Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord, Year B, January 11, 2009

Baptism of Our Lord

Year B

January 11, 2009

Resurrection Lutheran Church

Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29

Acts 19:1-7 St. Mark 1:4-11

In the name of the triune God who created us, who loves us, who redeemed us, and who cares for us.

It seems like Baptism is a theme I just can't get away from here at Resurrection Lutheran Church! But that is actually fine with me. As I'm sure most of you have figured out by now, it is my one of my very favorite things. For me a baptism feels so much like an escape from the mundane and an opportunity to spend a little bit of time in heaven here on earth. Maybe that sounds a bit escapist and not very grounded in the world, but there it is. There is nothing quite so amazing as holding a child in my arms and welcoming them into the family of faith. Holding that baby and looking into its beautiful eyes and seeing the face of the parents is truly a window to look at God. Baptism and the story of creation reminds me that each and everyone of us is created in God's image.

I would be completely happy to try and dwell in the sacred time and space of baptism for as long as possible. In it I feel most close to God and most close to my sisters and brothers. It is the kind of mountain top experience that all of us want to savor. Having a mountain top experience is truly a blessing from God.

I have to imagine that it was also a mountain top experience for Jesus in the Gospel story today. I can only imagine how it must have been to hear those words from his Heavenly Father after his own baptism. In a sense at baptism each of us is reminded of the same thing. That we are beloved children of a loving God.

Unfortunately there is always something to bring us back to where we are. We just can't stay on that mountain top forever, as much as we might be tempted to. Very often where we are seems to be the valleys of life, not the mountain tops.

Even Jesus had to leave the mountain top of his baptism. He had to deal with the experience of rejection, ridicule, and ultimately, the cross. And each of us can thank God that He was willing to do that.

To often it seems to me that the world tries to work overtime to keep us from those mountain top experiences. It is often hard to remember that God's creation was good in the face of all that is happening in the world around us. Wars, hatred and strife are a daily occurrence in the world around us. On top of those things, which while we hear about all the time, rarely affect us directly, we are struggling with the current financial crisis which affects many of us personally. It is very hard to see the goodness in God's creation when you realize that most of this mess was made by people who were consumed with greed and avarice and not concerned at all about others. The Madoff scandal is but the latest example.

When you hear the stories of the people affected you can feel the sense of betrayal they have. I think their close connections and being such a small group of investors gave them a sense of family. And so the betrayal takes on a much more personal feeling. And the seeming lack of remorse on the part of Madoff only makes things worse.

We are all a family as well. We are a family as a Christian community. And baptism is one of the most tangible demonstrations of being a part of that family. Baptism brings us together as family. In Genesis God created, in baptism we celebrate our part in the family as God's children. We repeat the familiar words that bind us as a community in ever service of Baptism.

But the part of the baptism that really gets to me, what I really love, is when the baptized person is told they are sealed in Baptism and marked as God's own forever. The promises of God are lasting. They are not transient like the things of this world that come and go, often disappointing us.

And so with all these negative images around us, I have to remind myself that God's creation was good. True enough we have managed to mess it up, sometimes spectacularly. And true though, often people fail to respect and love others as part of our Christian family. And sadly our mucking up God's creation is not limited to financial matters and one another. We have managed to muck up the earth itself pretty good.

In light of all this, perhaps it may seem like the answer is just to pack it in and give up. But of course that is not the Christian way. In our baptism we are called to a new life in Christ.

A Native American Coyote story describes a poor man who had a dream or vision that there was a place where everything is perfect. You might say that this was heaven. He had been told that this place was visible to all who had accepted a life of humility and complete service to their community. The poor man felt very humble, especially since he had no real possessions, but he felt that he must set out on a journey away from his present life and community in search of this perfect place.

He set out the next day at dawn. He walked and walked the entire day, and when evening arrived, before he had found the perfect place, he set up camp, took out his meager meal of bread and a flask of water to satisfy his hunger and thirst. He gave thanks, ate the bread, drank the water, and then he removed his sandals and placed them facing in the direction he was headed so he could continue his journey the next day. Then went to sleep.

