Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 8, 2008
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 33:1-12
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
I don’t want you to sit down this morning to listen to my sermon. I am not going to the pulpit this morning to preach. Instead, I want you to follow me. So c’mon, follow me….
Now, see how easy that was? I asked you to follow me and you came out of your pews and followed me out the church doors onto this lawn. You didn’t ask me why you should follow me. You didn’t argue with me about it. You just followed me. You might have been asking yourself why you should follow me. After all, you don’t really know me that well. But perhaps you know me well enough to trust me. Generally speaking we only follow people we trust even when they aren’t trustworthy. Nevertheless, you followed me. Some of you might have become a little annoyed at the inconvenience of following me. After all, you fully expected that you would be comfortably seated as I preached this sermon from the pulpit. But I asked you to follow me, and you did. Right out the doors of this church onto the lawn. And it wasn’t so hard, was it. In fact, it was pretty easy, wasn’t it. Well, I would like to suggest that it was not so difficult for Matthew to follow Jesus, either. In fact, the gospel account we heard today makes it seem as if it was easy for Matthew to leave his former life to follow Jesus.
And this is why I asked you to follow me this morning. Because I want my sermon to do more than just tell you about Matthew’s call to discipleship. I want to show you how easy it is to follow someone you trust so completely. Disciples like Matthew and people like us answer Jesus’ call to follow him because we are a people of faith whose faith became quickened in us. And we are people who trust the One we follow. Matthew’s faith became alive in him when Jesus called him to vocational discipleship in the world, and our faith became alive in us when we were called to worship and service to God in his church. As a people of faith we are open to the possibility that Jesus will call us into discipleship, and ready or not we know that a living and active faith compels us to trust what Jesus is calling us to do and to trust who he is calling us to be. And the most amazing thing we discover about our response to Jesus when he calls us to act on our faith is that it is not difficult at all to follow him. In that moment, regardless of the circumstances of our life, or the situation which confronts us at the time, we find it easy to say the thing Jesus would have us say and easy to do the things Jesus would have us do because we trust him. And what a gift faith and trust are in a world like ours, a world where our faith is often disappointed and our trust is often betrayed.
It is no coincidence that we hear the story of Abraham in our Hebrew scriptures today, and no consequence that in his letter to the Romans, Paul uses the story of Abraham to support his teaching. Because all of our scripture lessons are about the ways God calls us to follow him. And as we are all aware, Abraham is the first person God calls to follow him. Like all the people of faith who come after him, Abraham will respond in faith to God’s request, a request which seems neither logical nor practical, even downright unreasonable. God asks Abraham to leave his home and his kindred to go to a land God will show him. A land where Abraham and his offspring will establish a great nation. A chosen people who will be blessed by God and a people who will be a blessing to God. But to Abraham, a man of faith, God’s request is not unreasonable at all. In fact, as Abraham’s faith is quickened by God’s call, as it becomes more alive and attuned to what God is asking him to do, God’s request becomes compelling. Abraham leaves the life he has made to begin a life God envisions for him. And he makes this incredible upheaval seem easy. He makes it seem like a non-brainer—not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do.
How difficult this story is to fathom for people who cannot see through the eyes of faith. Abraham’s actions do not look so right or so easy for someone at this stage of his life. After all, Abraham is 75 years old, and his wife is beyond her child-bearing years. For all intents and purposes, Abraham and Sarah are already enjoying retirement in a community where they are comfortable and secure. They are surrounded by family and friends, and they are undoubtedly quite content. For people who cannot see through the eyes of faith it appears that Abraham and Sarah have paid their dues in this world, and they are entitled to live out the rest of their life as they see fit.
But this is not the way God works, is it. And it is not the way faith works, either. When our faith is alive and alert to God’s calling us to a life different from the one we are living, people of faith are going to go there. I am reminded of a saying people of faith often quote to one another. It goes like this: if you want God to laugh, just tell him your plans. And then be ready to change them. Because we trust in a God who continually shows us that he is worthy of our trust. And it becomes easier and easier to follow him.
