FOLLOW ME BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Mafk 2:13-14 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA

MARCH 25, _ 1973 JOHN M. BUCHANAN

~ Mark “wastes no words. | Walking along the Galilee shore he saw two fisherman casting

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a net In the sea: Simon and Andrew. ("Fol tow me and | will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.) A little later the same thing

happened with two more brethers, James and John, in thelr boat mending a net.\ And finalty
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Levi, sitting at his desk in the tax of fice: WFol low wen | And he rose and followed him.
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It's Just as simple and yet complicated as thar.

simple because there is no more To #3) no explanation, no persuasion, no discussion,
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ho accounting of what they did about the boat they left behind, or the unmended net, or

the tax form Incomplete at an empty desk.\ Simple, because there is nothing about what

Jesus saw in them or what they saw In him. \ Just the command, "Fo! low ne”, and_the

response (vand immediately they got up and followed". } Simple, but complicated, because

something in-us rebels at taking it very serlousty.\ They couldn't simply have dropped
what they were.deing and followed a total stranger \ We can't identify with that kind of
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behavior. \We can't imagine ourselves doing anything remotely |[ke that.

Brimshiveesiomtienchpemenird Ln telling it like that we have to assume that Mark wanted nis

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imprbervertrhe-b chav ior \ We have to assume that there is an author's Intentional ity behind

this spare accounting; and that, therefore, there is much to be _Jgarned about Christian
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Faith and discipleship in reflecting on whatte said ~- or what he left unsaid.

History has not been very fair with those men Jesus recruited to be his discipies.

For centuries they were romanticized as "super Christians";| tradition attributed to

them remarkable powers and skits:\ churchgs were named for them ~ St. Peter's jin Rome =<

named after that rough fisherman who taiked too much and too loudiy, and who wag better

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at fighting it out with a sword than contemplating the theology of the suffering servant.

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And in those churches - named with their names - they have stood solemnly, enshrined in
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stained giass. \As 2 chitd | can remember sitting in the pew looking up at them following

a whi te-robed, Anglo Saxon Jesus, and feeling absolutely nothing. \ They were supermen:
li ger Wow. ey abe ae wats € Boats Comonize d ae made afferent Spe ai ~ People “TK Kamau

Recently, the skepticism of the 1970's has demythglogized the ecole Having

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stced so many centuries as captives of leaded glass, our age has enjoyed bringing them
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down to size. \t re willing to look at the complexity of a Judas, the humanity of Peter,

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the sometimes pettiness of Jona. \ sone efforts have gone even further: in Jesus Christ

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Superstar they come off rather badly.\ At the beginning they Saeed krrevelant, dull.
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( "What's the buzz|Tel| me what's happening - When do we ride into Jerusa leni?") they sing =
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like a motorcycle gang following a misguided Menshor-Fremmcto nd then at the last supper

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with Jesus engaged in an impassioned discourse with Judas they sound boony and totally

insensitive:
"Look at all my trdais and tribulations
Sinking in the gentte pool of wine
What's that In the bread it's gone to my head
Till this morning is this evening life is fine,
Always hoped That !'d be an Apostle
Knew that | would make it if | tried
Then when we retire we can write the gospels

So they'!1 all talk about us when we've died." Nu

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Well, somewhare between those two ectrones:| lebeyd tated Timpterts-eleven drunks yi”

and the stained glass disciples lies the reality of those men Jesus cailed and whe followed.

And through their experience you and [ are given the most thene is to know about being a.
“Irrevaise Wort is de Aare are WO atthe kons oe Cie thsaun by- 5
Christian and being a disciple \ Discipleship is not the honorary degree of the Christian

academy: \it is, rather, one and the same thing \ To be a Christian is to be a disciple of

Jesus Christ - a simp!@ premise, but not a very popular one obviougly because the first
a disciple dogs is get up and fotlow, and the first thing
thing/you and 1 do is ask Who? Why? Where?

