Who Do You Follow?

Who Do You Follow?
If someone were to walk through the streets of Sheridan/Norway this afternoon, calling to people as he walked through, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” What would your reaction be? Honestly—what would your reaction be? (wait for responses)…Can you think about what Simon Peter, Andrew, James, & John must have been thinking while Jesus was walking along the shore? Let’s set the scene a little bit more…
We start with Jesus learning of John the Baptist’s arrest…This is the same man who baptized Jesus, who was Jesus’ cousin…The man who was preaching the coming of the Messiah was now in jail…He was arrested because the message that he was preaching was not one that was favorable with the authorities…He was preaching of the coming of the Messiah, this king…so you can understand why the king wouldn’t want someone questioning his authority…Especially someone like John—who was someone who was dressed in camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey and lived in the wilderness…This was the kind of thing that could incite a revolution and that just wasn’t something that the king wanted to deal with at all…So, John was arrested…We know in the story that John never made it out of prison, John was beheaded in prison…The cost of John preaching his beliefs was ultimately his death…
At this point in the story though, John is alive…Just in prison…The news of John’s arrest wouldn’t have been contained to just a few people…John was pretty influential where he was and was preaching a powerful message and word got around…Plus it would have been in the interests of the political powers to let everyone know that the rabble-rouser was in prison and that speech like his would not be tolerated…
So, word of John’s arrest was probably spreading and here comes Jesus in the city of Galilee…In some ways picking up where John had left off, preaching “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” But also sharing more to the message…And as word of Jesus would have been starting to circulate around town, he encounters Simon Peter & Andrew working…fishing…And Jesus calls to them and tells them, “Come and follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
That’s a bold statement and a bold request…And can be a little confusing as well…What does it mean to fish for people? What is involved in this following? If Simon Peter & Andrew had those questions, Matthew doesn’t record them…Instead what Matthew records is that they immediately dropped their nets and followed…Immediately they dropped their nets and followed…And so I ask again… If someone were to walk through the streets of Sheridan/Norway this afternoon, calling to people as he walked through, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” What would your reaction be?
The truth is…That call is made more than we really realize…And it’s not just Jesus who makes that call…We are called to follow something from the very moment we get out of bed…Who are you going to follow today?
Are you going to follow your wants and hit the snooze button a couple of times when the alarm goes off…Are you going to follow what the TV tells you about the weather and dress accordingly or watch traffic patterns and take different routes…Are you going to listen to what researchers say and eat something for breakfast—something healthy and nutritious or something sugary and sweet? Are you going to follow what your boss tells you to do? Are you going to follow what your friends tell you to do? Whew…That’s a lot of questions and we have hardly gotten out of the house! Did you realize how many times a day that we hear that “Come and follow me?” And how many times a day that we respond? And in those responses…How many times do we question or hesitate? Maybe some…
Now, let’s be really honest…Jesus’ call to follow is not really the same as “What am I going to eat for breakfast?” While there can be debates on health issues and how breakfast can affect you for the day or your life…Answering Jesus’ call takes more than a casual thought…
Answering Jesus’ call takes dedication and faith…By following Jesus, it’s not a one way ticket to easy street…As we saw in John’s life—it can lead to some serious things—arrest or death…
These are all questions that Jesus didn’t answer when he called to Simon Peter & Andrew & James & John…They weren’t even asked then…Instead, Simon Peter & Andrew & James & John immediately left their nets and followed Jesus…
Jesus’ call to Simon Peter & Andrew & James & John weren’t just asked to believe in who Jesus was…They were asked to follow…That’s the same call that Jesus makes to us…We aren’t just called to believe in Jesus, although that’s part of it…We’re asked to follow Jesus…Although, some could argue that believing takes a lot of hard work, following Jesus takes a lot of hard work…It takes dedication and faith…It takes sacrifice and self-denial…Even though Jesus didn’t mention that in his call to the disciples…It was implicit in his statement…Follow Me.
Follow me and I will make you fishers of people…Follow me and you will join with me in this work…Follow me and we will spread the Good News of God with all people…Follow me…
Although it may be difficult to do at times, it’s not impossible…Jesus doesn’t say, join with me and I’m going to leave you alone for awhile…No, Jesus says “Follow me.” When you follow someone, that usually means that they are with you in some way, shape or form…Jesus calls, “Follow me.”
How are we going to answer that call? There are some ways that we, as individuals have answered that call…There are ways that we have immediately left our nets to follow Jesus…And there are ways that we are still hesitating to leave our nets…But Jesus calls to us…Follow me and I will make you fishers of people…There are ways that we as a church have answered that call…That we have immediately left our nets to follow Jesus…And there are ways that we are still hesitating to leave our nets…But Jesus calls to us…Follow me and I will make you fishers of people…
So now, it’s not just “someone” who is wandering around the streets of Sheridan/Norway calling to people as he walked through, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” But it’s Jesus who calls to us still…It’s not a random stranger, but someone who cares for us and loves us…Who wants us to join with on the journey…Who wants to lead us…Who wants us to love him…Who wants us to immediately leave our nets and follow…

