Deuteronomy 30.15–20, Luke 14.25–33
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 7 September 2025,
Eldroth, Clapham
Once upon a time there were two brothers, Simon and Andrew. They had two things in common: they didn’t like school, but they did like fishing.
In school, Andrew didn’t mind doing adding up and taking away, but his teacher never encouraged him, so in the classroom all he ever counted in his head were fish, and he couldn’t wait to get out on the lake with his brother Andrew in their dad’s boat after school.
And in school, Simon liked listening to the stories in the scriptures, and the characters in them, especially Jonah, because Jonah sailed the sea and for three days lived inside a whale. But no-one helped Simon with his reading, and so he spent all day just waiting to get out fishing with his brother too.
Their dad was a quiet man who just got on with the job of fishing, and the jobs that went with fishing, like mending the boat and mending the nets. He’d tell them off if they did something wrong, but he didn’t encourage them or teach them special things, so Simon and Andrew simply learned from him by watching what he did. This made them ‘ok’ fishermen, not excellent ones, but they learned enough about fishing to know that when they left school, that would be their work.
And so it was that when they were grown-up, and their old dad had died, one day Simon and Andrew were down by the lake mending their nets when a man came up to them and said, “Follow me.”
They realised that this must be Jesus, the man everyone had been talking about, who had been going around telling everyone that God loved them, healing people, even making blind people see again, and inviting people to join him, to follow him.
When Jesus said, “Follow me” this astonished Simon and Andrew, because no-one had ever spoken to them like that before. No-one had ever encouraged them, or shown any confidence in them like that, ever before.
Jesus told Simon and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of people.” He wanted them, two simple fishermen, to join in his wonderful work of healing people, and teaching people God’s good news, and bringing more people like them along on this wonderful journey.
So they dropped their nets, and followed him. They followed him up a hill, along with crowds of other people, when, at the top of the hill, Jesus stopped, they all gathered around, and he began to teach them, starting with these words:
“Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“The poor,” said Simon to Andrew, “That’s us, we never have any money, we can hardly afford the rope to mend our nets with.”
Then Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
“Those who mourn,” said Andrew to Simon, “That’s us, we’re sad because our dad has died and we’re worried about whether we can keep his old fishing business going.”
Then Jesus said, “You are a city on a hill…”
– which Simon thought was an odd thing to say; but then he understood when Jesus explained, “…a city on a hill can’t be hidden, it’s there for all to see.”
And Jesus continued saying,
“You are the light of the world. People don’t light a lamp and then hide it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way,” Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
And Simon and Andrew turned to look at each other in amazement, because never in their lives had anyone ever spoken to them like this; never in their lives had anyone ever spoken about them like this.
Jesus had every confidence in them. Jesus knew that they had a light shining inside them, just waiting to come out. It was the light of God, and in that light they could do good things, like Jesus did; and he would teach them and help them and show them how.
Jesus presented Simon and Andrew with a choice. He gave that choice to everyone listening to him on that hilltop. The choice to keep hiding their light, or to let it out and let it shine.
It must have sounded very similar to these people to something recorded in their scriptures, the choice that God gave the people of Israel after he’d led them out of captivity and prepared them to enter a land of promise, a place of new beginnings. Through Moses God spoke these solemn words to them:
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days.”
The choice to live – to live in the light of Christ – is our choice moment by moment.
Now, this may mean that we need to give some things up, as Jesus taught. And this may not come easy to us, living, as we do, in such an acquisitive society. But God wants his people to know the greater blessings there are in obeying him, to know that obeying means pursuing life and good, it means that we “become participants of the divine nature.” [2]
The Quaker George Fox once said,
“This is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God: be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.” [3]
Choose Life: let your light shine!
Notes
[1] This talk is an extension of an address I gave to the children of Austwick CE VA Primary School at my first Collective Worship of the new school year, 4 September 2025. “Let Your Light Shine” is the school vision. Austwick CE VA Primary School, Vision and Values.
[2] 2 Peter 1.4.
[3] George Fox, Letter to ministers, 1656. Quoted in Quaker Faith and Practice, 19.32.
