybe our age and culture are in danger of losing the image because we no longer go fishing - just like we no longer herd sheep and know what a shepherd is. We no longer plant seed in the ground and know what growth is. We no longer draw water from wells and know what living water is. Fishing also teaches us about discipline. "Follow me, and I will make you fishers," said Jesus. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline. One must learn how to best throw the net, how to make the mouth of the net come open too. I can throw the actual cast net a long way, but I can't always make the net come open so that it will actually form a circle around the fish. One must learn how to cast the line on a rod. Again, some folks can cast a long way, but their accuracy is awful. There may be fish on the right, but they know only how to cast the line to the left. There may be fish on the left, but they keep casting to the right. Casting, like discipleship, is an acquired habit. It rewards practice. Samuel G. Candler, Follow Me, and I Will Make You Go Fishing Not all of us know how to fish, but we can all follow Jesus. I think it is Max Lucado who tells the story of loving to fish with his father. Follow Me There was a field covered with freshly fallen snow. A father and a son enter the field. As they walk across the field, you notice that the father pays no particular attention to where he is going, but his son, on the other hand, follows directly behind, making a special effort to step in his father’s footprints. After the two have crossed the field, you notice that there is only one set of tracks visible in the field, although two had walked across it. The Christian life is that way. In our daily walk we ought to be following Christ's example. Whether in times of suffering, sorrow or need, whether in times of health, joy, or abundance--if someone were to observe the snow-covered fields of your life, would there be one set of tracks, those of Christ? Or would there be two sets, one belonging to Christ and the other distinctly yours? Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993, p.53. Adapted What does it mean to follow Jesus now, when we cant physically follow in his footsteps, even though his spirit is with us? We can be inspired to do his will, to make the world a better place and to draw others into the fold. Not all of us have been fishing but we can all fish for men. Fishers of Men (Witnessing) Most of our witnessing is likely to happen in passing moments of conversation--those occasions when we show, in relatively minor ways, who we are and to whom we belong. I think of a suburban woman who was playing tennis with her good but quite secular friends. In a conversation break between sets she began referring to something she had read that morning. It would have been easy to say, "I read something this morning." Instead, with no attempt at piosity, she simply introduced one word: "In my devotional reading this morning." It was not a major soul-winning engagement. It was, however, a true sowing of seed. By a word, she had opened the door for some further conversation. Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ’s fishermen is that we are not enough in earnest to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so possessed of the idea that we must say something dramatic and far-reaching that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the language of our lesson for the day, most of us really don’t act as if we even have a call to "fish." We’re out in the waters of human need every day, but we don’t seem to know it. The issue is not that we should become more aggressive about sharing our faith. It is that we should be more sensitive to the needs of the world around us, and more sensitive to the subtle prodding of the Holy Spirit. The two sensitivities are wonderfully intertwined. To be sensitive to the Holy Spirit must mean that we will be more sensitive to people and their pain; to be more sensitive to people ought to make us more open to God and his purposes. J. Ellsworth Kalas, Reading the Signs, From Empty Nets to Full Lives, CSS Publishing Company In the age of COVID we all know what essential persoel are – but do we realize that in the church, we are all essential. It takes all of us to become fishers of men. Jesus invites all of us to come and follow him every day. Karl Barth who says that we should preach the gospel every day, and if necessary use words. Remember Christ in our actions. Our key words for today – fishers, followers and fascination. Someone defined a disciple as someone who is so fascinated with another person that they want to know everything about what makes that person tick. Are you fascinated with Jesus? Jesus was bold in life and in ministry. How can we live on the edge like he does. A Job vs. A Ministry Someone has said there is a huge difference between having a job at church and having a ministry at church. ... If you are doing it because no one else will, it's a job. If you are doing it to serve the Lord, it's a ministry. ... If you're doing it just well enough to get by, it's a job. If you're doing it to the best of your ability, it's a ministry. ... If you'll do it only so long as it doesn't interfere with other activities, it's a job. If you're committed to staying with it even when it means letting go of other things, it's a ministry. ... It's hard to get excited about a job. It's almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry. An average church is filled with people doing jobs. A great church is filled with people involved in ministry. Mickey Anders, The Beginning of Ministry Someone else said that being a disciple is making a decision – a decision to be in ministry to Christ in every things and in every place. I often wonder what would have happen had Jesus invited Andrew and Simon to put down their nets and come and follow me and become fishers of men and they said no thank you – I have work to do. None of us would be here today. We are all confronted, called and consecrated by Christ. Let’s all follow Christ – if nothing else – it will be an adventure. Peace Song Lord You have come to the Lakeshore UMH 344 PRAYER OF THE PEOPLE God of unity, We come before you dismayed at our own divisions. We have struggled as your church to live in unity; but we are divided – along the fault lines of our societies. The ruptures in our families, among friends, among denominations, among nations are wide and deep. When we attempt to get on the same page, we build taller walls and dig deeper trenches. God, help us! We know that Christ is not divided. We know that it is your baptism to which we have been called. It is your service to which we are compelled. You have called us to proclaim the gospel, but we even fight about what that is. Help us, God! Help us give up our power and our privileges. Help us to yield for the sake and cause of the cross of Jesus. Help us to want the unity you share, for you are one; in you, there is no division. Help us to embrace and to live the foolishness of a life emptied of power and given to service, in the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us to walk in salvation – in the name of the servant Christ, amen. Carolyn W. Dandridge, The Africana Worship Book, Year A, Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiyah Fosua, eds., (Discipleship Resources, 2006), 85. Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Sometimes I wish the Gospel writers would have described the call of Jesus’ disciples in more detail. It’s difficult to comprehend how these followers were able to hear Jesus’ invitation and respond in such a radical way. Did they “count the cost” of leaving their homes, families and businesses? What made it worth giving themselves so completely to following this wandering teacher? Jesus did not offer them an expense account, a time-share, or any indication how he would help meet their basic needs. Yet these people “left the boat and their father, and followed (Jesus).” In comparison, for most of us, the call to follow Jesus demands much less. And yet…when we take seriously the call to become a disciple, we cannot know all the ways that will affect our life. Today, I invite you to take a deep breath and imagine what it could mean for you in 2023 to be a full-time disciple of Jesus. Might it mean sharing more of your time? Your talents? Your treasure? Might it mean inviting your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, to join you in following the Way? As we offer our tithes, offerings and financial gifts today, may we channel our inner Simon and Andrew, James and John! Imagine the joy in heaven as we, too, accept the call to “FOLLOW”. Prayer of Thanksgiving O God, through offering these gifts, may we become a more open people— open-minded in hearing your word and wisdom, open-hearted in healing a broken world, open-handed in heeding your call to charity and enacted love. With thanks for all good gifts, we present these tithes and offerings as symbols of our whole selves. Amen. (adapted from William Flewelling, Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook (Based on Matthew 4) Jesus, the light of the world, calls us to follow. Go and tell the news of God’s love. Cast the nets of grace wide, that all may see the glory of God. Go forth and shine with God’s light! May God—Source, Word, and Spirit— bless you with the radiance of love. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Mary Petrina Boyd) Community Time Benediction Recognize the greatness within and around you. Follow Jesus out into the world to spread the radiance of Christ, to proclaim the good news, and to be instruments of healing and wholeness. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay) Additional Illustrations The Art of Following - Matthew 4:12-23 If you’re my age or older you may remember Homer and Jethro. They were a comedy team who specialized in country music parodies and satire. They were sometimes referred to as “the thinking man’s hillbillies.” One of their routines went like this: HOMER: Jethro, if you was to win the Irish sweepstakes for two million dollars, would you give me half? JETHRO: Why, Homer, you’re my best and closest friend. You know I would. HOMER: I do know you would. That’s what friendship is all about. HOMER: Jethro, if you had two big luxurious houses like those ones in the Beverly Hills and I was livin’ yonder under the bridge without no home, would you give me one of your big luxurious houses? JETHRO: Homer, you’re my best and closest friend. You know I would. HOMER: Yessir, we’re best friends. Didn’t I know you’d say that. HOMER: Jethro, if you had two prize winnin’ Holstein cows and I had nary one, would you give me one of your cows? JETHRO: Homer, you wouldn’t even have to ask. You’re my closest friend and you know I would. HOMER: Jethro, if you had two really great huntin’ dogs... JETHRO: Hold on a minute, Homer. I got two huntin’ dogs. Homer and Jethro knew that charity is easy to idealize but hard to practice. I saw a routine like that played out in the area of theology and religion when I was in seminary. The professor was lecturing on the gospel of Luke and he had come to the third chapter where we find John the Baptist’s sermon to the people of Jerusalem. _________________ A Problem of Presentation Jesus came preaching that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What was there about that kingdom that got these fishermen so excited? And why are we not just as excited? Maybe we don't understand what the kingdom is. Or maybe it just hasn't been presented very well. It reminds me of a woman who read somewhere that dogs were healthier if fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day. So each day she followed the same routine. She chased her dog until she caught it, wrestled it down, and managed to force the fishy remedy down the dog's throat. Until one day when, in the middle of this grueling medical effort, the bottle was kicked over. With a sigh, she loosed her grip on the dog so she could wipe up the mess. To her surprise the dog trotted over to the puddle and begin lapping up what had been spilled. THE DOG LOVED COD LIVER OIL. It was just the owner's method of application the dog objected to. Sometimes I think something like that has happened to the good news of the Kingdom of God. It has been so poorly presented to us that we have never been captured by its attractiveness and its power. King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com Essential Personnel Even if we live where it rarely snows, the phrase is a familiar one. When budget talks collapse and the government shuts down, this is the phrase that is trotted out. When the earth suddenly moves under the people of California, often a certain group of people are called out while the rest are told to stay at home. When tornadoes blow through the Southwest and disrupt everything in their course, only certain people should risk the