“I WILL FOLLOW….”

A sermon based upon Matthew 8: 18-23; Luke 9: 57-62

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

Third Sunday in Lent, March 15th, 2020

Today I want to begin this message by asking you a question:  Are you living your life forward, or backwards?  

It seems that life requires us to live our lives forward, doesn’t it?   Clocks move forward.  The days move forward.  Calendars are turned forward.  The seasons continue to change in a forward cycle.   You are getting older and you can’t stop aging or go back to how things where when you were younger.   Life is constantly moving forward toward the future—a future that doesn’t belong to you, but it’s gift, a future, that  is only known to God, unless he is sharing it with you. 

Years ago, Novelist Tom Wolfe wrote a book entitled, “You Can’t Go Home Again.”   I’ve understood what he was saying in my own life.  I left home, and after being away for nearly 20 years, I came back to the community where I used to live.  I came home, but home has changed.  My parents are gone.  Many of my friends have moved away.  The school is different.  My home church is different.  The Statesville I grew up in is not the same as Statesville is now.  

As much as I hate to admit it, Tom Wolfe was right.  “You can’t go home again”.  The truth is, you really can’t stay home either.   As the Indians used to say, “You can’t step in the same river twice.”  An even greater truth is that you can’t step in the same river once, can you?”   You can’t because a river, like life, is always on the move to somewhere else.  If you’re not on the move with it, it will move without you.

My wife learned a hard lesson about moving rivers many years ago.  We were kayaking down the Dan River with some church members.  She was in a boat by herself and got caught in some low hanging limbs.  They penned her against the bank.  I told her to take hold of a limb and try to push herself away.  She did what I told her, but forgot to let go.  While she had hold of the limb, the boat got loose and quickly moved out from under her.  She fell in the river and was struggling to swim.  She was starting to panic in the moving water, she thought was over her head.  I yelled out: “Stand up!”  She did and it was only waist deep.  I laughed because I’d made that same mistake before.

Like a river running into the sea, the river called life keeps moving forward too.  If you don’t understand that, and you grab hold the reality you now experience too tightly, you will fall out of the boat.  The key is to staying afloat is to let go and to keep going with the flow.

I believe, ‘going with the flow’ of life, is part of what following Jesus is about.   I know that many people want to see Jesus as a person who goes against the grain of the world and challenges our comfortable ways and understandings about life.  And that’s certainly part of it.  Jesus’ teachings were revolutionary and radical for his time.  When Jesus touched the leper and forgave the sinner, it did cause quite a stir. 

But I don’t think this was simply because Jesus was grabbing hold of limbs or sticking his heels in the mud and taking a stand.  No, I think Jesus was going with the flow of where life was supposed to have been going all along.   I think it was Israel, and the religious leaders of his day who were ‘stuck in the mud’.   God had long promised that a new day was coming, and that he would take out their ‘old stone hearts’ and give them a new ‘heart of flesh’.   Jesus was calling them toward their future; God’s future.  Jesus’ timing was right on cue.  It was Israel’s timing that was off.   The religion of Jesus’ day was trying to ‘hold back the clock’ of God’s coming kingdom.  They were grabbing hold of the low hanging limbs of the law.  They were trying to keep their boat afloat, but fell off in the process. 

Now of course, learning how to go with the flow of God’s future is never as simple as letting go of everything and ‘floating’ down stream.  In a world of sin and rebellion turned against God’s saving purposes, there are always obstacles that might block the flow of God’s grace.  We still have to navigate the current of grace correctly.  We still have to learn where flow of love is headed and we have to learn to let go of low hanging limbs. 

Learning how to navigate the current of God’s grace is what following Jesus is all about.  We’ve been looking at Christian Discipleship through the lens of the Gospel of Matthew, but in today’s lesson we including the parallel in Luke’s gospel.  We need Luke’s added details to help us understand how to stay in the flow.

I WILL FOLLOW….

You’ll notice that Matthew and Luke share two, almost identical encounters with Jesus. Matthew specifically explains that a Scribe came to Jesus vowing to ‘follow’ Jesus ‘wherever he goes’.  This was the normal pattern of a student and a teacher in that time.   The student would choose his teacher and ask to join his group.   It’s still much the same today.  Student apply for college and hope to get accepted.   You apply, but that doesn’t mean you’d be accepted.   

Jesus took a different approach.   Here, Jesus is doing the inviting.  Jesus was known for selecting disciples himself; Andrew, Peter, James and John, Matthew and the others too.  His invitation was always: “Follow Me!”  

Here, however, this Scribe is inviting himself.   “Master, I will follow you wherever you go…”.   We don’t know whether his request was sincere, or whether it was a trick.   When it came to getting into the flow of grace, Scribes had a special challenge.  They were the protectors and promoters Moses’ Law.  They were also the most conservative and traditional.   They didn’t think much of the Prophets, read the Psalms or any of the other wisdom writings.   Their ‘job security’ was Moses and the Law.  They were not very willing to get into the flow of where God’s grace might be going.

