Community of Followers

Matthew 4:12-23

January 27, 2008

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

(Sing) “Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb; Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went; everywhere that Mary went that lamb was sure to go.”

As you sing that or hear it, don’t you get a picture in your head, perhaps formed by nursery rhyme books you had as a child, of a little pig-tailed girl with a sweet lamb walking obediently behind her? For many of us, that is what comes to mind when we think of the word, “follow.”

Think for a moment about what other images come to mind when you consider the word “follow” or the image of “followers.” And I’m especially wondering how many of those images are positive ones. I’ll admit to having, among others, a picture of those folk who went to Guyana with cult leader Jim Jones and all drank the koolaid that killed them. Following like sheep, going wherever a leader does and doing whatever a leader says is one image of a follower.

Or I think of a time when one of my children got in trouble at school for going along with what a friend wanted them to do, and hearing the teacher say to us, “I need your child to be a leader, not a follower.” In that context, being a follower was a bad idea.

In the business, or academic, world, people are urged to be leaders, and followers are considered a lesser status, and certainly come with a lesser income than leaders.

Yet here we have Jesus coming to Simon and Andrew, James and John and asking them to “follow me.” He did not ask them to become leaders, not at first, but he said to all of those he called out to join him, “follow me.” He told them part of their role with him would be to gather other “followers.”

Now this presents me this morning with a bit of a conundrum. We are going to be having our Annual Meeting after worship this morning, and as part of that we are going to elect “leaders” for this church, leaders for this community of followers. Here at Redeemer many of you have already taken leadership courses or seminars either at work or as part of boards on which you serve, or through ECCO here at Redeemer or elsewhere. We see ourselves as a teaching church, a place where we mold leaders for ourselves, for the community, and for other churches. This is New Haven, for heaven’s sake, and we sit in the shadow of an institution which prides itself on having produced leaders with global stature in politics, business, theology, medicine, science and the arts for decades. It’s not a place where people are particularly urged to be followers.

So if Jesus came today, there would be consultants like crazy wanting to advise him on how to build an organization by recruiting the right kind of people to be the ground floor leadership, and they would undoubtedly come with a prejudice against recruiting semi-literate working class people.

But we don’t have Jesus building an institution here. What we have is Jesus calling leaders who are followers first. And that is one thing which sets the church apart from many other organizations and institutions today. Those who would come to lead the early church, like Peter, Andrew, James and John, would come into leadership with their eyes focused not on what they might gain from these positions, not how these positions might be stepping stones to pad a resume, not how they might succeed or become famous (do you know the great line from Jesus Christ Superstar where the disciples muse about the future and sing, “then when we retire we can write the gospels so they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died.”). Quite to the contrary, Peter and the others understood clearly that what they were about was keeping their vision focused on Jesus. That perspective made all the difference in the world.

This is what understanding themselves first as followers gave the disciples.

· They saw clearly that ultimately the success of preaching and teaching and healing and building up a community did not depend on them or their skills or putting in 20 hour days, but on God’s Spirit and the work of that Spirit, through them, in the world. Some of you may have noticed that I keep a little sign on my bulletin board in my office which says “The title of Alpha and Omega is already taken.” All disciples of Jesus were and are human, limited, and apt to fail as often as to succeed. But if we understand that the power and purpose behind our service is God, then we are freed from fear of failure or the need to kill ourselves with activity. In the end, it’s not up to us alone. That’s very good news.

· As followers first, the disciples came to see the unfolding of their life and ministry as a constant adventure of discovery rather than an accumulation of points leading to reward (or a better resume or a higher salary or a greater title). When you are not the sole determiner of your course in life, you are open to being surprised by opportunities unsought and unsuspected. When you are not worried about failure, you might just follow up on some of them. The day before he met Jesus, as he fished in the Sea of Galilee, could Peter have ever imagined that he would someday be in Rome? What an adventure his life became.

· As followers first, the disciples discovered the great grace, joy, challenge and comfort of being in community with other followers. Even Jesus didn’t try to go it alone in God’s service. From the beginning he sought others to join him. Ever since the call of those first disciples, followers of Jesus have come together in a whole variety of ways to serve Jesus. Disciples, then and now, come together to think together, to try to figure out what Jesus meant by some of the things he said and how we can understand God working in our world today; disciples are NOT called to be followers who check their brains at the door, but those who put their brains together with other disciples to seek truth. Disciples, then and now, come together to share talents that complement one another, for not all are equally gifted as preachers, healers, teachers, praisers, builders, prayers, or challengers. Disciples, then and now, come together to comfort, support and hold each other accountable. Disciples, then and now, come together to energize each other, sharing that Spirit energy the baptized know they can call upon. I suppose you could be a Christian by yourself, but why would you want to?

· As followers first, the disciples knew that, although they were being asked to give up many things, they would also be given many other things. Peter and the others left family, secure jobs, home towns, and reputations to follow this itinerant preacher who stirred up trouble wherever they went. But God never, not even after Jesus was killed, left the disciples out on a limb alone. They did not have to depend only upon themselves to deal with loss and difficulty. They had each other, and they had the God’s presence and power.

· As followers first, the disciples developed an amazing capacity to listen. They learned to listen first for God’s Spirit. They listened for that Spirit to move in each other, in unexpected people as they discovered that strangers could be messengers, in the events of the world around them, in the earth itself. They learned that the music of their own voices could be lovely when stirred by the Spirit, but that ultimately it was not their own voices which they most needed to hear.

The music metaphor works on several levels here. You see, my friends, whether you are being elected to office here today, or whether you are a leader in some other part of your life, if you are a Christian, you are called to be a follower-leader, following Christ in all things. We are not called to be the concert pianist, or diva soloist on the stage at Carnegie Hall or a Las Vegas stage, all alone. We are rather called into a jazz combo, where everyone listens closely for the music to emerge and everyone’s part is critical to making the music live. You’ll have your time in the spotlight, but you cannot make that kind of music without those still playing or singing beside you.

So, as Isaiah said, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They have heard the music of the Spirit. The light shone, the great singer called, and calls still, “Follow me.” Let us make ourselves ever anew into a community of those leaders who follow Jesus. Amen.