And They Left What They Were Doing and Followed Him Matthew 4:12-23 January 23, 2005, Year A, 3 Sunday after Epiphany Annual Parish Meeting The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi "Follow me," said Jesus, "and I will make you fish for people." Surely that line is one of the great lines of the New Testament. Hardly a soul, whether one goes to church or not, does not know that line. Consider the text in which we have it. As Matthew tells the story, these men have never seen Jesus before, have seen no miracles, heard no teachings. The encounter occurs at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Thus far in Matthew's narrative, all we know of Jesus' ministry is of his baptism, wilderness struggle, and withdrawal after John's arrest. It is then that he, as did John before him, proclaims, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near." He offers no explanation to the four fishermen. They are not told why they should follow Jesus, what following him will mean, or where the path will lead them. The fishermen are already at work, already doing something useful and important, thus not looking for a new life. Jesus' call does not fill an obvious vacuum or meet an obvious need in their lives, but like God's call to prophets over the centuries before, it is intrusive and disruptive, calling them away from work and family. We are struck as much or more by their response than as by the invitation itself: immediately they left their nets, boat and father, respectively, and "followed him." Not by design but simply because they happened to be accessible when I had spare evening time or during my morning workout on the elliptical machine at the Healthplex my reading this week has included The Purpose Driven Life, about the need to discern God's individual purpose for our lives; God and Your Stuff, about the link between our relationship with God and our possessions; and Time magazine, with its special report on happiness. Each, from a different perspective describes our pursuits of happiness as misdirected, motivated by fear of not having enough or ending life with nothing to show for it, by the discomfort of being unfulfilled, by the desire for personal pleasure, and by the attractiveness of the things we see others having. Each reading in its own way stresses that when we pursue happiness, we will never find it. While none of these readings referred in any way to today's Gospel text, as I read them, I realized each of these happiness motivators - fear, discomfort, desire and attractiveness - ultimately prevent us from recognizing that the kingdom of God has come near. Has come near has temporal meaning, not spatial, referring to God's kingdom as already braking in. Now! And is continuing! The idea heaven being near can be too frightening for some of us or be more uncomfortable than our discomfort; or our current desires, attachments and attractions can be too strong to be superseded by new ones. The paradox of happiness motivators is that they block us from receiving what will far exceed what we have that is so unsatisfactory. Thus, we pursue low-impact religion that promises rewards at little cost. Thus, we have television evangelists who say, "You can have it all, and if you still feel anxious, here is whom to blame." Thus, we seek the security of those who think only as we, do not venture into unfamiliar territory and experience reality only through a television remote control. Despite this, Jesus still appears disruptively in our midst and calls us not to admire him or accept his principles, not even to accept him as our personal Savior, but to follow him. "Follow me and I will let you drag the net. I will let you cast the net, mend the net, care for the net. Follow me and I will let you go out into the deep even up to your heads. Follow me and I will let you struggle against the current. Follow me and I will send you into places of great peace and relaxation, great challenge, and also great joy and excitement." People follow him because he has spoken to them, and his word generates faith. Those who don't follow want validation, assurances, safety, rewards, more time to study, to make sure we'll do it perfectly. In the movie The Fellowship of the Ring of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo the hobbit receives a "call" to destroy the evil "one ring" before its power is able to corrupt and destroy all of Middle Earth. This call involves a long and extremely dangerous journey and the likelihood that Frodo will not return alive. In a transformational scene, Frodo expresses his fear and his wish that the ring had never come to him. Gandalf the wizard tells Frodo, "We cannot choose the time we live in. We can only choose what we do with the time we are given." Such is Jesus' call to us as he walks by: a call issued out of God's love to drop whatever we are doing, a call into community with God and with each other, a call to follow, to reach beyond ourselves, to risk pushing beyond known, comfortable limits. The call is still a call that causes abandonment and dislocation. No, not all of us will be called to leave where we are, to quit our jobs, to leave our families. Some may, but each of us is invited first to follow and to let that call shape everything else rather than anything else to shape how or even if we follow. Even when it does not mean physically leaving where we are, it does mean to leave behind family, community and societal values and to engage the vision and agenda of the kingdom of God, to widen our horizons, to be taken into dark and unfamiliar places, but with the light and compassion of Christ. When we let go of the tasks we are doing and follow, as did the four fishermen, as did Frodo as he undertook his journey, we have no idea what lies ahead. However, when we accept Jesus' invitation, we find that, along with all those who have gone before, we are transformed. With every grace-filled day, we are reshaped into new creatures. In and through Jesus, we see God's love mediated to us in new and compelling ways, and with every passing day, we are becoming the persons God created us to become, and our lives do, in fact, have a higher purpose; higher even than we would ever dare to dream. Our Vestry practice is to begin each meeting with Scripture and discuss what the text calls us to do - individually and as a parish. So, today it is fitting we begin our annual parish meeting with the Eucharist. And, as I ask your Vestry members as we begin our meetings, I ask you: What would your life look like, how would you invest your energies, how would you use your financial resources if the kingdom of heaven has come near were more than words? What would your life look like, how would you invest your energies, how would you use your financial resources in answering a call to follow? What would our parish look like, where would we place our priorities and how would we invest our energies and financial resources if the kingdom of heaven has come near were more than words? in answering a call to follow? What do we need to do so that each time someone enters this space, there is awareness that the kingdom of heaven has come near? What do we need to do so that as Jesus walks by that those gathered in these walls hear him say, "Follow me, and I will teach you how to proclaim by word and example the good news of grace, the good news of the kingdom."? Will we be motivated by fear, discomfort, personal desire, or attractiveness of the earthly kingdom? Will we keep doing what we're doing? Or, will we leave what distracts us and follow?