Today, we look at a Day 3 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “From Generation to Generation.”
Prayer: Leading God, you call your disciples with the simple invitation to come and follow you. As we prepare for this Holy Week ahead, remind us that, even when we venture down paths preferably left untrodden, we follow the one who knows the way, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. Reading: Matthew 4:18-22 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: I wonder if the disciples knew where they would end up. It seems a bit odd to focus on this text as we get ready to enter into Holy Week, as we prepare for this culmination in the story of our faith. As we prepare for the end of Jesus and the disciples’ journey, it seems jarring to go back and remember how it all started. Here in this passage from Matthew, we are reminded of the sudden and urgent willingness those first disciples bore in the wake of Jesus’ invitation. With the simple words of “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” from Jesus, these first disciples have the whole trajectory of their lives changed. In the time that follows that seaside invitation, Peter, Andrew, James, and John bear witness to the praise-worthy ways of life that Jesus paves in his healing, feeding, and restoration of those around him. But now -- now they are being called upon to bear witness to a new thing. As we look to Palm Sunday this weekend and Holy Week in the days ahead, we are reminded that this path of discipleship that these fishermen now follow will call them to bear witness to something far more difficult than they may have imagined. As we journey toward Jerusalem and the cross that waits for Jesus there, we are reminded that his invitation to come and follow him often leads us down paths we might rather avoid. The invitation to come and follow still stands, but can we do it? We can’t have a resurrection without the cross, but can we really come along and bear witness to the sheer depths to which God is willing to stoop for God’s people? “Follow me,” Jesus says; we probably ought to see where this goes. ~ Justin Lingenfelter
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