“Recalled” Disciples
Isaiah 5:1-7; Luke 12:49-56
NO 8/19/07

Scene

Turns to the Disciples

Jesus continues on with his disciples and a large crowd of followers as he teaches and preaches about the Kingdom of God.  At this point, according to Wesley’s Notes, he turns to his disciples with these words, “I've come to start a fire on this earth--how I wish it were blazing right now!  I've come to change everything, turn everything rightside up--how I long for it to be finished!  Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront!  From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be-- Three against two, and two against three; Father against son, and son against father; Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law."  (The Message, Eugene Peterson)

Jesus, it seems to me, understands that he is misunderstood.  Folks were coming to him with their own needs in mind.  They were followers for personal benefit.  They had in mind what the Messiah was to be and they were waiting for Jesus to begin fitting into the picture they had in their minds.  Jesus is telling his disciples that he has not come for the purpose that others want him to fulfill.

            Turns to the Crowd

After speaking to his disciples, Jesus turns to the crowd with these words, "When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, 'Storm's coming'--and you're right.  And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, 'This'll be a hot one'--and you're right.  Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don't tell me you can't tell a change in the season, the God-season we're in right now.”  (The Message)

He was saying, “You folks need a Dummies for Knowing the Christ because you’ve totally missed the point.  I think these two sayings of our Lord are words that are just as true today as it was the day he spoke them. 

Missing the Message

It is really easy to miss the Message from God that is sent in the form of Jesus.  They missed it in his day and we are still missing it in his day.  The following are just a few ways that come to mind when I think of missing the Message from God.

            Jesus Came to Make Everything Smooth as Glass

For some reason we have grown up being taught that believing in Jesus will make everything okay.  All we have to do is have faith in Jesus and we can avoid the troubles of the world.  If we can get everyone in our family to believe in Jesus we will miss all the disturbances that happen in non-believing families.  Then we get confused when the same things happen to the good that happen to the bad.

When we take the message that Jesus came to bring peace and only peace we are missing the message.  He told us himself that he came to bring division.  There will be division in every group.  There will be division in every family.  There will even be division within individuals when faith in him begins to grow.  Jesus was not only a peacemaker but he was also a trouble maker!

            Jesus Is a Nice Polite Guy

Show me this in the Bible.  I can tell you that it is recorded that Jesus and his band of followers was much more like the hippies of the sixties than the good behaving folks of any era.  It is recorded that the church folk really got after Jesus for how he and his disciples seemed to have no regard for the prevailing manners of his day.  They seemed to thumb their noses at the church and all the ethics and etiquette expected of them.

I’m not sure what our or my need is to make Jesus something mushy and mild when he was counter-culture all the way.  You can’t be counter-culture and mushy at the same time and there is not even a single ounce of doubt that living God’s way puts us in a counter-cultural mode today.  You want to be like Jesus then you have to confront our culture.

            Jesus Died on the Cross to Get My Friends and Me to Heaven

Well, you know that might be true but the statement should not end with a period or exclamation point.  Jesus did die on the cross to save all and that includes us.  When, however, our believing and our living for Jesus has ourselves as the focus we are on thin ice according to the scriptures.  If we are Christian for what we can get out of it then we need to tear the 25th chapter of Matthew from our Bibles and throw it in the trash.  If this is what you think the message of God is as proclaimed through Jesus you have missed the message.

Right Thinking

Bishop Willimon states, “Calvary is not the end of our story with God, but its true beginning.  In cross and resurrection, Christ did not simply say to us, “You’re saved.  Go in peace and one day enjoy your time in heaven.”  In his resurrection, Jesus was not only raised from the dead, but he also came back to life with us.  He came back to us telling us not only, “Because I live you shall live also” but also calling us to live for him.  He came back to the very folk who had so disappointed and betrayed him in his death and recalled them to “follow me.”  He gave his disciples work to do – his work – and life came back to us and once again covenanted with us, promised to be with us until the “end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), then told us, “Go!  Make disciples of all nations…”  (United Methodist Beliefs, William H. Willimon,  Westminster, John Knox Press, Louisville, p. 23)

Jesus’ closest friends, those he and we call Disciples, were such a disappointment.  They just never caught on and when the time of trial showed up in the Garden that night they ran away.  They had not understood his teaching and they ran into the darkness.  Following his resurrection they still did not catch on. 

