Thomas J Parlette
“The Beginning of Something”
Matthew 4: 12-23
1/26/20
Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo tell a parable of a boring, little town that decided to hold a footrace. On the appointed day, the runners showed up in all their athletic finery. The crowds gathered to cheer them on. But then, something strange happened.
The runners took a step or two, maybe three, across the starting line, and then abruptly stopped. One man fell to his knees, crying, “I have crossed the starting line! This is the happiest day of my life! He repeated this again and again, and even began singing a song about how happy he was.
Another woman started jumping for joy. “Yes!” she shouted, raising her fist in the air. “I am a race-runner! I’m finally a race-runner! She ran around jumping and dancing, getting and giving high fives to others who shared her joy at being in the race.
Several people formed a circle and prayed, quietly thanking God for the privilege of crossing the starting line, and thanking God that they were not like the skeptics who didn’t come dressed for the race.
The spectators were baffled by this strange behavior, but finally one observer turned to a neighbor and suggested that maybe they ought to get into the race. And so they did. And many others joined them. Soon everyone was kicking off their dress shoes, slipping out of their jackets, throwing all the unneeded clothes on the grass. And they ran – past the praying huddles and past the crying individuals and past the jumping high-fivers. And they found hope and joy in every step, and they grew stronger with hill and mile. To their surprise, the path never ended – because in this race, there was no finish line. So they were never bored again. (1)
It’s great to start something – but it’s even more satisfying to participate in the whole race. And this morning, we are at the beginning of something – the beginning of a life of discipleship.
Today we hear Matthew’s version of how Jesus started his ministry. We begin with a hint of danger.
John has been arrested and Jesus takes up his ministry of preaching repentance. But Jesus expands the mission by telling people WHY they need to repent – “for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”
Many Christians have difficulty understanding the “kingdom of heaven” references in Matthew, and their misunderstandings may shape the way they respond to the call embodied in this passage. Jesus’ references here and throughout Matthew, as Anglican bishop and Bible scholar N.T. Wright notes, are not teachings about how to go to heaven. They are not about “our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming “on earth as it is in heaven.”(2)
In short, this is what Jesus has come for: to announce and usher in God’s Kingdom. While it is not untrue to say that Jesus came to earth to die, it is more true to the Gospels to say that he came first to live. Jesus came to announce the Kingdom, to invite sinners to come on in, to proclaim the demands of living this way, and in the end, bring in God’s kingdom. For this, he ultimately was killed. Though some of the very early Christian creeds, such as the Apostles Creed, jump directly from Jesus’ birth to his death, the reason for which he lived cannot be overlooked. In fact, it can be rightly said that Jesus’ death takes on its true significance only in connection with how he lived and how he proclaimed God’s kingdom(3)
Jesus then calls his first disciples – “follow me, and you will fish for people.” And we know that we are at the beginning of something. Peter, Andrew, Jams and John, they knew it too. For they immediately left their nets and their boats and followed Jesus. Such was the power of Jesus’ call – it touched a chord somewhere deep inside these Galilean fishermen.
I wonder how many of you remember the wildlife TV show “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” When I was growing up, it was on Sunday night, right around dinner time, just after ABC’s Wide World of Sports and right before “The Wonderful World of Disney.” Before we had the Animal Planet network, we had either Jacques Cousteau or Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I loved that show. So I was pleased when I ran across an article by Presbyterian Pastor Rodger Nishioka that talked about one of his favorite episodes that he watched with his father, also a Presbyterian minister.
This episode featured elephant seals in Argentina. The show focused on a mother and her seal pup, who had just been born. Soon after giving birth to her baby, the mother, so famished, abandoned her pup on the shore so she could go find something to eat in the rich waters off the coast. After eating, she returned to a different part of the beach and began to call for her baby. Other mother seals had done the same thing, and all had returned at a similar time; Nishioka remembers thinking “They would never be able to find one another.” The camera followed the mother as she called to her pup and listened for a response. Following each other’s voices and scents, soon the mother and her pup were reunited. The host of the program explained that, from the moment of birth, the sound and scent of the pup are imprinted in the mother’s memory, and the sound and scent of the mother are imprinted in the pup’s memory. Nishioka remembers “This fascinated me, especially when my Dad turned to me and said, “You know, that how it is with God. We are imprinted with a memory of God, and God is imprinted with a memory of us, and even if it takes a lifetime, we will find each other.”(3)
I like to think that’s what happened to Peter, Andrew, James and John. Jesus’ call stirred some deeply imprinted memory that moved them to follow Jesus.
