Groundhog Day was on Wednesday, which got me to thinking this week about making predictions.  Apparently Punxsutawney Phil has been predicting whether we will have six more weeks of winter since 1886.  What his predictions lack in accuracy they make up for in popularity!  Thousands of people make their way to Gobblers Nob every year and wait in the cold for sunrise, just so they can see Phil the groundhog prognosticator.  We love predictions!

But I don’t think any of us would have predicted Jesus’ response to the events in our passage of scripture today.  First, a teacher of the law came up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  This is remarkable on so many levels.  First, this teacher of the law—he was a member of the Jewish religious elite that so often stridently opposed Jesus’ ministry.  Yet this man wants to join Jesus in ministry!  Talk about something to celebrate! Jesus has won over one of his harshest critics.  When the scribe addresses Jesus as “teacher”, this might not seem like a dignitary’s title to us, but to them, this was a title of great respect.  What a remarkable conversion moment!

And what makes this an even more remarkable conversion moment is what happened immediately before it.  Jesus gave order to cross to the “other side”.  Matthew takes it for granted that we will understand Jesus was talking about the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is sometimes also called Lake Gennesaret or Lake Tiberias.  And you know who lives on the other side of the lake?  Gentiles!  Pagans!  Not Jewish people!  That Jesus would want to teach and heal and spend time with Gentiles was NOT something most Jews waiting for the Messiah would expect.  Again, something very unpredictable!  And then for the teacher of the law to offer to follow Jesus anywhere—even to the other side?  No one would have seen that coming!

I heard a sportscaster this week say he’s been predicting the outcome of the Super Bowl for thirty years.  The predictions may not have been correct, but they were still predictions!  If I was hearing this scripture for the first time, there’s no way I would have accurately predicted Jesus’ response to the teacher of the law.  I would have predicted that Jesus would be super excited!  I would have predicted Jesus would say, “Praise God!”  I would have predicted Jesus would want to get this man signed up as quickly as possible.

But instead of being encouraging, Jesus appears to be just the opposite.  He seems to be discouraging him from becoming a disciple.  He says something cryptic about how foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.  And we never hear about that teacher of the law again.

Matthew tells us that another disciple wanted to follow Jesus, but wasn’t available right that minute.  “First, let me go bury my father.”  This would seem to be an acceptable reason to defer doing whatever it is Jesus asked you to do.  After all, honoring your father and mother is one of the Ten Commandments!  If there is ever a legitimate reason to miss work, or postpone a project, it’s the death of a parent.  Who among us would predict Jesus’ response?  “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  Sounds almost heartless, doesn’t it?

Then, right away, Matthew records another scene that defies our expectations.  Jesus and the disciples get in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus falls asleep.  A sudden storm puts the disciples in a panic.  They are afraid they are going to die, so they wake Jesus up, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”  Instead of having compassion on his friends who were so upset, he is critical.  “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”

Jesus’ reactions to all three of these situations make me so uncomfortable, part of me was tempted just to use a different selection from Matthew this week!  I much prefer to preach on the scriptures that put us at ease, rather than the passages that cause dis-ease.  But these verses pick up on a theme we touched on last week:  that our faith is dependent upon making the choice to trust God with our whole lives.

Last Friday I went to the Daylesford Abbey in Paoli for a retreat.  They have many unusual and beautiful pieces of art adorning the walls throughout the facility.  But I was most touched by a black and white photograph of an ordination service, showing a new priest prostrating himself, lying face down on the floor, as a sign of his willingness to surrender himself completely to the Lord.  Theoretically, every person who calls themselves a Christian should be willing to surrender completely to the Lord.  But we know how hard that is so hard to do!  Perhaps Matthew included these three stories to encourage us.  Even those who literally walked with Jesus had trouble trusting.  Even those who knew him best suffered from anxiety and worry.  Even those who wanted to dedicate their entire lives to Jesus didn’t realize the sacrifice that would be required.

Clearly being a disciple is no easy task.  Let’s think about these three encounters in our scripture lesson today.  First, the Jewish scribe who pledged to follow Jesus, even into Gentile territory.  Jesus didn’t just want to be his Teacher—he wanted to be his Lord!  Being willing to defy religious convention and cross over to the other side of the lake—that was an amazing step in faith!  But Jesus knew while the man was prepared to part ways with religious expectations, he wasn’t prepared to part ways with creature comforts.  Jesus looked into his heart and knew, this man was not true disciple material.

