Trinity V                                                                                                                                    Fr. Forrest Burgett

Trinity Anglican Church                                                                                                             Given:  07/24/11

“And Jesus said unto Simon, ‘Fear not for henceforth thou shalt catch men.’  And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.”

(St. Luke  v. 10-11)

Today’s Epistle tells us what is required to become a true disciple of Christ.  The Gospel today relates St. Luke’s version of how Christ called the first disciples.  St. Matthew and St. Mark, both have Jesus calling the brothers Andrew and Simon Peter and then the brothers James and John to follow him and become fishers of men.  In St. John’s Gospel, the story is a little longer.  After Andrew answered Jesus’ call he brought Simon Peter, his brother.  Then Jesus found Philip and Philip found Nathanael.

One unique aspect of the St. John version is the first question Jesus asked those coming to him.  He asked, “What seek ye?”  They responded, “Where dwellest thou?”  He replied, “Come and see.”  Throughout the Gospels, Jesus calls people to “Come and see”.  What do they see when they come?  It is not where Jesus takes his meals or lays his head.  They see how he lives his life according to the will of God.

The verb “to dwell” means to reside, to abide and to live.  It is the first hint of the indwelling presence of God in our lives.  In the fourteenth chapter, John writes, “If anyone would love me, he will keep my commands and my Father will love him and we will come to him and we will make our dwelling place with him”.  This is the first revelation of the indwelling of the Trinity.  The answer to, “where do you live” is not where Jesus takes meals and rest.  It’s where he found his life and they were asking where they could find their life and live in His way.

Eventually we begin to realize that the call to discipleship is an ongoing call.   It didn’t happen once in the apostles’ lives and it doesn’t happen once in our lives either.  We are continually being called by the Lord to be his disciples.  The message is always the same:  “Come and see.”  Jesus is continually calling us to discipleship, and only by accepting can we be drawn closer to Him.

There is another easily overlooked aspect of these stories.  According to St. John, Jesus called Andrew, who brought Simon Peter.  Jesus found Philip who brought Nathanael.  The very essence of discipleship is to bring others to Jesus.  The very essence of our being disciples of Jesus is to be missionaries.  We don’t have to seek an impoverished Third World country to evangelize.  There are plenty of uncalled people here in Kansas City.  In fact, some Third World countries are sending people to Western Europe and North America to evangelize.  We seem to have lost our focus on spreading the good news.  If we aren’t doing all we can to bring people to Jesus, we must question whether or not we are truly disciples.

Dietrich Bonheoffer provides a great example of discipleship in his personal life and in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship”.  He talks about cheap grace and costly grace.  What many people today are seeking is cheap grace.  “Jesus did it all.  He died on the cross for me.  I have been saved.  Therefore I can sit back and I’ve got a free ride to heaven!”  Dietrich Bonheoffer says, “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without a cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.”  On the other hand, “Costly grace is costly because it causes us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it will cost us our lives.”  Our lives will be changed forever by following the call of Christ.

We must ask ourselves, as Jesus asked the disciples, “What are we looking for?”  We are looking for the peace and joy that comes from living our lives according to the will of God.  Jesus called us first in Baptism.  He calls again in confirmation where we take personal responsibility for our efforts.  He has continually called us throughout our lifetime to come close;  to know and to love him;  to see with his eyes;  and to understand with his heart.  Over and over again we get a call to discipleship.

There is one area in which the original disciples had an advantage over us.  They were not inundated by conflicting, convoluted, purposely misdirected interpretations of Jesus’ teachings.  They were aware of the differences between the teachings of Jesus and their Jewish upbringing.  They were probably exposed to outsiders’ distorted interpretations about Jesus’ teachings.  They had the advantage of taking these distortions to Jesus and getting immediate clarification.

We cannot ask Jesus directly.  Today, the source of our clarification is the three-legged stool of Anglican faith.  Holy Scriptures is the first leg and it gives us God’s revelations throughout the history of mankind.  Unfortunately, it is constantly being revised and re-written to reflect an ever increasingly self-indulgent interpretation.  Tradition is the second leg and it gives us the results of two thousand years of dedicated study by our predecessors.  Today, it is being attacked as intolerant and out of step with modern culture.  In some circles, tradition has become a synonym for bigotry and exclusion.  Reason is the third leg and encourages us to use our God-given ability to discern between good and evil.  It is being replaced with personal experience and the desire for self-satisfaction.  The source of our clarification is under constant attack in our culture.  In addition to evangelizing, we are called to preserve this resource telling of God’s Will.  It must show in our lives and must be defended at every turn.

It is difficult to find truth in the barrage of information being thrown at us every day.  Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”  That is not apparent in our world today.  The media measures the importance of news by the number of tweets, texts and emails generated on the subject.  The media’s perception of importance determines how many times you will hear a particular message.  We are altogether too willing to accept the media’s determination of what is important and because we hear it so frequently, we begin to accept it as truth.  Truth is often measured by the frequency of the message rather than the content.

A recent example is the newly discovered “Gospels”; supposedly written by Philip, Thomas, Mary and even Judas.  Scholars acknowledge these writing were developed centuries after Jesus was crucified and have no bearing on the faith we practice.  People have heard about them so often, they assume there must be some truth in them.  The result is a demand to place these obvious fabrications along side the Holy Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit.  They are to be placed above tradition and for a very simple reason.  They give people permission to do what they want instead of what God intends for their lives.  This is the battle today’s disciple must face.  As we answer Christ’s call to see how God designed this world, we meet for worship and praise God for his gifts.  We must also continue our personal study if we are to be prepared to counter these attacks on our faith.

We will wade through a great many distractions on our way to discipleship.  We have all lived long enough to know we don’t want a cheap vehicle that breaks down on the road.  We don’t want a cheap education for our children.  We don’t want cheap appliances that must be constantly replaced.  In the same manner, we don’t want “cheap grace.”  We want the real thing.  We know it will be costly, but we know it won’t mean constantly starting over.  We know we are heading in the right direction and every step is one that does not have to be repeated.  The next question is, “How do we insure we stay on that path once we have accepted the call?”  Our Epistle from St. Peter gives us some very good advice.

“Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another.”  This does not mean unity at the cost of God’s word.  It does not mean declaring sin dead.  It means having compassion for our brethren suffering from sin.  We are to love as brethren, be pitiful and courteous.  We are to return blessings where we have received evil and railing.  We can love life and see good days if we refrain our tongue from evil and speak no guile with our lips.  We must eschew evil, do good, and seek peace.  “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers:  but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”

Today is Discipleship Sunday.  It means answering Jesus’ question;  “What are you looking for?”  This question must be answered individually by each and every one of us.  Contrary to the teaching of The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, our salvation does not result from being associated with a particular organization.  It is worked out individually.  God’s relationship to us is always “one on one.”  We will be judged on individual effort and heart – not the accomplishments of the organizations to which we belong.  The disciples answered this question individually and so must we.

After his Resurrection, Jesus had another question for Peter and for us.  “Do you love me?”  After we, like Peter, have answered this question, we must follow his commands.  “Feed my sheep.” and “Follow me.”  That is the life of a disciple.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;  but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

(St. Matthew  vii. 21.)