Matthew 4:18-22 · The Calling of the First Disciples
The Called Ones
Matthew 4:18-22
Sermon
by Joe Pennel
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The Gospel lesson for today makes me want to fuss at Jesus. It makes me want to fuss at Jesus because the message of the text is so radical! It is radical to believe that people would actually leave their place of business to follow after a teacher who said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

After Jesus had finished preaching a sermon in Capernaum, he took a stroll along the banks of the Sea of Galilee. As Jesus walked by the sea side, he noticed two brothers - Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother - casting a net into the sea. He called out to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Peter and Andrew did not sit in the boat and reflect on what Jesus said to them. Apparently, they did not count the cost. Nor did they call a committee meeting. Nor did they form an association to provide them with support. Instead, they immediately left their nets and followed him.

As Jesus continued his walk along the sea side, he saw two other brothers - James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat and Zebedee, their father. They were rocking back and forth in the boat, minding their own business, and mending their nets when Jesus called out to them to follow. As with Peter and Andrew, they left their trade and their father and followed after Jesus of Nazareth. According to Matthew, they did not hesitate. They followed immediately.

Who among us would respond in this way? I mean, how many people in this congregation today would put a padlock on their business and chase a person like Jesus?

I, for one, would argue with Jesus about that. I have a wife and two daughters who need my support. I have house notes, car notes, and bills to pay. I have groceries to buy and clothing to purchase. I have responsibilities to this congregation and to this community. I am involved in many things which are important to me. In a few short months, my younger daughter will be graduating from high school. I want to be there for the baccalaureate, the graduation exercises, the gifts, the parties, and all the rest. Next year, my older daughter will be graduating from Lambuth College. "All the king's horses and all the king's men" could not keep me from being on the Lambuth campus for that special day in the history of our family.

What if everybody followed the example of those fishermen? What if everybody heard the call and heeded it? Who would mind the store? Who would pay the taxes? Who would run the church? Who would paint, make music, or govern? Our tendency is to brush off this story as being unrealistic. After all, not one person in this congregation is going to respond as Peter, Andrew, James, and John did. It is okay for them to be radical in their response. But, it is not okay for us.

On the other hand, one cannot read the New Testament without seeing that some followed in a radical way. Jesus said, "Follow me," to a tax collector named Matthew; and Matthew got up and followed him. Philip, who was from Andrew and Peter's hometown, followed his calling by helping Jesus to feed the five thousand. John reports that Jesus said, "Follow me," and Nathaniel, also known as Bartholomew, followed. According to church tradition, Bartholomew followed the call by carrying the Gospel to various countries, including India. Thomas, having been called, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." And Paul, who heard Jesus say, "Rise and enter the city and you will be told what to do," went forth and proclaimed: "Jesus is the Son of God."

Every now and then, someone does respond in a radical and unexpected way. Dr. Fred Craddock tells the story of a medical student who heard the call and made a radical response. A young woman came to him after hearing his sermon on today's text. She had decided to leave medical school and go to work among migrant workers in the Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Craddock did not manipulate her unexpected response. Instead, they talked for a long time about the meaning of her decision. Her parents were, understandably, furious with the new direction her life had taken. Like those fishermen, however, she heard the call and she stayed with it.

And there have been others. People in the western tradition have long known about Francis of Assisi. He turned from a life of luxury to one of voluntary poverty with the intention of sharing his possessions with the poor. He became an example to his fellow townspeople of the biblical assurance that God can provide. Francis attracted others to his way of life and began the Order of Mendicant Friars. A sister order was established by Clare, to whom Franics was both friend and mentor. In the hymn of praise attributed to Francis, God is exalted for creating all of the elements of the world of which, according to Francis, humans are only one part. Francis placed people in the perspective of God's whole creation and asserted a relationship of kinship among all the elements. The example of his impoverished life drew others to him, and increased the numbers of the Franciscan Order. His began the first of the monastic groups to develop a spiritual life - a life lived as much in the world as it was in the withdrawn quite life.

Likewise, Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1780-1845) exemplified an emphasis on living by Jesus' example. In addition to raising a large family, this wife of a wealthy London merchant single-handedly initiated, and caused the implementation of, efforts to reform the prison system in England. These reforms spread throughout the continent even during her lifetime.

Similarly, in the United States, Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) spearheaded the movement for the establishment of hospitals for the mentally ill, who were, at the time, being held in prisons. These people have admonished us to see Christ in our neighbors and to serve all who are in need. In these people and in many others, we see an example of people "leaving their nets" to follow.

