Sermon of Sunday 31 January 'Follow me and I will make you ...'

Matthew 4.12-22 p 968

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee,
he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.
They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
19 Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.

Is fishing a man thing?
Even in these equal opportunity days when we have women soldiers
I don’t of hear of any fisher women.
On the quayside, yes, gutting the catch
though the women I know best leave that job to me.
Go down to a harbour or the shore this summer
and see how men and boys outnumber women and girls.
Is it because it’s a task where talking is not advisable?

Having amused some of you and probably annoyed many more
let me acknowledge that although Jesus called men as his first disciples
the task of catching men and women for his kingdom
would be nowhere without the prayer and courage and sacrifice
of many women.
This is the cry of many mission groups: “where are the men?’
They don’t have to ask, where are the women,
they are there, eager to serve.
The best illustration of what I want to say today is about a graduate student at UCC
whose supervisor called her aside recently to congratulate her on her work.
She was also aware of time and effort
this student had spent helping someone else practically.
And then she said: ’Please tell me, what is the secret of your joy?
What makes you so joyful’
The student simply said it was because of her relationship with Jesus.
Do you see what was happening?
As she follows Jesus, he is making her a fisher of men.

Lets look today at Jesus’ call of his first followers
to become fishers of men:
what does that say to his call on our lives?
Izaak Walton was an Englishman
who lived in the 1600s and loved fishing.
He wrote a book called The Compleat Angler with four basic rules.
'Be sure your face is towards the light'
'Study the fishes' curious ways.'
'Then keep yourself well out of sight.'
'Cherish patience all your days'.

In a wonderful way this turns into a piece of verse
which illustrates what Jesus asks:
'Be sure your face is towards the light' is advised by Walton
to make sure that your shadow does not hang over the water
and scare the fish.
Likewise we should keep ourselves well out of sight.
Spiritually we need to be looking towards the light of Jesus
and as we sang earlier
forgetting about ourselves
and concentrating on him and worshipping him
just as Walton advised keeping yourself well out of sight.

We don’t have time
to look at how we should study the fishes’ curious ways
and the need to be patient.
Enough to say that if we want people to respond to the call of Christ
it can’t just be done on a wave of emotion
or by saying the first thing that comes into our heads.
It will take time and thought and prayer and patient love
but most of all, it requires that we follow Jesus and learn from him
and trust his word I will make you
knowing that it is as we follow that he makes us
people who can bring others to know him.

There are two ways of understanding this passage.
One is that it is a call to some to leave a secular job like fishing
and serve Christ in a full time vocation.
The other is (and we can hold the two together)
that it is also saying something to us all about serving Christ
where you are with who you are and what you have

We need not suppose, by the way, that this was the first time
that these men had met Jesus.
It is not that a complete stranger walked up to them
and told them to leave everything familiar
and so quite irrationally and randomly they got up and followed him.
What happened was that they already knew Jesus as a friend
and trusting him as a friend, they knew it was now or never
and so they got up and left all behind them.
The call to Christian service is demanding and difficult
but it is not oppressive or bizarre.
It may seem foolish to those who do not understand the things of God
but that call is the call of the good shepherd
in tones of peace and of complete certainty
that he will not leave us nor forsake us.

I remember as a young Christian I used to go to missionary meetings
where some strong personality
would lay before us the needs of an area
and with piercing eyes wonder out loud
was God calling some one here to meet those needs
I used to sit there in dread that God was going to tap my shoulder and say
that I must get up at once and go to somewhere
faraway and demanding like China or Afghanistan or Russia.
In his mercy God never actually spoke to me like that.
I learned gradually that God does not nag us or scream at us
like a mad sergeant major
He wants us to follow Jesus but not out of fear but out of faith.

And this is the exciting thing about following Jesus
whether we are thinking of full time service to which some are called
or simply of everyday ordinary discipleship to which all are called
the exciting thing is
as we follow, so he makes us and shapes us to be
what he wants us to be
and very often he will use the circumstances of our lives
in the shaping of our ministries.

I gave you an example at the start of a student
finding an opportunity to speak of Jesus
because of the quality of their work and life.

A simple example is someone with a musical talent
which God takes and uses to inspire worship and move hearts.
The author of 'When I feel the touch' which we sang earlier
came form a background of drugs.
he needed money and decided to sell the things connected with his old lifestyle
but, try as he could, no-one wanted to buy his guitar.
Then he realised that God could use that guitar and his love of music
in writing and plaing praise songs.

