Jan 22

Written by: Reverend Dave Whetter
1/22/2012 9:00 AM 

If you remember, last week, the lesson we read from the Gospel of John was John’s version of how Jesus called his first disciples. And now this week, we read Mark’s version. As you might have figured out by now, these stories do not agree with each other. According to John, Andrew and an “unnamed disciple” were followers of John the Baptist, and one day they decided to follow Jesus, and it was then that Jesus invited them to become his disciples. Then, as we heard last week, it was Andrew who went and found his brother, Simon, and invited him to come and follow also, and after that Jesus found Philip and invited him. In our story from Mark, on the other hand, the first two disciples Jesus calls are Simon, who will become known as Peter, and his brother, Andrew. They were out on their fishing boats, and as soon as Jesus invited them to join him and learn to “fish for people,” they left their family business and followed Jesus. And then we are told that Jesus went a “little farther” and called “James, son of Zebedee, and his brother, John,” in the same manner, as they were working in their family fishing business, and they, too, left their family business immediately. So which story is true? The answer is: Both. You see, the point of these stories is not about whom Jesus called first or what they were doing when he invited them to be his disciples; the point for both Gospel writers was how the disciples responded when they received their invitation.

Unlike Jonah, who had to be convinced to follow God, these disciples, upon hearing the call, immediately left everything they were doing and followed Jesus. As I said last week, I find this to be an amazing story because Simon, Andrew, James, and John all had to give up much to follow Jesus. You might be thinking, Pastor, they were mere fishermen; they followed Jesus because he was offering them a better life. After all, fishing for people can’t be anywhere near as dirty and smelly as fishing for fish. Well, personally, I’ll take the fish.

These four men were not just some hired hands trying to make a living fishing for someone else; they had their own businesses. The boats they left behind were their boats. James and John left their father, Zebedee, on their boat with the “hired hands.” They were employers. As we will hear next week, Simon and Andrew owned a home large enough to have guests. These men were men of means. They may not have been considered wealthy, but I would argue that they were probably much like you and I. They had a sustainable income that afforded them a nice home, plenty of food, nice clothes, and they did not have to worry if their children and families would be able to eat each day.

These men gave up a lot when they said “yes” to Jesus’ call. Unlike these disciples, when we said “yes” to Jesus’ call (if you were raised Lutheran, that would have been at the time of your Confirmation), we did not have to leave our homes. We did not walk away from our families. We did not have to leave our comfortable lifestyle behind us. We kept it all and just added Jesus into the mix of our life. But these men, and those men and women who would come along soon, gave up everything to be a follower of Jesus. Even after Jesus’ death and Resurrection, when many of them attempted to go back to the lives that they had before Jesus, as we read in John, Chapter 21, Jesus appeared to them on the beach, called them off their boats and called them to again leave those lives behind and go continue His mission. Saying “yes” to Jesus means saying “no” to our old lives.

As I see it, one of the issues the church faces today, that is, all of us, is that we want to follow Jesus with our words, but we are not willing to change our lives. Earlier this week, I met with someone who is experiencing significant changes in his life. This person believes that God is challenging him to do something different with his life and, as part of the conversation, I was asked a little about my call. Now, first of all, let me say that I do not believe God only comes to us once with a call in our lives. Scripture is pretty clear that God calls us daily. But in the case of my call into ordained ministry, one of my big struggles with saying yes was it meant changing my life and my family’s life in ways I was not sure I wanted to change.

We had just moved into a house that was our dream house. It was on two acres in the country in South Johnson County. I had just been promoted president of the company for which I worked, and the owner of the company was an extremely ethical an honest man whom I enjoyed working with and for. Jill was the stay-at-home mom she had always wanted to be. I did not want to be like those disciples and walk away to follow Jesus’ call. I had worked hard for all of that and was not willing to give it up. I was not willing to say no to that lifestyle and yes to God’s call at first.
My story is not unique. I hear it from many of you all the time. I am often asked, Pastor, do I have to stop doing this or that to follow Jesus? Does God not want me to have certain things in my life? The answer is that God desires us to experience the joy that Jesus experienced in following his Father’s will and, to do that, sometimes that means giving up the treasures of this world. When I came to my senses twelve years ago and accepted God’s call, we sold that dream home, I walked away from an incredible career, Jill began her business career again after 12 years, and in many ways we started all over. Now, I do not tell you this so that you will feel sorry me and Jill. No, there is nothing to feel sorry about. If you were ever to see our home, I think you would agree it’s not exactly a shack. We live very comfortably, but we do live very differently than we did twelve years ago. Our priorities have changed, our dreams have changed, and the joy in our lives that we experience every day has grown ten-fold. Saying yes to anything means saying no to other things, and many times that means saying no to good things. Had Jill and I been homeless and living on the street, it would have been easy to say, Sure, Lord, we’ll give all this up and follow you. But that would have been a shallow commitment.

As a faith community, we are being called by God daily to continue his mission. In order to do this, we must decide to say no to many good things. To continue our mission, we need a place to gather regularly to hear God’s word, to be strengthened to do God’s will and to worship our Lord in community. That means we must make sacrifices to maintain and preserve this sanctuary. It will mean saying yes to certain things and saying no to others. As a faith community that is growing, to continue to grow in God’s mission, we need more paid staff to guide us and help us, which will mean saying yes to some things and no to others.

Last fall, the leadership here at Salem shared with all of you our mission plan for 2012 and beyond, and then just a couple of weeks ago you received a copy of what we believe that mission plan will cost to fulfill. Next week, each of you will be asked to participate in our annual meeting where we will be asked to say “yes” or “no” to this plan. If we vote to proceed with this mission plan and budget, as individuals and a faith community, we will be saying no to other things in our lives. We will be saying yes, somehow, some way, we will offer a minimum of $320,000 in our offerings. Somehow, some way, we will make sure we fill those grocery bags with food for the panty pack. Somehow, some way, we will ensure that we will support two new staff people. And we will do all of this by saying “no” to other things.

Saying “yes” to God, whether as an individual, a family, or a faith community experiencing God’s call, there are always other things to which we must be ready to say “no.”  What is God calling you to say “no” to in your life so that you, too, might experience the joy of Christ? Amen.

Copyright ©2012 Reverend Dave Whetter