The author of the second Gospel ~ Mark - was anything but naive. \ He wanted us to be
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startled by the account and to ask those three questions\ The story he wrote was no more

believable then than it is now. [190 Thousand years separate us, of course, but men didn't
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get up and leave the office to follow an itinerant preacher into an unknown future then -

either. \ And we have to assume that this unlikely behavior is more than a simple report
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of what happened: {i+ is, rather, loaded with content and potential.

It is, by the way, quite in line with what emerges out of the Old Testament as a work-

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“A discipleship or following Jesus. \ It's just that we're most uncomfortable making that kind
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ing definition of pati. \ The author of the Letter to the Hebrews had_one foot in the Old

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Testament past, and held up for his readers a list of Vikemabhe people: | Non, Abraham,

Issac, Jacob and Moses: ‘| anc the one thing they had in common was that they obeyed the will

of Ged without h t i ")

i aving any Idea where It was going to gna) nese all died in faith",}he
wrote, (‘aot having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted if from afar »
And out of the mysterious legends the Jeys told each other across the centures we heard

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the story of those three intrepid souls, Shadrach, Meshach and Abedpego, who decided on a

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fiery furnace rather than betraying the God they fol toned \ Confident men they were, and my
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whole conception of their story changed when t read the tittle disclaimer they threw into
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their brave talk. "Our God will deliver us...But if not...we wil} not serve your Gods"
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It's one thing, that is to say, to walk Into 4 fiery furnace, or an unknown tutyre — know-

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ing that God is going to bale yeu cut. \ it's another thing altogether not te know how it's

going to turn out. \ That, | discovered, is the point of the story In the Book of Daniel;
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not that God rescued his men from the death the King had planned - but that they didn't

know and remained faithful in splte of not knowing.

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That's what faith meang in the Bible \ acting without any quarantees that al! willl
work out in the end:\ fol lowing the will of God in the face_of a jot of very pragmatic

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reasons for staying put. \ ane that, | would suggest, ts what Mark had in mind in these

spare tittle accounts of men getting up and following Jesus.
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Lo Let!s think out loud about our teol ings. \ it's not that we have anything against
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of commitment without knowing exactly who it is we are following and where he's going
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To take us.\ In terms of our religion, being a Christian is a pretty safe ver. In the
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first place, it's not something we ever had to make a decision_about\ Some of us were
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sb baptized and brought up in the Church and it never occured to us that we could be any~
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oa but Christie Christian. \ others of of us had littie to do with the Church as children, but we

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were part of a FoF 2 culture that sim ps y_ assumes that being a patriotic Amer tea and staying

out of trouble is synonymous with belng a christian.\ deciding +o be a follower of Jesus
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Christ is just not_a part of our experience \ And if by chance, our jointing the insti tut-

jonal church was somehow Interpreted as an act of following - and not just joining
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another club ~ it was probably done with a very minimum of risk and cost - in fact our

families and friegds and emp loyeg were probably rather bappy gbout it.
Ail of which is to say that we have trouble even contemplating Mark's description

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of Jesus saying to Lavi - "Fol iow me") and Lavi getting up and totioning | But what tf
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we do contemplate it”\unat if we try to get inta his shoes? what then think welll
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stilt go for the safe vet. | lf we're talking specifically about Mank 2:13 and [4 we're
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gotng to try to explain away what appears te be irrational and Irresponsible behavior.
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Wetre going te say that actualiy Lovi had known Jesus for a bong +me:\ he had, in fact,
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been giving serious consideration toa becoming a disciple \ He had talked Jf over with

his wife and family, submitted his resignation to his boss and had carefully planned to

foliow the next Time he had 8 chance,
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Or if wefre sitting behind that desk we're going to protect ourselves by throwing
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a theological wrench into the gears. \ Crow de we know hets real ly the cheiet2 (How can we

be sure that he's authentically God's Messiah? Who is he cnywoy Jind if we ever get
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around to following it's going to be after we get some answers.fo our questions | after

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we know who he Is and what he wants of us.\ The late Dietrick Bonhoeffer was a theologian
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who gave a lot of Thought to the matter of Christian Discipleship \ Listen to what he

