Whoever Serves Me Must Follow Me

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
April 2, 2006
The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Whoever Serves Me Must Follow Me
Jeremiah 29:11
John 12:20-33

I have been asked lots of questions since last Tuesday evening
when I informed the Session that
Pat and I would be moving come July.
Why? Where? How? When?
This was not an easy decision for us.
Like Abram and Sarai, we are being called
from a place we know,
to a place we don’t know;
we are being called
from people we know,
to people we do not know.

We wrestled with the call as vigorously
as Jacob wrestled with God at Penuel.
But we knew that God was calling
and we knew our only response was to follow.
We know our only response is to do what Jesus teaches us
in our gospel lesson:
“whoever serves me must follow me”
Our Lord could not be clearer.

We are called to follow God;
We are called to follow Jesus;
We are called by the Holy Spirit to follow.
That call to follow –
it is that sense of restlessness that fills us all,
It is why more than 1500 years ago Augustine wrote,
“our heart is restless until it rests in you” O Lord.
(Confessions 1)
And our hearts will not rest in God
unless and until we follow God
in everything we do,
everything we say;
in all times, in all places.

Two thousand years ago, Paul knew that following meant
leaving his comfortable life behind to take the gospel
to the newly formed churches throughout the Mediterranean:
the churches in Corinth, Rome, Colossae,
Philippi Thessalonica, Ephesus,
and throughout Galatia.
Have you ever looked at the maps we keep in the Denniston Room,
and looked at the one that shows Paul’s journeys?
How far and wide he traveled?
Following Pentecost, the disciples fanned out throughout
the known world to spread the good news.
Thomas, the man who will forever be known as the “doubter”,
is thought to have taken the gospel as far east as India.
That doesn’t sound like a doubting Thomas to me!
That sounds like a faithful follower of Christ.

When I was at Princeton I was in a study and prayer group
with three other men:
we were all second career students:
each of us had come from the business world,
jobs and paychecks left behind.
Two came to Seminary with wives and children.
All of us were at an age when people start to become
settled in life, and yet when God called,
we all found ourselves in Princeton.

And then after three wonderful years in seminary,
our calls scattered us: one to Chicago, one to Atlanta,
one to Washingtonville,
and one all the way across the Atlantic to England.
Since then, God has called the others to move at least once:
Chip moved from Atlanta back to Princeton,
and is about to move yet again.
Steve and his family moved from England to Germany.
And Charles, his wife, and their three young children
moved from Chicago to Baltimore,
and this summer will move from Baltimore
to the rugged ruralness of Northern China
where they will serve as Missionaries for the next year.

“Whoever serves me must follow me.”

I marvel at how much this church has changed
over the past 6 years;
I think if someone had last worshipped here in late 1999,
and came back again now, he would hardly recognize the place.
Yet one thing remains constant:
remains as constant as it has since this church
was established 165 years ago.
We are a group of people called by the Holy Spirit
to be followers.
We have doubled in size over the past 6 years, from 115 to 210.
And that means that more than 100 women and men
have been called to this church to follow Jesus Christ.

We have launched a highly successful nursery school,
as a mission and ministry of this church,
helping children to grow in a safe, nurturing environment.
We’ve done this as followers of Christ
in response to Christ’s teachings.

We have painted and fixed up virtually every room
in this building and the Manse.
We have done all this
to make our space safe, comfortable, welcoming,
always remembering that our Lord
stands at every door of this building,
with “his big carpenter hands”,
as Peter Marshall would say,
open wide in welcome,
saying to all who come through the doors,
“Follow me”

I have baptized more than two dozen babies,
as we have welcomed them into Christ’s Holy catholic church.
In every baptismal service, we all make a promise
to both the baptized child and the child’s parents
to help them follow Christ.

I have worked with more than 30 of our young people
in six Confirmation Classes.
Next month I will listen with such gratitude –
and a little pride –
as the members of this year’s class do as
the young people before them:
profess their faith publicly.
Yes, their voices may all be a bit tentative
but they will all say the same thing:
“I will follow you.”


That is what we are called to do: Follow Christ,
Follow by listening for God’s still small voice
that voice that speaks to us in a hundred different ways
each day guiding us, helping us to follow more faithfully.
Calling us, always calling us,
to reach out, to grow, to do more
as we spread the gospel and do our part
to build the Kingdom here on earth.
There may well be times that that still small voice
calls to us to serve in a way that makes us uncomfortable,
or perhaps even frightens us a bit,
But we always – always - have the promise God makes to us
through the prophet Jeremiah:
“for surely I know the plans I have for you, …,
plans for your welfare and not for harm.”

Frederick Buechner, the Presbyterian minister and writer,
tells in his newest book the story of a little girl
who in a Christmas pageant blurted out unexpectedly,
“Let Jesus Show!”
Buechner writes, “Let Jesus show
in this church we have built for him --
the real Jesus – not the one we try to make of him,
but the one who sat there at that table in the upper room
with his disciples as they shared that last meal together.
And the only way we can let Jesus show
is for each of us to follow
follow the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.”

In a few minutes we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper together,
responding to the invitation of our Lord
to share in a meal that he has prepared for us,
a meal to renew us, refresh us,
grace us with deeper faith
so that we can follow more faithfully.

As you take take the bread and the cup
let the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ fill you;
Feel that Spirit, let it course its way through you
until it positively bursts through your fingertips.
And then say to God, say to Christ,
say to the Spirit:
Yes, yes, I will serve you!
Yes, I will show you to all the world!
Yes, Lord, I will follow you!

AMEN