I'm not much of a one for three point sermons, alliterative headers or indeed anything that neatly comes out of a book. I'm not much of a one for anecdotes or sermon illustrations either. I tend to be a pretty linear, scientific kind of a girl and that is how I tend to preach. But today I was playing with the texts I'm using on Sunday and although the sermon is not flowing (yet) the alliterative headings are!
Mark 1:16 - 20 - People
OK, so it's a statement of the obvious! Here we see Jesus' call to 'follow me' at its most general, issued to four fishermen - four people, in the plural. Jesus calls people. Yes, it's obvious, but it is also essential! And he calls not just individuals but groups of people to work together. And the call is to get more people. It is people-centric this calling business.
Matthew 16:24 - 28 - Priorities 1: Paradox
This calling is paradoxical - it turns things upside down. It is in losing your life (life - not merely existence but everything that makes it worth living) that you find it (evidently Matthean word change here). It is in ongoing (i.e. not one off) self-denial, even martyrdom (as in ignoble death) that value is found. It is also in some sense parousia focussed, but that's too Greek a 'P' for a sermon heading - but eschatology shapes the here and now.
Luke 9:57 - 62 - Priorities 2: Pilgrimage, Proclamation, Perseverance
Pilgrimage is a bit contrived as a heading, and so would be the alternative that came to mind, peripatetic. Unlike birds and foxes, for whom security and safety, as reflected in a physical home, Jesus is a stranger, a pilgrim, a peripateo for whom such things are not important. How much of our energy, personal and collective goes into security?
Proclamation trumps pastoral concerns, or so it seems Luke's version might be saying. Evidently the choice of tenses etc suggest the real imminent or actual death of a parent. There is never a good time to follow Jesus, there will always be good, pastoral reasons to stay put - but Jesus' priorities are other.
Perseverance - make your mind up and stick at it. Whether or not this is an allusion to Elisha seems secondary to the concept of turning back.
John 21: 15 - 22 - Personal and Particular
Too readily in the past I, and countless others, have appropriated Peter's call as our own or that of the church and missed the nuance towards the end referring to the 'other disciple.' This is Peter's call, not mine. There may be resonances, but they are partial. Peter's call is personal and particular; so is that of 'the other disciple'. So is mine, so is yours.
Like Peter, it is easy to look around and say 'what about her/him/them/that church?' when what Jesus is saying is 'as for you, follow me.'
Yesterday and today, unsolicited, I had people saying things that confirmed my own sense of what God is saying to me at the moment. Working with these passages this morning I found other hints (and if you know me you'll spot them in what I've written). The sermon I end up will be heard by the good people of Dibley, D+1 and D+6 on Sunday. Each congrgeation, and each person within them, is unique and precious. But to each person and, especially at this time, to each congregation the command is there: follow me.
Each service will include an opportunity to renew our commitment to following Jesus wherever he leads us - may God grant us the courage to obey.