While the poor man slept that night, Coyote came and turned his shoes around so that they faced the direction from where the man had come that day. When the poor man awoke, he put on his shoes, and began to walk again. While he walked all day, he thought about this perfect place, this heavenly city. When it was nearly dark, he came to a place that looked strangely familiar. He walked down a street, turned a corner, and saw a somewhat familiar dwelling. He waited outside the dwelling until its inhabitants came out to greet him and invite him in. When they did, he entered and was given warm clothes and a warm meal that was so delicious he could not remember the last time he had eaten so well. He was received with such hospitality that he felt as though he was a member of a family he had known his whole life.

After much talk, singing, and praying, the whole household offered the poor man their best bedding. He thanked them and laid down to sleep thanking Creator God for the abundant blessings shared with him. He could not help but think that this was, indeed, a perfect place, a heavenly place. How could there be another more perfect?

So we are challenged to figure out what it means to live our lives in this sinful world as transformed people. We can be transformed by the power of God in us. But often we have to fight against our own selfish nature. I think that is why our church tradition calls us to repeat those baptismal vows at every baptism. It is a reminder that no matter how often we might have failed to live up to them, there is always a new opportunity to try again.

As Christians we are called to live out the kingdom of God right here on earth, as best, even if imperfectly as we can. May God grant us the wisdom and grace to make our homes and lives a slice of the kingdom.

The First Sunday after the Epiphany, The Baptism of Our Lord, January 13, 2008

The First Sunday after the Epiphany

The Baptism of Our Lord

Year A

January 13, 2008

Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29

Acts 10:34-43 St. Matthew 3:13-17

I think that humans in general tend to be very partial people. We are partial to this and we are not partial to that. So the opening sentence of Peter from the reading found in Acts should be quite shocking. Well actually not so shocking that “God shows no partiality”, although I suppose that this will shock even some, but rather the extension of this message that as Christians we should not be showing partiality either.

This call of Peter is a cry to tear down boundaries, to not allow divisions, and to decry any distinctions that people in the church would put up in a foolish attempt to separate others from the love of God. The most damning thing about the sin of partiality is that it is a sin that many use for the purpose of excluding or judging others. It sets us (whoever the “us” happens to be at the moment) up as the “in” crowd over and against an “out” crowd. This puts us in what I fear is grave spiritual danger. The reason for this grave spiritual danger is that the moment we are in the “in” crowd, we are probably separated from Jesus.

Jesus had that annoying tendency to always be with the “out” crowd. You would think that merely being with Jesus would be enough to make it suddenly the “in” crowd, but the Gospels tell us that was not the case. Those in positions of religious power never saw the light. They always saw Jesus as hanging out with the wrong types of people, saying the wrong things, and doing the wrong things.

Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, the unclean, and sinners of all kinds. My guess is that if Jesus were here today he would be hanging out with the same sort of people, those who are not in favor with general polite society. Jesus would be out there with the homeless, prostitutes, drug and alcohol abusers, gays, unwed mothers, welfare moms, and skid row bums. To be honest this is not the kind of people you generally see here at St. Peter’s. That should be a real challenge to each and every one of us. When I look at my own life honestly, I know it is a challenge to me. It calls on me to be willing to be uncomfortable for the sake of the Gospel.

Truth be told, our denomination has a spotty history in this regard. We have experienced moments of great openness to the grace of God and moments of great blindness to God’s light as well. While the Episcopal Church was on the front lines in issues of civil rights and women’s ordinations we also have a dark history at the same time with clergy both defending slavery and railing against women’s ordination. In fact, even today there are places in the Episcopal Church where females are rejected as clergy. So we still have a way to go even with respect to some issues that are not a concern in the least at St. Peter’s.

At St. Peter’s we have worked very hard to foster a sense of openness and welcome. As we are reminded every Sunday at the call to communion, all are welcome. Episcopal Church signs dot our nation with the same message of welcome. That is a powerful statement. It is the power of God to show no partiality. The challenge is for us to each be able to live into this truth in practice.

