Paul Walker, “Immediately”

     “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”  That’s what Peter and Andrew did when they were fishing. Jesus told them to follow him, so they dropped everything and followed him. “Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.” That’s what James and John did when Jesus called them. Immediately, immediately.

     Immediately. When do you drop everything and do something immediately? Not very often. Most of life is planned and routine. Even spontaneity isn’t exactly immediate. To drop everything and do something immediately usually means that there is some kind of crisis – sometimes minor, sometimes major. The school nurse calls to say your son has a high fever and needs to be picked up. You are having a heart attack so you immediately call 911. You get a call from the hospital saying it is time to come be with your mother. 

     Immediately. Sometimes, I guess, there is no crisis, but you know something immediately. You are house hunting and you walk into a house and know right off the bat that this is the house for you. I’m happy to say that many of you have said that you were church shopping and the minute you stepped in Christ Church you felt like it was home. 

     Immediately. Maybe you know someone who speaks with immediacy. Our friend, Paula, does this. She’s married to our friend Craig. When she speaks to Craig, it’s as if everything is a 5 Alarm Fire. CRAIG! TAKE OUT THE TRASH! CRAIG, YOU’VE GOT TO FIND OUR SON A GIRLFRIEND! CRAIG! LET’S GO OUT TO DINNER!

     Immediately.  And, I suppose there really is a thing as love at first sight. Immediately, you just know he’s the one, she’s the one. When Christie and I were in college, she saw me – not having met me – out of her window on 15th street, and turned to her roommate and said, “I just saw the guy I’m going to marry.” 

     Later we met and spent some time together. Christie got back in touch with her roommate and said, “Remember when I told you I was going to marry that guy I saw? Scratch that, he is way too immature.”  Still am, by the way. But that was, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, 38 years ago.

     “Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. Immediately.” What made Peter, Andrew, James and John drop everything they were doing and follow Jesus immediately? And at real cost, too – financial and relational cost. 

     They were on a nice trout fishing trip in Montana; they were at work, working hard to put bread on the table. I like to imagine that they were all really on the fish when Jesus called them. Really hauling in a bounty of big ones, with no sign of letting up. When I’m on a trout stream an there is a hatch happening and the trout are rising, nothing can make me leave the river, including a 5 Alarm Fire. You have you own version of this. That would make the immediacy of the moment even more dramatic. They were leaving a ton of money on the table.

     And how about the relational cost? The person I always wonder about when I read this passage is poor old Zebedee, John’s and James’ father. Poor old guy is just left there in the boat all by himself. Not only did he have to finish up the day’s work by himself (the kind of fishing they did was at least a two-man job; difficult and laborious), he may have wondered if he’d just lost his legacy. Who would take over the family business? 

     “Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.” So, why did they follow Jesus immediately? Well, 1) clearly Jesus spoke, like Paula, with immediacy. Who knows? Maybe even something like “Peter! Follow Me! John! Follow Me!” And 2) the 4 men had some kind of experience of love at first sight upon seeing Jesus – such was his attraction and appeal. And 3) they knew somehow this was a life and death moment. All else paled in comparison, even the intractable bonds of money and family. When Jesus spoke to them, they knew they had found their true home.

     I believe all that was true for those first disciples is still true for you and me today. The “good news of the kingdom” as the text tells us was what was now cast upon the waters of human life. And that good news is needed now more than ever.

     Perhaps you’ve heard enough about Prince Harry and his autobiography called “Spare.” But I was moved by a Wall Street Journal editorial saying that in many ways is a spiritual autobiography. It is a sad one, at that. Harry, like so many others of his generation, says that he is “spiritual, not religious.” As the editorial says, “Christianity leaves him cold, but he pursues enlightenment with a zeal that would have warmed the heart of a Puritan divine. He travels this path alone, guided by drugs, spirit animals sent by his late mother, Diana, and daily yoga and meditation.”

     I feel real compassion for people like Harry. And I’m all for yoga and meditation, and there is some interesting research about carefully used pyschedelics can address chronic depression. Spirit Animals? My first year of seminary, we had a dinner party with some other seminarians, and someone asked in all seriousness what our Spirit Animals were. I think mine might be a Redwing Blackbird, but I’ve yet to pray to it. The saddest scene described in the editorial was an image of Meghan Markle, Harry’s famous wife, lying prostrate on Diana’s grave, praying to her for clarity and guidance. 

     I certainly feel compassion for those, who like Harry, have been left cold by Christianity. I’ve got to believe that is because they have never come face to face with the genuine article. They have not yet known the beautiful, compelling message bound up in person of Jesus Christ. 

     He speaks a message that each one of us needs, every hour of every day, over and over again. He says give up the search for the search is ended – for you have already been searched out by Him. His voice cuts below the surface, deep calling to deep, calling directly the person hiding inside the person you present to the world, even to yourself. In fact, the “good news of the kingdom” is a life and death message. It is Jesus Christ’s death on the cross in exchange for your life. It is His sinless life bearing in His body all of your sin, which is both obvious and hidden, known and unknown. You are absolved of EVERYTHING. Hear His call and you will find that you have finally come home.

     Christ’s message of the cross will always endure. Pardon me for using an illustration that I used at Sam’s ordination 2 weeks ago. But it is worth hearing again. And not just again, but again and again and again and again. It is the motto of the Carthusian monks, whose order was founded 1000 years ago. It’s a motto for the ages – every age and everywhere. The Latin is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis. It means “The cross is steady while the world turns.” The cross is steady while the world turns. 

     I, for one, will drop everything to hear the message of cross. I cannot live without it. And I certainly cannot die without it. For everything else pales in comparison.

     Amen.