Move That Junk!

 Mark 1:21-28

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. 

On one very dark and wintery night the Poy Sippi fire department was called to a house fire way out in the country.  Between the street and the house there was… let’s say… a large installation of “lawn art”… old washing machines, broken down cars, and the like, all covered with a foot of beautiful snow.  I’m sure in a different situation this art was a contemplative commentary on the delicate interplay between the material and the spiritual, which touched delicately on the absurdity of consumerism.  But that night… It was just in the (expletive deleted) way!  

These lessons today are about things that can and do get in the way of people hearing about God’s love.  Whether it was the unclean spirit in the Gospel lesson, or confusion over eating idol meat… if it’s in the way, then it needs to be moved.  Unclean spirits, are pretty much always in the way, but most of what gets in the way these days is more like what happened in that second lesson.  In Corinth, Christians were eating meat that had been used in sacrifices to idols.  For the Christians and for Paul, it didn’t make any difference.  They knew the idols weren’t real, so to them, the meat wasn’t magical, it was barbecue!  The trouble came when people OUTSIDE the church saw the Christians eating the bargain barbecue and got confused, thinking these Christians were BOTH worshiping God AND these idols.  That confusion was getting in the way and there just wasn’t much time to set things straight.  At least… that’s what Paul thought.  

Paul, you need to remember, just KNEW and fully lived each day like Jesus would be back... TOMORROW! That time crunch meant there was no time in Paul’s mind for slowly helping outsiders understand the complicated nuance of what they were seeing.  Because did I mention... Jesus is going to be here TOMORROW!  So feeling critically pressed for time, Paul stepped in and told the Christians that even though YOU KNOW this is just barbecue and I KNOW this is just barbecue, for the sake of the Message, for the sake of making things clear to the others who have yet to know God's love for them, the Christians needed to be the ones to bend… they needed to get rid of this thing that was clearly getting in the way of others hearing the Good News.  Paul wasn't trying to create a theology to be followed for thousands of years.  Paul was just asking himself, what do I need to tell these Christians to focus on TODAY so that the message can get out to the most people possible before Jesus gets back… maybe I mentioned this but...THAT’S HAPPENING TOMORROW! 

Meat sacrificed to idols was just one of many things that got Christians side tracked away from the ultra urgent task of telling people about God’s love.  In some places it was women's head coverings.  In other places it was this notion that men had to become “Jewish” (snip, snip) before they could become Christian.  In another place it was women in leadership that got in the way.  In all of those cases, it’s clear that Paul fully understood the BIG truth, which he wrote in Galatians, “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male nor female; for all of you are one in Christ.”  

Paul KNEW God didn’t care what meat you ate, what you put on your head or about the anatomy of the worship leader.  But for Paul, if putting on a hat TODAY would allow one more person to stop obsessing about hats for just one second and focus instead on the Message... then for crying out loud GET A HAT!

You and I are called to be flexible for the sake of the Gospel too.  But you and I also now have a luxury Paul didn’t think he had.  You and I can both be flexible, accepting people where they are in the moment,  BUT we can ALSO take the time Paul didn’t think he had, to build relationships with people over the long term AND help them move step by step from where they are toward that vision of God’s Kingdom where there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, no longer male nor female… but that all of you… all of the world… are one in Christ.

Today it isn’t where you buy your meat that gets in the way of people in Sheffield hearing the Message of God’s love for them, but there are plenty of things that still get in the way.  It is good for us to really look and deeply see what those things are in this place and in this time.  We’ve addressed some of those things by doing things like creating a welcome statement and putting out our chairs.  But what are the other structures, practices, customs or attitudes that might be still making it hard for our neighbors to hear from us that they too are included in God's infinite love and are very much welcome in this place?  What are the unclean spirits of our time, that keep Jesus’ message from being heard?  

Our job is to open our eyes and be willing to see what is getting in the way.  To then be willing to bend enough to allow others into our lives so they might be able to hear about God’s love for them, and feel that love deep down to their core.  Then to invite them to join us on this lifelong walk along the Way, where together we take one step and then another each day toward that vision where the is no longer Greek nor Jew, a slave or free, male or female, but where we are all one… ONE in Christ.  Amen.  

