Can I Get a Witness?
Get Up and Follow
Rev. Amy Butler
(Audio)
University of Southern California philosophy professor and prolific writer Dallas Willard says it’s one thing to say that you’re a Christian. It’s another thing all together, though, to live your life as a disciple of Christ.
Boy, if anybody could attest to the fact that that’s true, those four disciples about whom Matthew writes today certainly could.
Of course, on that day on the shores of the lake in Galilee there was no such thing as a “Christian” quite yet; there was only the call that Jesus extended: “follow me!”—an invitation that utterly changed their lives.
When the invitation was extended, we see intentional, decisive action to respond. Take a look: Jesus ran into Simon Peter and Andrew first. Offering the invitation he said to them: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people!” Their response? Immediately, Matthew says, they left their nets and followed him.
And then Jesus came upon two more brothers, James and John, who were working at mending their nets alongside their father in the family fishing business. Jesus called out the invitation to them and they left their boat—and even left their father—to follow Jesus, to become disciples.
For Peter and Andrew, James and John, a “yes” answer to the invitation of Jesus required thoughtful, decisive, committed . . . urgent . . . action. Immediately . . . they left their nets, their boats, their father . . . and started off in a different direction from the direction they’d been going. And this change of course was not a vain whim or convenient afterthought; it was intentional action and lasting commitment.
I think maybe this is what Dallas Willard is talking about when he makes such an outrageous claim that it’s one thing to call yourself a Christian, and an entirely different thing altogether to live your life as a disciple of Christ.
You heard me tell you last week that the fact that Peter, Andrew, James and John were out fishing that day in Galilee was a pretty strong indication that their vocational fate had been sealed early on. They didn’t make the cut to become scholars; they weren’t suitable for religious vocation; the economic realities of life in Galilee were such that most families’ livelihoods were tied to the fishing industry in one way or another. Perhaps they chose to become fishers but chances are the choice was made for them: their families needed every able hand to eek out any kind of life on the water.
And so it was that Peter and Andrew were adept at their trade—out working in their boat when Jesus came by.
And it was these very circumstances that found James and John helping their father on the lake that day, mending nets because their family’s well-being demanded they chip in. Swept up in a social structure that defined them and an economy that made their choices for them, it was downright radical what happened that day—the day they decided to put their nets down, tie their boats up at the dock, wave goodbye to their families . . . and become disciples of Jesus.
If you think about it, though, it’s rather appropriate that Jesus extended an invitation that required active response. All throughout the biblical text there are stories of decisive action marking holy moments and sacred places—the sense that encounter with God is not something we ever take lightly, that, in fact, these moments of decision, signposts in our individual adventures of following God, are moments that call for decisive action. The people of Israel had long been marking their response to God’s invitation in tangible ways that required them to get up and follow.
And the fishers that day WERE following in the footsteps of their ancestors. If they didn’t know already they were about to learn: it’s one thing to call yourself a Christian. It’s another thing altogether to live your life as a disciple of Christ.
I have to thank my spiritual director for teaching me about prayer stones. A lot of folks are not familiar with the work of spiritual directors, but basically, spiritual directors are professionals trained to help a person look for the work of God in his or her life, to learn and practice spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation, and to explore where it is God might be leading in his or her life.
When we meet together we often have time for prayer and silence. One day a few years ago at our first meeting of the new year she offered me a bowl of rocks, like you were offered at the door. They were all different kinds of colors and shapes. She told me to choose a rock and hold it in my hands during our prayer time. Turns out human beings have been using rocks as aids in prayer and spiritual expression for centuries.
Look, for example, at Jacob in our Hebrew lesson today. As he followed the strange leading of God into his new life he created altars—piles of rocks—to intentionally mark his commitment to follow and God’s promise to lead. Jacob built an altar of stones in several places along his journey because it was so important to him to take decisive action, to intentionally mark the places where he had miraculously encountered God—and where his life had been changed.
That day during our time together my spiritual director had me hold that rock as I reflected on my commitment to follow God in the year ahead. As I remembered this experience I realized that, as the community of faith at Calvary Baptist Church, we’re at the beginning of a new year again. And as a church family we have a great challenge ahead of us to live out the mission to which God has called us in this time and place. I realized that today, when we walk out of this sanctuary and meet together as a congregation in our annual meeting in Shallenberger Hall, we are looking out over the entire year spread before us. We need—like Jacob and like the disciples—a concrete way to mark our commitment to discipleship, if indeed it is disciples we intend to be.
So this Epiphany Sunday as we read the scripture stories of witnesses who faithfully answered God’s invitation to discipleship and tangibly marked their commitment with decisive action, I want to ask: what action are you going to take this year as tangible expression of your commitment to live your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ in this time and place?
After all, it’s one thing to say you’re a Christian. It’s another thing altogether to live your life as a disciple of Christ.
