January 23 sermon

Text: Matthew 4:12-23
Preached January 22 at First English Lutheran Church in Faribault, MN and January 23 at Trinity Lutheran Church in West Concord, MN


Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Did you hear some echoes of Christmas in our readings today?
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.”

These words from Isaiah are the Old Testament reading for Christmas Eve, when the light of Christ makes its appearance in a dark world.

The Israelites of Isaiah’s time knew oppression, as they languished under Assyrian domination. And the Jewish people of Jesus’ time knew their own kind of oppression, as they labored under Roman occupation.

Peter and Andrew, James and John were all fishermen. We tend to associate fishing with relaxation, I suppose—time away from work, a respite in the fresh air. But this is not at all what these fishermen’s life was like. Their work was relentless, demanding their attention through long days of strenuous physical exertion, hauling heavy nets around and hoping they became even heavier as they filled with fish. It was dirty, grimy, smelly work.

And it was not financially lucrative. Fishermen were at the bottom of a complex economic hierarchy. There were fees and taxes for everything from the fishing space itself to the boats to the shipping of the product. It was all designed to keep these men in place at the bottom, while benefiting the powerful few at the top of this economic pyramid.

Peter and Andrew, James and John were living in their own kind of darkness. Their work was difficult, and the structure within which they toiled was oppressive. Then one day Jesus walked by, and these people who walked in darkness saw a great light.

“Follow me,” Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “and I will make you fish for people.” What could this have meant? Did they understand what Jesus was calling them to do? James and John may not have gotten even that much information. Matthew just says Jesus called them. Could they have known what they were signing up for?

This was very early in Jesus’ ministry. So far, according to Matthew, Jesus’ public activity had included being baptized by John and proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Is this all the disciples had to go on? Is this all they knew of Jesus?

Maybe so, and still they responded. Matthew says they left their work immediately and followed Jesus. Immediately they followed, not knowing to what exactly they were being called, not knowing what this new life held for them, not knowing where Jesus would lead them or whether there was anything in it for them.

They didn’t know the rest of the story as we do, but they must have known something of the scriptures which the Jewish people heard and studied all their lives. They must have known that God had promised to send light into the world, to shine light on those sitting in deep darkness. And they must have seen that light shining in Jesus—the light no darkness can overcome, a force for freedom from all that oppresses us.

They must have known that God had promised a hopeful future to his people. God had promised that the “yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor,” God would break, “as on the day of Midian,” that great day when Gideon and his tiny band of scrappy Israelites had defeated a powerful foreign army.

Peter and Andrew, James and John must have seen something in Jesus that spoke of breaking the yoke of their burden. Perhaps it was the fact that Jesus didn’t ask them about their qualifications for discipleship. He didn’t ask about their background, education, or experience. He didn’t ask them for references, and he certainly didn’t demand a hefty slice of their profit like everyone else seemed to do.

Jesus knew exactly what kind of men these were. Jesus knew that fishermen were usually not well-educated, that they were at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, that they were covered in grime and probably quite rough around the edges. But Jesus didn’t even ask them to clean themselves up before joining him in his work. “Follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fish for people.”

Jesus called these men into discipleship and service, just as they were. God knows about our gifts and talents and interests and professions. God knows about our tastes and habits and personality quirks. And God doesn’t require us to change who we are in order to follow him. Instead, God invites us to use all of those gifts and interests and quirks in God’s work.

We don’t have to get our act together before God can use us to serve the world. Remember what God promised to do: To break the yoke of our burden, the bar across our shoulders, the rod of our oppressor, as on the day of Midian.

God is at work, freeing us from oppression to sin, death, and the devil. Freeing us from our mistakes and failures, freeing us from the burdens of our past and the flaws that continue to trouble us. We are not left alone in our darkness, for God sends us a great light. God sends Jesus Christ, the light of the world, to shine on us and lead us out of our darkness.

This is the light that Peter and Andrew saw and followed. This is the light that compelled James and John to leave their father and their fishing. Jesus’ followers see this light of hope and victory, and Jesus’ followers become the ones who bear that light to the world.

Very soon in Matthew’s story of Jesus’ ministry, we will hear Jesus say the words that someone said to each of us at our baptism: “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (5:16).

“Follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fish for people.” Notice that Jesus does not say, “Follow me and I’ll make you rich and powerful and quite comfortable.” Jesus does not say, “Follow me and I’ll meet all your emotional needs so that you’ll feel happy all the time.” Instead, Jesus says, “Follow me, and I’ll put you to work”!

The followers of Jesus bear his light into the world. And when we shine forth the light of Christ, what are we illuminating? Matthew clues us in a little later in our text when he says: “Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

In Jesus Christ, God’s kingdom comes near, and we see it in the good news of forgiveness and healing that Jesus proclaims and enacts. To follow Jesus is to point to this work of God’s kingdom, to participate in it, and to invite others to share in it. To follow Jesus is to use our gifts and talents in service to God and others.

Make no mistake: this call of Jesus to follow him is not without its challenges. James and John left their father and their family fishing business. Perhaps some of you have left your family farms or businesses, or perhaps you’ve watched your children do so. It’s not easy.

Jesus and his followers lived an unsettled life, constantly moving from place to place as their ministry unfolded. By the time I finish seminary next year, I will have moved 14 times in 14 years. I know about being unsettled, and perhaps you do to. It’s not easy.

God sometimes disrupts the comfortable patterns of our lives because the kingdom of God is not about our comfort. The kingdom of God is about serving God by loving our neighbors. God disrupts the comfortable patterns of our lives in order to rearrange them, to reorient us away from ourselves and our own agendas and toward others and their needs.

Peter and Andrew, James and John left their familiar lives to form a new community based not on family ties or geographic proximity or professional connections, but based solely in Jesus. We are all called to reorient our lives around Jesus and his work among us, but we are not all called to leave our communities or professions. In fact, Jesus didn’t invite these first followers to leave their profession entirely, but to transform it—to fish for people instead of fish!

When God calls us, he incorporates us into the story of God’s people, he invites us into God’s work in the world, and he draws us into the very life of God. God works through us in the everyday situations of our lives to shine Christ’s light into the world. Your work is God’s work—a way for you to follow Jesus.

If you’re a cook, God works through you to feed his people. If you’re an accountant, God works through you to maintain order and to ensure fair and accurate financial dealings. If you’re a construction worker, God works through you to create the places where people live and work and learn and play. Through your profession or your volunteering, you can “let your light so shine before others that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Neither does God’s call mean that we suddenly stop being daughters and sons, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers. Peter and Andrew, James and John left their families to travel with Jesus, but we are not all called to that kind of transformation of our family relationships. Indeed, God works through us within our family connections.

Think of the importance of family in doing God’s work. How many of us are here because our parents fulfilled the promises they made at our baptism “to faithfully bring [us] to the services of God’s house; to teach [us] the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments; to place in [our] hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for [our] instruction in the Christian faith” (LBW)? Your family relationships are God’s work as well—another way for you to follow Jesus.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Jesus Christ is the light of the world, who has broken the oppression of sin and death. What darkness are you sitting in, and how is the light of Christ breaking through that darkness?

“Follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fish for people.” How will you use your particular gifts and interests to share the light of Christ with a world in darkness? How will God work through you in your profession, in your hobbies, in your family?

For God calls all of us, as the unique people we are, to point to Jesus’ work of forgiveness and healing, and to invite others into that work. And God equips us for the work to which he has called us. Thanks be to God! Amen.