And to what exactly does Jesus call his disciples – and us. There are a few different answers to that question. Some Christians would say that Jesus calls us to belief, in him as the Son of God and our Savior. And that is true, as far as it goes. Others might say that Jesus calls us to church membership, to be a part of the Christian community. Also true. Others would say the call to follow me is a call to service. True as well. But I like how Dietrich Bonhoeffer described what Jesus’ call to follow means. Bonhoeffer said that the call to “follow me” was a call to “absolute discipleship” and that only in surrendering ourselves to Jesus command could we, paradoxically know our greatest joy.”(4)
So belief, community and service are all a part of the call to follow, but living as an absolute disciple means living a lifestyle that in all things witnesses to God’s coming kingdom.
For instance, consider the story of a young man named Scott Harrison. At 28 years old, Scott looked like he had it all. He was a successful nightclub promoter who got paid big money to organize parties that attracted wealthy young people and celebrities to New York City nightclubs. He spent his nights partying, drinking and gambling and his day sleeping.
While partying on vacation in Uruguay, Scott suddenly realized that the money and the parties and his social status weren’t making him happy. He had recently begun reading the Bible and studying theology books. He said, “I was trying to find a way back. I’d grown up with a Christian faith that I had completely walked away from.” Scott made a promise that night that he would change his life.
When he got back from vacation, Scott quit his job and began applying to work with humanitarian organizations like Oxfam and the Peace Corps. But they all turned him down because they couldn’t figure out how his skills as a nightclub promoter and party organizer could be used to help people.
Finally, Scott got accepted to work with an organization called Mercy Ships. Mercy Ships is a non-profit organization that sets up hospitals on old cruise ships and sends them to the poorest parts of the world. Scott was put on a ship to Liberia and was given the job of photographing the work of the Mercy Ships doctors. He took before and after pictures of patients with tumors, leprosy, cleft palates, all sorts of ailments. Scott was so inspired by the work of these doctors that he wanted to share it with someone. He had kept his old email list of clients from his nightclub promoting days, and on a whim, he emailed pictures of the Mercy Ships mission to his old clients. Soon afterwards, Mercy Ships began receiving donations from some of the most unlikely people on earth – the wealthy nightclub partiers who used to be Scott’s best clients. And suddenly, Scott knew exactly how God could use a former nightclub promoter to do the work of witnessing to the Kingdom of God.
Scott returned to New York and organized a huge party. He got his old clients to donate the venue and the refreshments, and he charged 20 dollars a ticket to attend – a cheap fundraiser by New York City standards. But he raised thousands of dollars that night, and gave every penny to Mercy Ships.
But then God gave Scott Harrison an even larger vision for building the Kingdom of God. While in Liberia, Scott learned that 2.1 billion people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water. So he created “Charity: Water”, a non-profit that has funded 30,000 water projects in 26 countries and provided clean drinking water to over 8 million people. One hundred percent of the public donations made to Charity: Water go to fund water projects all around the world.(5)
Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people, says Jesus. Help me build the Kingdom of Heaven. God will use the most unlikely people to build the Kingdom. Somewhere in your soul lies the imprint of God, waiting to be stirred. When we listen to Jesus’ call to follow me, we begin a race that never really ends until we reach the Kingdom.
This is truly the beginning of something – a life long journey pointing to the ways God is at work in this world.
May God be praised that we are called to follow and witness to God’s coming Kingdom. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 1/13/20
2. Greg Garrett, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p285, 287.
3. Troy Miller, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p287.
4. Rodger Nishioka, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Press 2010, p284, 286.
5. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, p25.
