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Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. If there was ever a place that Jesus preached and taught and performed miracles that had any similarity to this area known as the greater Austin area, it would be Galilee. The very place spoken of in this morning’s text. You see, Galilee was a very mixed and eclectic place. The Assyrians had come in during the divided kingdom and had taken out all of the brains, as it were, or the brain trust of that region into Assyria, and they died there. The people that they left intermarried with other religious people. And so there’s a great amount of truth that was mixed with a great amount of falsehood to comfort that people, which was not comforting because it was syncretistic. Just a big word for mixing truth and falsehood, which Satan revels in.
So, in the same way, this area of Austin, this greater area, is a mix of the same. Lots of spirituality, not a lot of truth. And a lot of mixture of truth with spirituality, which is the same thing as untruth. That was Galilee. And how do we know this? Because Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, interprets Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled in the people and the region of Galilee, calling it, “The people dwelling in darkness,” though they themselves viewed themselves as greatly enlightened. He called that place a people dwelling in darkness and dwelling in the shadow of death, not life.
So of all the places that Jesus could have resided in and been based out of to do His work, at all the places that He did, He chose Galilee of all places. Among people dwelling in darkness… Among people dwelling in the shadow of death. And that’s where the light of God shined. It fits Jesus’ mode of operation, doesn’t it? He likes people in darkness because He loves to bring light to us who are in darkness.
Now something else about this region of darkness in which Jesus chose to be based out of is that the vast majority of those twelve apostles were called from that area. It says Andrew and Peter, who was really Simon, and James and John. He chooses two different generations. Andrew and Peter are older. Their father is dead. They run their fishing business by themselves. James and John are younger. Their father Zebedee is still with them, and they work with and for their daddy. But those are the four. One older, one younger.
And what’s remarkable about this text is that their response to Jesus’ calling… He called them, “Follow me,” and they said, “Okay.” And they dropped their nets, left their boats, and followed Jesus. Jesus didn’t always get that kind of response from folks when He called them to follow Him. Remember, there were some who said, “Oh Lord, I just bought a field and I want to go investigate it. Sorry.” Or, “Lord, I just got married. I need to go home with my wife. I won’t follow you right now.”
Now, even though these four dropped their nets and left their boats, they didn’t liquidate their assets. They continued to be fishermen. What do we find them doing in the resurrection account in the Gospel of John when they see Jesus on the shore, but they’re fishing? Yeah. We know that Peter was married because he had a mother-in-law in Capernaum that Jesus brought back to health. So when Jesus called these four men, as well as the other apostles, He never had them leave everything, sell everything. He only had them change priority and change relationships.
So we know these disciples did have this change. And it wasn’t as if it was a one-time following and everything was taken care of, and they never were challenged to change ever again. Because we know in looking at their life, they were challenged constantly because Jesus was to be the authority in their life, not themselves. For so many years, they had used religion as an add-on or an augmentation to their life, but it wasn’t numero uno in their lives prior to Jesus calling them. Their life had relationships with other people that were based on many and various things, but there was a difference now because they had relationships with other believers, not just unbelievers.
He had to be the first thing in their life, not the second, not the third, not farther down the list, but the first thing. And it’s not as if this change that Jesus brought into their lives made them acceptable to God. It didn’t. It was the calling of God that made them acceptable by God. No different than your calling at your baptism. It was His choosing you, not you choosing Him. And John’s Gospel is full of that. “I chose you and appointed you. I drew you to myself. I was given you by my Father,” the text says.
In fact, this daily challenge that these apostles experienced wore heavy on them. At times it made them higher than a kite, and at other times it plummeted them to depths of darkness and despair and wondering whether they were doing the right thing or not. Had they known all of this before, do you think they would have left their nets so quickly and willingly and followed after Him? Maybe what I should say is, had you known what was in store for you when your parents baptized you, how you would be different in your life from other people, how you would live with your failures to honor God at all times and in all places, and how you would rely upon His forgiveness rather than your own ability to shape your life, would you have made the same choices these apostles did?
You see, what Jesus was trying to make very clear to these apostles when He called them was that I’m not pouring myself new wine into you, an old wineskin. For to do so would be to burst the wineskin. Because as wine ferments, it creates gases, it stretches the skin. I am new wine, and I am creating within you a new skin so that when I am poured into you, I don’t burst you, but I do change you. I do change you.
We look at the apostles’ life, and if we look at their life after Christ came into their life, we can see very clearly they had no clue. Can you imagine this statement being said to them? “I can tell you when and how you will die as a martyr if you follow me.” And they would have said, “Oh yeah, I’m so up for this adventure, Lord. Take me.” If God would have told you, “I’m going to cause disharmony in your life with other relationships of people whom you love because of your faith,” would you have said, “Yes, Lord, I’m willing to put up with disharmony in my family because of my faith”?
And Peter… Wow, his life’s an open book, isn’t it? In the Scriptures, we see Peter’s great triumphs. And wow, do we wish we had courage like Peter. And then in the same Gospels, his great failures to confess Jesus, him running away from Jesus. Would you like your children to know all of the times when you failed to honor Jesus in your life? Written down for posterity so it’s not just your children who know, but every generation who follows you. Had Peter known that it was all going to be recorded, do you think he would have raised his hand on the Sea of Galilee that day and said, “Oh, you bet, Lord, I am with you”?
