"The 'Yes' That Changes Everything"
Matthew 4:12-23
Rev. Dr. Bruce Epperly, Westmoreland UCC
Jan. 25, 2026

There are moments in our lives that change everything. We make a decision. We decide that we can no longer stand on the sidelines indifferent to the fate of others or our own future. We can no longer be indecisive about a relationship or behavior, and we need to make a choice. We say “yes” to a new way of life, to commitment to the one who becomes our life partner, to standing up against a bully or a president, to casting our vote for generations that we will never meet even if it means great sacrifice. We say “yes” to following the way of Jesus even if it costs us money, popularity, reputation, or security.

A few months before his death in a plane crash over what was then the Congo, United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold penned these words:

I don’t know Who – or what – put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and, that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means “not to look back” and “to take no thought for the morrow.”

Peter and Andrew and their friends, the Zebedee boys, James and John, had heard stories about a prophet from Nazareth who had been holding small group meetings along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He appeared to be the successor to the imprisoned John the Baptist. Not as strident as John, this young prophet spoke of God’s realm in the here and now; he cast a vision of darkness giving way to light; and the possibility for new life for those who turn from the old ways of self-interest, hate, and sin, to God’s Peaceable Realm of Shalom.

There were many teachers around, promising liberation from Roman oppression or the dream of a new world order, but the prophet from Nazareth was different. He had a power and love that words could not contain. He was the image of the world they had hoped for.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were hard workers. Long hours of fishing, living from day to day and week to week just to scrape by, with little rest and less hope for a better world. Yet, deep down, they still dreamed of a better life for themselves, their families, and their people. They felt hemmed in by self-interested and power-hungry rulers like Herod and feared the violence of Roman occupying forces. On their worst days, they simply anticipated of a life of hard work, struggle to feed their families, aging, sickness, and then the rest that death brings by their mid-thirties.

Curious, they went to the prophet Jesus’ small group gatherings. They heard his words, and yes, he was different. He activated their imaginations and made them believe that they were more than pawns in the games of Herod, Caesar, and the religious authorities. He made them believe that they were somebody -they were God’s children, God’s light shined in them - and that they could be the harbingers of the prophetic vision of Shalom.

But they held back. They had responsibilities. They feared what the cost would be if they followed the prophet. Would they be able to support their families? Would they be shunned by their neighbors for their apparent irresponsibility? Would they be seen as religious fanatics? And, worst of all, would they pin their hopes on another failed prophet, and experience their hopes and dreams collapsing into rubble?

It was a summer day, already hot and sweaty, though the sun just risen on the Galilean horizon, when Jesus came walking by. They were already hard at work, sweating and swearing, and feeling the quiet desperation of the powerless working class. Just offshore, they saw him in the distance and then walking along the beach heading toward them and their boats. He looked searchingly at them, and they felt their souls exposed. They knew that this was the moment of decision: would they hold onto the familiar in its toil and hopelessness, or would they launch out into the deep waters of God’s realm, unpredictable, with no guarantees of success, but with the promise of adventure and companionship with the Living God?

The prophet’s words were simple and direct, leaving no room for ambiguity or misunderstanding, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”

Not certain of the future, Peter, Andrew, and the Zebedee boys, left their nets and followed. They said “yes” in spite of the risks involved, and we are here because they, like Mary of Nazareth and her fiancé Joseph, like Elizabeth and Zechariah and John the Baptist, and Mary of Magdala said “yes” and on that “yes” the world depends.

Two thousand years have passed since that Galilean encounter. We live in a similar time of uncertainty: democracy is in turmoil, prevaricating potentates overwhelm us with threats and lies, our fellow Christians have turned from the power of love to the love of power, and climate patterns mirror our feelings of chaos and uncertainty. And the question is addressed to us: to follow the way of Jesus or be content with familiar mediocrity as persons and as a congregation. We seem small and the storm seems great; we have hopes but the facts often demoralize us. Yet, the question is posed, a question that comes from a deeper reality than the news and a greater truth than false facts, will we follow the way of Jesus?

Yes, we are small by comparison to the powers and principalities. But remember those words of Margaret Mead I invoked on January 4, as you reflect on these small beginnings on the Sea of Galilee:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

We are embarking on a new adventure for Westmoreland. We are welcoming a new pastor, and there is both uncertainty and excitement. We will greet her with hope, but more than that with a great “yes” to the future that we will share together. We will be invited to share new visions, to ponder what this church can be, to claim the path of new life and revitalization, and we will be called not so much to follow but to walk alongside our new pastor Emily, to listen, to be open to new visions, and to say “yes” to a future that will embrace children and adults we may never meet.

Our church matters: we can continue the message of Isaiah and Jesus, the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. We can be light bearers and light sharers and move forward the moral and spiritual arcs of history. We can hope for great things with our new pastor, Emily, but remember as June Jordan says in her “Poem to the South African Women”- “we are the ones whom we have been waiting for.”

Albert Schweitzer left a comfortable and predictable career as a physician, Bible scholar, and concert organist to lead a medical mission in Africa. The final words, from his epoch-making Quest for the Historical Jesus, penned perhaps with Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Mary of Magdala in mind, speak to us as we move forward with new leadership and more importantly with Jesus as our companion, comforter, and challenger. Let them be our guidepost and prayer and inspiration.

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.

Amen.