“A Call to Adventure”

Matthew 4:12-23

In the words of David Toole, “… we are called, like Peter and Andrew, to follow Jesus, and in following him, to listen to him as he commands repentance and proclaims the good news of the kingdom. No bright stars. No earthquakes. Just a voice that strikes our ear amid the ordinariness of our lives and announces that God is among us.”

Like Peter and Andrew – and James and John – we are called to follow Jesus. Like Peter, Andrew, James, and John the Lord’s call to us is rarely preceded by any sort of marvelous clue: no star, no earthquake, no burning bush. Still Jesus comes and still Jesus calls, usually under the most ordinary of circumstances: a quiet time of prayer, the reading of Scripture, a conversation with a good friend, in the midst of a busy morning at work, in the stillness of night, during a Sunday school class or Bible study, while singing a hymn, and sometimes by way of a sermon. Jesus comes. Jesus calls. Either we answer or we don’t.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John answered. According to Douglas Hare commentary on the call of the first disciples, “… Jesus summons with irresistible authority, and the men respond with radical obedience.” We know about the irresistible authority of Jesus. It was the very authority of God.

But what about those first disciples’ obedience – what was so radical about it? It was immediate: no hemming or hawing, no long inner debates. Jesus said come and they went. They left what was, for that time and place, a lucrative profession. These guys were making good money in their families’ businesses. They left not only their families’ businesses but also their families, to follow this itinerant preacher to God only knew what and God only knew where.

Jesus’ call to them was not only irresistibly authoritative; its demands were absolute. And Jesus made no apologies for those demands. He had come to bring light to those who dwelt in darkness. He had come, demanding repentance and obedience. He had come as Emmanuel – as God-with-us – to announce the Kingdom of God, invite sinners into it, proclaim its demands, and usher it in. He had come to preach and teach the good news of the Kingdom. He had come, as it says in verse 23, to cure every disease and sickness.

And he had invited those first four disciples to join him in his ministry: to listen to and learn from him, be witnesses to his miracles, and model repentance and obedience. More than anything else he had called them to participate in a life-changing experience, what Joseph Campbell describes as “a call to adventure.”

And what an adventure following Jesus would prove to be. They got to see the best and the worst of human behavior. They did witness miracles. They heard the adoring crowds. They saw their Master arrested, tried, and executed for crimes he did not commit. They encountered and fellowshipped with the resurrected Christ. They received the power of the Spirit in a rush of wind and tongues of fire. In the words of Jimmy Buffett some of it was magic and some of it was tragic.

The call to follow Jesus is still a call to adventure. It is also still a call to radical obedience. Its demands have not changed. His Spirit still calls us to listen to and learn from our Lord by way of Scripture. The Spirit still calls us to serve as witnesses to the mighty acts of God that unfold in the life of the church and the lives of individual Christians. The Spirit still calls us to model repentance and obedience. And in keeping with our Lord’s final earthy commands, we are called to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom – to serve as Christ’s witnesses, evangelists, and ambassadors in the world.

Our explicit and implicit promises to do those things are contained in the vows we take when we publicly profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We promise to trust in the gracious mercy of God as we turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world. Trusting in his grace and love, we promise to turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as our Lord and Savior. We promise to be his faithful disciples, obeying his Word and showing his love. Each of those promises involves a willingness on our part to participate in the variety of life-changing experiences that become possibilities when we answer Christ’s call to share in an adventure with him and our fellow Christians.

There are other expectations of those who join Jesus in the greatest adventure in which any human being can ever participate. Among them are:

· Demonstrating a new life within and through the church – demonstrating repentance and obedience.

· Responding to God’s activity in the world

through service to others as we feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, care for the sick, and visit those in prison.

· Living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life. The way we live should give consistent proof of our faith in every relationship or circumstance.

· Working in the world for God’s peace and justice as we confront evil in the world, the church, and our own lives, no matter what form such evil takes. Challenging anything and everything that deprives our fellow human beings of health, life’s necessities, and freedom to be all that God has created them to be.

None of that sounds particularly adventuress. A lot of it seems rather mundane. Quite often following Jesus demands nothing more than our willingness to follow him. On the surface that doesn’t sound very radical or life-changing. Few of us are called to leave everyone and everything behind to follow where Jesus leads. Few of us are called to make major sacrifices as we follow Jesus. Not every Christian is called to be a martyr.

But every Christian promises a willingness to make radical changes in his or her life. Every Christian promises a willingness to sacrifice everything that is dear to him or her. Every Christian promises a willingness to pick up his or her cross, in whatever form it takes, and follow Jesus in the way of suffering servanthood. Every Christian promises a willingness to die in the cause of Christ. As William Barclay once wrote, “Into every Christians life there must be written a possible loss.”

Mundane though it may sometimes seem radical obedience to Christ always demands that we do what is right instead of what is popular or easy. It always demands the kind of love that moves us to help those we can and not hurt those who are vulnerable. It always demands a willingness to forgive seventy times seven, walk the extra mile, and turn the other cheek. It always demands, when necessary, a willingness to speak truth to power. It always demands a willingness to take the road less travelled, that narrow way of which Jesus spoke. It always demands a willingness to be kind, gentle, and humble in our interactions with others. It always demands a willingness to say yes to Jesus and no to the world. It always demands a willingness to live by an ethical standard that cannot be bought, that we will not surrender no matter how great the seeming reward.

That kind of obedience can put us in situations that are far from mundane. That kind of obedience can get us fired or demoted. It can make us unpopular with our neighbors. It can scare away our friends, and sometimes even our family. It can open us up to risky forms of vulnerability. It can cause us to be called names and be made fun of. It can cost us money and property. It can lead people to question our patriotism. It can cause us to give up hobbies and forms of recreation that we love. It can get us thrown in prison.

Such things are not mundane. Such things are always possibilities for faithful disciples of Jesus. That’s the tragic part of discipleship. The magical or wondrous part of discipleship is the guarantee of inclusion in God’s Kingdom – now and forever. Amen.