ryan marsh – beloved architect

I know that this story is supposed to be moving and beautiful, and I can imagine it in a 1980’s epic movie kind of way – The waves lapping against the shore, the brothers busy mending their nets with their long feathered hair blown by the salty Mediterranean wind.  They look up and see Jesus, back lit by the morning sun they squint their eyes to see who it is; Jesus looks deep into their souls with his pale blue eyes, holds out his hand and says “Follow me” and then zombie like they drop their nets and follow.

I know that I’m supposed to be moved by this story, but honestly, I’m a little creeped out by it.

We would think it totally cultish if, say, Jon Glenn pulled out of his studies at Mars Hill Graduate School,
quit his job at the Purple Cafe and started following some unknown theologian and supposed miracle worker…  creepy.

The only other modern thing I have to compare it to would be following the Grateful Dead…
for whom groupies live on very little and trade in everything for the love of the music, the sense of community and the old message: “Tune in, tune out, and drop out.”

Even today there is a theology, popular among Americans, that wishes to take us out of the world, that draws a line in the sand and tells the world “You must cross over to our side in order to know the grace of God”, but this theology knows nothing of the Incarnation and the humble God who left behind everything to become the servant of the world.

There is a theology, popular among Americans, that wishes to take us out of the world, to segregate us from culture and keep us in tidy little kingdom enclaves, but this theology knows nothing of the Cross and the Christ who dies for the sake of the ungodly, for the sake of a beloved-enemy, for the sake of us.

There is a theology, popular among Americans… and no time soon will Church of the Beloved win any popularity contests, because we are finding out that when Christ calls us, life usually doesn’t get better by American standards.

When Christ calls us it’s seemingly not very glorious.  And maybe life would be a little bit simpler if we didn’t follow Christ. I know there’s a lot of us here who, quite honestly, would rather not be following the Christ, …but he called you.  And to your surprise, despite your best judgment, and your internal ambivalence, something within you said, “okay.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a German Lutheran pastor who spoke and acted against Nazi Germany and was hung by Adolf Hitler, famously said:  “When Christ calls us he calls us to come and die.”
When Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me” what do we expect to do with a cross?  I mean, there’s not a lot of versatility in a cross… it pretty much has only one purpose.

And when Jesus asks us to “love our enemies as he has loved us” there is a high likelihood that your enemy will take advantage of your vulnerability.

I don’t know why Peter and Andrew, James and John followed Jesus.
I don’t know if they hated smelling like fish every day.
I don’t know if their retirement plan had completely tanked and they just spontaneously decided, “Yeah, screw it.  Let’s follow this guy around and see what happens.”  The Gospel  doesn’t tell us why, but apparently they weren’t very hard to convince.  Jesus just said, “follow me.”  And they did.

I love this story in the Gospel of John where Jesus is saying crazy stuff and most of his disciples are totally weirded out and deserting him and Jesus turns to the twelve and says, “Well, don’t you want leave me too?”  Like, “Come on here’s your chance to slip out the back door unnoticed.”  And their response is so great, they say, “Well, if we had something better going on, we’d be doing it, but the truth is, when you speak it is life giving to us.”

I can recall, while working at Church of the Apostles, having a beer with Karen Ward, the Pastor of COTA and a young man who was on pilgrimage.  He asked Karen, “What about all the other world religions…
What if they are true? What if they hold more meaning and more beauty?  What if they bring greater satisfaction than Christianity?  Don’t you want to explore them and find out?”
Karen asked the young man, “How long have you been married to your wife?”  “Four years.”  He said.
“Do you think there are other women in the world who are smarter, more beautiful, and will give your life more satisfaction?”
“Well.  I don’t know.  I married her because I love her, and she loves me, and she captured my heart.”  He said.
“That’s how it is for me and Christ.  I’m not interested in going around trying to disprove or prove the legitimacy of other religions, because what I know is that Jesus Christ has captured my heart.  And I want to be faithful to him.”

What I suspect is that Jesus has captured our hearts, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.  Life is too short and too busy to waste time on worshiping a God who has not captured our hearts.  I suspect that Jesus has captured our hearts, and so we follow, and Jesus leads us.

In a time of scary changes and transitions, this is what Jesus promises us -
Not to lead us around… but to lead us through….
Not to lead us around the heartbreak of separation,
Not to lead us around the impotence of joblessness,
Not to lead us around the confusion of our futures,
Jesus promises not to lead us around the cross, but to lead us through…

And we, with the disciples, have no way of knowing what lies in between the lines of these two little words that Jesus calls us with: “Follow me.”