Follow the Leader

Follow the Leader
Follow the leader can be a pretty fun game, as we saw with the kids this morning…There are many different ways to play the game just as there are many different ways to be a leader…In our passage for this morning from the Gospel of John, we have two different leaders…
The first leader that we encounter is John the Baptist…John had quite a following…There were people who came from all around to listen to him preach, to be baptized by him, and to be his disciples…John was very charismatic and had a very powerful message to share with the people of conversion and of faith…But throughout his ministry, John made it very clear that he was not the one that they were expecting…He was very honest that he knew that he was not the Messiah, but that he knew who was…
In order for John to understand that, he had a strong connection to his faith…He knew who he was as a child of God and who he was as a servant of God…John didn’t preach in a vacuum, he spent time with God to understand his relationship with God and to know what it was that he was there to preach about…Ultimately, it was not about John…It was about God…John made it clear to his disciples that he was not the Messiah…That it was not about him…The leadership that John showed was of one who was connected to God, connected to his faith, that he knew who he was as God’s servant and was able to share that with everyone…
That’s a kind of leadership that we can model…To know that it’s not about us at all…When we share our faith or tell others about Jesus, it’s not about us…it’s about God…It’s about what God has done for us, not what we have done for God…That whatever we do, it goes back to God…
Can you imagine if instead of focusing on God, John had focused on himself…Things would have been surely different…I would guess that had John not preached on God and the Messiah and instead preached on himself, we wouldn’t be reading or hearing about him…
It’s so counter-cultural to think that or to practice that…Our culture tells us that it’s all about us, that it’s about what we want, that’s about all the glory that we can get for ourselves…But that’s not what we are supposed to practice as Christians…We’re supposed to focus on God, not on ourselves…It’s not about the glory that we can amass for ourselves, it’s about what we can do for God…
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum…The information that’s shared through pictures and words is heartbreaking and emotional…And there will be time to share more of that story sometime, but towards the end of the museum there were pictures and stories of those who had helped the victims of the Nazi regime…In one case there was a village who had hid and helped save many hundreds or thousands of people and got them to safety…When one villager was given praise and congratulated for all the work that they had done, the villager responded that they didn’t deserve any credit, they just did what was right…
It’s not about us…It’s about God…It’s not about what we want…It’s about what God wants…It’s not about the glory that we can get for ourselves, but it’s about what we do to build up the kingdom of God…
Paul Russebagina is an African man from Rwanda…Some may have heard his story through the movie Hotel Rwanda…In Rwanda, as the genocide was taking place, Paul held thousands of people in the hotel and kept them safe through bribery, words, gifts, and courage…I had the privilege to hear Paul speak a couple of years ago and during the question and answer period, someone said to Paul, “How can you celebrate what you did? You didn’t do much; millions of people were still murdered…” Paul was silent for a few seconds and then he said, “You’re right…I didn’t do much…I wish that I could have done more.” Paul was not out sharing his story for glory and riches; he was sharing his story so that people would know about what had happened…It wasn’t about him…
As John is talking with his disciples, he sees Jesus walk by and proclaims Jesus as the Lamb of God…In doing that, several of John’s followers left to follow Jesus…John didn’t stop them, but knew that it was about Jesus…It was about what Jesus had to do…
Jesus’ leadership is certainly one to model as well…There are countless stories of Jesus fighting for justice, sharing Truth, and honoring God…
Had Jesus been like the leader I tried to be in the game with the kids, where would we be? If Jesus had been negative about God… “Yeah, this God thing…It’s dumb…Nobody’s going to listen…It’s ridiculous…This faith thing is just not working for what I want and I certainly don’t want people to listen and follow…Let alone build churches…” What if Jesus had shared the message of God that way? Would we be sharing Jesus’ story? Jesus didn’t share his message that way…He was tough at times and spoke harshly at times…There are times when his words sting not only those Jesus was speaking to at the time, but sting to us here and now…Jesus’ message is not one about easy roads or easy answers, but about difficult questions and what it truly means to follow God…
While there are other images of leadership throughout the Bible, we have these two images of leadership this morning…And they speak strongly to who we are…How many times in our own lives have we not followed the leadership examples…Have we preached ourselves rather than preached about God? Have we shared about how awful worshipping God is or how terrible it is follow Jesus…Maybe not in so many words, but in our actions? It’s not about us, it’s about God…
What can we do to join with God and work with God? God is calling us to join in the work with God…God is calling us to reach out to all people…God is calling us to embrace children…God is calling us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the community, with the world at large…God is calling us to worship…God is calling us to be children of God…God is calling us to be servants of God…God is calling us…How are we going to respond to the call? There have been ways that we have already responded to the call both as individuals, and also as a church and there are ways that we are still responding to the call…There are ways that the call will evolve and change as we follow…God will be with us as we go forward…Let’s follow that leader…The leadership of God…