You see the fly in the ointment is that the church is populated by people like me and like you. Each one of us has our own personal issues of partiality to deal with. And because of the truth of this present evil in the reality of who makes up the church, many in the world feel unwelcome in our church. Some feel unwelcome because we make them feel this way. Others feel unwelcome because of their past experiences which may have nothing to do with us. Others feel unwelcome because of their assumptions, sometimes based on fact and sometimes based on fancy, as to how they would be accepted or rejected by the church. But no matter what the reason for feeling unwelcome, it is our call, our mission, and ministry from God to make sure that all feel welcomed, loved, honored, and appreciated by God and by us in their visit at St. Peter’s.

St. Peter’s has always prided itself on its welcoming reputation, a reputation that I think is very well deserved and well earned. But even so, we need to remain vigilant to make sure that everyone feels welcomed here. We need to go out of our way to show the love of Christ to every person in ways that are positive, powerful and life affirming. Sometimes this is a challenge to me and to all of us, but it is the work God has called us to do. This welcome can be as simple as helping a stranger through the Prayer Book or greeting them after the service or sitting with them at coffee hour. It can be as simple as telling them that you hope they will come back. Or it can be as hard as recognizing our blindness and hardness of heart when faced with those who we might consider “out” and don’t want a part of our “in” crowd. And then, through the power of the spirit within each of us overcoming that reaction.

The concept of “in” and “out” groups is very popular in society in general. It is a handy way of sorting people out. But it is also rather unchristian. One of the challenges we face as Christians is the idea of being “in” the world, but not “of” the world. In other words, we have to live in this world we find ourselves in, with all its faults and all its blessings. But as Christians we are called to be on guard against adopting those practices of the world which might be very common-place but at the same time also very unchristian.

In our collect for today, we remembered the baptism of Jesus and prayed that we might by given the grace from God to keep the covenant each of us has made at our Baptism. One of the things I found most powerful in the Episcopal Church is our baptismal covenant. It calls us to make promises to live out the love of God in the world around us in a very powerful way, something that is missing in many of the other protestant traditions. Bound up in this covenant is the idea of welcoming or hospitality.

The things I am speaking about today are not new or trendy. They are the bedrock of our faith from the very beginning. But they have now always and everywhere been done in our history.

Recognizing both that there are many churches in our community around us who would not welcome all, and taking seriously our response to God’s call to love and live out our love in action, it is important that we work to make sure that everyone knows that St. Peter’s is a place of welcome, safety and love. Some will not believe us and some will test us in our resolve, but we must remain true to the call of God in our community.

The Epiphany, January 6, 2008

The Epiphany

Year A

January 6, 2008

Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Ephesians 3:1-12 St. Matthew 2:1-12

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany means a revealing or a making of something known and the Epiphany in the Church Calendar refers to the revealing of Jesus to the gentiles represented by the wise men, who, to be historically actually, arrived a few years after the birth of Jesus. Most of us think an epiphany experience has to be like a light bulb going off in our heads. But an epiphany can be more or less than that. And as we will discover, an epiphany can sometimes be a negative experience or have negative consequences.

Epiphanies can happen all the time. They happen when a scientist discovers something new. They happen when we discover something new about ourselves or the world around us. Sometimes they happen when something we have long known about starts to suddenly make sense to us in a new or more powerful way.

There can also be different kinds of results from epiphanies. There are a number of epiphanies we can look at in the Christmas story.

The first to look at is the epiphany of Mary. Mary’s epiphany resulted in obedience. It must have been a hard thing for her to discover that she was pregnant. Aside from knowing that it was, as far as she knew, a physically impossible event at that moment in her life, I’m sure the realistic concerns about how Joseph, her family, and her community would react was never far from her mind. As a result of this unplanned pregnancy she would be an outcast and even worse her very life was at risk. And yet in spite of all these concerns which must have been running through her mind, Mary was able to respond in obedience to the call of God in her life. We may likewise face great challenges from God. Sometimes challenges may seem overwhelming and impossible to us at the time. But we can learn from the example of Mary to still respond with grace, faith, and obedience, no matter how great the obstacle.