Or someone with a fishing or a farming background
who knows the lessons of patience
how time is needed in the processes of growth of the seed
and the migrations of the fish.

Or someone who is gifted in sales
who becomes persuasive with the gospel.
Or someone trained in medicine is ready for a ministry of healing

For many people the demand of Jesus
is not so much that they have to leave everything to follow him
but that in following him everything must be offered to him for his use.
I will even say there is no part of our lives or experience
which cannot be made holy and of use in the kingdom of Christ.

Even the dark periods
of abuse, rejection, bereavement, trauma, depression
can have a meaning and a redeemed use
in the nail pierced hands of Jesus.

I will also say that there is no-one here too young or too old
or too weak or too stupid supposedly or too insignificant
that Jesus cannot take you
and make something of your life for his kingdom
as long as you will respond to the call, ‘Come , follow me …’
In this culture we can be too suspicious of success.
We can run ourselves down too easily.
When we under estimate what God can do with us
or even deny that he can make something of us
then we do the devil’s work for him.
For if he does not make us proud,
he will take us to the other extreme and cripple us with self doubt.

Take a look at your life. Is Jesus making something of it?
If you think he isn’t, the question then is, are you following him?
Are you trusting him, spending time with him,
taking on board his teaching
or are you still in charge and he’s just there for emergencies?

And if you are following him, be sure and clear that he will make you
and is making you someone of use in his kingdom.

That does not mean that you have to be a confident evangelist
handing out bible leaflets,
or having spiritual conversations in the supermarket queue
Although we all are called to witness to the truth of Christ
to be unashamed to declare that we love Jesus and follow him
we are not all given the gift of evangelism
But we can all pray, we can all love,
we can all welcome, we can all serve.

[THIS NEXT SECTION WAS PREACHED IN AGHADA ONLY]
Perhaps as we sit at the Lord’s Table today
we may hear Jesus say to us
I am feeding you
now you go and feed others.
This story of the call of the fishermen
reminds us that there is a call to mission for us all.
We cannot just exist for our own spiritual needs.
We need to face outwards.
That’s not an easy thing in this situation in rural E Cork.
Many of you grew up in a time when ‘religion’
was not a topic to be discusses outside the home
or outside these walls.
And still today, though relationships in the community are good
there is a sense that ‘you have your beliefs and I have mine.’
‘Fishing’ sharing the good news of the kingdom of God
is not easy in these conditions.
It is easier in Cork city
though even there one of our members originally from Brazil
says he finds it much more difficult to share his faith
than he would back in Brazil

It’s not easy but lets start where we are with what we have.

In his book Evangelism Through the Local Church,
Dr. Michael Green wrote,
“I am convinced that there is no evangelistic force
so powerful as a loving, outward-looking local church.
It is the key to evangelism in this age
that is suspicious of the high-powered sales technique,
and at the same time well aware of the emptiness of materialism,
the breakdown of relationships, and the shortness of life.”

In the fellowship of the Lord’s table
We have so much.
We have each other.
We have the Bible to guide us, the Holy Spirit to give us life and love
And we have Jesus remembered who gave his life for us.

If we determine to follow him, to make him the centre of our lives
he will make us fishers of men
he will show us how
even where the conditions don’t seem right for fishing.

[THIS NEXT SECTION WAS PREACHED IN TRINITY ONLY]

It’s thrilling and humbling in these days
to sense a bit of a buzz about this church.
Different people coming and staying.
People sensing a warm welcome.
More people getting involved in our life together.
This didn’t happen overnight.
This didn’t happen because we handed out leaflets in the street
But it is happening because people have prayed and .loved
and served and worked hard and welcomed
and people are still praying and loving
and working hard and welcoming and not giving up in the hard times..
People are following Jesus
and he is making us a fellowship that can attract others.

In his book Evangelism Through the Local Church,
Dr. Michael Green wrote,
“I am convinced that there is no evangelistic force
so powerful as a loving, outward-looking local church.
It is the key to evangelism in this age
that is suspicious of the high-powered sales technique,
and at the same time well aware of the emptiness of materialism,
the breakdown of relationships, and the shortness of life.”

It’s not easy
but lets follow the rules for fishing

'Be sure your face is towards the light'
'Study the fishes' curious ways.'
'Then keep yourself well out of sight.'
'Cherish patience all your days'.