W.W.J.H.M.D. Part II

Matthew 4:12-22

January 16, 2005

1. Last Sunday we celebrated the baptism of Jesus that took place oh so long ago, and, rather than asking ourselves the popular question, "W.W.J.D?", we asked ourselves another question "W.W.J.H.M.D.?". This is probably the most important question we can ever consider, and the Lectionary editors agree! As proof, the scriptures they’ve chosen for the next two Sundays lead each one of us to continue asking that question. What would Jesus have me do?

2. What would Jesus have me do? The answer to this question, and the word for the day, is REPENT. Repent means "to change one’s mind." The "one" is someone who has already decided on a purpose or a direction or an action, especially one who has begun to realize the error of the afore-mentioned course of action, and has decided to enter upon a better course of life. REPENT means to turn around, change directions, go a different way--but not just any old way. When Jesus asks people to go a different direction, he means for them to go GOD’S way. That’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s a little like herding cats, I suppose, and Jesus instinctively knew he could not get all the people turned around and going in God’s direction all by himself.

3. Now, we might wonder why he could not do what God wanted him to do all by himself. After all, God’s Spirit filled him and that is One Powerful Force! I suppose the reason can be found in an example currently making the rounds among my friends. I cannot tell you the original source–it was re-told to my by someone who heard it from someone else. All I know for sure is that I didn’t make it up. So sit back and recreate in your memory a vision of the last time you went into a fast-food place. You probably saw several employees, right? A few were wiping tables and picking up trash. Behind the counter was one person to take your order and fix your drink; in the grill area, one to flip the burger and add the cheese, another to squeeze the mustard and ketchup, add the pickles and lettuce and tomatoes, another to wrap it up and throw it down the chute. If you ordered fries, there was another three-person team over here to fry the potatoes, drain and package them, and another one to add the salt and twist the top of the bag. Is that about right? Is that what you saw at your fast-food restaurant?

4. As important as it is to remember what you saw, it’s also important to realize what you did not see. What you did NOT see was the manager of this fast-food restaurant wiping the tables and sweeping the floor as you arrived, then skating around behind the register to greet you with a big smile as he took your order, pivoting to get your drink, rolling back by the grill to cook and construct your burger, wheel past the deep-frier to make your fried potatoes, and coming to a stop (still smiling!) where you are standing amazed at the register, only to hear all the employees cheer and applaud his amazing feat! That just does not happen, anywhere! It doesn’t happen here, and it didn’t happen there, either. In the first place, Jesus knew that he could not physically do all by himself what God asked him to do; and in the second place, he knew how dangerous it was to put himself in the position of doing it all himself and then basking in the approval of other people. He needed help!

5. So, after his baptism, he set out to recruit some help. I don’t know what kind of process he used to find them. I don’t think he used the process we used to find a new secretary a couple of months ago. The Support Team and I put an ad in the paper, received about 40 resumes, culled out the ones that we knew would not work out, then called the best seven in for an interview. After the interviews, we called two of them back for a second interview before deciding who was the one capable of doing the very best job for us. I don’t think Jesus went to all that trouble! As near as I can tell from the account in Matthew, he simply invited the first four fellows he saw.

6. Talk about a motley crew! Over the centuries they have been elevated to the level of Saint over the centuries, but they sure didn’t start out that way! Who was the first one? Simon was his name. Simon who came to be called Peter. He left his livelihood as a fisherman so he could follow Jesus. But poor Peter never did get it right! He was impetuous and headstrong and when Jesus needed him most, Peter denied that he ever knew him. But God had a job for him to do, and it was through Peter that Christianity spread throughout Italy. I bet there were days when Peter, and everybody else, wondered if Jesus had made a mistake! James and John were known as the "Sons of Thunder," meaning they were tempestuous and subject to violent outbursts, just as their father was. Can people like that ever "repent?"

7. Dorothee Soelle wrote a book several years ago called Not Just Yes and Amen. It’s about Christians with a cause, Christians who have "repented," turned around and changed directions. She points out hard it is for people to turn their lives around. And one of the reason it’s hard is because people like to tell us we cannot do it. Consider these little sayings we use without even thinking about them:

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree which suggests a person’s family or their present circumstances determines the way it will always be, nothing that person does can change "the way they are." Have you heard that? And, more importantly, do you believe it’s true about you?

What you don’t learn as a child you won’t learn as an adult , or, said another way, "the future is only a continuation of the past." I used to believe that. I thought that if I didn’t have everything in place in my by the time I turned 20, it was too late. Oh, my goodness! How wrong, how wrong!

Little people cannot change anything, meaning nobody pays attention to those who aren’t especially intelligent or famous or rich or mature. That proverb has more to substantiate it than the others, but it doesn’t have to be true! "Little people" can make a difference, but they usually have to band together to make it happen.

We do not have to takes these sayings seriously! Dorothee Soelle points us to the miracle stories in the New Testament as proof positive that these sayings do not have to hold power over our lives. The disciples who "repented" of their old lives became powerful influences for Christianity. But it wasn’t easy for them, and it’s not easy for us.

8. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. It’s a little scary to read his description, for he tells it like it is! "The old life is left behind, and completely surrendered. The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus), from a life which is observable and calculable (it is, in fact, quite incalculable), out of the realm of finite (which is in truth the infinite) into the realm of infinite possibilities (which is the one liberating reality). Beside Jesus, nothing has any significance. He alone matters. When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person." Peter and Andrew and James and John just didn’t know what they were getting into!