Creekside Church Sermon of May 18, 2003 "Faithful Followship" I John 4:17-21	Rev. David Bibbee
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Who or what has influence over you? While on my recent fishing trip, someone slipped into my office and replaced a favorite picture with this one which says: "Fish Worship: Is it Wrong?" My answer is, "It depends." In the film, "A River Runs Through It," Norman McClean said that his father, a Presbyterian pastor and an ardent fly fisherman, saw no clear distinction between fishing and religion.

But I'm not talking about fellowship or fishing today. The subject is followship. "Who or what has influence over you?" In whom or what do we place our trust? Who do we follow?

Let me tell you about the man I have followed. He gave me direction when I had none. He showed me how to face challenges and how to stay safe in intimidating circumstances. He showed me the beauty of the world and its dangers as well. I'm talking about the man named… Hugh Pugmier. Hugh holds a Master's Degree in Natural Resources from Purdue. He runs the fishing camp in northwest Ontario where I spent two weeks alone last June. He has led hundreds of people into the wilderness for fishing and hunting adventures. He has to work with diverse groups of people, and has learned to size them up at first sight, especially clients who show up wearing new clothes and brandishing new gear. "Greenhorns," he says to himself. He took a look at my gear and I knew what he was thinking - "Too much stuff." With a grin he said, "Looks like you'll be staying a while."

Hugh has to convince people that coming to the wilds of Wine Lake is the best decision they could make. "Just think…no phone, no electricity, no running water, no flush toilets, sleeping inside mosquito netting, grunts, howls, and growls from animals that prowl at night. This will be great!" he says. While some guests catch lots of fish, he has to keep encouraging those who don't, telling them the whole time that they are having a wonderful time.

Once my boat was loaded he said, "Let's go! We've got a thirty-mile ride. Follow me!" "Follow me," are the words that stuck. I had a twenty-five horsepower motor. He had a hundred and ten horsepower motor. "If I get too far ahead I'll slow down so you can catch up." He said. At times, his boat was just a speck on the horizon. Sometimes I lost sight of him as he turned around points or zigzagged through chains of islands. All I had to follow were faint remnants of wakes left by his boat. He assured me that with all the rain the water was high enough for us to "shoot" a waterfall in our boats. When we entered the river that snaked through the forest he said, "When you get to the branch, be sure to take the left one. The right one will take you to Suicide Falls. Any questions?"

Hugh Pugmier knew what he was talking about. I wanted to trust I would have a wonderful time, like he said. But I confess that on the long boat ride in I thought about the comfort of my own bed, and hot showers, and lounging by the pool in a hammock. I found myself singing and old, old hymn we sang in church when I was a boy, "Where He leads me I will follow…I'll go with him, with him, all the way."

I share this experience with you because it is as close an analogy I have of what it is like to follow Jesus.

When you stop to think about what Jesus asked his disciples to do, the way he went about picking them, it was remarkable. He didn't give them a written test. He didn't do background checks. He didn't ask them to believe four spiritual laws. He didn't ask if they agreed with what he taught. He didn't ask what they thought of him. He didn't send them to preparatory school to get their heads on straight. He selected the disciples in a way so simple that it almost makes us blush. He walked into Matthew's tax office and said, "Follow me," and Matthew did. Jesus went to Fishermen's Warf, walked up to James and John, Andrew and Simon Peter and said, "Follow me," and they did. Jesus did not beg. He didn't twist their arms behind their backs till they said, "Uncle!" He offered no sign-on bonuses. He gave an invitation they were free to accept or not. "Follow me," is what he said.

One of the heresies that threatened the early church came from a group called the Gnostics. They said that one could only become a Christian when initiated into the mysteries of Jesus, and as a Christian one had to posses a certain level of knowledge or "gnosis." Sometimes when people ask, "Are you a Christian?" what they really want to know is, "Do you believe what I believe? Do you see the Bible as I do? If not, you are not really a Christian." When called to give an account of the faith that is in us, the simplest answer is the best answer. "Yes, I am a Christian. I follow Jesus. I try to live as he lived, though I do it imperfectly. I fall short, but by his grace, I still follow him."

