Posts
Today we have that wonderful Gospel, that famous Gospel
line: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Jesus begins his
campaign of gathering disciples into His net, which is His Word! I don't know
how many people here, remember that song by The Beatles, ‘The Word,’ from
Rubber Soul, but that started playing in my head when I started reading these
texts and thinking about what the Gospel really is, what it means.
“Say the word and you'll be free, say the word and be
like me, say the word I'm thinking of; have you heard the Word is love? You
would think that John Lennon is being an evangelist here, kind of sounds that
way, but we know this was their “flower-power” music for the 1960’s era. The
song continues in saying: “Spread the word, and you'll be free, spread the word
and be like me, spread the word I'm thinking of; have you heard the word is
love? As we know Christ Jesus’ Gospel truth is the spiritual fruit that the New
Nature produces, being to love life through loving others which in turn loves
God in response—the lifestyle of Grace.
There's many wonderful images in today's scriptures that
say so much about the discipleship Journey. We once again, have another chapter
of Jonah. I think it's hard for us to imagine that there's different genres of
writing in our Bible. The book of Jonah is actually considered to be a
satire... Today’s scene is where he just got barfed up from the fish, which God
sent to save him from drowning in the waters, and he's the reluctant prophet. Jonah
didn't want to go tell somebody hated, the Ninevites, that God needed them to
repent, Jonah frankly, wanted to see them be crushed. We have other text in the
Bible that speak about turning the other cheek to our enemies, on a more
serious note, as seen within the prophet Isaiah. Here, however, with Jonah, he
really didn't want to go do this, he wasn't up for it. In fact, you could say
he was mad. He thought God would have him do more important things, but then he
was operating through what he expected, and what the world has taught him to
see and do.
When you think of it though, the world is like an ocean:
there's so many things in our path, there's so many decisions and choices to
make we could get lost in it and think of it as a Wilderness… Or, we can have
God, as that guiding net to help us stay in focus to our true spiritual
priorities. The Prelude music we heard this morning, is one of those Christian
rock songs called, ‘He Knows.’ It has beautiful words about God's guiding
presence in every facet of our life which perhaps we don't really think about
enough at all. Perhaps we have our own sarcastic understanding of God when
plans change, and think in terms of Murphy's Law.... As one of my commentary’s said:
“when we say we have plans, God laughs.” That's the hardest thing to do though,
the hardest thing is to trust the net, trust the net of faith that God's Grace
has enveloped us with. Jonah didn’t escape God’s call to him, the fish caught
him and brought him back on track, whether he liked it or not!
There was another wonderful image, I thought of, when
thinking about today's Gospel. This was
picturing God's hands as that great giant net sweeping us out of the ocean of
indecision and worldliness and literally placing us in the palm of His hands to
teach us to truly be, become children of Grace and promise. His disciples were ordinary
people, never forget that. They were men and women, fishermen, carpenters,
salesmen, tax collectors, sinners and the like. Christ Jesus’ Gospel was and
is, by no means, an exclusive Gospel but one that is for all people to be swept
into the Nets of the kingdom of God and its gracious teachings!
Here's another wonderful $20 word, that'll make you see
and think in a different perspective, then just saying the word repentance. The
word is metanoia. Metanoia literally means to change one's mind. To have a
change of heart, to have a change of direction, to see things clearly from a
much more enlightened path—this is the Epiphany message for this Sunday. It's
definitely not, “fire and brimstone…” more than it is keeping that mirror
silvered, to look upon yourself and see things in a New way, where God needs
you to grow and go. I had a wonderful conversation with another colleague
earlier this week when we were talking about Christian education and in talking
about the scriptures. We talked about that old concept of “Law and Gospel.”
These are ways of seeing the scriptures, to understand where God is needing to
lead us. The law is simply the mirror to ourselves to see where we need to grow
and go forward. The mirror of the Law is
not punishing, more than spiritually convicting or helping us to find that net
and not be lost in the ocean of the world. That's what's so funny about the
start of the Jonah passage, as hear, the fish just barfed him up on beach and
he now has to make the effort, to go to the Ninevites and preach the word God
needs them to hear, which is to repent from their evil ways and divisiveness
and they did, they listened! Now on an even funnier note, God had a change of
heart and didn't become the punishing parent, flattening the Ninevites for
their wayward lives... He showed them mercy!
St. Paul’s snippet today, shows us a day in the life of
his many moments of pastorally lecturing and teaching his wayward Corinthian
flock to get their priorities together. And it's a shame that in some lections,
the last few lines are left out from this snippet of Corinthians about marriage.
Yes, it's true that context is everything and we must realize this is a 2000
plus year old scripture, a letter of pastoral guidance to a church plant in
Corinth... But he is saying something very classic here: where are your
commitments, priorities? If marriage is a commitment and relationship to one
another; where are we in commitment and relationship to God and our neighbor?
