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.
‘Come, follow me.’ Jesus said. ‘But first let me explain how this works. ‘You’ll have to be in church by 10.30 every Sunday morning. You can miss the odd service but if you miss too many, the others may well begin to question your sincerity. They won’t mention this directly, of course, but trust me, word will get round!’
‘Yes, I know that you may well have something to do at that time. It’s obvious that your work schedule involves some commitment in the early hours of the day, but we trust you will find a way around that. This is, after all, the way that we have been doing it for years. It suits our schedule. It works for us, and we see no reason to change simply because the rest of society no longer sees Sunday as sacred. So leave the paper till Sunday afternoon, forget about the shopping, and find someone else to coach the local football team and Come and Follow Me.’ Tongue in cheek, may be!
I was reminded recent that Jesus only talked once during his ministry to being born again but spoke of the need to follow him on numerous occasions. There is an important point behind that observation, for this is a danger sometimes of making the moment of conversion all-important and forgetting that discipleship is, or rather should be, an unfolding journey. Peter and Andrew together with the rest of the Apostles followed Jesus not knowing what he was calling them to or where their response might lead. They responded in faith trusting that he would guide them and, apart from Judas, they kept on following even when it led to sacrifice, hostility, rejection, and the death of their master and friend on a cross.
How many of us would have followed through all of that? Would we still have been there by his side after the first altercation with the Pharisees? Would we have had second thoughts when Jesus spelt out the cost of discipleship?
Even the Apostles’ faith had its limits, of course, on the night of Gethsemane each briefly failing to follow. It needed the Risen Christ to greet them once more, speaking his words of peace and reaffirming his call, before they felt able to resume their journey. We too may encounter moments when commitment is tested and we no longer follow as we should, but Jesus will always be there, summoning us forward along the road of discipleship. Committing ourselves to Christ is a necessary step for all of us, whether that involves a dramatic experience of conversion or a gradual coming to faith, but it is only a first step. Don’t mistake it for more than that.
Have you ever tried sticking metal with wood glue, or plastic with wallpaper paste? If you have, then you will know it’s a waste of time, for you were using the wrong tool for the job. In fact you would need a glue like Redux 410 or something similar. Different glues are designed for different tasks, and what works for one may not work for another. Get it right, and you will create a bond to last.
Such should be the effect of the love we are called to share as Christians. The reality, sadly, is very different. For all the moves in recent years toward church unity, there are as many if not more divisions today than ever. Splinter groups breaking away, of questions of doctrine, worship and church practices, women bishops, and sexuality. Individual fellowships are equally marred by gossip, cliques, personality clashes, backbiting and so on. All too often, instead of testifying to the love of Christ, our relationships with other Christians speaks instead of our human fallibility, turning people away from the church instead of drawing them towards it.
There will always be those we are more naturally drawn too than others, that is a simple fact of life. Equally, there will differences of opinion and outlook among us, for we are all individuals with unique experiences of Christ. If though, we are truly ‘In Christ’. Then the faith we share should transcend such differences, the love that unites us is more powerful than anything that may divide. The true disciple is one who manages to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and speak his words in a world that is tearing itself apart and we do this generally, most of the time. Don’t we?
On another occasion, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, ‘follow me but first let me explain how this works.
‘The world, secular culture – call it what you will – is generally quite corrupting. So we expect you to leave that culture and join ours! You’ll listen to Christian music, laugh at Christian comedians, spend your holidays at Christian conferences and may even do Christian aerobics to Christian worship tunes. There will be Christian books for you to read, Christian films for you to watch, Christian fashion styles to which you must adhere, and we can even arrange for you to play cricket with your local Christian league. Corrupted by the world? You simply won’t have the time! So leave your friends behind and come and follow me.’
We have ‘come and followed Him’. So we can expect the journey to be eventful. We might encounter hostility, rejection, we may have to give sacrificially, it may cost us dearly. We can also expect Jesus to be there with us, loving, caring, forgiving us, willing us onwards. We will be expected to be Jesus to everyone we meet including the unlovable people in our eyes. We will be expected to share the love of God with others on days when we feel unlovable, when it feels like the world is against us. We will be expected to be all things to all men – with the help of God.
We will be expected to say to others ‘Follow me.’ After all that’s the invitation, pure and simple. An invitation to what? What will we be asking them to follow? To follow Jesus, or to join up with some specific church culture, to come and be a part of our Christian club? What are we asking and, more importantly, what are people hearing when we echo Jesus’ invitation to ‘Follow me’?
Questions:
- What do you think of the Christian sub-culture – all those ‘blessed’ alternatives to ‘worldly’ activities?
- It is true that Christians often lose touch with their non-Christian friends when they get heavily involved in church culture?
- How does this affect evangelism?
- What can the church do to minimise this effect?
- Do we expect too much of people?
- Do we make ourselves too busy for our own good?
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