The next epiphany in this series was the epiphany of Joseph. Actually Joseph had two epiphanies. The first was an epiphany of betrayal when he discovered Mary’s condition. But Joseph displayed what I can only view as amazing grace in the midst of the epiphany of betrayal. It seemed that Mary had betrayed him and make him look foolish. But rather than trying to extract the maximum amount of revenge and retribution, Joseph was of a mind to handle things quietly. We should remember this lesson the next time ideas of evening the score enter into our thoughts or desires. Joseph’s second epiphany was when the angel appeared to him. That epiphany had to be as hard to handle as the first. To hear those impossible words that the child Mary was bearing was a child from God. Joseph’s second epiphany resulted in a change of attitude and action. Joseph willingly accepted his place in God’s plan for the Incarnation. How willing are we to submit to God’s plan for our lives when those plans are untidy, or uncomfortable, or embarrassing, or downright humiliating.

The next epiphany in this story is one that has tragic consequences. It is the epiphany of Herod. Herod’s epiphany resulted in fear. Herod wanted no news of a King of the Jews. This was competition. This was bad news. His position was precarious enough without another pretender to the throne. Epiphany’s can also result in our response of fear. While it highly unlikely that fear would drive us to the excesses of Herod, we need to remember that fear can often accompany change or the unknown in our own lives.

Fear can accompany many kinds of epiphanies. Mary I’m sure felt a whole lot of fear in her epiphany. Put yourself in her position for a moment. You are a young girl who has never had sex and you find yourself pregnant. Now that can inspire a lot of fear. It is not feeling fear at something that God has called you to do that is wrong, what can be wrong is how you respond.

The wise men’s epiphany resulted in a pilgrimage and their paying homage to Jesus.

So we have seen the result of epiphanies in all these people. Obedience, betrayal, change of attitude, action, fear, pilgrimage, homage. These are just a few of the many possible reactions of epiphanies.

Epiphanies can involve the threat of change. They call us to look in new ways at old things and to look at new things for a first time. They can challenge our faith. They can help us to grow spiritually.

Pray for a year of epiphanies in your life and at St. Peter’s. We will be enriched and grow in ways we might never have imagined if we open ourselves up to the power of God in our lives to change and form us.

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, Feb 11, 2007

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, Feb 11, 2007

Many of you may have heard the State of the Union address a few weeks ago. I confess to having missed it, but I was able to hear plenty of clips in the news in the days that followed. The President talked about issues like making health care available for more Americans. The Congress is trying to raise the minimum wage. But imagine what the response would have been had the President just got up and said “the poor are blessed and so are the hungry” and left it at that. There would have been outrage. And yet, that is the message in the Gospel today. It seems rather bleak and hopeless to me and in fact doesn’t offer much tangible hope to those around us in need. Why do we help sponsor a food bank if this is true?

Now you might be saying to yourself, “hey, the words today from the Gospel just do not seem quite right” this morning. Most of us are more used to hearing the words known as “The Beatitudes” from the Gospel of Matthew. There is a significant and important difference between Matthew and Luke in reporting this sermon of Jesus. In Luke we hear “blessed are you who are poor” while Matthew records “blessed are the poor in spirit”. Luke says “blessed are you how are hungry now” and Matthew says “blessed are you who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Quite a difference!

Because Matthew spiritualizes the text, it is easier to accept. If we are talking about spiritual hunger then that is not quite so hard a concept to swallow. However, Luke’s stark message forces us to confront ourselves and our ideas. It is one thing to say the poor in spirit are blessed, we can all live with that. But to say that the poor are blessed is tough to accept or believe.

Somehow I have to find truth in it because God said it. The first truth I see in this is the realization that God values things I might not value. Or certainly God looks at things much differently than I do. That serves as a warning and challenge to my own, often cherished, views. I need to be willing to look critically at my thoughts and believes and realize that I just might not be looking at something the way God would look at it. This is a lesson the apostles seemed to have to learn over and over again, and so in that I take some comfort, God will be patient with me on this path.