Besides, this Scribe was used to setting behind a desk and scribbling his way through life.  He was a lawyer.  Most Scribes would not enjoy a trip down a wild, flowing river going God knows where.   This is part of why Jesus responded to him like he did:  "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Matt. 8:20 NIV).   Could a ‘pen pusher’ understand what ‘following’ Jesus might mean?   Was he ready to flow off the religious map where only faith could go?

I find it ironic, and sometimes troubling too, that most people of us religious types are conservatives and traditionalists too.   But in the New Testament, the true river of God’s grace seldom remains in the establish flow of peace and calm.   While Jesus did invite the troubled masses to ‘come to me,…and you will find rest for your souls,’  what was an invitation of ‘rest’ is these who were struggling, hurting, and hungry, could mean sacrifice, discomfort, and irritation for the established or the wealthy.  

As preacher once said, “I preach to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable.”  It is this same kind of roaring current of grace Jesus preached.   

God’s grace may take us to some uncomfortable places so that we will have to let go of some low hanging limbs.  If we ‘hold’ on to these ‘limbs’ of law and tradition too long, we can get thrown out of where the flow of God’s grace needs to take us.  Like this Scribe, sometimes we have to be willing to let go of what seems most comfortable and safe, so we can move on, down the river of God’s redeeming grace.

This is how the new always comes.    If you move into a new home, you have to leave the old one behind.  If you get a new car, you have to trade in the used one.  If you want to get a learn a new job, you have to try to gain some new skills and ideas.   This can be exciting and fun, but it can also be challenging and sometimes it’s hard. 

In the same way, if you want to go where God is going, you can’t stay where ve always been.   You have to learn to open your minds, and even more importantly, you have to learn to open your hearts too.  For example, when Collide Church was starting several years ago, a local pastor protested that they weren’t going to ‘have a cross’ in their sanctuary.  To him, he just couldn’t float down that river of grace without hanging up a cross, even if they promised they would be preaching the cross.  This was a limb that pastor was holding on to, and now, unfortunately, our whole Association fell out of the boat of where God was going, and Collide Church is today a member another Baptist Association. 

It’s sad, but its also kind of funny, at least to me.  I remember years ago, a man in my home church protesting because some wanted to put up a cross in a Baptist church, which he said was being too much like the Catholic Church.   What was being said in in both instances, I think, is that both people were struggling to go with the flow of God’s grace.  People were hanging on to limbs and falling out of the boat.

Grace doesn’t always take us to a comfortable place.   Following Jesus makes some demands on us and has challenges too.  This is what Jesus was trying to tell that Scribe, and what Jesus still reminds us too.  You can’t just write down what you believe ‘on paper’ and live with that.   If you believe in the Holy Spirit, and the ever-widening love and grace of God, you also can’t just go with what was once written down, and ONLY go with that.  Yes, the Bible is our foundation, but we still need the Holy Spirit to help us follow where God’s grace wants to take us. 

Isn’t this where Jesus was going in the gospel?   He was going in a flow that led him to strangers, to the outcast, and to invite sinners to know God’s love.  And he wasn’t putting ‘new wine in old wineskins, Jesus was doing a whole new thing.    He was asking his disciples, to get into the boat, and let go of the low limbs of the law and to stay in the flow of grace.   It’s risky.  It’s unknown.   It can even be dangerous.  But this is what grace is about.  This is what the cross was about.  And this is what it means to follow Jesus, to take up our cross, or even our oars, and to stay in the flow of God’s amazing grace.

LORD, FIRST LET ME…

The second example Matthew gives us, which Luke gives too is about a fellow Jesus invites to come and ‘follow me’.   That’s what Luke clarifies for us.  The answer that comes is the same in both gospels.   This fellow says he’s willing to follow, but he’s got something more important to do ‘first’.    “But first I must go and bury my Father.”   Do you hear that word, ‘first’?   This fellows says he’s willing to follow Jesus, but he’s got something more important to do ’first’. 

Jesus’ answer to him sounds harsh.  “Follow me now, and let the dead bury their own dead’.   But this man’s father wasn’t dead yet.  It was the duty of the first born to bury their parents.  It was Jewish custom to bury the dead immediately, so this is not what he meant.  He meant he was going to wait around for his father to die.  Jesus appears to quote a saying implying ‘others can do that’.  But this man says no, this is more important ‘first’.

What we need to understand here is that Jesus’ time was short.   He didn’t have time for waiting on the man’s father to get older and die.   If this fellow was serious, he needed to follow Jesus now.   He needed to make following Jesus ‘first’.   This moment of the kingdom coming near came ‘first’.   Putting God first, came first!