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wrote: a Listogy
"With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of
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formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about if, and perhaps
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even ta put it into practice but it can never_be followed [n
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persona | obedience. \ Christianity without the Living Christ is

inevitably Christianity without siscipteship.\ And Christianity
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without discipleship is always Christianity with Uprist ."
(The Cost of Discipleship, P. 50)

The New Testament, particulary this brief incident from Mark, turns around our
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ideas of what it means to have faith and tc be a christian) it has very little to do

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with understanding theology #™gsus did not give Levi an examination in basic trine.
tt has even less to do with moralitymJesus didn't interogate Levi about his past
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behavior; fhe didn't ask him to read the Bible, give up this or that, abide by a new set
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of rates.| He simpty sald “Follow me", and In the act of following Levi became a Liscip le aug

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Christian.

The happy part of that is that it means Jesus has a lot of fol lowers who don't even
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know his name, and who perhaps don't even believe in soa. \the discomforting part is that

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it takes away a lot of the ways we have been used to defining faith. | Ang puts you and me
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rather on the spot. \ It doesn't ask the questions we cah anawer s\i ike -{"how much do you

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pot iever| Have you been good? Hlastead it asks simply ("Have you tol loed?” )
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There is demand in this little confrontation. There is that personal demand to be

honest about our practice of Christian Fanth.\ There is a demand here also, | believe,

for the Church. \ The Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is filvered through the instituttonal

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Church is usually rendered pretty harmless.\ Somehow it always comes out sounding insipid.

| "Come to Jesus:|take him into your noart | walk with him in the garden\ accept him as your

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{oe it @il sounds jb

savior’l - a better deal than term insurance and a lot cheaper | when, in fact, he said
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[ eoutoy me.. get up and move - come along behind as we walk into this unknown future —
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feed my sheep — heal my children ~ set my friends tree - take up a cross and stumble

atong if you can".

There is a lot of demand in seeing faith as opedionce:| Chri stiantty as discipleship.
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But there is comfort too. \ It is the testimony of the Church across The centuries that
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obedience to Jesus Christ Ts not siavery, but the very best kind of treedon.\ [+t is the

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continuing affirmation that rea! life is to be found in giving onese!f away as a disciple.

He tatked about rewards \\ He said that he had come to give full and complete lite\ joy and

happ|ness eace and security.) That's as much a art of the Gospel as it is a art of our
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own thinking.\ To be human js to ask (net's in it fer ne?" )#No One's motives are
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pure: even people wha go to the remctest part of the globe to be medical missionaries -~
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do so, at least Inpart, because it makes them feel good. to do.s0. | Part of the reason for

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the Peace Corp's initial popularity was’ that it was an admirable thing to do - people
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thaught the Peace Corps volunteers were pretty interesting and noble.

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We can't get away from that:| end Jesus, thank God, dian't even try.\ He said "Follow
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me - and I'l make you into something you never were before. Get up and go - and youll}
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find a peace that has always iifuded you\ 1 comfort here is that you and | are acceptable
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to him just as_we are - just as Levi the tax collector wos ane that when we do fol low

him we suddenly realize what if means to Go alive.
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Where will he teow? \i dontt know, and it would violate everything tye said thus
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far if ¢ tried te guess |But | do know that salvation is to hear that cai! and to follow.

| do know that the two saving words of the Gospel are "foltow me",

Someone has written a.. Jittle vignette to describe the tenor_of modern Vite \ (+
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goes like this:
"Some men die by shrapnel
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And some go down In flames
But most men perish, inch by inch

in play at little games." \

TFotlow mel can save US from that.

The story is told how the sallors of Sir Francis Drake Nused to sit on the rocky

coasts of England, telling the country lads, not about the pleasure of the sea, but of
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its dangors; \iney talked of stout winds and gallant ships riding out the storms, until

those contry beys wanted it 50 much they would cun away from home to be a part_of iv."

Les mind a a rad rt 4 ‘]
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——™> There's something like that in the words af Jesus, "Foljow Ho. \ anc there [s_some-
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thing deep down in al} of us longing to respond ~ to get up and follow. AMEN
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Startle ug when we become letharcic, Our Father. $n all the demands that are placed

upon us, help us te hear the only one that matters ultimately. And give us courage +0

follow - Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN