Clearly, I would fail the discipleship interview.

Matthew 4: 12-22 (23-25)

¹² Now when Jesus^[a] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³ He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.”

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”^[b]

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus Ministers to Crowds of People

Have you ever had a really memorable interview?  I have had one or two memorable interviews.  I interviewed with the call committee of Luther Memorial sitting on the floor outside of the door of my apartment in Mexico City while my then one year old twins screamed bloody murder with my husband inside.  Fortunately, there was also a colossal thunderstorm booming outside of the building that night which helped to drown out the wailing.  It was memorable.

In today’s bible story, Jesus brings four new disciples onto the job.  And I’m betting it was a memorable day for all of them. I wonder if Jesus vetted the guys on the beach there along the sea of Galilee. Did he try and figure out if they had the chops for this discipleship business before he brought them on board? You see, maybe there’s a side conversation that happens that our bible doesn’t record for us:  you know where Jesus says,

So, Simon, (I think I’ll call peter) how are you with demons? …Or, so James, son of Zebedee, now, say you were in a desert with no water and you needed to baptize someone.  What would you do?”  …Or, Andrew, now I see you casting that net into the sea.  Could you tell me about a time when you ran out of food or wine at an important event? How did you handle it?

If interviewing for the job of disciple were a thing, I’m not sure how I’d fare.  Jesus clearly tells them to leave their lives and livelihoods and follow him.  While I do not like fishing and would have had no problem leaving that, I love my family and there’s about zero chance that I would leave them to become an itinerant preacher searching for lost souls.  Given my tendency to overpack, I’m pretty sure Jesus would have been annoyed with me and my 75 pound rollerbag suitcase bumping around the hills of Galilee.  There would have been too many crowds for me as one of the disciples, not enough personal space, and I wouldn’t have liked all the time in the boats.  As Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, we hear this story and, she writes, “immediately start worrying about whether [we] have what it takes to be a disciple.  Could you do it?” She asks “If a clear call were to come to you tomorrow afternoon, could you get up from your chair and walk out the door, without taking your keys or turning off the lights?  Could you abandon your grocery cart in front of the frozen food case at [Marianos] and set off for parts unknown without stopping to call home?”  Because that’s what those four first disciples did when some guy named Jesus stepped into their lives and said “follow me” And I don’t know, if I have what it takes to do that.

According to this bible story, it can seem like the way to follow Jesus is to become “not me”—to leave the things I love and the experiences that have made me behind and set out for something More Noble. It’s a little dramatic and truthfully, it seems a little unrealistic to me.  Honestly, I hear this story of the day at the beach when Jesus called the disciples, and my focus is on how much these disciples gave up, when, actually… it’s Jesus who says to them,  I will make you fishers of people.

And then he does.  I will make you, he says to them.

To follow Jesus doesn’t mean we must check the requisite boxes of qualifications and have our selves totally together all the time. To follow Jesus doesn’t mean we must stuff our lives into some sort of cookie cutter kind of Christian mold.  Instead, we follow Jesus through the moments that make up our daily lives: through the halls in the office, around the baskets of dirty laundry, to and from our particular commitments each day.  And as we go about our daily lives, we open ourselves to what Jesus told the fishermen: I will make you.

Not as a threat, as Debie Thomas puts it, but as a promise.

I will make you. 

I will work on you,

mold your mind,

make you more sensitive to injustice,

soften your heart. 

I will make you

I will prune unruly branches,

teach you to stand up for yourself,

humble you down a notch,

lead you to be kinder,

heal your wounds,

I will make you.

I will convict you when you become complacent,

call you out when you are ridiculous,

stretch you to new places,

I will make you.

I will help you to forgive,

teach you to be more compassionate,

open your mind,

make you brave

I will make you. 

I will make you into a disciple.

Debie Thomas writes further that “Jesus did not invite [the disciples] to abandon who they were, he invited them to become their most authentic God-ordained selves…A call to follow Jesus,” she goes on to say “does not mean to leave experience and intelligence behind but bring the best”--the very best of who we are--“forward.”

When I think about the ways that God has transformed my own life, it hasn’t really been about some sort of terrible thing I had to sacrifice or give up.  That’s not to say that sacrifice isn’t a part of discipleship. It’s to say that, in my case, God has worked on me gently. For example, in the grief of losing a loved one. In the ins and outs of life, God has softened my edges slowly; and then when I bristle them up, God pulls out the file and softens them more.  I have had moments of real resentment and disappointment with the church—still have them sometimes—and God has worked on that resentment and handed it back to me differently.  I will make you, God promises.

God has slowed me down and helped me to notice and listen. God has held up a mirror when I’ve been a little too full of myself. And stayed close by my side in the dark nights of my soul. Like water running over stone, and slowly carving out a pattern, year after year, God works on me.  And then I mess it up. And God works on me some more.  Yeah, there has been some sacrifice and sometimes some sweat, and some moments of solid embarrassment, but God is working in my life.

And you? How is God making you? How is God dropping seeds deep down into the soil of your mind and tending to them? Who is God calling you to forgive? What is God calling you to let go of or lean into? What is God bringing out or magnifying in your life?

The disciples in today’s bible story are the very same disciples that question and doubt Jesus they even deny and abandon him later.  They are so unqualified. And so imperfect. And yet, Jesus makes them into disciples.

I will make you.

I suppose it is so very cultural of us with our resumes and our linked in profiles and our lists of extra-curriculars to try and show how qualified we are.  The thing is that when it comes to Jesus, the very things that qualify us to be disciples are probably the things we would hide in an actual interview: our uncertainties, our struggles, our vulnerabilities, our ordinariness.  These are the very things that God uses to make us.

I will make you…

Almost 45 years ago, a group of ordinary Northside congregations formed the Night Ministry.  Regular, old, average people in pews of 20 congregations came together and began a ministry that today this congregation faithfully serves in to provide food and medical services to people experiencing homelessness around the city. Those people years ago, they followed Jesus.

I will make you…

Less than 10 years ago, this congregation saw a need and worked with partners to help open a second branch of the Friendship Center food pantry which serves the often invisible folks who are hungry in this neighborhood. You followed Jesus.

I will make you…

Last Winter, the LMC church council had this wild idea that we might be able to participate in Chicago Open House and welcome folks into our sanctuary.  (What!?) One visitor I met (when I happened to be wearing a clergy shirt) commented to me about the rainbow flag we have in the back of the sanctuary and took a picture of it.

I will make you…

Last Spring, a couple of members expressed concern about the sex abuse scandal at Waters and wondered if we might be able to pull off a forum for parents and students in the following couple of days.  We did. And several hundred community members come through our doors to find solace, and community.

I will make you…

In this congregation, we dialogue, we disagree, we do our best to listen and with the Holy Spirit as our guild, Jesus will make us into who he needs us to be.  And then God will make us again and again.

Our only task is to be open enough for God to captivate our imaginations, to steal and then transform our hearts, to bring this vision of a Kingdom of God alive in our souls until we can’t help but live it and strive to reflect this astounding beauty of who Jesus is in our lives.  We tell people about how God is transforming us and alive in our lives and the world, and the rest is up to God.

I will make you… Jesus says.

I will make you, LMC.

And then he says, Now follow me.