And yet at the same time, the poor being blessed is not all God said. I am mindful that in the Book of James we are warned that our faith is dead if the hungry come to us and we just pat them on the head and send them on their way without feeding them. God challenges us to do something specific about those in need around us. To fail to do so is to fail the test of loving our neighbor as ourselves.

The poor are blessed because God has always expressed a “preferential option” for watching over, protecting, caring and calling others to care for those who most need it. This includes the poor and the often used phrase of “widows and orphans”.

I think another reason the poor are blessed and promised the kingdom of God is that they are less likely to fall into the idolatry that so easily entices us who are wealthy. As the Scriptures warn us else where it is easy to let the concerns of wealth distract us from God. But to me this seems like little consolation if your family is going to bed hungry. So in the end I’m left to puzzle over this. The poor are blessed by God in ways that I and perhaps they cannot understand.

We are also faced once again with the question of the Kingdom of God and that pesky Greek word basolia which can contain so many meanings. While generally translated kingdom or realm some scholars have suggested that a better translation might well be purpose as I have shared with you before. Looking at this particular part of the passage in this light we get a significantly different meaning. Blessed are the poor because theirs is the purpose of God. This reminds me of the story of the man born blind from birth. When everyone was assuming that he was blind because of his or his parents sins Jesus made quite clear that he was blind to serve the purpose of God. If the poor are indeed part of the purpose of God, what is the reasoning?

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, January 28, 2007

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, January 28, 2007

This morning we hear the story of the call of the prophet Jeremiah to service for God. As is fairly common in the calling stories in the Hebrew Scriptures, we find a rather reluctant recipient of the call. And we can hardly blame Jeremiah for this response. Look at the treatment prophets get. When you think about it, a call from God is not necessarily such a great thing. People hate you. They persecute you. They ignore you. They taunt you. It seems that calls from God are not such a great thing. And so Jeremiah pleads to be let off the hook. He is young. He is not an eloquent speaker. But of course, God does not brook excuses. And God gets to the heart of the issue. Not only does God promise to give the words, but God encourages Jeremiah to not be afraid of “them” because God will be with him. God knew that Jeremiah knew the life ahead of a prophet and got to the heart of the matter.

I don’t think that things have changed all that much today. It can be a frightening thing to receive a call from God. Many of us are only too willing to make excuses and try and put God off. But that is rarely a successful endeavor. By our baptism we are all called to serve God in the church and in the world. Others are called to ordained ministry as deacons and priests. That is also a call many of us might like to fight off. I know I tried to ignore my call for quite some time. But God tends to keep after us and eventually it became clear to me that God would not let me off the hook.

Perhaps in your own life you have felt the call of God to a particularly ministry. There are many excuses all of us can use. I’m not good enough. I don’t speak well enough (a perennial favorite in the Hebrew Scriptures). You must be mistaken, you can possible mean me! I don’t have enough talent or time or ability. I am not capable enough. I am not something, anything enough! Our excuses are limited only by our imagination.

If you ever feel overwhelmed by what you think God is calling you to do, take hope. God promises to be with you. You see, God does not call us and then abandon us. God provides what is necessary to answer the call. Some of you today may be struggling with the call of God in your own life. You may be wondering how in the world you can do what God has called you to do. But God does not abandon us. God will follow you and bless you as you follow the path God has set before you.

It is not always easy to follow a call though. Aside from all our personal reservations and concerns we often have to deal with those around us as well who might question our call. Jesus himself had to deal with this situation. In the Gospel of Luke today people drove Jesus out of town, not a particularly warm reception. And yet in other places people were astounded by Jesus. No doubt that as we follow the call of God in our lives we will experience the same sort of responses. Some will doubt or scoff and wonder how in the world God could use someone like me. Others will be excited and supportive.