Do you remember what it was like having younger brother or sister following you around, wanting to do what you did and be included in your circle of friends? Annoying, wasn't it? Little kids love to imitate big people. I read about a woman who answered her doorbell. It was the five-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother from next door. They wore their parent's way-oversized clothes and worked hard to act as proper and as adult as they could. "Hello, I'm Mrs. Smith and this is my husband Mr. Smith. We've come by for a visit." The woman played along. "How do you do Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Won't you come in and have some tea and cookies?" They engaged in conversation around the coffee table. The host went back to the kitchen for more cookies but when she came out the Smiths were headed for the door. "Must you leave so soon?" she asked. "It would be nice to stay," said 5 year old Mrs. Smith, "but we really must be going…my husband just wet his pants."

If we wait until we're all grown up and have ourselves all straightened out and Jesus all figured out, we will not get around to following him. If you are waiting for a special effects spiritual experience so you can say, "OK, Jesus, I'm ready now," you will never get around to following him. We tangle ourselves up with our questions and complexities. We have all of our questions we want answered "before" we will follow. But the truth is, we wont' know any answer "until" we follow.

The novelist Graham Greene is a devout Catholic, and many of his novels deal with spiritual issues. He tells of an aged, whisky-drinking priest whose ministry was a string of failures. On the last morning of his life he comes to a realization; "What an impossible fellow I am. I am useless. I might just as well have never lived. I have done nothing for anybody." Graham Greene writes these haunting words about the priest:

"He felt only an intense disappointment because he had to go to God empty handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him at that moment, that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint and a little courage. He felt like someone who has missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted - to be a saint."

"Follow me," is what Jesus said. We either will or won't. It is that simple. It is that hard. Come our last day of life will we have something to show for it" Did we live fruitful or barren lives? "Abide in me," Jesus said. "The branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. You won't produce fruit either, if you do not abide in me." Abide. Stay close. Follow me.

Someone said that faith is "…stepping out into the unknown with nothing to grasp save a hand just beyond our reach." Its following the guide in the boat ahead of you who disappears around the point and zigzags between the islands leaving you a faint slick to go by, and you keep going in faith that a great adventure awaits you. The only proof that we are faithful followers of Jesus is the fruit we bear.

Our lesson from I John tells us we don't conjure Jesus up in our fanciful projections. We didn't "love" God into sending Jesus. God did it because God loves us. "If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another…by this we know that we abide in him and he in us…he has given his spirit…whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God and follows him, God abides in him and he in God….there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. We love because he loved us." Here is the fruit of faithful followship. It is the proof the world is looking for. Love is the proof that it is Jesus we are following.

My friend Vern wasn't musically gifted, at least that is what we thought. When he was nineteen he bought a cheap Sears banjo. An impulsive purchase. It was painful to listen to him play the thing. It was painful for him to play. He worked at it so hard his fingers bled. In time some songs became recognizable. We decided to start a Blue Grass band to support his banjo. Vern took lessons. He practiced hours each day. He practiced "banjo worship." He read anything he could get his hands on about the instrument.

There came a point when he no longer played the banjo. It played him. The finger-board became an extension of his fingers. The picks seemed to grow from his fingertips. He started thirty-one years ago. He still practices hours each day. He travels a lot with his band playing his custom-made four thousand dollar banjo. He has shared the same stage at shows with the father of Blue Grass, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, and has jammed with arguably the best banjo player in the world, Belah Fleck.

Vern has another profession. But it doesn't say much about who he is. Vern is a disciple of the banjo. He is a servant of the music he hears in his head. He is the medium by which the music inside him brings delight to those who hear him pick.

It is not unlike what happens to the person who responds to Jesus' invitation, "Follow me." It is awkward at first, doing things we aren't accustomed to doing. We stumble. We lag way behind, and Jesus urges us on. He takes us where we have never been before; places we probably would have not chosen for ourselves but were chosen for us because that is where we are needed.

We keep practicing, and then it happens… faithful followship is no longer external. It becomes a part of us. When the disciplines of worship, prayer, Bible reading, serving others, and sharing the love we've come to know, it takes on a life of its own, his life in yours…Jesus himself living through you.

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