He's speaking about accountability. He's speaking to responsiveness and he is
getting them to think beyond the “legalese” of I'm obligated to do this or that,
but see something as a vow of of commitment!
And let's face it, we do not live in simple times anymore.
Everything has become needlessly complicated to the point of almost becoming nihilistic
in my opinion.... Time is fleeting, in our sense of understanding time, but God's
time is something that doesn't hold to the parameters of what we expect. You’ve
probably heard that saying before: “better laid plans of mice and men,” but
that happens a lot doesn't it? It would be nice to have every single crevice of
every day planned to the last seconds but outside of that possibly qualifying
you for a rubber room and a straight-jacket, it's not possible! God's plans are
that overarching net, and he has laid the path to us, to stay connected to Him.
Grace is our great connector. Jesus begins preaching Grace. Grace is the Gospel.
The Good News, the Evangelical news of Christ is that His Word brings the
fullness of life. We find our completion when we have that metanoia of change,
to embrace and live into that New Nature where Christ is at its Center.
The last few weeks I have been trying to reach out and
help my friend back in Chicago who is on the verge of homelessness because the
building that he's living in is being sold. For George, change has always been
a very hard thing especially since he's a very stubborn man. He's probably the
most stubborn person I've ever met in my whole entire life thus far. Once he
gets his mind stuck on something, good luck changing it. I had a talk with the
new pastor at the church where he is the groundskeeper to. During the
conversation, I genuinely felt that his story was not really heard, for the
pastor kept saying— “it's not in the mission of the church to be landlords or
have that kind of responsibility...” Then when I asked, as well if my friend was
going to be given money to move, or if they would raise his salary to help him
to stay in the area… he seemed to ignore and not really care about how his
situation, and all that he has done for that church. Yes, I am personally
connected, but then that’s 31 years of friendship speaking. Several pastors
back, I knew the former pastor truly did have a compassionate heart, and did
have a way of seeing things in a light that reached out to care for others. He knew of God’s priorities.
This new young pastor, I know has other priorities, since
he's moonlighting in another church that is at a bar on Saturday nights... He
is eyeing that million dollars plus of selling that property that he could get
the Association, to use towards his plans and priorities. The building that my friend is residing in,
is just behind the church. It is an eyesore to the neighborhood that's all
gentrified with million-dollar homes… but it should, as well, be a point of
conviction, a great mirror to this pastor that if you are fishing for people
with the Good News and you call yourself, a preacher of the Gospel, a teacher
of Christ you're turning your back on neighbor?
You are being a hypocrite to what you have made a vow to carry. Whether
it be my friend, who's in that house, or whoever had lived there, you're
sending them away because of other priorities you see, that are truthfully worldly
priorities. I would say that you can almost think of that house, as that
gigantic whale carcass on the beach.... the lake gulls have not taken care of
hiding the evidence and the dirtied waters are still there to see...
Truth be told, I probably would be excited about a
million dollars plus to put towards new churches, new facilities and resources,
new activities etcetera… but if it was at the cost of hurting my neighbor, then
you are not turning from the ways of the world, you are living into the ways of
the world, and you are living against the Gospel! Trusting in the Nets of God
for this situation, would require this young pastor to see that his priority
should be to help and care for his neighbor and that by trusting in God to find
other means to pay or provide for his other ministries will come forward, if he
has enough faith and trust in God for it to come to fruition. We have to stay netted here, wedded to God’s
trust and loving care.
We all have our anxieties about planning. We are doing
many things for the future, and our new space, and it is scary… You know what,
though, I am so hopeful and I so trust the Lord completely that He will reveal
that path even if we're not seeing it go exactly in the right direction yet. Even
if we’re not opening at exactly the right time that we want to, we have to
trust in God's sense of timing. Trusting in the promise of God that His kingdom
is near, is incorporating Christ into our hearts, into our lives. It is that
loving net of hands up holding us and guiding us along to a glorious New
Horizon. The fishermen in today's Gospel, they obeyed and they listened to
Christ’ Word. These are the Words that called
them, and they followed, and they trusted, and they led amazing lives with
Christ and after Christ, spreading His Gospel for the world to hear!
Let us Pray,
Gracious Lord Jesus
Your Gospel is the net, that we are to cling to
Help us to trust in Your promise and know that Your
sovereign love
Are Your hands upholding and encouraging us
To be committed to sharing and living the Good News
In all that we do and say, as Your disciples.
Help reign in our hearts to Your spiritual priorities for
us
As long as we live—
AMEN
January 21st,
2018; Third Sunday after the Epiphany; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 62; Jonah
3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-35; Mark 1:14-20
This sermon was delivered at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
https://youtu.be/Wel855MU0hY
No comments:
Post a Comment