Then the man who said he couldn’t travel with Jesus until he buried his father.  A little background here—most commentators think that the man’s father was already dead and buried.  But in the funeral practices of the day, on the one-year anniversary of the death, the remains would be transferred from their initial burial site into an ossuary—a much smaller coffin in which the gathered remains were place permanently.  So this man may have needed up to one year before he could follow Jesus, because he needed to be sure to be home for this final duty.  A friend would understand postponing a trip to take care of family business, a best friend would be even more understanding.  But as much as Jesus wants to be our best friend, Jesus also wants to be our King.  His call on our lives takes precedence over every other obligation and expectation.

And what happened on the boat?  If you ask me, the disciples were to be commended for being willing to do something so inclusive and mission-minded.  They were really ahead of their time, doing something brand new for the Lord.  But instead of having an easy time of it, they encountered a storm.  This surprised them!  This scared them!  We can totally see how that would be their reaction.  But Jesus seemed to think they were experienced enough by now to know, storms are to be expected!  Challenges are normal!  The disciples were surprised by the storm, and they were surprised that even the winds and the waves obeyed Jesus.  The disciples must have known this—otherwise, why would they have awakened Jesus and looked to him to save them from drowning?  And yet, they did not know fully.  They had seen miracle upon miracle.  They knew his power, they were drawn by his goodness.  But did they know enough to trust fully?  The disciples were still works in progress. And so are we.

The good news is, we all learn and grow.  One of my favorite parts of ministry is working with engaged couples.  I have been using a tool called Prepare-Enrich since seminary. The assessment can be used to Prepare couples for marriage, as well as help Enrich the marriages of couples already wed.  I would be happy to work through this with any couple in the church!  It’s a thirty minute assessment the engaged partners take separately, and their responses are tabulated into an easy to read report.

The assessment measures couple strength across nine areas, including conflict resolution, financial management, communication, etc.  Couples get energized when they see their many areas of strength, and seeing their possible growth areas helps them to focus and make a plan to get stronger.

I wish we had a diagram like this to help us strengthen our relationship with Christ. Wouldn’t that be neat?  A thirty minute assessment, and you could see exactly what you need to work on.  If there is a tool like that, I’m not aware of it.  But I think our scripture passage today gives us a framework as a start.

How are we doing, looking to Jesus as our Teacher?  Do we have a routine in place that helps us to learn from Jesus?

How are we doing looking to Jesus as our Lord?  In our United Methodist membership vows, we pledge to be loyal to Jesus Christ through the United Methodist Church, offering our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness.  Are we standing up for Jesus?  Are we showing up, lifting up, and giving up of everything we are and have?

How are we doing looking to Jesus as our Best Friend?  Are we spending time with him?  Are we cultivating our love for him?  Are we communing with him as friend to friend?

And how are we doing looking to Jesus as our King?  Jesus made many predictions in the gospels that should make us uncomfortable.  He predicted that not everyone who calls him “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of heaven.  He predicted there will be sheep and goats.  He predicted that in this life we will have troubles.  But he also encouraged us to take heart, because He has overcome the world.  In our efforts to strengthen our friendship with Jesus, we have to take care not to reduce him to only our Friend.  He is also King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  God is so much bigger than we can imagine!

Part of maturing in the faith is learning to balance these wildly different perspectives of God: personal best Friend and Master of the Universe.  One of the founders of Methodism, John Wesley, was known for giving away every spare piece of clothing he had.  He was known for extreme frugality, giving away as much as 90% of his income to the poor.  He was so outspoken as a priest, he was barred from most of the churches in London.  So he began preaching in the fields.  He knew God as Master and King.  Yet he also famous for having his “heart strangely warmed” at Aldersgate.  Knowing God as Teacher and Lord was not enough.  God also wanted John Wesley to know God as Friend.  I believe God is uniquely at work in each one of us, helping us to encounter whatever it is we need to have a more complete experience of God.

But here’s a prediction guaranteed to come true:  our faith will be tested.  Our experiences with God will include hardship, and will require us to make hard choices to trust and obey.  That is why our hymnal includes this famous “Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition”:

 

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to

thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

 

What a difficult prayer to pray!  It just goes to show, none of us, on our own, are true disciple material!  It’s only through God’s grace that we can be faithful disciples.  We pray this prayer, fully aware that following Jesus makes us more vulnerable than the foxes who have dens and the birds who have nests.  Our only protection may indeed be God’s grace; our only shelter God’s redeeming love.  But thanks be to God, God’s grace and love are enough.  We don’t need a ground hog prognosticator to know that no matter how long the winter lasts, spring will come.  The Spirit of God is with us.  New life is ours.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Amen.