“People!” – Sermon on Jan 26, 2014
January 26, 2014
Scripture: Matthew 4: 12-13, 17-22
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea. From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Sermon: People!
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Did you check out the title of my sermon today? Notice the exclamation point. Now how would you say that? Here is how I meant it – (emphasis). With a head shake. And an eye roll. Know what I mean? Way back when, before I met our darling Quentin, I joined some on-line dating sites. I remember one guy wrote to me, expressing interest. He said he was a bit of a loner, that he couldn’t stand 98% of the people he’d ever encountered. I decided not to meet him. I mean I wasn’t in the top 2% of anything so far, and I didn’t think the rewards of this particular honor would be that hot. But I must confess that there was a part of me that was tempted to join him in criticizing “people” – those stupid, insensitive, uptight, thoughtless, self-centered, narrow-minded, rude, oblivious people! There was a part of me that wanted to stake a claim in the camp of the top 2 percent, those who “got it,” who were savvy and insightful, who’s world view was definitely the right one. But I’d encountered guys like him before, and I’d learned how difficult they can be, so I deleted the e-mail, shaking my head, saying, “People!” You know, I think Jesus did that sometimes, shook his head and muttered to himself about people. He would say things to the disciples like, “How long do I have to suffer you?” There are several times in scripture where he expresses exasperation with them. My former pastor used to refer to him then as “grumpy Jesus.” But really, these people would try the patience of a saint! I can relate. This week I have been dealing with car mechanics and car insurance agents – people who order the wrong parts and “don’t get” phone calls and faxes and e-mails. People! Now it would be hard to do what I need to do – get my car fixed without paying through the nose – without these people, so I have to persevere no matter how grumpy it might make me. And I’ll bet grumpy Jesus is easier to take than grumpy Doreen. But did Jesus need to gather disciples? Was it crucial to his mission? Doesn’t the last line of the reading spell out his mission? “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” How does having disciples help with that? Really, what was he thinking? I don’t know, I don’t know. Then again, maybe his mission is spelled out in the third line of the reading, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” As we have discussed before, the meaning of the word translated here as repent, metanoia, means to turn, to turn around, to go in a different direction. In this passage, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven has come near, but in the gospel of Luke he proclaims that the kingdom is within you, or among you. And so I assert that, as crazy as it sounds, that gathering a group around him to live in community was indeed crucial to the mission of Jesus. Because the kindom is not somewhere else that you will go physically, the kindom is here and anywhere, and you enter it by living in a new way. And the new way involves other people. Let’s go back and explore the reading a little more closely, and let’s start with what has been going on up to this point. Mary and Joseph were given the okay from the angel that Herod’s reign of terror was ended, and they could come out of hiding in Egypt. The family settled in Nazareth. Then as an adult, Jesus left Nazareth and went to where John the baptist was doing his work at the river Jordan. This would have been in the southern part of Israel, closer to Jerusalem than to Galilee, maybe near Jericho. After being baptized, he was immediately driven by the Spirit into the wilderness where he faced temptation by Satan. He has now finished his 40 day desert time, and has heard about the arrest of John. The scripture says that when Jesus heard about John’s arrest, he withdrew to Galilee. When I hear it phrased like that, I think it sounds as if Jesus beat a hasty retreat, out of fear of Herod. But the word returned might be a better translation, and makes more sense, because Herod ruled in Galilee. Jesus left the wilderness and traveled into the lions den, into the place where John had been arrested, and Herod had his brutal reign. He made his home in Capernaum, and set out to start his ministry. And he walks by the Sea of Galilee and sees two brothers fishing. Just this one sentence leads me on such a path of wondering. Did he go to the sea intentionally to look for people to call, or did the thought just occur to him when he saw them? Had he been to the sea before? Did he know Simon Peter and Andrew already? Did he know much about fishermen? Were there characteristics of fishermen that were particularly appealing to Jesus? Did he watch them work for awhile before speaking to them? What did he observe? Did he know they were brothers? Had he checked out anyone else for possible discipleship and passed them over before coming to Simon and Andrew? Did he engage them in conversation before making his proposal? Take a moment to imagine the scene… the