11th Sunday of Pentecost
August 4, 2013
Fr. Philip Eberhart
COME FOLLOW ME
This morning I want to contrast the call of JESUS and the
value system of our world. We are
invited by Jesus Christ to follow Him with the words, “I will make you fishers of men.” We are
urged by the apostle Paul in this morning’s reading from the letter to the
Colossians to “set our minds;” to “seek the things that are above, where Christ
is.”
And where we are – We are no longer “of” this world. We are like unto dead men. Paul uses our experience of the death of
friends and loved ones, along with the images of baptism to drive home his
point that when you accept Jesus as Lord, things have changed for you!
Things have changed, first of all, positionally. You are dead! Now I know that that takes a minute or more to sink in,
because you are still moving around. Hold your hand up in front of your face –
wiggle your fingers. Something
doesn’t match with “you are dead!”
Hmmm?
What Paul and Jesus are talking about is real, it’s just not
seen. We have died, being buried
with Jesus Christ through baptism.
This is why the Rite of Baptism is so central and significant – as a
sacrament – there is the action we do, and there is the action that God
does! We go under the water in obedience
to his command in identification with Jesus life and death – God changes our
position from “in the world” to “in Christ”. Once we are in Christ, then what our scripture says about us
this morning takes effect:
You have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God –
and when Christ, who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in
glory!
Friends, when
Jesus called his disciples they were engaged in various pursuits, just like we
are; fishermen, disciples of John,
zealots, and even a tax collector.
Matthew was part of a despised class in Palestine – those who had turned
a profit on the backs of their own countrymen. Matthew was suspect in the
company of the followers of Jesus, but Matthew did what came naturally to
him. He threw a party! Matthew invited all his friends to meet
Jesus at his home – while the other disciples stood outside and made critical
conversation. Sound familiar?
What God has done for us, In Christ, is reposition us. From Earth to Heaven, just as He was
raised, we are raised. In the
previous chapter of Colossians we heard Paul talking about this action last
week: when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with
him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
His position is our position. We are seated with Him – Hidden in Him. His actions are our actions. His priorities are our priorities. We are no longer concerned with getting
more and building bigger, we are concerned with the things that concern
Him! And what are those things?
First of all, Jesus came to declare and represent the
Kingdom of His Father in Heaven.
You all know the verse… For
God so loved the world…that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes
in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life. And Jesus follows that
with his personal mission statement as well: For the son of man came not to judge and
condemn the world, but that the world, through him, might be saved.
Jesus called the twelve to himself and gave them a patter to
follow: Mathew 4 – 9 includes the
stories and teachings of Jesus as He trained the twelve to teach, preach and
heal those they were being sent to by Jesus. Twice the verse appears in Mt. 4: 19, 22-23
And he said to them, "Follow me, and
I will make you fishers of men."
Immediately they left the boat and their
father and followed him.
And he went throughout all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and
healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
The chapters of Matthew that follow, 5 – 9 give us a picture
of Jesus teachings and of his demonstration of the Kingdom of God. The sermon on the Mount (chs 5-7) is perhaps
Jesus most in depth teaching on Life in the Kingdom – the healing stories (chs 8-9) give
us insights into how he worked with people and circumstances as he traveled
from town to town proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. And then again at the end of chapter
nine we see the same verse repeated in v. 35. All of the material in between
these two verses is included and intended to be the model of working in the
Kingdom of God that is here now, and advancing through us.
In fact the next chapter in Matthew and the 10th
Chapter in Luke both turn immediately to the sending of the disciples out to do
the same work that Jesus had been doing.
We are sent to do the same work.
And he called to him his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal
every disease and every affliction.
And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The
kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
As we know from the last verses of Matthew 28, as well, we are
the inheritors of this commission as disciples of Jesus today. We are the "Matthews." All of us, every single last one of us. And as such we have the same
commission, the same empowerment and the same responsibility to be “fishers of
men” that the early disciples did.
[I’m going to shift this now to a video, about an opportunity
you have to put feet on this invitation and to become an inviter yourself: to become a Matthew
yourself. Please watch… ]
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