Follow Me

Beloved in Christ,

In the gospel lesson for this coming Sunday, Jesus starts to assemble his team, calling his first four disciples. They were all going about business as usual, mending their nets, doing their work, living their lives. When they hear Jesus’ strange invitation, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” we are told that immediately they left everything behind and followed Jesus.

There is a palpable urgency with which they respond to Jesus’ invitation. But, it seems to me, it is not the urgency of anxiety, of panic, of fear. It’s the urgency of clarity. This invitation seems to have what their souls are longing for, and there is no hesitation about making this way the center of their lives. 

This is an urgent moment in the life of our nation, beloved. As we continue to watch scenes of unbearable and unimaginable cruelty carried out in reckless fashion across Minnesota, without reference to the clear rule of law that holds the nation together, it is clear that something fundamental has broken, and a line has been crossed that few of us imagined we’d see in our lifetimes. 

The need for us to act is urgent. And there are many ways we can act faithfully in this moment. We can pray, holding our nation and those most vulnerable, perpetually before God’s throne of mercy. We can join the network of people at Casa Maria who are delivering food to people who cannot leave their homes. We can show up, publicly and peacefully protesting the ongoing horrors we are seeing, as many of us will do in Minneapolis tomorrow afternoon. We can donate to the Migration Support Fund, as the need for financial support continues to soar in this moment. 

But as followers of Jesus, we do not act with the urgency of anxiety, we act with the urgency of clarity. Jesus’ call is clear: follow me. Do as I do, go where I go, be with me. And Jesus always goes where the pain is, Jesus always goes to the margins, the vulnerable, to those afraid, to the broken places. That’s where we are called to go, in good times and in hard times. 

Though there are many fearful things around us, we need not be afraid, because we know that love is more powerful than hatred, compassion is greater than cruelty, and God continues to build God’s kingdom of perfect justice brick by brick, act of love by act of love. So, like those ancient disciples, we go urgently, but soberly, clearly, and deeply grounded in the hope we have that perfect love casts out fear, and even death itself will not quench love’s mighty power. 

Grace and Peace,

The Right Rev. Craig Loya