sights and sounds, the smell of the sea, the warmth of the sun. Animals, people, children, boats, carts. .. Did anything occur to you? It’s interesting to me that he called them both together, and then the three of them went on and called another pair of brothers. Not one by one does Jesus call them, but two by two. It is interesting to me that Matthew makes a point of telling us that the Zebedee brothers, James and John, left their father behind when the followed Jesus. I wonder if Simon Peter and Andrew knew the Zebedees. I wonder if they were, perhaps competitors. It is also interesting to me to think about the fishermen casting their nets. This isn’t line fishing, where you flick the rod and hope for one fish to take the bait. These fishermen take up fish in a big net, all kinds of fish, with little discrimination. So Jesus has called them, out of their ordinary lives, doing what they always did, and called them to follow him, to start a new community together, a community where the kindom of God will grow. It also occurred to me that Jesus called disciples because he needed people to carry on his work after he was gone. And that may be part of it, but again, he didn’t chose just one or a few best apprentices. There’s no indication that he carefully considered their individual gifts and trained them to specific tasks. I don’t think he formed committees – you do budgeting, you do the music, you guys on hospitality. He didn’t select particular individuals to learn more about healing, or preaching. He just invited them all to follow, and they learned the Way by being in community. They learned the way by missing the mark at times, and letting Jesus teach them something new. They dealt with the people in their group, and the people who approached Jesus looking for something, and the people in the Temple, and the people who gathered in crowds around them. They dealt with the Sanhedrin and the Temple guards, and the crowd that walked to Calvary. Jesus, I believe, knew that the kindom of heaven was within and among people, and that the only way to access it was through relationships with people. That was as true for him as for all of us. Real people, not the idea of people. Now sometimes I get upset with Quentin because of the things he says about people in the abstract. They don’t think for themselves, they are selfish, they are lazy. I think of people in the abstract as wonderful, good, generous – and if they are not obviously that way, it is only because they have had some really horrible things happen to them that masks their wonderfulness. But, today when the mechanic said he ordered the wrong part, and the insurance agent claimed never to have receive the many communications sent to her, he was kind, he was patient, he was understanding and forgiving and pleasant. And I was in the background not just shaking my head and rolling my eyes, but ready to yell at someone, ready to lord their mistakes over them, be sarcastic and imperious and rude. Somehow I was able to step back and notice this. I was able to see how, no matter what he says or thinks about people in the abstract, when faced with a concrete person, flesh and blood, Quentin is far closer to living in the kindom than I am. So what I hear in this passage is that Jesus calls us from our ordinary lives to follow him into new relationships with real flesh and blood people – some of whom may be family – brothers and sisters and parents and children; some of whom may be competitors or rivals; some of whom may be strangers. Any teaching or preaching, any healing or sharing of the good news takes place in the context of relationship. And I think we are invited to think of people less in the abstract and more in the concrete, and to remember, when we do think of people in the abstract, that we ourselves are included in the category. I certainly remember that when I am tempted to criticize those people who can’t drive, as I remember my own accident history and the horns that have been honked at me and the fingers that have been shown to me. I’m certainly not trying to aggravate anyone, I’m just not a very good driver. And my hope is that that is forgivable, that people will suffer me a little bit. Jesus invites us to have a personal relationship with him, but not a private one. Our faith journey and practice must always include other people. Jesus said, where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there with and among and between them. So you can see how critical mercy and forgiveness are, whether we are dealing with flesh and blood people, or people in the abstract. When we notice that people just seem to accept things without questioning, or don’t make much effort, or seem to be completely blind to the needs of others, we might remember times when we were so overwhelmed we didn’t know what questions to ask, when our world was so shaky we had to grab on with blind trust, when we were so tired and depleted we just didn’t have it in us to consider another viewpoint, when our limited life experience kept us from seeing a different viewpoint. And maybe we can forgive and suffer them a little bit more. Because it is in them, in us, amongst us, that we will find the kindom of heaven. May it be so.
