Year A The Third Sunday after the Epiphany -- Amos 3: 1 – 8; Psalm 139: 1–11; I Corinthians 1: 10–17; Matthew 4: 12–23
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, January 27th, 2008
We live in a world of fishing….ever think about that?
For example, think of all the ads we see every day, in the newspapers, on TV and radio, on billboards, in flyers that are shoved under our doors, and so forth.
All of these efforts are attempts to fish for business.
And the fishing doesn’t stop with the business community….Ever been asked to join a social organization, or to become a part of a ministry at church? Those invitations are essentially attempts to fish for new members. (Sorry to put in such crass terms!)
And, when we consider the success rate of advertising, or of the personal invitations that people issue to one another to become involved in some organization or mission, we’d probably have to admit that the success rate is pretty low.
Not so with Jesus….Notice that His invitation to the first disciples is highly successful…Matthew tells us that those who heard that invitation: Simon Peter, his brother, Andrew, James, the son of Zebedee and his brother, John, all left their boat and their father immediately
(There must’ve been something very compelling about the Lord’s invitation!)
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”, He said. (More modern translations render it “fish for people”.)
Perhaps we ought to pause right there for a moment….to our modern ears, the invitation “follow me” simply means to get up and “fall in line” behind the leader. But in Scripture, the words “follow me” mean something quite different….Following someone in the Bible means to become their disciple. The words have a unique connotation.
But there’s something else that needs to be noted in these words….Normally, in biblical times, if a person was seeking to know more about the Law of Moses, the individual himself would seek out a teacher, a Rabbi, to become a disciple of, to sit at the feet of the famous teacher and soak up the wisdom that came from the association with that Rabbi. But in this case, Jesus is the one taking the action, issuing the invitation. Jesus takes the initiative.
Before we make some applications to our own lives from today’s invitation, let’s look at bit more closely at some other features of today’s Gospel account as Matthew lays them out for us:
- Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: These verses are a quotation of Isaiah 9: 1 – 2, and Matthew’s use of them points to the world-wide nature of Jesus’ invitation, which (by the time Matthew is writing, late in the first century) had spread not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as well. Biblical scholars remind us that, during Jesus’ lifetime, Galilee was home to both Jew and Gentile communities.
- The beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: The preparation is over, the baptism and the temptation are complete, and now Jesus moves onto the world stage. With the calling of His first disciples (those who would be closest to Him during his earthly ministry, by the way), Jesus’ begins to proclaim His essential message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Jesus’ message is the same one that John the Baptist proclaimed.
Now, let’s turn to our own lives……
Remember that we live in a world of fishing….calls and invitations to devote our time, energy, money and talents to any number of business ventures, causes and organizations.
But Jesus’ call to “follow me” is a call to be devoted to the very most central reality in our lives: our relationship with God. For, as we look back on the lives of Peter, Andrew, James and John, that’s what happened to them: they entered into a deep and personal relationship with Jesus, leaving all the allegiances and concerns that characterized their lives before Jesus’ call came to them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
And Jesus’ call comes to us, as it did to them. The call is not for His benefit, but for ours.
Jesus’ call remains as compelling today as it was 2,000 years ago.
Jesus’ call is given to everyone, Jew and Gentile, churchgoer and unchurched, rich and poor, well dressed and not.
Jesus’ call is a call to join His family business, if you will, to become a modern-day disciple, and to join in making other disciples by “fishing for people”.
AMEN.
