Have you ever played on a shoreline that you didn’t want to leave? 

Have you ever lost all track of time on the beach?

Maybe you can still hear your mother’s voice calling to you 

(for the seventh time) 

to drop the mudpie and get up to the minivan right now… 

I know more than one adult who has shed tears 

on the last day of the lake house vacation, 

the last morning of a visit to the ocean… 

There’s a powerful gravity, so much mystery and beauty…

in those place where the immensity of the water

meets pebble and mud. 

I wonder if there is a certain shoreline with which you are deeply familiar. Maybe it has supplied a core memory or two. 

You know its features well, 

its ledges and curves, its wildlife.  

You can still feel the soft, white sand there and the way it dissolved like sugar under your toes—warm waves washing in sparkly bits of coral and shell. 

Maybe you remember the murky creek’s edge where you once terrified tadpoles with the power of your 7 year-old shadow. 

Or the cold, crashing surf of the Atlantic, 

whose power still terrifies your 47 year-old soul.  

If you were to visit there today, would it still look the same? 

If you were to bring along a new friend,

you might be able to give them a tour of its most important features

You might point out the tree 

where the shade is especially sweet in the afternoon. 

You might warn them about the hazards—the sharp rock next to the dock

that gave you that scar on your right calf.  

But you would probably also marvel, after such a long time away, how the place has changed over the years.  

—

Today’s scripture readings bring us to the water’s edge, 

in more ways than one…

We encounter Jesus on the Galilean seaside, 

and we are also walking the shoreline of Biblical history—

This is the moment where Israel’s long-awaited righteous king, 

the reign of heaven has come near.

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed it in great detail. 

The gospel writer goes to great lengths to ensure we won’t miss it.

In the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali…

The land beyond the Jordan…

These details of location in the text are 

the ancient author’s way of perking up the audience’s ears: This is it! 

This is where the promise we have ached for is being fulfilled! 

This is where the immensity of God’s love shows up

And how? In the intimacy of a man, looking for friends. 

This is where the names of quite ordinary people are spoken 

on the lips of the One whose holy name is unspeakable. 

Jesus calls to Peter and Andrew and James and John, 

and they immediately leave to follow.

This is where our chosenness and our choosing collide.

Right here.

On this shoreline.

Where Jesus Christ calls human beings into discipleship. 

Have you been to that place? 

Do you know that shoreline in your own life? 

Maybe you remember a certain Friday evening, under the stars, 

at a summer Bible camp…

Maybe a friend group you had as a young adult 

became a space of deep transformation in your life…

Maybe you found yourself there in the wake of the diagnosis, 

the accident, the divorce…   

Where have you encountered Jesus, calling you to follow? 

Some of us may have recently found ourselves on that 

shoreline for the first time in our lives. 

Some of us aren’t sure we’ve ever been there.  

Some of us are confident we have visited again and again. 

But even for those of us who think we are deeply familiar 

with the sound of our name on Jesus’ lips…

the landscape keeps changing on us, doesn’t it? 

How can we recognize the call today as well as we did yesterday? 

When the shorelines of our lives shift

In their many tides and seasons—what stays the same?  

From what we have heard in the gospel reading today,

I want to offer three things, that will always help us recognize 

Jesus’ call to discipleship in our lives.

Let’s start with the hazards. 

1 | Called to leave—nets, parents, boats.

Did you notice how in the wake of Jesus’ call of these four fishermen, 

quite a bit of debris is left on the beach? 

—Nets, boats, and parents are abandoned 

 as the ones who are called take their leave.

The stuff isn’t trash, but it can’t come with them. 

This is first thing we need to know about Jesus’ call to discipleship: 

There is always a cost.

There is always some kind of leaving involved. 

We are called out of self-defeating attitudes,

out of captivity to our addictions,

out of systems, and organizations, (and even churches), 

that fail to honor the image of God 

and Spirit-given gifts in every member among them. 

We are called away 

from our white-knuckled grip on certain titles and privileges.

even the shapes of some relationships need to change… 

Some of what we are called to leave behind 

we know we will be much better off without…

And some of what we are called to leave behind 

can be much more difficult to part with… 

We may have to let go of day-to-day rhythms 

that have been comforting and life-giving.

Our relationships with the ones who raised us may change in painful ways. 

As I am discovering these days, (as my family and I prepare for another relocation in just a couple of months),

we may have to learn to say goodbye 

to spaces that have been a kind of healing refuge.

