January 26 & 27, 2008 - Getting Ready - Geist Christian Church

I am so busy getting ready I feel I can barely keep my head above water. How about you? We don’t have much time left; are you feeling panicked yet? Do you have your checklist? Do you think you’ll complete everything in time? I have to be honest. Right now, I’m not sure I’ll be ready. Does anyone else feel that way?

I see blank stares. Most of you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m worried about getting ready for Lent. You aren’t panicked about Lent? Ash Wednesday is almost here. Now you understand, don’t you? Your pulse rate just quickened ten beats. Ash Wednesday is ten days away and we’ve a lot to do to get ready. I’m sorry. I just stressed you out, didn’t I?

Okay, let’s start over. I know that you aren’t in a panic. In fact, I’m pretty sure that only a few of you could tell me the date of Ash Wednesday. It’s about ten days away: Wednesday, February 6. We aren’t one of those party communities like Rio de Janeiro or New Orleans where Mardi Gras celebrations take place before Ash Wednesday. They throw parties to get ready. I know most of you do not have Ash Wednesday on your calendars. In fact, I know that a few of you haven’t even heard of the season of Lent. Lent is the seven weeks of preparation before Easter.

I also know from years of being your pastor that most of you can’t even tell me the date of Easter. Parents with school children know the dates of spring break but they may not know that Easter is March 23. Easter falls early this year. In fact, it is one day short of being the earliest Easter possible.

When Easter is early, Lent is too. It puts pressure on pastors and church workers. Christmas is barely over and we begin another race. Not only do we have additional worship services on Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week, there is a pastors’ class for students to prepare for making a profession of faith. If you have a student who is fifth grade or older and hasn’t claimed Jesus as their Savior, I hope you find out about the class. It actually begins a few days before Ash Wednesday on February 3rd. Geist Christian Church will have the biggest class of students in our history. It is an exciting time. We’re getting ready to teach them and as a congregation, you are getting ready to welcome them into the church.

During the season of Lent, I pray for you. It is a very important time for me spiritually when I commit myself to several hours of daily prayer as a way to connect with you. We are getting ready for this ministry, preparing the worksheets, assigning staff contacts and prayer dates. I hope you will commit to being a prayer partner with me on your day of prayer.

I’m getting ready to preach a special sermon series titled “A Heart for People”. Just as Jesus had a heart for people, as believers, we too are to have a heart for people. We are getting ready to open our heart to a larger group of people with our north campus. In fact, I’m also getting ready to offer a Bible study titled “Opening our Hearts”. It will be offered every Sunday evening starting February 10. I hope you’ll join me. It will help you get ready.

Can you see why I’m in a panic trying to get ready? Do you understand why the staff is a little frantic? We just put away the Christmas decorations and now, we are getting ready to make our annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where we will witness the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The disciples and Jesus are getting ready. You might not understand the lesson read earlier this way. It is a familiar passage of scripture and sometimes we miss new truth in familiar passages. Many of you know the story by heart. It was one of my memory verses. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4: 19b KJV) In fact, my memory verse went, “And he saith unto them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’” (Matthew 4:19 KJV) We don’t “saith unto” any longer and we have learned to talk about men and women so the modern version reads, “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’” (Matthew 4:19 NRSV) Still the metaphor rings strange to folk in the 21^st century who don’t make a living fishing. There is nothing attractive about hooking people. Context is everything and it is important in this lesson.

A few weeks ago, we studied the baptism of Jesus somewhere on the river Jordan. Matthew isn’t clear about where along the Jordan River that John was baptizing but it was likely closer to the Dead Sea because he says that people were coming from Jerusalem and all Judea. Judea is the area around the Dead Sea and Jerusalem. But our lesson today begins, “Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea.” (Matthew 3: 12-13) In other words, he returned home to Galilee, a distance of 68 miles but once he got there, Jesus decided to move away from home to a small town named Capernaum, north of the Sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus starts getting ready.

This is what he is doing. Before you can start a movement, you have to have followers. The more you study the life of Jesus, the more you realize that Jesus has many roles. Jesus is healer and miracle worker and social prophet and teacher. During Holy Week, we’ll be reminded that he’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. On Easter, we’ll shout that our Savior lives. But right now, in our lesson today, he is getting ready to be all of these things. They come in the future. First, Jesus starts a movement, a spiritual, social movement of people who understand the reign of God is at hand. Jesus is ushering in a new age, one which has been prophesized for centuries. In fact, we know some of that prophesy almost as well as we know the story about being fishers of people.

At the beginning of this passage Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah, a quotation that is very familiar to us. “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.” (Isaiah 9:2) Does that passage sound familiar? It should. Just a few weeks ago we read it on Christmas. Isaiah goes on to describe the light this way: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) I see you nodding. You know that passage but I bet you didn’t connect it with Jesus calling his disciples. But this is what he’s doing. He’s establishing his authority and beginning his ministry and that’s how Matthew introduces this story around the Sea of Galilee saying “he’s the great light.” I suppose it is not unlike the presidential campaign finding delegates to go to the convention and earn their nomination. Jesus is finding delegates who will go with him to Jerusalem. He’s getting ready.

There are two ways that he gets ready. The first is pretty apparent. He’s calling people out. He’s asking individuals, like Andrew and Peter, James and John, to follow him and the gospel tells us that they do. They drop their nets and follow him which is really hard for us to understand, what with our modern perspective about jobs and responsibilities. We’d be worried about an itinerant minister walking into Subway or McDonalds and saying to one of our sons or daughters, “Follow me and I will serve the spiritual hunger of people.” None here wants their kids to drop a Big Mac, jump over the counter and take off with a strange preacher. That’s how we get it in our head. They just drop their nets and follow a stranger. Again, what’s missing in our understanding is context and also, timing.