Jesus appeared to them and ate with them and they finally recognized him but still did not move far from their comfort zone.  Then he, as the Bishop says, “recalled” them to be followers.  Now, on this day Jesus “recalls” us to be followers.  Just like the recall of millions of vehicles, toys and food for various flaws, Jesus has called us once and now again because we think we can free ourselves in this world.  We are accustomed to wrong thinking but he gives us a new opportunity for right thinking.

            Jesus Sets Us Free!

Jesus tells us that we do not have to meet the standards of this world in order to be somebody – we are somebody because of his love.  We do not have to be a great success.  We do not have to be wealthy.  We do not have to have more toys than our neighbor.

We are free to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and our neighbor as ourselves.  One of our very own at the Emmaus Cluster meeting last week gave a beautiful example of how befriending a man accustomed to being put down and snickered at changed how several people  who relate to him today.  Jesus sets us free to befriend those persons who are generally shoved aside.

            Jesus Leads Us Through the Desert

We have all sorts of societal confrontations going on all the time.  Our society hands us hot issues so that we have something to talk about over coffee.  We can solve the world’s problems right there among friends and then go our way satisfied that we have done all we can do.  One of the hot issues in our society today is immigration.  I receive a number of e-mails every week, even though my responses have lessened the number considerably, that demands we close our borders and legislate English as the official language.

Who are those folks crossing the border into our country?  Society calls them Hispanic and tells them they must go back where they came from.  God calls them sons and daughters.  Jesus sets me free to call them brothers and sisters and welcome them into another of God’s locations.  We call this ours but in fact it is God’s. 

We say that everyone within these borders should learn to speak English and that would certainly make it easier than my attempting to learn to speak Spanish or French, or some other foreign language.  But why English?  Why not Cherokee or Choctaw?  Remember, we too are immigrants to the Native Americans.  When they called us brothers and sisters we took advantage of them and now we want to completely ignore them.  I believe that God is recalling us to calling all persons brother and sister.

We have wondered around in the desert much longer than the Israelites did and now Jesus is recalling us to cross the River Jordan into a promised land of brotherhood and sisterhood of all on God’s great earth. 

“Recalled” for a Reason

Jesus has recalled us for a reason just as he did those original disciples.  He didn’t call us the first time or this time for us to attempt to get ourselves to heaven – that’s taken care of.  He didn’t recall us to be limited believers where we use the right words and stop there.  Jesus has not recalled us to get it altogether and be perfect little folks running around with all the right answers.

Jesus has recalled us to be THE CHURCH!  We have been brought together to grow in our faith and to be living a life in Christ FOR OTHERS!  We are recalled to be Christ’s Love for Others.

Conclusion

Jesus said that he came to set the world on fire and that job has been passed on to you and me.  We are to disturb and if we aren’t disturbing our world then we are not saying “Yes” to Jesus.  We have been “recalled” to divide.  We are to let our world know that all children are God’s children an that this is not our country but God’s country.  We have been “recalled” to pay whatever the cost for following Jesus.

The original disciples had difficulty accepting the right thinking of Jesus and they huddled together for safety and survival.  They wanted life to be defined by themselves but Jesus said that “I’m the definer.”  Finally, after the recall of the Lord those early disciples came alive with the Spirit of God and were off doing the work of Jesus.  I believe Bishop Willimon is right on target when he states, “He came back to us telling us not only, “Because I live you shall live also” but also calling us to live for him.” 

I give the call to all who hear Jesus recalling to LIVE FOR HIM!