You Are Mine

You Are Mine
It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve all been together…A few weeks since we celebrated the birth of Jesus…And last week marked the official end of the Christmas season…It was also the first Sunday of the New Year which we began with prayer to listen to what God had to say to us as individuals and as a church…I am interested to hear what God has spoken to you as I am hopeful to share with you where I heard and still hear God speaking…If you would like to share with me, let’s set up a time to share with one another, or there will be much time to share together as we continue on through the year and prepare for our Lenten series, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. It will be an exciting time to share in conversation, prayer, and leaning on God’s grace.
As we continue on in sharing our story and following Jesus’ story, we come this morning to the story of Jesus’ baptism. It may seem a little odd that we come from celebrating Jesus’ birth just a few weeks ago to seeing Jesus as an adult coming to be baptized by his cousin John…Well, we have very little information about Jesus’ childhood found in the 4 Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John…Jesus’ childhood seems not to be as important to share as Jesus’ teachings and preachings. Most of the Gospels have a story of Jesus’ baptism in them and usually pretty close to the beginning of the Gospel…The story of Jesus’ baptism for this morning comes from the gospel of Matthew.
It seems like there isn’t much to the passage…It’s four verses, but in those four verses, there is a lot happening! We start the passage with Jesus and & John talking…Can you imagine what John must be thinking? Here comes Jesus, his cousin…Whom he knows is the Messiah…He knows that Jesus is greater than him and he’s been preaching that. And yet, here Jesus is in front of him…And he tried to not do it…He didn’t feel worthy enough…John tells Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you!” It’s an understandable reaction to have…I mean he is Jesus…Maybe some of us have felt some of the same reaction—that we’re not worthy of Jesus…But, it’s not true, because in that passage where John tells Jesus that he’s not worthy, Jesus argues with him and tells him that it’s okay. And John baptizes Jesus…
There are three signs when Jesus is baptized…The heavens opened up, the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove, and God spoke…And we have this amazing story of Jesus and baptism…Full of richness and grace and beauty…So, what? What does it mean for us?
Well, we celebrate the sacrament of baptism…What does baptism actually mean for us? There have been countless conversations over the last hundreds of years about what baptism actually means…Some of the conversations still remain, but the overall idea of baptism is pretty constant…In the United Methodist Church, the General Conference, which is the only body that can speak for the United Methodist Church, approved the document, By Water and the Spirit which is the United Methodist understanding of baptism as a sacrament of the church. A Sacrament is a physical action or response to a spiritual promise or response. In the United Methodist Church, there are two sacraments that are recognized—communion and baptism. These are significant to individuals, but also to the Church as they are sacred moments that have been passed through the ages of the Church.
In baptism, it must also be recognized that there is a confession of faith and a covenant to continue along in that faith journey. Infants are baptized and incorporated into the life of the church and are raised until they are given the opportunity to confirm the vows taken on their behalf at their baptism. There are creeds recited and vows spoken that are gifts from the early Christian church, but are still important today. In addition to the confession of faith either by the candidate for baptism or by the sponsors, there is also an expectation of incorporation into the community. This is also a time for the Church to remember their baptismal vows and engage in renewing their covenant to the Christian community.
Every time there is a baptism, it is not only for the one who is being baptized, but for the entire community to renew their baptismal vows. We as a community of believers take on the responsibility of growing with the newly baptized…To encourage them in their faith, to take responsibility for their journey…And to welcome them into the community…The community of believers, or the Church. When we are baptized, we are welcomed into Christ’s Church. How amazing is that?? That we are welcomed to work with Christ in the world!
In our baptism, we are incorporated into the community of believers, we are initiated into the Christian Church, we are commissioned into ministry, and we are born anew…Born of water and the Spirit…In the waters of baptism, we are reminded of many different waters, as our liturgy reminds us…The water of a womb, the waters of the flood, the waters of the parting of the water…Water was used for many different cleansing rituals throughout the Old Testament…In the United Methodist Church, it doesn’t matter how much water is used…Immersion which is being fully under water and coming up which reminds us of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sprinkling which is the most common method in the United Methodist Church and also invokes images of cleansing from the Old Testament, Pouring which is the pouring of water on the head of the person and evokes images of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit…Each mode of water has rich imagery and symbolism, but it doesn’t matter how much water is used…What matters is that we are born of water and the Spirit…
So much happens in baptism…It’s so amazing to see how God works and how much God invites us to do with God! This morning we’ll have the opportunity to remember our baptism…Now we may have been baptized as infants and don’t necessarily remember the exact moment, but we remember that we have accepted God’s grace…That we have been born of water and the Spirit…That we have been initiated into Christ’s church, that we are incorporated into the community of believers, and we are commissioned into ministry...That we join with God…That have been declared worthy…That we have been declared individuals of sacred worth…That God has claimed us…That God has said, “you are mine and I am well pleased with you.”

