Sermon Tone Analysis
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*TITLE: *Goodbye & Hello *SCRIPTURE: * Matthew 4:12-23
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It isn't easy to say goodbye, is it!
Oh, sometimes it is easy.
But that isn't typical!
Usually goodbyes are hard.
I knew a man who found goodbyes so difficult that he tried never to say goodbye.
He would tell people that he was going to leave on a particular day, and then he would leave the previous night.
Friends would come to say goodbye, and he would be gone.
That might have been all right for him, but it wasn't good for his friends.
We need to be able to say goodbye.
We need closure.
My toughest goodbye was when I left the previous charge that I served.
I am sure that this one will be equally as difficult whenever that time comes.
When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow him, they left everything behind to follow him.
Matthew doesn't go into much detail in telling that story.
He just says that Peter and Andrew "immediately…left their nets and followed him."
James and John "immediately…left their nets and followed him."
That is so clipped –– so cut and dried.
It fails to tell the whole story.
It fails to convey the pain, and it fails to convey the joy.
Peter and Andrew were brothers.
James and John were brothers.
They had always lived in their little village by the Sea of Galilee.
They had learned the fishing trade by going out in small boats with their fathers.
They had known their friends all their lives.
In those days, people lived in their home village all their lives.
They were expected to do so.
When they were children, they lived in the village so their parents could take care of them.
When they were adults, they lived in the village to take care of their parents.
When they were old, they lived in the village so their children could take care of them.
That was the cycle of life.
They could not easily break it.
They had responsibilities to their loved ones.
How could James and John immediately leave their father to follow Jesus?
Did Jesus give them opportunity to say goodbye?
I think that he did.
I think that Peter, Andrew, James and John must have had tearful goodbyes.
They must have been excited about following Jesus.
They must have been honored at being invited to go with him.
But they must have found it difficult to say goodbye.
But you have to say goodbye to be able to say hello.
You must let go of the past to embrace the future.
These men, Peter and Andrew, James and John, were willing to do that.
I find that amazing!
But it cannot have been as easy as Matthew makes it sound.
It is always difficult to say goodbye to family and friends, but sometimes it is necessary.
In the small town where I grew up, most of us went away to college or the city.
Few of us returned.
There wasn't much to do in small-town West Virginia.
But that isn't why Peter and Andrew, James and John left their village.
They went because Jesus called them to a new life.
He calls us to a new life too.
That does not always require leaving old friends behind, but sometimes it does.
Recovering alcoholics know what I am talking about.
When they begin their recovery, they have to leave their old friends behind.
Old friends would tie them to their old behaviors.
Drunks resent friends who quit drinking.
They will do everything possible to sabotage a friend's recovery.
They will do everything possible to get a drink into his or her hands.
Sometimes you have to say goodbye to be able to say hello.
Sometimes you must let go of the past to embrace the future.
When Christ calls us to become his disciples, he calls us to become new people.
He calls us to allow the old person to die so that the new person can be reborn.
Sometimes that requires a dramatic break with our past.
Peter and Andrew, James and John had been fishermen.
Jesus said, "Come follow me, and you will no longer be fishermen.
You will become fishers of men!" Do you remember the old children's song?
I will make you fishers of men,
Fishers of men, fishers of men.
I will make you fishers of men,
if you'll follow me.
That might sound sexist by today's standards, because it fails the "inclusive language" test.
It doesn't mention women.
But it is a nice play on words that is easy to remember.
"You will no longer be fishermen.
You will become fishers of men!"
Peter and Andrew, James and John had to leave behind their old profession so that they could carry out their new mission as Jesus' disciples.
Could you do that?
Could you leave everything behind to follow Jesus?
It isn't easy.
Sometimes it requires sacrifice.
Tertullian was one of the great early Christians.
One day, a man came to him with a problem.
His problem was trying to earn a living in a heathen world.
What if a mason were asked to build a heathen temple?
What if a soldier had to say, "Caesar is God"?
The man concluded by saying: "I must live."
Tertullian responded, "Must you?"
Martin Luther King had it right!
In one of his last speeches, he said that longevity has its place, but longevity was not his goal.
God had given him a dream.
He had to pursue the dream.
If that resulted in his early death, so be it.
God doesn't call most of us to change professions; God doesn't call most of us to die for our faith; but God calls all of us to become new people and to live lives that are different as a result of having met Christ.
I like the story of Jack Eckerd and the difference that Christ made in his life.
Eckerd was the founder of the Eckerd Drug Chain, a large chain of pharmacies.
Like many Christians, Eckerd attended church, but did not really let Christ direct his life.
He was like Peter and Andrew, James and John when they were still fishing for fish in their home village –– before they began to follow Christ.
Then one day Eckerd came face-to-face with Christ, and he changed.
He began walking through his stores, looking at them as Christ would see them.
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