What is required of us as disciples of Jesus

is that we hold all of God’s gifts gratefully in our hands, 

but also loosely enough to release them when we’re called…

We release our children into their next season of life, 

opening up the unknown space of the quiet daytime hours, 

or the empty nest.

We part ways with classmates and dear friends, 

blessing them on their way to new places.

There is always a cost, always a kind of leaving involved… 

we drop our nets to follow Jesus.

But here’s the second important thing we can know 

about our call to discipleship:

We don’t do it alone. 

2 | Called together, into community (called in pairs, fishing for people).

Here in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ first four disciples are called in pairs, 

with the promise that they would grow into more.

Follow me, and will make you fish for people. 

Jesus calls us together, into community. 

Next week, we will celebrate as several new members join this church. 

Old friends and new faces alike, they already belong, and we get to be witnesses to the good news that Jesus has called each of them into this particular community. 

I had the opportunity to sit in on the meeting where Pastor Jeff shared with this group some of the big picture history and personal stories that make First Presbyterian Church who she is.

I found myself delighting in that hour

in the work of the Holy Spirit 

that I have witnessed and experienced here, too:

By God’s grace, we are a people who worship 

—and we do it with every creative gift we have on hand. 

We are a people who share the sacraments,

who encourage each other through illness 

with enchiladas & pumpkin bars. 

We are a people who study, and wonder, and doubt.

We are a people who rehearse and who laugh;

who grieve death and celebrate new life; 

who confess and forgive. 

We are a people who teach children that they are God’s beloved. 

who haul and pack food in love for our neighbors.

who offer support to the mission of the Holy Spirit all over the planet. 

We are a people who open ourselves wide; who make room for more.  

We are a people who follow Jesus, and we don’t do it alone. 

Are you hearing the good news here, friends…? 

  You don’t have to be the hero.

You don’t have to be the one-woman show. 

Behind this very sermon is an SOS text for prayer yesterday afternoon, followed by an hour of Pastor April’s encouragement here in this sanctuary. 

Jesus calls and later sends his disciples out for ministry in two’s—knowing that they would need each other for support. 

Community is how the good news moves in the world. 

Community is where the story of grace unfolds— 

a story which centers not on anyone of us, 

but on the One who holds all things together. 

 Which brings us to the third essential in the call to discipleship: 

We are called to follow a person.  

3 | We are called to follow Jesus. 

We follow Jesus Christ. 

Not a TikTok trend or a cable news channel. 

Not the latest book promising to make us healthy, wealthy, and wise. 

Not a set of rules. 

Not an -ism or an -ology

We follow Jesus.

And perhaps this is the single most important thing 

we can remember when we lose our way…

…when we are lost in the woods of a confusing Bible passage

…when the debate about X Y or Z gets heated

…when popular Christian thought leaders 

rise to the top of our newsfeeds for years 

and then suddenly fall into scandal

Disciples are called to leave, 

called into community,

and called to follow Jesus wherever he goes.

Where is that…?

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

We follow the One who goes:

…unwaveringly into the margins of society

…compassionately to the lonely and sick

…steadily toward the ones who hold power

—naming all injustice, calling each back to righteousness  

We follow the One who proclaims good news for all people,

and brings healing to every kind of sickness. 

We follow the One who was there 

when the foundations of the earth were laid,
and the One who will be faithful to the promise

until earth and heaven are united for eternity. 

This is the One who meets us on the shorelines of our lives 

and calls us to follow. 

What does the shoreline of your life look like today? 

What does it sound like? 

Is it noisey with the replay of a family argument from earlier this morning? 

Is it full of the quirks and unknown mysteries of new co-workers? 

Is it too quiet, with too much space in the absence of someone you loved?

Is it cluttered with texts from someone who counts on your care? 

Does it echo with the voice of someone who told you 

that what you have been is all you ever will be? 

It’s easy for any of us to get utterly lost in all the noise… 

Now, I am no expert regarding survival situations, 

but I have watched a lot of the Discovery Channel…

And I’ve heard it said from many (actual) expert sources

that one of the best ways to find your way out of the deep woods

is to listen, carefully — for the sound of water.

If the landscape around you feels unfamiliar today, 

can you pause to be still and listen for the sound of Jesus’ voice,

steady like waves on the shoreline…

What nets do you need to drop? 

Who are you being called to move toward with good news and healing? 

Who do you follow? 

Whether this is your first or 5,000th day on the shoreline. 

I pray you will hear the call with clarity: 

Your name on the lips of the One who was and is and is to come. 

Amen.