January Newsletter

Dear Friends,
As the Christmas season is starting to settle and the trees are being taken down and presents are being put away (or returned!), life seems to start to settle back into a routine. There’s a question that John Wesley asked of those “Methodists” who were in small groups. “How is it with your soul?” It’s a question that bears a lot to us daily. “How is it with your soul?”
I usually open my devotions with that question in the morning, but for some time I’ve avoided answering it. To be truthful, my soul is tired and weary. As you read this, I will be working to fix that. I will be on vacation from December 29-January 7th and this is the first real vacation that I have had in several years. I say the first real vacation because it is the first time that I am taking a vacation because I need it and not for another reason like my car being fixed, a convenient time around a meeting, or doing other work for the church. Taking this vacation is a good way to prepare for the coming year and to refresh my soul.
On January 6th, the worship service will be an opportunity for the Sheridan-Norway United Methodist Churches to begin to prepare as well. In the first Sunday of the year, the service will be a prayer service. There will be different opportunities to pray together as the church, a gathered body of believers. This time of prayer will be for many reasons. It will remind us to be in conversation with God, to be listening to God, and to be open to what God is calling us as Sheridan-Norway United Methodist Churches to do and to be.
Over the next year we will have many conversations on what our vision and mission from God is and how we will live into that. Sometimes that means that there will be changes, sometimes things will be done in ways that are not completely comfortable, sometimes there will be people that we had not expected. In the midst of that, we will be faithful to God as God is faithful to us.
Another way to explore our vision and mission will be during the sermon series & study during Lent. We will be working through Pat Nixon’s book I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. This book has been recommended by the Northern Illinois Conference and many pastors across the Dekalb district have already met with the DS to discuss it. Now, as Sheridan & Norway congregations, we will have the opportunity to share and discuss. Please look at the information on this book, class, and opportunity for discussion in this newsletter.
I am looking forward to these conversations and how we can be faithful as God’s servants.
Blessings,
Pastor Melissa