For people who live by faith it is not difficult to understand why Matthew and his fellow disciples answered Jesus’ call to follow him. Why they were so willing and able to leave the plan they made for their life and follow God’s plan for their life. Admittedly, it might have been easier for the disciples than it was for Abraham because this Jesus who called them to follow him WAS, in fact, God. God present with them in the flesh. But Jesus’ disciples did not know that. They only knew that when Jesus called, they felt compelled to follow him. And we know why they found it so easy to do. Because God’s call to them was more compelling than all the things of this world that called to them. God’s call promised them something more vital than the life they had been making for themselves. And in their response to Jesus, we recognize our own response to God’s compelling call to us to follow him.
Like that first Sunday morning we felt compelled to attend church and make worship a priority in our life. Like the time we were called to take up a special ministry to serve the needs of our church or the needs of others in our community. Like that moment when God called us to take a stand for good in our world; a moment which was difficult or even dangerous for us; or a moment which would make us seem foolish or even unpopular. A moment when Jesus called us to say or do the right thing, the good thing, the just thing, the merciful thing—and we followed him.
What compels Abraham to follow God and what compels Matthew to follow Jesus is the same thing which compels us to follow them. It is faith. The faith Paul speaks of in our epistle lesson. Not a faith we make for ourselves, not a faith which somehow came to us out of nowhere, but a faith God has already given us by his grace. A faith which is already within us. But a faith which must be quickened in us before we can take action or begin to live by it. A faith which can be awakened gradually over time, or a faith which can be awakened suddenly in a moment of loss or upheaval, or a life or death. A faith which makes it possible for us to live our life differently, in ways which often seem unrealistic, impractical, even foolish to others. A faith which makes it easy to do what is right and good, even when it is not.
But perhaps the most amazing message of our scripture lessons today is not about OUR faith, but about God’s faith. God’s faith in us. God’s faith in us that at some time or place, at some moment in our life we WILL hear him when he calls to us. And when we hear his call, we WILL respond. Because people of faith are all God has to represent him in his world. People of faith are all God has to do the work which needs to be done to bring his kingdom nearer to us on this earth. And just as we people of faith depend on God, so God is depending on us. Depending on us to hear him when he calls, and to follow him where he leads. To trust him to take us where will make a difference for good in our world. To believe that living a life of faith is what will bring us the greatest joy, the deepest peace, the most complete fulfillment and the kinds of prosperity which can only come from being blessed by God and a blessing to others.
Blessing is the most wonderful message which comes to us in today’s scripture. Blessing which comes from a faith that is living and vital. The kind of blessing which comes to all the people we meet in today’s scripture. Blessing which comes to Abraham and Sarah when they arrive at the place God shows to them and Sarah bears Abraham a son. Blessing which comes to Matthew, a despised tax collector known as much by the questionable company he keeps. Matthew, who is blessed by the joy and purpose which comes to his life when he turns from his old life to follow Jesus. Matthew, who becomes a blessing to Jesus as a trusted disciple. Blessing which comes those who seek Jesus, as well. Like the blessing which comes to Jairus by his newly awakened faith in the healing power of Jesus who brings his daughter back to life. And the blessing which comes to a sick and dying woman whose faith compels her to break the rules of Law and protocol to push through a crowd of people so she can touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and be healed.
Our scriptures show us a diverse group of people who receive much blessing today—sinners, outcasts, people of privilege and authority, women and children who have none, people who are sick and people who are unclean. But they all have one thing in common. Faith. A faith which becomes awakened in them by a call from God, or out of their great need of God. A faith which compels each of them to act in uncharacteristic and totally unexpected ways. A faith which enables them to trust where God is leading them. A faith which brings them blessing which the world cannot give. A faith which makes them a blessing to Jesus and a blessing to the God of Abraham. Abraham, that first man of faith, the man who initiated and established our faith relationship with God for all eternity. A faith relationship which not only makes it possible for us to follow God in ways and into places we would never go; it makes it easy.