Gone Fishin'

 Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

People don’t normally read this as a miracle story but I think this is one of Jesus’ biggest!  Calming storms and healing sick people is impressive, sure… raising the dead… also pretty good... but getting fishermen to give up fishing!?  Now THAT’S a heavens opening, angels singing, all out miracle!

Jesus was asking Simon and Andrew, James and John to do nothing less than leave the place and the profession that gave them and their families life, and had for generations!  And Jesus calls them to leave fishing for what? To “come and fish for people.”  We assume when he says that he’s calling those disciples (and by extension, you and me) to join him in sweeping up all the people of the world in our Jesus-net, hauling them out of that nasty, dirty ocean we call “the earth,” and pulling them into a wonderful boat called heaven.  That might be how you've always heard this lesson, but that wasn't what Jesus was really talking about. 

When Jesus called them to come and “fish for people”… which I’ll give you, does sound a lot like scooping people up in a Jesus net… but when Jesus said that, he was actually quoting passages in Jeremiah, Amos and Ezekiel… the social justice prophets.  When those prophets went, “hooking fish” or “fishing for people” it meant “hooking” the people who got rich and powerful on the backs of the poor and vulnerable, and pulling them out of their positions of power.  “Fishing for People” means changing the way the world works so that it works in God's way.

Jesus wasn’t looking to those boys on the beach for help scooping people up to heaven… Jesus was looking for people to join him in God's revolution, right here on earth!  Jesus was calling them to join him in making Mary’s Magnificat a reality!  The Magnificat was that prophetic vision she sung when she visited Elizabeth… the vision that her child would scatter the proud, bring down the powerful from their thrones, lift up the lowly, fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty!  THAT is what Jesus was calling them into.  A revolution… Here… In this place… not in some heaven light years away!

The miracle of this story was first getting fishermen to stop fishing.  The next step was getting them to follow him along the Way… not toward something easy, shiny, comfortable, or familiar, but towards God’s revolution.  He was calling them onto The Way… The Way that leads to changing the social, political, and power realities of the world.  The Way that leads to the Kingdom of God… which is THIS world working in a way where everyone has enough… enough food, shelter, dignity, justice and purpose.  This is The Way… and it inevitably leads to the Cross. 

We don’t follow to get us or anyone else "saved”... We follow Jesus to come and die.  Die to our former ways and our former lives… lives that got us ahead by using selfish, violent power, wealth, and privilege as a weapon against the poor and vulnerable.  In Baptism, those former lives are left drown at the bottom of the Font and out of that Font we are raised up by God to live in this world in a whole new Way… a Way of peace, justice, compassion, integrity,  and generosity right here in THIS world.  Simply by living our regular lives in that extraordinary way… we are following Christ’s call to do our part in turning OUR world… THIS world… into the Kingdom of God... the world God intended it to be from the beginning.  

In this story, Jesus asks us to leave everything we know.  All that we have been taught to lean on.  All that is familiar and comfortable.  THEN he asks us to follow him on The Way.  Not to be vacuumed out of this world filled with hurt and pain, but to join him in transforming the hurt and pain of this world into a world of Abundant Life for all! To live each of our days right here, in the spot we find ourselves each morning, modeling The Jesus Way in each of the regular things we do in our everyday lives… even… and perhaps especially… while many in the world around us keep insisting that the ways of our former selves is the ONLY way to do it.    

I know living that new Way can feel like a monumental task, an overwhelming, unscalable mountain, a feat that would take not just one miracle… but thousands!  But this is the Good News… Jesus has already worked all the miracles this world needs in the waters of your Baptism.  Now all we need to do from here is follow along in his footsteps.  One foot in front of the other walking The Way, each day further into the Truth, always moving toward abundant Life… for ALL of creation.  Amen.    

Samuel! Samuel!

 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Here we are in Epiphany… the season of light.  “Arise, shine, for your light has come,” shouts the prophet Isaiah.  But with this pandemic claiming 3000 to 4000 lives each day, an insurrection at our nation’s Capital this last week, and who knows what happening today or what will happen next week with the inauguration… Honestly, it feels a lot LESS like a season of light and a lot MORE like a season of real darkness!