I know of a business person who sold his automobile dealership in order to attend a theological seminary in preparation for ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church. I recently heard his wife say, "My husband came home one day and said, 'You will be very surprised at what I am about to say, but I want to sell the business and go into the ministry'!" Within a few days, the business had been sold, and the family began tramping along another path. "We have never been happier," said his wife. There was, for this family, a call and a response. Life, for them, has been reoriented.

During a seminar, a pastor said to me, "I think that I am hearing God call me out of the ordained ministry to the ministry of the laity. Is it possible for God to call me out of the ministry if God, once upon a time, called me into the ministry?" This pastor is beginning to hear a call which demands a response.

It is true that God calls us to journey. But, we do not know what experiences will be found along the path. Don Quixote went on such a journey. His creator, Miguel de Cervantes, was writing a not-so-gentle satire of how people viewed such a journey. John Bunyan's "Christian" went on a journey in Pilgrim's Progress. Through temptations and unhappy experiences, Christian stands steadfast in his faith until crossing through the waters of Jordon into the Celestial City. The people of Israel were on a similar journey from Egypt to their promised land. Their faith was sometimes tried and found wanting; but their leader, Moses, was steadfast and so was his appointed successor, Joshua. Likewise, Christians view life as following - following in the steps of Jesus.

Where does that leave us? If others have heard the call and have responded in a radical way, then shouldn't we all do the same? I cannot answer that question for you. It has to be answered by each of us as we experience God's call in our lives. How one hears the call and responds to it is a matter of personal decision.

However, there is an inescapable truth in the story of Jesus' call to the fishermen and their response. The truth is that who we worship can and will make a claim on all of our lives. It is impossible to worship the God of Jesus Christ and not have that God expect more of us than we are often ready to give. Whether or not we respond to the call, the call of Christ is always unsettling. Hearing it is always disturbing. It disrupts our lives and pulls us in new directions.

To heed Christ's call to be a disciple is to follow Jesus, who manifests the kingly authority of God. It means submitting to his authority and turning our lives toward the Kingdom. It means a basic reorientation, from daily chores and activities, to a life oriented toward Christ. It means to direct our lives in a specific direction - the very direction in which Jesus oriented his life. The proclamation of the kingdom is an implicit call to follow Jesus. Thus, being a disciple means turning toward and following he who manifests the kingly authority of God.

In Matthew, the call of the fisherman follows a sermon preached by Jesus. The theme of Jesus' sermon was "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Jesus was saying that the reign of God is here, time is up, and God is now active in human history. The Kingdom of Heaven is not in the future, but right now. One enters the Kingdom, which is at hand, by repenting and responding to the call of Jesus. In his book, A Future for the Historical Jesus, Leander Keck expresses well the relationship between repentance and discipleship:

When one undertakes to align his [sic] life with that of Jesus as model or paradigm, he restructures his life - that is, he repents. Immediately, it is apparent that Jesus revolutionizes repentance itself, for whereas John the Baptist required repentance as readiness for the coming of the Judge, Jesus summoned people to repent as a response to God's kingdom. Accordingly, in re-aligning the contours of one's life by trusting Jesus, one appropriates the central thrust of Jesus' own message: repentance as response. Since repentance is neither regret for not being religious sooner, nor remorse requisite for forgiveness, but the steady lifelong process of appropriating Jesus as one's paradigm, repentance holds together faith and ethics, religious trust and moral action. Repentance, so conceived, is not the prelude to Christian existence but the name of the game itself. To repent and to become a disciple (or to become a Christian) are the same thing - appropriating Jesus as trustworthy.

So, the kingdom is announced and people respond. The immediate response of the first four disciples is evidence of the "at-handness" of the Kingdom which Jesus proclaimed. No longer is it possible to sit on the sidelines and wait for some better offer to come along. The Kingdom, and the one who proclaimed it, demands a response.

William Willamon tells about going with his wife to the funeral of a friend, which was held in a little country church out in the backwoods. The minister took advantage of the occasion to berate those who had come: "You people need to decide for Jesus now. This dear, departed brother is safe because he had chosen Christ. Now is the time! Repent before it is too late!" After the service, Willamon said, "Can you get over that guy, taking advantage of having all of us there to beat us over the head about how it is important to make a decision right now."

"Yes," replied his wife, "and the worst thing about it is - he is right." (Christian Century, Fall 1986)

CSS Publishing Company, From Anticipation to Transfiguration, by Joe Pennel