St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by The Reverend Bruce W. B. Jenneker in the Cathedral of St George the Martyr, Cape Town, at the Cathedral Eucharist at 10h00 on the XIV Sunday of the Year, 5 July 2009

'Jesus left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him.' So begins the gospel passage we have just heard: 'Jesus left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him.'

Jesus was travelling around the Sea of Galilee, teaching the vast crowds which gathered to hear him, and healing the sick. The place he had just left was the scene of the two miraculous healings we heard about last Sunday: the healing of Jairus' daughter and of the woman who had been haemorrhaging for 12 years. She touched the hem of our Lord's robe and was healed. Now Jesus journeys to his home town of Nazareth and the disciples follow him.

They had been with him from the start. He found them, called to them saying, 'Follow me,' and they followed him. As he went to Capernaum, taught in the synagogue and worked several healing miracles, they followed him. As he moved about the whole region of Galilee and the enthusiastic crowds began to gather around him, they followed him. As the religious authorities began to notice him and view him first with suspicion and then with malicious intent, they followed him. The one they called Master, the Rabbi of Nazareth, he had summoned them saying, 'Follow me,' and forsaking all, follow him they did.

Mark recounts four scenes in which Jesus speaks the summons, 'Follow me.' First, Jesus is walking along the sea shore, when he sees Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea. He calls out to the two fishermen – 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people.' The two brothers leave their nets and follow him. Just a little further on Jesus sees James and John, sitting in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, for they are also fishermen. Immediately Jesus calls to summon them too: 'Follow me.' Without a moment's hesitation, James and John leave their father in the boat and follow him.

Next, Mark recalls how some time later Jesus was again walking along the seaside. By how now a large crowd had gathered and was following him. As Jesus walked along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in a tax booth. Jesus called to summon Levi saying: 'Follow me.' Levi got up, left everything and followed Jesus.

Simon and Andrew, James and John, Levi – all summoned, called to follow.

Next, Mark tells of a different summons, this one addressed not to one or two people going about their business, but rather to all the people in the vast crowd that was had gathered around Jesus. He had captivated them with his wise words and intelligent stories. He had surprised them by healing the sick and raising the dead. He had astonished them with his learning each time he responded with authority to the mean-spirited challenges of the scribes and Pharisees. They would not leave him – he was wonder-worker, inspiring preacher, the hope of the poor. But now his words distressed them. He began to tell them of what lay ahead, that he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Peter and the others did not want him to speak in this way, for it would trouble the crowds and make them turn away. But Jesus paid Peter no heed, rather he called the disciples and the crowd to come closer, and when he had gathered them, he said: 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.' Come, Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.

The last of Mark's four accounts in which Jesus issues the call to follow him is a poignant and unforgettable moment. The people in the vast crowd were bringing children to Jesus so that he could bless them. The disciples, grown bold now as they basked in the popularity Jesus enjoyed, were officious and controlling. They scolded the parents and wanted to chase them and their children away. But Jesus stopped them, took the children in his arms and blessed them. Just as he was setting off again, a man ran up to him and asked: 'What must I do to be saved?' 'You know the law,' Jesus said. 'Yes,' the man replied, 'I have kept all of it since my youth.' 'One thing you lack,' Jesus told him, 'Go, sell all you have, give the money to the poor and come, follow me.' This was too much to ask. The man couldn't do as Jesus demanded. He went away grieving.

Today, in the first weeks of Ordinary Time, when the lectionary invites us to consider our commitment as agents of Christ's Gospel, ministers of Christ's love, we are called to think of our response to our Lord's summons to follow him.

Can we, like Simon and Andrew, James and John, leave everything and without a moment's hesitation, dedicate ourselves to Christ's ministry of self-sacrifice and his mission of loving service? Are we ready, like Levi, to set aside the business of this world for the labours of love in Christ's name? And, after responding to his call with enthusiasm and hope, can we sustain our commitment as we each take up our cross, and discover the weight of its burden of suffering? And, perhaps most profoundly, can we commit ourselves to him above all things, beyond all things, leaving everything behind, holding nothing back? 'One thing you lack,' Jesus said to the man, 'Go sell all you have, give the money to the poor and then come, follow me.'

'Jesus left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him.' So begins our gospel passage for today: 'Jesus left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him.'

Jesus is without recognition or regard in his home town. 'Is he not the carpenter's son? they ask.' We know him and his people – neither he nor they are anything special. Who does he think he is? Speaking in the synagogue, presuming to teach us as if he knows better. Are we like those home-town folks? Have we grown smug and complacent in our familiarity with him? Our parents and grandparents knew him. Baptised long ago, regular at worship, have we lost the wonder of him? Has he become a fixture we take for granted, always there but relegated to the background, with no power in our lives? Have we become his hometown folks, cynical and disparaging?

Can we hold onto Jesus, remain committed to our promise to follow him, when our predisposition to cynicism casts him aside and our negativity seeks to rob him of his amazing grace. Playing at being God but not able to deliver the goods, we say. No different from us, we say, yet calling for heroic efforts that are impossible and quite beyond our reach. Mary and Joseph's son, just another upstart. Can we stay the course with him who calls us to follow him, beyond the cynicism that makes us scornful and the scepticism that turns our trust to doubt.

David wants to build God a house, one like his own, the palace of a king. 'Do I need a house,' God asks, 'I have been with you wherever you went.' God is a God of the journey, the divine follower, present through all the changing scenes of life, following us through all the wanderings of our choices, always present, ever near.

Are we ready to walk with Jesus, close to him, allowing him to choose the way and lead us on it? Are we ready to follow Jesus when he chooses of justice, reconciliation and peace? Are we ready to follow him in his choices and make them our own, or will cheap sarcasm and easy pessimism shape our choices?

To follow Jesus is not only to identify with the Lord of the altar, it is also to hold onto the Saviour of the world when his heart is pierced again by the brutal violence of our city against our children. To follow Jesus is not only to receive the peace and joy of the sacraments but step by step to walk with him through our city streets where the homeless are left hopeless. It is to follow him, step by step, into the townships where the struggle for mere existence drains dreams and destroys potential. 'Follow me,' Jesus calls as he strides out of this holy place into the world he loves and which he died to save. 'Follow me.'

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