The context is this. In first century Palestine there were lots of itinerant rabbis, wandering through Judea and Galilee, teaching their particular perspective and gathering followers. Their teaching and positions were as varied as the republican and democratic presidential candidates we are hearing today. It was unusual for people to become disciples of a particular rabbi. John the Baptist was one of the rabbis who had followers. So instead of a father or mother being concerned, most of the time they were happy. Their sons were associating with a spiritual leader and they were still around. They saw them, perhaps even lived with them because these ministries were in a very small geographical area. In fact, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think they keep fishing.

This is the timing element that we miss. Because we are in such a rush to get to Jerusalem and to the joy of Easter, we read this story and have those fishermen packing their bags, waving goodbye and halfway down the road to Jerusalem while Daddy Zebedee is still sitting in his fishing boat. That’s not what happened. Jesus spent considerable time, probably three years if we use the gospel of John’s timeline, preaching in the fishing villages along the Sea of Galilee, building momentum. It is why the 23^rd verse is so important to understand this passage. “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.” (Matthew 4:23) Hear what is going on. Jesus is spending time, in a relatively small community of a lakefront town, some no more than three or four miles apart, proclaiming his message that the kingdom of God is drawing near. Starting his movement, tapping followers and Matthew adds that he is curing people of their illnesses. For three years he is getting ready to journey to Jerusalem. Transforming people’s lives, getting them on board with a new way of thinking and believing, takes time. It doesn’t happen instantly or overnight. It takes long term commitment. In some very real ways, when you are ready with Jesus, it is a lifetime experience.

This is what the disciples learned. They spent three years with Jesus around the Sea of Galilee. We have story after story of the disciples following Jesus. Not one of these stories, in any of the gospels, talk about the disciples catching one person. Why? I guess they weren’t ready. I think that’s interesting. I think it is even more interesting that Jesus doesn’t mention it again until he ascends into heaven. He turns to his disciples and says “Go Fish!” That’s how I see it. He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28: 19-20b) Here’s how I interpret that. He turns to them and said, “You know that fishing metaphor I used about fishing for people? The last three years, you’ve been getting ready to fish. Now go do it.” I know that’s not exactly the way it’s written in the gospel but with all my heart, I believe that is exactly what he was saying.

But what exactly is the passage saying to us, to you and to me? It is saying a lot of things but I want you to hold onto just one. When you get ready with Jesus, it is a lifetime experience. We study this story just before Lent because it reminds us that Jesus is getting ready and his disciples are too. They were getting ready to go to Jerusalem. They were getting ready to experience Holy Week. They were getting ready for Easter and getting ready to fish for people. But then, after Easter, they were getting ready for the Holy Spirit and getting ready to form the church. Throughout their entire lives of following Jesus, they are getting ready until they finally get to meet Jesus once again in eternity, which is ultimately what we are all getting ready for.

All panic aside about Ash Wednesday and Lent, I want you to ask yourself the question, “What is Jesus getting me ready for? What’s the next thing to come? For what is God preparing me?” Whatever stage you are in your life, something is coming. It’s not just Ash Wednesday, or Holy Week or Easter. It’s things like marriage, and babies and grandchildren. It’s challenges like losing a job or facing cancer or giving up a loved one to death. It’s even things like witnessing to a neighbor or working on a mission trip. Our life with Jesus is about getting ready. And the question always comes, whatever you face, will you be ready? Have you prepared yourself spiritually for whatever is ahead?

It is why seasons of getting ready like Lent are so important. It reminds us that following Jesus is a lifetime commitment of continuous preparation. You can’t let up. You can’t get lazy because you are always getting ready and you don’t always know what is coming and when.

Let me leave you with a little story that might help you think about getting ready. The Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno tells of an ancient Roman aqueduct, located near the city of Segovia. The aqueduct — a sort of elevated trestle over which water flows — was constructed in the year A.D. 109. For 1,800 years, the aqueduct carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. As many as 60 generations depended on this marvel of engineering for their drinking water.

Then came another generation, in more recent years, who said to each other, “This aqueduct is an architectural marvel. It’s a historical treasure that ought to be preserved. We should give it a well-earned rest.”

That’s exactly what they did. They detoured the water flow away from the ancient stones and channeled it through modern pipes. They put up historical markers so tourists would know who had constructed the aqueduct, and for what purpose. They celebrated the fact that their city’s water system was now modern in every way.

But then, a strange thing began to happen. The Roman aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating down on its dry mortar, without the constant flow of water to cool it, caused it to crumble. In time, the massive structural stones threatened to fall. What 18 centuries of hard service had not been able to destroy, a few years of idleness nearly did.[1]

I want you to take that image with you as you leave here today. We are getting ready for Ash Wednesday and Lent. But we are also getting ready for life, whatever it brings. We can’t let up. We can’t shut off the life giving flow of the Spirit, even for a moment, a week or two, a month or a year. Because if we do, when we need our faith most, it won’t be there and we won’t be ready.

That’s what’s following Jesus is about. It’s about getting ready. We have an opportunity in Lent, to recommit ourselves to the task of getting ready. We have an opportunity right now. Let me pray with you so that you’ll recommit yourself today to getting ready.

Lord Jesus, we becomes so preoccupied in the busyness of our life, so distracted with casting our daily nets, that sometimes our ability to follow you slips. Help us today to hear your voice again, hear you call to folly so that whatever comes, whenever it comes, we’ll be ready. Amen.

[1] http://www.homiletics.net/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040359