On the cover of your bulletin today is a photo taken by our very own Mary Andreolli. It’s a photo of a tall peak near Machu Picchu, Peru. As I was musing aloud this week about how we might mark our commitments to discipleship as a family of faith, Mary told me a story about her trip to Peru this past October.
I don’t know why exactly, but Mary somehow became convinced it would be a fun adventure to hike up to Machu Picchu. On foot. (My thought: Surely they have a bus??!?). This conviction led to several days of hiking and camping out in the frigid mountain climate as a guide led the group high into the mountains of Peru.
One day during that experience, Mary told me, they stood at the bottom of a tall peak and the guide explained to the group that, for centuries people have stood at the foot of this cliff and looked up with the intention of climbing to the top. Here at the bottom, he told them, it’s the tradition that hikers will search until they find a rock they like, tuck it into their packs and take it up the mountain. They’d have the opportunity to place their rock with the rocks of others at the top when they got there, he explained.
He said all of this to the group gathered there. They were cold; their feet were killing them; they were already lugging huge packs filled with essentials; they were standing there at the bottom looking up at an impossibly tall peak. Now, I was not with Mary in this situation, but I can tell you with firm conviction that I know exactly the look on Mary’s face when the guide made his suggestion. It just did not seem like the most prudent idea to tuck a rock into your pack at the bottom of the cliff.
Mary told me, though, that though most of the group was dubious, they all started looking around for a rock that they could carry from the bottom to the top. All day long they hiked up that peak, high into the cold, thin air, frozen and exhausted, muscles cramping and blisters rising they went.
But when they got to the top, Mary said, they started noticing little piles of rocks—mounds of rocks spread all over the top of the peak, each rock symbolizing the journey one person had taken all the way from the bottom and little collections of rocks—altars—where those who carried their rocks up the hill placed them carefully alongside the rocks of others who had done the same.
Was it worth it? I wondered.
Mary said yes. She shared this picture they took of the stone altars at the top and she told me about wandering around, looking at the little piles of rocks, tangible expressions of individual and joint commitment to climb all the way to the top.
Once she surveyed the scene, she told me, Mary was able to take her own rock out—the rock she’d carried all the way from the bottom—look around to choose a group of rocks, then carefully place her rock alongside others, where it will stay forever marking that exact place where she decisively put it herself, right there at the top of Machu Picchu.
On this day, the start of a new year of “business” in this church, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for you and me to think about what it means to join each of our lives to the lives of others seeking to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this place—some intention, some thought, some decisive action to get up and follow would help us together to express our commitment, because we know that in our world . . . it is one thing to say you are a Christian and it’s another thing altogether to live your life as a disciple of Christ.
What does it mean to be a disciple in this community in the year ahead? It means intentionally joining our lives to the lives of those gone before us who dreamed up the idea of a Baptist community of faith on this corner of the city in the first place.
Being a disciple means knowing and decisively living the vision God has given this community to be an ecumenical, multi-racial, multi-ethnic Christian body reaching out to the world with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Being a disciple here and now means investing our lives: our time, our money, our talents, to live out the high calling of discipleship in this time and place, to embrace the invitation that Jesus extends even to you and to me.
Like Jacob, like Peter, Andrew, James and John, like the countless others who have lived lives of faith before us, like those who made our worship today possible by creating this sacred space, like those who dreamed a vision for this congregation in this time and place, like you and me, who are here because we say we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ, God offers even us an invitation to get up and follow and an opportunity to mark that decision at the start of this new year with decisive intention.
Today, hold the rock in your hand and think about how it feels. This rock is not an idea or a philosophy, a dream or a wish. This is a tangible symbol of your little piece and my little piece of a pile of rocks created one by one as those who have gone before us have learned it’s one thing to say you’re a Christian; it’s another thing to live your life as a disciple of Christ. And as we’ve observed the witness of rough-hewn fishers who answered the invitation to be disciples and got up from where they were to follow Jesus, we can respond in kind. God has brought us to this place at this time and offered us a community in which to commit ourselves to the critical task of living our lives individually and our life together as disciples of Jesus Christ.
At the end of the service today we will share in a litany of recommitment. Then, each of you is invited to come down the center aisles where clergy will receive you. Check with your neighbor before you come, please, to see whether there are those around you who cannot easily move to the front and who might ask you to carry their rock and voice their intention for them—remember, we’re a group of disciples in this together. When you get to the front please voice your commitment aloud—share with the ministers how it is God is calling you to rigorous discipleship in this time and place—a word, a phrase, a prayer, a decision—and then add your rock to those already marking this sacred space, the community of Christ’s disciples, right here at Calvary.
When you do that you are actually getting up to follow Jesus, who extended an invitation to discipleship along the seashore so long ago. And you’re joining your life with others who know for sure: it’s one thing to say you’re a Christian. It’s another thing altogether to live your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