But when you think about it, that is really life. The key is to find and work with those who are supportive.

Is God calling you to do something? How have you been responding to that call? Are you approaching it willing and hopeful to do what God has called you to do? That is the response God is waiting for. But don’t worry, even if we respond like Jeremiah, or Jonah, or Moses God will still be there working in our lives. God will patiently continue to call you until you respond. To be honest I’m not sure if that should be comforting or scary, but it is true.

If you are worried that you might not be up to the task, don’t. God will give you what you need. Actually, I think God prefers to work through our weaknesses. When God chooses to use us in this way we are unable to try and rely on our own strengths. Instead me must rely on the strength of God working through us.

I learned a fantastic song last weekend. The words go something like this: “You are loved. You are beautiful. You are gift of God, His own possession. You are gift to all mankind. His gift of love to them you are His. God danced the day you were born.” Never forget this. God calls us sometimes to step out of our comfort zone. But we always need to remember that we are loved by God and a gift from God. The idea that God danced the day each of us was born excites me.

We don’t serve a boring or scary or threatening God. We serve a God who danced the day we were born. So when God calls you, don’t make excuses (even if they happen to be true). Instead dance. Dance to answer the call of God in your life.

Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, January 7, 2007

Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, January 7, 2007

Who or what is God to you? When you think of God what are the images that come to your mind? These are important questions for us to consider. The portrait we carry of God in our own mind will affect how we see God and how we see God at work in the world and in our lives.

Some of the lessons today speak of God’s revelation of self to others. Perhaps the revelations were exactly what the people expected. Perhaps they were much different from what was expected. As I pondered this idea of God’s self revelation I though about the different way that I or others have viewed God.

Some see God as a sort of cosmic and all powerful Santa Clause. We ask for good things and if we have been nice we can expect to receive. However is we have been naughty we can anticipate the proverbial lump of coal.

Others may see God as a 911 responder to emergencies. The kind of God you make supplication to once in a blue moon. Perhaps when things are so desperate that I have to give up thinking I can handle it myself and toss up a “hail Mary” prayer hoping against hope that since I haven’t prayed to God in so long a while that I will be remembered and saved from whatever horrible circumstances I find myself in.

Others may see God as that benign grandfather. Some what similar to the Santa Clause God, but a little more active and involved in our lives. Giving us all good things, perhaps whether we deserve them or not.

Perhaps some see God as an all powerful and all knowing scorekeeper. A God who keeps track of how well or how poorly we are doing in our life. In the end it is all up to us, but God is constantly looking over our shoulders keep the score.

And of course there is always the option of God as the stern disciplinarian. God standing over us with a long list of rules and regulations which we are expected to keep and if we don’t, we can count on getting our just rewards.

As we look to our lessons for today we will not see any of those images fortunately. Today have heard of God’s self revelation. We will no longer be dealing with the imaginations of ideas of women and men about how God is. Just yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany if the feats of the Church which celebrates the revelation of the son of God to the Gentiles in the persons of the magi. But this is a strange revelation. The magi come in search of a king. My guess is that they were looking for a palace, some finely appareled parents and a baby in a setting fit for a king. Instead at the end of their journey they find a baby in poverty. Perhaps the human response might have been to turn away. Certainly the star must be wrong. This baby can’t be the right one. But they accept what God has revealed to them. In spite of their preconceived notions they offer the gifts they have brought for this king.

In the prophet Isaiah today we hear God revealing himself to his people again. God reveals himself as the one who created them, the one who ransomed them, and the one who will be with them. After grieving over the failure of the chosen people to remain faithful to God in chapter 42 God still reaches out to them in love. Here we find not a scorekeeper God, not a Santa, grandfather or any of the other notions one might have of God. Instead we see a God of patience, love, and compassion.

What a comfort it is to know that we still follow a God who unfailingly reaches out to us. No matter our faults, our fears, or our failures, God reaches out to us. The same God who again and again sought out his chosen people Israel will again and again seek us out. God does not count the number of times he has been rejected, but steadily continues to call us out by name. “When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you.”[1] Those are the words of God to a people he is trying to call back to himself. These are the same words God speaks to us when we fail.