dangers involved. These are maintenance people, road crews, ambulance drivers, fire fighters, electric and gas company workers, truck drivers, and a whole host of service people who are taken for granted when things are running smoothly. We call them "essential personnel." Think about that phrase. Think about what it means to be essential personnel. Then, if you want to be humbled, think about what it is like to be non-essential personnel. Consider the fact that the world can go on without some of us. The good news is that in the church we are all, or at least all can be, essential personnel. We are called to be a special group of people and to do some important things. William B. Kincaid, III, And Then Came The Angel, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Turning Toward the Light A little boy named Bobby entered his first science fair in second grade. Because his Mom has a green thumb, they decided to experiment with the growth of plants. He took two small green plants and placed one on a sunny windowsill and the other in a cardboard box. After a couple of weeks, Bobby checked on the two plants. The one on the windowsill had grown a couple of inches and had vibrant green leaves. The one in the box had actually grown a bit, but it had lost all of its green color, becoming almost white and its leaves drooping. Thinking that the plant might die, Bobby cut a hole in one side of the box, like this, and set the box, with the plant inside, by the windowsill … with the hole facing toward the incoming light. Well you know what happened … but Bobby was so excited by this discovery! Yes, over the course of a few weeks, the plant began to grow out through the hole! And, a couple of weeks later, it turned to grow up toward the light and even blossomed! The plant that had been in gloomy darkness … and was all but dead … had seen a great light, it turned toward that light and blossomed! Well, Matthew wrote … after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ … and therefore with the full realization of who this man of God was … he wrote that the Light had certainly dawned on the people by the sea, the kingdom of heaven had definitely come near; it had dawned and come near in the person of Jesus Christ … in the personified love and power of God that makes people … different … alive! Robert K. Schneider, Follow the Maker. Adapted by Brett Blair,www.Sermons.com Commentary Jesus lived three years with his disciples. They went everywhere together and did everything together. They ate, slept, and breathed the life of Jesus and yet it was difficult for them to make the transition in their minds from a Messiah who would be a mighty King of Jews to a Messiah that would die for the sins of mankind. But Jesus never wavered in his mission. Throughout his entire ministry among the people and his training of the disciples he held in his heart this hope: That Peter along with the rest of his disciples would lose their earthly ambitions and become feeders of sheep--fishers of men. The very first words of Jesus when he and Peter met at the waters was, "Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men." His very last words to Peter, again down at the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and after his resurrection, were, "Feed my sheep, Follow me." Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com ______________________ God Reigns Archbishop William Temple wrote in 1930: While we deliberate, God reigns; when we decide wisely, God reigns; when we decide foolishly, God reigns; when we serve God in humble loyalty, God reigns; when we serve God self-assertively, God reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, God reigns -- the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Archbishop William Temple. Quoted in "Context," February 1, 1992. Go Fish "Do you have any sevens?" "No. Go fish!" I remember playing that card game as a child - it consumed long hours on dull, rainy days. It didn't take much intellect but it chased away the boredom. "Go fish!" That's what Jesus said to his first disciples - only he wasn't playing games. He was serious. There at the very beginning of his ministry when he started recruiting his helpers, he called out to Peter and Andrew and said, "Come, follow me." Then he said, "I will make you fish for people." They already knew how to catch fish - that was their profession - but he called them to learn to bring in people. "Go fish!" he said and they did. James L. Collier, Go Fish! A Moment of Decision In his commentary William Barclay notes the significance of Jesus' move from Nazareth to Capernaum. He says, “There was a kind of symbolic finality in that move. In that moment Jesus left his home never again to return to live in it. It is as if he shut the door that lay behind him before he opened the door that stood in front of him. It was the clean cut between the old and the new. One chapter was ended and another had begun. Into life there come these moments of decision. It is always better to meet them with an even surgical cut than to vacillate undecided between two courses of action.” William Barclay The Evidence of Life Is Growth A disciple is one who studies with a great teacher. It is implied that those who follow Jesus need to grow. We do not blossom overnight into mature spiritual giants. As Dr. Dwayne Dyer said in his book, Your Erroneous Zones, "How do you distinguish between a flower that is alive and one that is dead? The one that is growing is alive. The only evidence of life is growth." So it is with the life of the spirit. One prominent evangelist has complained that despite the burgeoning statistics, the church today is not growing. It is merely getting fat. That is, persons are coming into the church but they are remaining spiritual babes. They are not growing. "We are simply multiplying spiritual babies," he charges. To be alive is to grow. Peter encourages us "to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3: 18). King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com ____________________________________ The World’s Only Hope G. Ray Jordon, Methodist preacher from North Carolina and teacher of preachers at Emory University, wrote years ago, "The hope of civilization is that we shall be able to produce enough Christlike men to save it." That is the world's only hope. It was when Jesus first walked along the Sea of Galilee. It still is today. Thomas A. Pilgrim, The Man From Galilee, CSS Publishing Company, Inc