I recall when Teresa and I answered God’s call to leave our families and become missionaries in Europe, both of our families struggled without decision to go.  My own father was normally very supportive of me, but I overheard him saying to someone,  “I don’t know why Joey wants to go….”   Teresa’s family had problems too.  When we were commissioned in Richmond, the head of the Mission Board shook her dad’s hand saying, “You must be proud of your daughter…”   Her parents just stared straight ahead and never said a word.

It’s not easy to put God first, in any of our lives.  Even though I told my parents and her parents that we would return if they needed us, it was still hard.  I had cleared it all with the mission board, telling them that I was an only child and it could mean I would have to return early, and they said that was understandable.  This was God’s time.  Go!  They said.  Follow!   And we did.

For many of us, we have this moment when God comes calling, asking us to put him ‘first’.   It may not be to go overseas, it may just be a certain decision we need to make, or a person we need to speak to, or some work we need to do.   Jesus is saying, “Now, is the time, follow me!   Follow me ‘first’!  Put me ‘first’.  Trust me ‘first.’  If we don’t follow now, it will get harder later.  How is Jesus calling you to put him ‘first’?

We were only able to stay in Germany for 6 years, but these were some of the most wonderful moments of our lives.  Both my parents did get sick, and I had to return to take care of them.   It was the right time to return.  The Mission Board was inviting us to consider another location in Austria, to start Bible Studies there.   We loved Austria.  It was the home of Mozart, and the place where the song Silent Night was written.  It was a magical, majestic place and job, but now God was saying to us.  You’ve put me first, now I want you to go home and put your parents first.   Do you duty.  It’s time.  Follow me!  

And we did this again, did this again when God called us to come here and to work with you.   God said ‘come, follow me’, and we put him ‘first’.  We’ve been putting him ‘first’ all our lives, and we are going to keep on doing that, as long as he calls.  What about you?  What has God called you to do?  Where has God called you to go.  In what way is God calling you to follow and to put Jesus first?  Other people will keep putting him last, and still others can’t hear what your hearing today.  Why don’t you follow him, and put Jesus first, and see where the ‘flow’ of God’s grace takes you?

NO ONE…WHO LOOKS BACK…IS FIT

There’s one more example.  It comes from Luke’s gospel, which perhaps was added to help his readers understand the determined forward flow of God’s grace, even more clearly. 

In Luke 9: 61, we read how one more person came to Jesus saying, “I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”   That seems like a fair request, and in most cases it would be.  There is really no way to understand Jesus response unless this reminds us, in no uncertain terms, just how ‘urgent’ ‘the flow’ of God’s grace is.  It only goes in one direction---straight ahead   Jesus answered: "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Lk. 9:61. 

When you Jesus ‘hard’ demand, you might think of Lot’s wife.  On the run away from the destruction of Sodom, she was told by the angel ‘not to look back’, but she did.  She then turned into a pillar of salt.   It’s not a happy image, just like Jesus words don’t sound very nice either. 

But perhaps it helps to understand where this gospel story is going.  Some very urgent things are happening.  Jesus was determined and headed for Jerusalem to die on a cross for you, and for me.   This flow of grace was moving so strong his heart and mind that Jesus no time for anyone who had time for anything else.   It was all or nothing.  No one and nothing could deter or delay Jesus from his call or his destiny.  Aren’t you glad?

When God’s grace and goodness is flowing forward, it will not be delayed.  Even the most precious human love, the love of family, will not stop Jesus, and he calls us to follow with the same kind of determination.  

The call of God to get into the forward-moving flow, could be just like a teenager or young adult who comes and tells his or her parents they are moving out.  It’s not that they don’t love you, it’s just time.  You can’t stop the clock.   When the time is right to answer the call, moving ahead takes priority, even over the greatest love we’ve ever known before. 

Or it’s like the elderly lady, who lost her husband.  She loved him dearly.  They had many good years.  But now he’s gone.  Her grief is strong.  Will she ever love again?   It won’t be the same, but it’s time to move ahead.   There’s more love to share.   Don’t look back.   

It’s the same in many areas of our lives.   God’s grace wants us to let go of what holds us back and trust the flow.   Maybe it’s to love someone you haven’t liked.  Maybe it’s to reach out and touch someone who’s needs some care.   Maybe it’s to forgive someone, or to offer hope, or a simple word of grace. 

 Whatever it is, let God’s grace and goodness call you forward, to answer the call, to love even more, to do what you’ve never done, and to live in this moment and to follow the flow where it may go.   Don’t look back.  Let go of the low hanging limbs.  They may help you get moving, but don’t hang on too long, or you’ll fall out of the boat.  Get back in the current.  Trust the flow.   Know this, the future that has belonged to him, he wants to give to you.  Trust him.  Let go!  Follow Jesus and let God’s grace take you where God is calling you to go!    Amen.