(Jeremiah 16:14-21, Luke 5:1-11)

                  I wonder what you think “It” is.  I bet an academic psycho-analyst, or professional therapist, could spend many happy hours teasing out what your answer says about you, your childhood, your personality, your present state of mind, and your fundamental convictions about the world, if only you revealed what you think “It” is.  Leaving it all behind.  Leaving IT all behind.  What is “It?”

          Well I am not very good at mind reading, so I can’t get your answer that way.  And I don’t want you to reveal yourselves by raising your hands this morning, because honestly, well, you see, you may think it’s a secret, but I know about that little conversation you have with yourself when you are listening to a sermon.  I know because I do it when I am listening to preaching, and even when I am the one preaching.  I know that as I am up here you are not just sitting there silently, unquestioningly taking in whatever I say.  I know, and actually, I rely upon it, that you are rolling around ideas in your head, having a conversation in your mind, reacting to what I say with memories and emotions – sometimes guilt, sometimes fear,  and hopefully sometimes with compassion, relief, or joy.  And I don’t want you to reveal yourselves by raising your hands, because I hope that the internal conversation of your heart and your head today will be particularly honest, you honest with yourself, open, even vulnerable.

          Leaving it all behind.  What is “It?”

          The remainder of this sermon is in four parts.  But you only have to listen to three of them.  I’ll get the rest of you in a minute, but this next part is only for you if your heart leaps with joy when you think about leaving it all behind.  For you, “It” is a burden.  “It” carries pain.  “It” carries grief, or shame, or anger, or guilt -  a broken relationship, a broken promise, by your or against you, a loved one gone, a lie never confessed, a lack of self-worth – whatever it is, you would love to leave it all behind.  You would love to be done with it.  To have to courage to admit it, to talk about it, to deal with it – not just to make it disappear, but to heal it – to bathe it in the antiseptic of honesty, and the balm of forgiving or being forgiven – to heal it so there is no scar.  For those of you whose heart leaps for joy when you think about leaving “it” all behind – I have good news: “Do not be afraid.”  You are being called to follow, in that particular area of your life, you are being called to follow one who knows your burden, knows your pain, your grief, shame, anger or guilt, and says to you “Do not be afraid.”  By following him, by the deepest honesty and the free forgiveness, that comes in his shadow, you can leave it all behind.  Do not be afraid.

          This next part is for another group of you – those whose heart sinks when you think about leaving it all behind.  For you, “It” is a rather successful life, at least in the eyes of the world.  “It” is what builds you up and makes you feel worthwhile.  “It” is your stuff, your impressive income, the independence that income makes possible, your social place among those who matter, your ability to get what you want.   Maybe in your better moments you see how silly it is, but much of the time, decision time, “It” is what sways you, what rules you.  For those of you whose heart sinks when you think about leaving “it” all behind – I have bad news – but bad news that is ultimately good news.  You are being called to follow, in that particular area of your life, you are being called follow one who doesn’t need all your stuff, who doesn’t need your position, or whatever it is that makes you strong.  He needs only one thing – you, just a basic, stripped down, look in the mirror and you’re fooling no one you.  The bad news is that you have to leave it all behind.  The good news is that you get to leave it all behind.  It’s really not that great anyway, and every source of human wisdom for thousands of years attests that it doesn’t deliver on what your heart really longs for, on joy, or peace, or love.  By following him, by the deepest honesty and the free forgiveness that comes in his shadow, you get to leave it all behind.  To you too, he says “Do not be afraid.”

          And this next part is for all of us.  So come back to me now, bring me back into that little conversation in your heart, whether you put yourself in the first group or the second, or perhaps, like most ofus? Both?  Come along with me here, because you see, there is a little more “leaving it all behind” going on here.  We are not the only ones leaving it all behind.  God, who after all is the final authority in these matters, the creator, the judge, the redeemer, God is leaving it all behind as well.  God has been dealing we humans for a long time, knows our ways better than we do ourselves.  God knows which little conversation you are having with yourself right now.  God knows whether leaving it all behind sounds wonderful, or sounds like punishment.  And God, right now, is leaving it all behind.  As God did when he brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt, as God did when Jeremiah proclaimed God’s word to a broken people, as God did, fully and for all time, through Jesus of Nazareth, God is reconstituting us, God is putting us back together as the people of God.  Jesus puts a net down into a lake from which humans can draw nothing – and comes out with so many fish it threatens to sink the boat.  God is drawing us ALL back in to the boat, big fish, little fish, shamed fish, guilty fish, injured fish, alone fish, prideful fish, self-deceptive fish, fish at the top, and fish at the bottom, ALL us fish are being brought back into the boat – because God is putting us back together as the people of God.  (Man I wish we were in the black church so someone would say “thank you Jesus.”)

          And now this last part is for all of us as well.  This last part is about that which comes after we leave it all behind, whatever “it” is for you.  Because leaving it all behind is not an end in itself.  It doesn’t do any good to leave your burden behind, walk down the lakeshore for a few minutes and pick up another burden.  It doesn’t do any good to leave your stuff behind, walk down the lakeshore for a few hundred feet and cast your own net into the water in hopes of making yourself rich again.  Leaving it all behind is a critical step, but it is not the last step.  The story says “they left everything” and did what?  Followed him.

          The followed him because he called them.  But saying “he called them” doesn’t just mean that he said “Okay, guys, you’re with me now.”  By saying he called them, we mean he touched their hearts and gave them a glimpse.  He gave them a glimpse of the life he was offering them.  They followed him because they knew that in leaving it all behind, they were able to receive so much more.  In leaving it all behind, they were able to be part of an adventure.  In leaving it all behind they were able to be part of the miraculous work of God in this world – drawing ALL into the boat, drawing all into the embrace of God.

          We can leave it all behind.  We have to leave it all behind.  We get to leave it all behind.  Because God is leaving it all behind and drawing us all back in.  Drawing us all back in so that we can be God’s people for the world.

          In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.