Over my holidays the past weeks I read a novel which begins like this…
Jasper Jones has come to my window.
I don’t know why, but he has. Maybe he’s in trouble. Maybe he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
Either way, he’s just frightened the living [hell] out of me.
This is the hottest summer I can remember, and the thick heat seems to seep in and keep in my sleepout. It’s like the earth’s core in here. The only relief comes from the cooler air that creeps in between the slim slats of my single window. It’s near impossible to sleep, so I’ve spent most of my nights reading by the light of my kerosene lamp.
Tonight was no different. And when Jasper Jones rapped my louvres abruptly with his knuckly and hissed my name, I leapt from my bed, spilling my copy of Pudd’nhead Wilson.
‘Charlie! Charlie!’
I knelt like a sprinter, alert and fearful.
‘Who is it?’
‘It’s Jasper!’
‘What? Who?’
‘Jasper, Jasper!’ and he pressed his face right up into the light. His eyes green and wild. I squinted.
‘What? Really? What is it?’
‘I need your help. Just come out here and I’ll explain,’ he whispered.
‘What? Why?’
‘[Damn it], Charlie! Just hurry up! Get out here.’
And so, he’s here.
Jasper Jones is at my window.
Shaken, I clamber onto the bed and remove the dusty slats of glass, piling them onto my pillow. I quickly kick into a pair of jeans and blow out my lamp. As I squeeze headfirst out of the sleep out, something invisible tugs at my legs. This is the first time I’ve ever dared to sneak away from home. The thrill of this, coupled with the fact that Jasper Jones need MY help, already fills the moment with something portentous.
My exit from the window is a little like a foal being born. It’s a graceless and gangly drop, directly onto my mother’s gerbera bed. I emerge quickly and pretend it didn’t hurt.
It’s a full moon tonight, and very quiet. Neighbourhood dogs are probably too hot to bark their alarm. Jasper Jones is standing in the middle of our backyard. He sifts his feet from right to left as though the ground were smouldering.
Jasper is tall. He’s only a year older than me, but looks a lot more. He has wiry body, but it’s defined. His shape and his muscles have already sorted themselves out. His hair is a scruff of rough tufts. It’s pretty clear he hacks at it himself.
Jasper Jones has outgrown his clothes. His button up shirt is dirty and fit to burst, and his short; pants are cut just past the knee. He wears no shoes. He looks like an island cast away.
He takes a step toward me. I take one back.
‘Okay. Are you ready?’
‘What? Ready for what?’
‘I told you. I need your help, Charlie. Come on….’
And so the story unfolds. Charlie follows Jasper Jones on and on into the darkness of the night and an experience that would change his life, bring him face to face with good and bad, narrowness and prejudice, the challenges of choice, the questions of right and wrong, and the belief that there was more to life than meets the eye. The part that really struck me though in the opening pages, is the way that Jasper Jones calls on Charlie, who eagerly follows, not really ever knowing what he is being called to or what is around the corner.
“Okay. Are you ready? Says Jasper Jones
What? Ready for what? Says Charlie.
I told you. I need your help, Charlie. Come on….”
Today we come to one of the passages in the Gospels, the passage from Luke 5, which tells us about Jesus calling his first disciples to follow him. It ends with these few simple words, “… they left everything and followed him.” That is, Simon, later called Peter, James and John left everything to follow Jesus. Both Matthew and Mark mention that James and John even left their poor old father Zebedee behind them in the boat when they all got up and left to follow Jesus.
When Luke wrote his gospel towards the end of the first century, well after the life of Jesus, Christians had begun to use the image of the boat as a symbol for the Christian community, or the church. Passages such as this are significant in that they talk about the beginnings of the Christian Church, people gathered by Jesus, people of the boat, leaving their boats, to go on a journey into the world, to “fish for people”, as Jesus says in each gospel record. But it is really startling, in each account, that it seems so easy for these men to follow Jesus without any knowledge of what is before them, like Charlie, suddenly having his window rapped on by Jasper Jones, only to follow him into the unknown of the night.
In our passage today from Luke there is the miracle first of the fishermen casting out their net on the other side of the boat at the request of Jesus only to catch so many fish the net was beginning to break. And then they follow. But in Matthew and Mark Jesus simply summons them to come away with him, and leaving their father Zebedee, and their boats, they followed.
Surely this is a startling passage for us to hear and ponder?
Rightly so we tell our children from a young age, never to go with anyone strange. Don’t open the door to people even if you think you know them well. Think through things before you go ahead with them. Plan. Schedule. Think ahead son!
We tell ourselves to plan for the future, don’t be risky with money, and make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
Is it safe?
Is it secure?
Are they trustworthy?
Do you know what you are doing?
Are you making the right choices in life?
I wonder if Simon, James and John, had done a business model, seen a financial consultant, and worked out their life plan, before they responded to the summons of Jesus? One of the latest fads in church life has been something called “life coaching”!
I wonder if one of each of the discple’s friends said to them…. as they left with Jesus.
“Peter, do you think this following stuff is financially viable”?
“James, do you think this is best business practice and that following this guy is your core competency”?
“Simon, have you undertaken a due diligence and feasibility study on this one”?
“Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him”.
I’m not saying that planning and consideration in life are not important, but there is a contrast between our lives, the life of the church today, and the simple willingness to step out and follow by those first disciples as told in the gospels. I would say that many Christians, and many many churches, are hamstrung in their discipleship and willingness to step out by their overwhelming fear. And those churches or Christian communities have decided that it is easier to do nothing, and to die peacefully, than to step out into the unknown.
In terms of our building, Ron and I have had things said to us by others outside our congregation like; “We don’t want to take risks…”, “We don’t want another failure…”, “We just want to make sure you have thought through everything and know what you are doing…”
But there is for sure the unknown before us and I find myself wondering at times…
Will people come?
Will we be able to feed the hungry who knock on the door?
Will we have enough groups for parents and children?
Will the young people find a home where they can be encouraged?
Will I have the words to speak and the wisdom to minister well in the unknown?
Will we be able as a Christian community to face our fears and follow so that our mission comes alive in the community of Gungahlin?
Of course the Christian Community is made up of individual people and each of us, like Simon Peter, James and John, have our own calling to faithfulness. For each of us that summons is different. For each of us that call to follow and to faithfulness will thread throughout our lives. Perhaps the call to you at this time is simply to believe. Or perhaps to be willing to be a leader. Perhaps that call for you is to change in some way. Or to be generous and hospitable to others. Perhaps your call is to prayer, or forgiveness, or encouragement, or love. Perhaps it is the call to follow, to belong, even though it is difficult for you to do so. And for sure, for each of us the call to follow will mean facing fear, it will mean entering into unknown places, and it will mean the giving up of something.
Just as is for us as a community of Christians, like us, as we seek to follow, it means facing our fear, it means entering into unknown places, and there will be challenging times, a cost, and a giving up as well.
So for Peter, James and John, the following of Jesus was wonderful, full of life, meals and friendship together, experiences of the vast presence of God, learning and understanding, mission, healing and miracles.
It also meant, a lot of walking on dusty roads, fear and persecution, coming face to face with their failings, like when they argued about who was the greatest, or Peter denied he even knew who Jesus was. And it meant living with uncertainty.
And this is the call of Jesus, the summons, the invitation to us as a Christian community, and to us as men, women and children.
I’m going to finish by playing a song from Iona Abbey in the UK. The first verse has these words….
Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Amen.