Follow me
"Follow me" - how simple is that!
"Follow me". According to Matthew's account of Jesus' encounter with some fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, that's all it took for them, in the first case, to 'leave their nets', and, in the second case, to 'leave their boat and their father'.
What was it about Jesus that gave these people who grafted for their living on the rough waters of the Sea of Galilee such confidence that, without a word of goodbye or a backward glance or a second thought, they did follow him. And, of course, we can't be sure. It may have been Jesus' presence in the moment; it may have been the sense of authority that they felt in him; it may have been the teaching and the healing that they had witnessed. Or it may have been more about the fishermen than Jesus: maybe they were just looking for way out of the day-in day-out hard work of fishing on the Sea of Galilee. It probably wasn't the latter, but we human beings are complicated beings and arrive at decisions via a whole host of reasons, causes and purposes.
But I am more drawn to how The Church - people like you and me down the ages - have taken that simple statement, "Follow me", and developed it, shaped it and, if we're honest with ourselves, moulded it so that it now looks and feels so very different.
Over the centuries we have turned "Follow me" into "Once you can get over this, round that and under the other; when you can assent to some things and believe others; and after you have learnt and understood The Creed (let's not mention The Athanasian Creed) .. then, follow me".
It's sometimes suggested there are three B's that are important to those who seek to be followers of Christ: belonging, behaving, believing. It is a neat summary of how we are in a relationship with God in Christ that leads us to hold certain things to be true and generates within us a set of values / ethics / morals which informs how we engage with one another and the world around us. It is important to acknowledge that these three B's develop in different ways and at different times for different people.
However, it feels to me that "Follow me" starts with belonging, leads through behaving to believing. Whereas The Church now expects us to believe and to behave before we may belong. It feels to me that we have turned the chief cornerstone of faith into a stumbling block or stepping stone.
For those who have been following the deliberations of the House of Bishops this week and are wondering if they are reading too much into my musings ... you're not. There is a sadness in my soul that we have missed an opportunity to reclaim that fundamental offer to "Follow me" and reasserted a set of behaviours and beliefs that need to be evidenced before some people are counted worthy of belonging.
Why is it so difficult?
"Follow me"
Dan Tyndall
20 Jan 2023
