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Poor Zebedee

Matthew 4:12-23 1-22-17


Bellingham First Christian Church
Rev. Gary Shoemaker

The past few days, we've been


immersed in the transition from
one administration to the next
in our nation's capital. The
inauguration has come and
gone. Inaugurations happen all
the time. The word inaugurate
comes from the Latin. It's root
meaning goes back to ancient
times when priests were
initiated into the priesthood. So
there's a religious overtone to
the word. Which is
appropriate for our scripture
today. In our gospel lesson
another kind of inauguration
happened. The beginning of a
ministry that would rock the
ancient Middle East. It was an
inauguration with
consequences so substantial it
changed history.

And it goes like this... "Now


when Jesus heard that John
had been arrested, he withdrew
to Galilee. He left Nazareth
and made his home in
Capernaum by the sea, in the
territory of Zebulun and
Naphtali From that time
Jesus began to proclaim,
'Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near.'"
From that time, Jesus began to
proclaim, "The kingdom of
heaven has come near."
John's been arrested, the one
standing in the wilderness
preaching repentance, and
Jesus immediately takes up the
call for repentance, but with a
new meaning: now the
Kingdom of Heaven is not
merely announced, it's
inaugurated. It's here, in our
midst influencing, guiding,
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transforming. A new
beginning, Jesus is out and
about teaching about the way
of God. And when people
encounter Jesus, they listen,
they respond because he
embodies the Reign of God.
That's what's so amazing about
the story we have before us
today. Because the first people
to directly encounter Jesus,
respond in unimaginable ways.
Jesus breaks into the relatively
ordered lives of Simon Peter
and his brother Andrew and
calls them into service. His
invitation is simple and their
response is immediate, "Follow
me, and I will make you fish
for people." They get up, right
then and there, and leave their
poor father Zebedee behind! I
can imagine the look on his
face... wait, what? Where?
Why? Where are you going?
Why have you left me?

And for folks like Peter and


Andrew to just leave their
father, their village, their
livelihood behind was a huge
deal. In Jesus' day, people
didn't do things like that.
Nowadays things are different.
We just accept the fact that our
kids are going to find their own
way in life, their own vocation.
But vocation for Simon and
Andrew was who they were
and who their fathers had
been; they were born to it.
They identified with it as they
did with their village and their
family. It was their life.
They did the work that would
feed them and their families.
They were part of the local
economy, waking early,
following the patterns of fish,
and selling at market. It was an
identity that offered sources of
happinessfamily and friends
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in the village, and children to


carry their names.
When Peter and Andrew left
Zebedee behind, they were
responding to a call. Jesus was
calling them to a new way.
Joseph Campbell in his book
The Hero With a Thousand
Faces wrote... "But whether
small or great, and no matter
what the stage or grade of life,
the call rings up the curtain,
always, on a mystery of
transfiguration a rite, or
moment, of spiritual passage,
which, when complete,
amounts to a dying and a birth.
The familiar life horizon has
been outgrown; the old
concepts, ideals, and emotional
patterns no longer fit; the time
for the passing of a threshold is
at hand."

Jesus offered a new identity to


these fishermen who had never
questioned their place in life,
an identity that would be about
movement, a willingness to
take a journey, to begin a
pilgrimage, to walk with Jesus.
They would have the
opportunity to form a new
community; but they also had
to leave behind the place,
location and source of power
and knowledge that defined
them. When Jesus said,
Follow me, he asked them to
give up their lives as they knew
them.
But when they gave up their
lives they found something
amazing. When the Kingdom
of Heaven was inaugurated,
lives would be changed,
communities would start to
spring up, communities
founded on love and justice.

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While presidents come and go,


along with elections and
inaugurations, our God
remains: the inauguration of
Gods Kingdom irreversibly
changed the world. As
Matthew introduces the
beginning of Jesus ministry,
he quotes Isaiah: the people
who sat in darkness have seen
a great light, and for those who
sat in the region and shadow of
death light has dawned. The
light of God dawned on all
Gods children when Gods
Kingdom was inaugurated.
Regardless of differences,
regardless of wealth, everyone
was welcomed into God's
Kingdom.
In love and solidarity, we need
to shine the light of God on
those in the shadow of death.
If the new administration
begins to mark people as
other (based on their creed,

color, gender, sexual


orientation, income, age and
health status) and targets them
for various forms of
discrimination, we need to step
in to protect them from the
looming darkness. As people of
faith, we know no other; we
are one, and when one of us
suffers, we all suffer.
When people hear from the
pulpit in their own churches
whom they are entitled to hate,
its time to remember that God
expects us to love all people
especially those that have been
pushed to the margins. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote,
Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere. We are
caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny.
And, It is my deep conviction
that justice is indivisible.

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To be a disciple means to go all


in for a ministry to the least
and the lost. We don't get to
choose who is worthy of Jesus'
attention, of receiving the
Messiah's light. We are just to
reflect it to everyone we meet.
In The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,
"The followers of Christ have
been called to peace. And
they must not only have peace
but also make it. And to that
end they renounce all violence
and tumult. In the cause of
Christ nothing is to be gained
by such methods. His
disciples keep the peace by
choosing to endure suffering
themselves rather than inflict it
on others. They maintain
fellowship where others would
break it off. They renounce
hatred and wrong. In so doing
they over-come evil with good,
and establish the peace of God

in the midst of a world of war


and hate."
Matthew is unique in that he is
writing to a mixed
congregation of Jews and
Gentiles, each of whom
questioned the status of the
other. And Matthew is making
it clear that as a member of
Matthew's community or as a
contemporary reader, you are
signing up for a ministry on
behalf of those who sit in
darkness, whatever their
backgrounds and perspectives.
The disciples ultimately
respond by acknowledging that
the message is for Gentiles as
well as Jews, Jews as well as
Gentiles, slave and free, male
and female. All are made one in
Christ.
With John silenced in prison,
Jesus is moved to initiate his
own public ministry with the
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very same words John used.


"Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near."
As followers of Jesus, we
believe that the inauguration of
Gods Kingdom changed the
world irreversibly; that all
Gods creatures are one Family
of God, which is, no matter
how much others try to divide
us, indivisible; that when
people suffer hatred and
persecution because of who
they are, we must act because
of who we are: their sisters and
brothers.

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