+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How many of you are on Twitter? {{Congregational Response}}
So, for those of you who are Twitterers, what happens when you sign up for Twitter? {{Congregational Response}} [you join a community of people who get one another’s messages]
What’s a Twitter message called? {{Congregational Response}} [a Tweet]
If someone subscribes to receive your tweets, what’s that person called? {{Congregational Response}} [a Follower]
So that means that in this morning’s Gospel we have the story of the first Twitterer, because as Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee he sees Peter and Andrew, and he says to them, “Follow me”― and immediately they subscribe to Jesus and follow him! And then he sees James and John, and he says to them, “Follow me,” and immediately they subscribe to Jesus and follow him.
So the very first thing Jesus does when he begins his public ministry is to call together a community of “followers.”
Last Sunday we heard the story from St. John’s Gospel about the first disciples who followed Jesus, and as his Gospel unfolds John develops the theme of following Jesus in three more passages. And in each of these passages, following is linked with dying.
In chapter 10, Jesus tells his disciples that he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, and then he says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (v. 27).
Later, during Holy Week in Jerusalem, as Jesus prepares to face the cross, he says to his disciples, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it to eternal life.” And then Jesus says, “Whoever serves me must follow me” (12:24- 26).
And then after his resurrection, Jesus returns to the Sea of Galilee, and he takes Peter aside and tells him that the day will come when Peter, also, will die for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Even so, says Jesus, “Follow me.” Then Peter turns and sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, and Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” But Jesus says to Peter, “Don’t worry about him! Follow me!’” (21:18-23).
Twenty years later, another follower of Jesus, named Paul, writes to another community of followers:
“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.”
Notice that in both of these sentences Paul calls the members of this community of followers his “brothers and sisters.”
Paul continues: “What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas”― and who is Cephas? {{Congregational Response}} [Peter] “or― and how’s this for one-upmanship?!― “I belong to Christ.”
Now here’s the literal translation from the Greek, and you can almost hear the rising crescendo:
“I (and the “I”― egw, ego― is emphatic in the Greek!) I am of Paul,” “But I of Apollos,” “But I of Cephas,” “But I of Christ!”
And here’s how the New International Version of the Bible translates it, “I follow Paul . . . I follow Apollos . . . I follow Cephas . . . .”
The diagnosis is clear. The reason there is division among the brothers and sisters is because their Twitter accounts have gotten all messed up! Instead of following Jesus they are following Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas.
And so Paul asks them, “Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
Of course the answer to each of these questions is a resounding “No!” Christ is not divided! Jesus was crucified for them. They were baptized in the name of Jesus. And notice that Paul is as tough on those who say they are following him as he is on those who say they are following Apollos or Cephas or Christ.
Now as I continue reading, count the number of times Paul refers to baptism:
“Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize. . . .
Referring to baptism six times in four sentences is a strange way for Paul to downplay the importance of baptism! So why does Paul keep up that steady drum beat about baptism?
First, because baptism is the way we join the community of those who follow Jesus. Second, because baptism makes us brothers and sisters in Christ.
And third, and most importantly, because by baptism we are signed with the sign of the cross and “marked as Christ’s own forever,” and “we are buried with Christ in his death” (Romans 6:3-4).
And it’s that crucial connection between baptism and the cross that brings Paul to the conclusion of this morning’s reading:
“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
For Paul knows that at the foot of the cross, we are all on level ground― Paul and Apollos, Cephas and Chloe, you and me. At the foot of the cross, we come face to face with the reality that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And at the foot of the cross we discover that everyone is a brother or sister for whom Christ died (1 Corinthians 8:11; Romans 14:15).
Amen.
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