The story of the baptism of Jesus in Luke also reveals more of God to us. I think the most important revelation in this story for me is the revelation and reminder that God is a God of relationships. God refers to Jesus as his beloved. This term speaks of a richness of depth that is incomprehensible to me. God could have just announced Jesus as his son or as the messiah, either announcement would have gotten the job done. But God announces Jesus as his beloved son.

This is something we share with Jesus. As children of God through Jesus we likewise are beloved children of God. Having faith and confidence in this truth, we need to do away with revelations of God in our own minds that are inconsistent with this view of sharing in the heritage of a beloved child of God. Those false views of God will only encumber us in our walk with Jesus. They will hold us back and not allow us to enjoy the truth of our relationship with the creator of the universe. That same God who created all in his spoken word speaks to us today and calls us beloved children of God.

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[1] Is. 43:2 (NLT)

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 20, 2006

Monday, January 30, 2006

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 20, 2006

In the name of the God the Creator, Jesus the Liberator, and the Holy Spirit the Sustainer. AMEN.
Try to imagine placing yourself in Simon, Andrew, James, or John’s shoes for a moment. For me this is very hard to do because I assume that they must be insane.
For day after day, month after month, mind numbing year after year they do the same thing. They fish. The don’t do it for pleasure. They don’t do it for a relaxing day at sea. They don’t do catch and release. For them fishing puts food on the table. It is their job. So when we imagine them we can’t imagine a sport fisherman or woman, all rigged out in the latest sporting gear, clean cut, smelling nice, out for a relaxing day of fishing with a cooler.
No, the more appropriate picture in our mind should be the hardworking fisherman or woman. The kind of people we see at the fish docks unloading a hard earned catch. Dirty, unkempt, smelly. That is the picture of these future saints. These are not pie in the sky kinds of people prone to fanciful flights from reality. They are the sale of the earth, predictable types. Sort of like I like to think of as myself.
But I’m still let with the question about these men. Were they crazy? What would induce them to leave everything they had – little that it was admittedly – to follow this total stranger named Jesus.
The only thing Jesus offers them is to make them fishers of men. How utterly impractical. This does not sound to me like the kind of job that will put food on the table. This does not sound like the kind of job that would support a family.
But each one chooses to follow. Each of them drops what they are doing and follow. No comments. No apparent concerns. Just a willingness to follow Jesus.
They left all they knew. They left all that was know to them for the unknown of Jesus. What caused these practical, down to earth people to do this? How would we react, how would I react, if one day, while hard at work someone asked me to leave all that was familiar and known and follow him. It is very hard for me to imagine doing this. And I would imagine that it would have been hard for Simon, Andrew, James, and John to image ever doing it as well. And yet, at that moment in time, they did.
The hardest part for me about this story is the realization that Jesus still calls me today. He calls me to follow him. And as I look at this story I’m quite frankly fearful. What if Jesus were to call to me to leave all that was familiar? When Jesus calls me will I be up to the challenge? Will I be able to respond like these fishermen? Or will I be too worried about what I have to give up and how I will put food on the table.
I think that in the moment Jesus spoke to Andrew, Simon, James, and John each of them heard the call of God. Jesus spoke to them in a place deeper than had ever been touched. Jesus spoke to them in a place they may not even known to have existed. That is why they followed him. In the voice of Jesus, God spoke in each of their hearts.
You never know when that day will come. Certainly these followers of Jesus didn’t expect it. The call from Jesus can some when we are in the middle of a hard days work. It can come when we are fast asleep like it did for Samuel. It can come at inconvenient times.
Our challenge is to hear it. We have so much going on in our world today that I wonder if we drown out the voice of God in our lives. Rushing from meeting to meeting. Worrying about playing the bills. Worrying about putting food on the table. Worrying about where we live and how we live.
Our goal is obvious. We must clear our mind, and more importantly, our heart to hear the voice of God speaking to us.