And yet, the first lesson for today shows us how relentlessly God continues to call us out of darkness.  Samuel was called by God out of the darkness of the Temple.  The Temple was dark, not just because Eli, the chief priest, was blind, or even because it was night.  The Temple was mostly dark because of the terrible corruption and abuse happening there.  Out of that darkness, God called Samuel.  At first, and at second, and at third, Samuel thought the call was coming from Eli.  Each time Eli said, “It wasn’t me, go back to sleep.”  Over and over this happened.  They were horribly stuck.  Over and over they did the same thing.  Over and over they got the same result.  Then finally… FINALLY… they tried something different!  “Here I am!” Samuel said to God, and suddenly Samuel was unstuck.  If you keep reading you’ll see the way out from being stuck was NOT at all an easy path to follow for Samuel, but it was finally a path toward the light.  

Our country, I think, is a lot like Samuel.  We are eager to hear and proclaim the light of “liberty and justice for all” but in the four hundred years we have heard the call to walk fully and genuinely toward the light of that ideal, we have not yet been able to walk the different path needed to get us there.  Instead we’ve boldly championed the light of “liberty and justice for all” while all the while being stuck in our history of trampling on black and brown people, demonizing immigrants and taking advantage of the weak to benefit the powerful.  

Our country, in spite of being called like Samuel, over and over and over again, by God, and by our founders… by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and by movements like the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements to walk the genuine path toward light and life… we have, over and over and over again woken up like Samuel, only to rush back down that well worn path to where we’ve always gone before… to do what we’ve always done before… to get what we’ve always got before.

Now today, like Samuel lying asleep on the Temple floor after being called countless times before, God is calling us as a nation once again in these most recent and darkest of days.  Calling us to really hear for the first time, the path God has been calling us to walk all along!  God is calling us as a nation to WAKE UP from our sleep and THIS time, NOT just run mindlessly back over the same worn path of cheap grace… a path we've tried before... a path without genuine confession and repentance, racing headlong instead into forgiveness and unity... our same old path which will certainly stick us all again in the same place we’ve always been stuck!

It all seems overwhelming, doesn't it?  Just us, you and me, watching on TV from far away!  Is there anything that you and I can do about this darkness?  Can anything country-changingly-good come out of Sheffield?  The answer to that question, “Can anything good come out of Sheffield” is, like in the Gospel lesson, neither a “yes” nor a “no”.  The answer Jesus gives us instead… is “Follow Me.”  The answer Phillip gives us instead… is “Come and See.”  The answer Samuel suggests for us to say is…  “Here I am Lord.”  

Our job is not to be the light or even to shine it.  Jesus is the light and God is in charge of all the shining!  Our job… Your job… My job in the midst of this overwhelming darkness is to say, “Here I am Lord.”  Our job is to “Come and See.” Our job is to do it, when Jesus says, “Follow Me.”  Even without any idea at all about where that "following" will go!  Even without any idea about what the darkness will look in the week to come.  All we CAN do… All we are being CALLED to do, in this week ahead (and throughout our lives ahead) is to each day, take the single, one next step when Jesus says, "Follow me".  To Come and See the gifts that God has poured on us even in the darkness.  To say “Here I am Lord” and take the next tangible step in Jesus' footsteps... the next thing, big or tiny, that will love your neighbor as you wake up in the darkness.

It is likely that your next loving step to care for your neighbor in this week to come will not undo 400 years of National stuck-ness.  I mean, if you CAN change 400 years of stuckness then PLEASE, by all means do that!  But what is MORE likely this next week is that your small step following in Jesus' footsteps and loving your neighbor will give both you and your neighbor, a much needed glimpse of the light.  The light that will be seen in that act of love will be the light of Christ.  It is THAT light which has the power to shine farther than we could ever imagine and through the darkness this past week has wrought and through whatever darkness this next week might bring.  Because the light that is seen in that smallest of acts, following in Jesus' footsteps, and done in love for the other is a light that NO darkness… NO DARKNESS... NO DARKNESS!!! can ever overcome.  Amen.