Year A

Matthew 4:12-23

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Restless Hearts For God

For several weeks, our Gospel text has focused on John the Baptist and of course Jesus. Two weeks ago, we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism. Last week, in John’s Gospel John the Baptist’s gave his testimony concerning the baptism, as well as his version of the call of the first disciples. In today’s text, we hear Matthew’s version of the call of the first disciples and the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry just after John’s arrest. Matthew it seems wants his readers to know that Jesus’ earthly ministry will go forward independently from John the Baptist’s ministry, and that John’s arrest and forth coming death foreshadows to what end Jesus’ ministry and life will come to.

After John’s arrest, Matthew records that Jesus moves residence from Nazareth to Capernaum. Capernaum, about 40 miles from Nazareth, is on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was part of Galilee where a number of Gentiles lived along with a large number of Jews. Matthew emphasizes that this move by Jesus fulfills prophecy. He quotes from Isaiah “The people who sat in darkness” are the ones to whom God will bring the ‘light.” With Jesus’ move, those in Capernaum and in the surrounding areas will receive the light in the person of Jesus.  Jesus is now found among the Gentiles, and because he has come to them, God’s saving light has come to them also. There is a story about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that one late night he received a threatening phone call which filled him fear. He turned to God in prayer, and experienced God’s presence that calmed him and gave him strength to carry on the fight for justice. He felt the light of God shinning on him in order for him to see the way forward. Those like King who see this light are those who are also called by that light.

Matthew tells us that from that time Jesus signals the beginning of what God is doing in and through him by declaring his kingdom message, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is what Jesus has come for: to announce and usher in God’s light, the kingdom. Yes, it is true to say that Jesus came to earth to die for our salvation, but it is more true to the Gospels to say he came first to action, to fish for human beings. He came to announce, invite sinners into, proclaim the demands of, and in the end bring in God’s kingdom. For this, he was killed and his death takes on its true significance only in connection with that which he lived for and proclaimed—God’s kingdom. After announcing the Kingdom’s nearness, Jesus then begins to gather his followers and students around him.

In last week’s text from the gospel of John, Jesus encourages those who had questions to “come and see.” In today’s text, he calls disciples directly, encouraging the fishermen to “follow me.” In each of the gospels, the call ‘to follow’ stories, varies, but the end result is the same. People are called from their everyday lives into service and community. As contemporary readers, we are struck by the idea that these fishermen immediately left what they were doing. It is as if they were compelled to follow Jesus and to obey him, almost as if they had been waiting all their lives to hear this voice, to be issued this call, so that when it came, they dropped everything to go.

St Augustine, an early Christian Theologian born in 354 and died in 430, was very influential in the development of Christian theology or our understanding of God through his writings. In his first book of his Confessions, he opens with this prayer and statement that “our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”  Indeed, it would seem that those four fishermen, who were already working in a worthy vocation, had restless hearts. So restless that when they heard Jesus’ call to them, they could do nothing else but leave everything behind and follow.

Perhaps, they were simply responding to what had been imprinted on their souls from birth. Perhaps, as St. Augustine reminds us, each of us is imprinted with the knowledge of the voice of God that makes us restless until we hear that voice, and like those fishermen, when we hear the voice of God we can do nothing but leave everything to follow. We all wish it was that easy to discern God’s voice because it seems there are so many voices claiming to be God’s voice in our world. That is why the last verse in this reading today is so very important. The reading ends by reminding us of what Jesus sets about doing, as those fishermen and others follow.

We are told that “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.” For us to be able to discern whether the voice we hear is of God or not, we ask ourselves is this voice consistent with the God who is revealed to us in scripture. This way of Christ we follow is different from all those worldly voices. This invitation to “leave your nets and follow me” is a call to share in the work of Christ and to show forth God’s kingdom, God’s saving light, and interestingly; following Jesus leads us right back into the world, right back into the thick of the worldly voices to “fish for people.” The difference is those worldly voices are to no longer hold authority over us.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, gives us a vision of the church as a new people who live as in the city of God, over and against those who follow the human city and what it offers. By looking at these divisions, Paul helps us to discern a life in communion with God as revealed by Jesus Christ. The body of Christ is recognizable to others when we, are “united in the same mind and …purpose.” His concern and desire is that we are to speak and act so that no one will doubt we are bothers and sisters in Christ. Christian faith is not first a matter of right belief or theory of how God saves humankind…it is a way of life. Its truth is grounded in the truth of Christ’s life which is grounded in the cross.

Paul was convinced that the church will have one voice and one mind when it recognizes, that the cross, the world’s symbol of foolishness, is God’s power. God’s saving love is not in human wisdom or human voices, but in the cross of Christ, the awesome way and power of God. It is our responsibility, in the midst of the many voices calling us, to know Christ so well that we are able to discern the voice that makes our hearts restless. So restless that when we hear Jesus’ call to us, we can do nothing else but leave everything behind and follow. It is a call to belief and to service for God’s kingdom. In the midst of this world, Jesus says “follow me.”  In the midst of this world, join me in the Way. And in the grace of God, some drop their nets and follow.

There are those who have heard the call and are involved in all types of ministry, those who spend their time caring, feeding, cooking, helping, healing, praying to show God’s kingdom. And through them, Jesus speaks to prisoners, to the homeless, the hungry, the sick, etc. It is a call that invites us to be disciples for Jesus says to his church. Listen for my voice…“Leave your nets and follow me.” “You are the light of the world” called to bring that light into my world and I will make you fish for people.” What a mission we have been given. May our restless hearts hear his voice, leave everything behind and follow him to proclaim the good news that God is the way of life, light and love.