Then there’s you and your calling. Some of you were called as infants. Some of you were called as adults. Both are fraught with their own problems, are they not? Both, we know, have difficulties because we are shaped and led by God. Our calling is just like these apostles. We believe, like the apostles did, that Jesus’ teaching is the only truth that there is. And yet the apostles continued to grow and grow in that truth and what it meant, how it impacted their life, how it affected their priorities, and how it impacted relationships.
Like the apostles, we believe we need what Jesus has to offer, His forgiveness. His forgiveness. We know we have nothing without Him. And yet, after having received such forgiveness, why is it that you and I remember our failure so clearly? At times we question God’s forgiveness and justify our actions and our words rather than repent and believe? Like the apostles, we know that God’s kingdom will not come through anyone other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified for us. That’s it.
And yet, why is it that we love to polish ourselves so that we look better to other people? Yeah. This life in which you have been called, we’re in the midst of. And it’s a life of daily repenting and believing. It is a life that is a practice. You could call it a daily grind even. It’s a little pejorative using that term, but I don’t know. It can be a grind, can’t it? This life that God has called us.
I’ve been married over 33 years, and I’m still practicing marriage. I don’t have it down. So you are still practicing your faith. You don’t have it down either. I’ve been a son for over 54 years, and I’m still learning what it means to be a son, and I don’t always do it well. I’ve been a brother and a sister to my siblings for the same amount of time, and I still am learning and practicing what it means to be a sibling, and I don’t do it so well, and neither do you.
And I am still practicing what it means to be a brother in Christ to you and a sister in Christ to you and to one another. And I and you aren’t always doing it well, are we? This calling into which we’ve been called is a daily calling, and it’s a challenge. It is a life calling, and it’s a practice. It is not a one-time shot, one time and done.
And you know what is the amazing thing by God’s grace? He protects you and protects me by not telling us what lies ahead of us. God be praised. He doesn’t tell us how we’re going to suffer for the faith before we suffer for the faith. Or how we’re going to have to suffer for denying ourselves and choosing Christ and our relationship with one another over our petty differences. He leads. We follow.
And our relationships and our priorities don’t just change once; they change daily as we are practiced in this faith. The apostles, as you remember reading in the Scriptures, later on it talks about how they remembered what Jesus had said far after His death and resurrection. So they grabbed it a little bit at the time, and as time moved on they grabbed it even more. Is that not what you and I grab in practicing being a Christian? Christian husband or Christian wife or a godly brother and sister to our other godly brothers and sisters?
Every day He’s making Himself more important to us than everything else in this world and anyone else in this world. And that will cause us to be uncomfortable because we also have to deny our favorite friend, ourselves.
Now, you have not been called necessarily at this time to drop your nets, leave your boats, and start preaching all around an area of the world that you have no idea and live completely on the kindness of other people’s offerings. It’s not what He called you to do. He did call you to be a godly woman or a godly man. He did call you to be a godly parish family member among your other parish family members. That we know He did call us. And He uses us in these various roles to extend His kingdom.
Now this is important. When you think about the twelve and what they did, oh, how important it was, those twelve. But there are many named believers that lived their life in their calling where they were at, and God used them. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, two men on the Sanhedrin, they were never out there preaching in the mission field, and yet God used them among their peers and in their family for the extension of His kingdom.
And then, my goodness, think of the people that are unnamed. The widow at Nain, whose son was resurrected. We have no idea what her name is, but God used her in the city of Nain. The servants of the centurion who God healed through Jesus. We have no idea what his name is, but God used him. Didn’t ask him to leave that centurion to go do something different. God is not asking you to leave necessarily what you’re doing for something different, but He is calling you to be number one in your life.
Our practice in faith does three things to us. It challenges us. It changes us. And it causes us to make choices every day. Choices that honor our God or choices that honor ourselves. Changes that honor God or changes that honor ourselves. And God will not stop challenging us with such things because of how much He loves you and me.
He leads; we follow. Now, Matthew’s gospel is fascinating. At the very end of his gospel, he reiterates how disciples or believers are made. That famous passage that all of us had memorized, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them.” You are daily learning what it means as you practice your faith to be a child of God. We all are.
But in that same text, at the very end of Matthew, Jesus says His great statement that fulfills how it all began with Jesus being, by Matthew’s gospel, called Emmanuel, God with us. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, He says, “‘Lo, I will be with you always. I will be Emmanuel to you always to the very end of the age.'” He was with the apostles every step of the way. When they were the most wonderful and when they were the most stinky, He was with them. Your Lord has been with you when you were His brightest child and when you were His dullest bulb.
He was with you. That’s how our God works. He chooses a people of darkness to enlighten them with His gospel. As we read in that creed and the meaning to it. This is His promise. This is your calling. It is a good thing because we know He’s going to take us. He’s going to keep feeding us at this altar and take us to heaven. That’s His promise.
In the name of Him who will never abandon you, Jesus, our Emmanuel, who will be with us to the very end of the age. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and keep your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
