Mark 1:14-20
Series on the Church as Called
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Simon and Andrew, James and John: two sets of brothers, fishermen, who decided to follow Jesus. The story of the call of the fishermen is in all three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, although Luke’s version includes the miraculous catch of fish with Jesus, after they had fished all night and caught nothing. In every case, the four fishermen, drop everything, including their valuable nets, and in Luke’s Gospel, a massive mess of fish that Jesus had helped them catch, representing a huge amount of income, and they followed Jesus for three years, and then after his death, they continued his ministry, which is still going on today. They change their priorities; they re-oriented their lives toward catching people with good news. Because of their decision, many of us have heard how much they are loved, and how good it is to follow Jesus. Those who truly follow have a lasting impact on the ones who come after them. Hear the story:
Mark 1:14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." 16 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. 17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. (NRSV)
Now hear the story in song so its message might settle in the right portion of your brain, as well as your left. Join me in the refrain if you want.
Two fishermen who lived along the Sea of Galilee
Stood by the shore to cast their nets in to an ageless sea.
Now Jesus watched them from afar, then called them each by name.
It changed their lives, these simple men; they’d never be the same.
“Leave all things you have and come and follow me, and come and follow me.”
And as he walked along the shore ‘twas James and John he’d find,
And these two sons of Zebedee would leave their boats behind.
Their work and all they held so dear they left beside their nets.
Their names they’d heard as Jesus called; they came without regret.
“Leave all things you have and come and follow me, and come and follow me.”
O Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John beloved one,
You heard Christ’s call to speak good news revealed to God’s own Son.
Susanna, Mary Magdalene, who traveled with your Lord.,
You ministered to him with joy for he is God adored.
“Leave all things you have and come and follow me, and come and follow me.”
And you, good Christians, one and all who’d follow Jesus’ way,
Come leave behind what keeps you bound to trappings of our day,
And listen as he calls your name to come and follow near;
For still he speaks in varied ways to those his call will hear.
“Leave all things you have and come and follow me, and come and follow me.”
Leave all things you have and come and follow me. It’s the leaving things behind part that is the most troubling for us. They left their father Zebedee. They left their nets, their source of income. There was nothing wrong with fishing. They just had something better to do – a new sense of purpose in life. Now Jesus did not say to them, “Leave all things you have.” But they did leave things behind to follow him.
In those days, one could not follow without dropping everything. In those days, they could not just read the Bible to know about Jesus, because the New Testament was not written. In those days, followers of Jesus could not keep up with his ministry on television. They could not log into his website to see where he was going. They could not be his Facebook friend or follow him on Twitter. They had to drop their fishing nets and go with him, in person. Even to this day, there is nothing that replaces face-to-face in person time with God’s people in church.
Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said the typical Christian is
caught up in “admiring Christ instead of following Christ.” The question before us is whether we want to simply be Christ admirers or whether we are bold enough to be Christ followers. No doubt, if we are courageous, we will discover unexpected blessings when we let Jesus into our boats, when we listen to him, and when we follow him.
What about you? Are you sensing a new purpose, as you begin to listen for the voice of Jesus calling you? Some of you have been listening for years for Jesus’ direction. Others of you are just starting to listen. Your commitment to be here is a sign that you are making choices to follow. Sometimes there’s a pivot point, or a crucial moment of repentance when you really turn around. Some of us can remember moments in adolescence or earlier adulthood when, we made the commitment to follow Jesus. Usually those moments are reinforced by our own telling of the story, just as I’m sure these fishermen told people about the day Jesus met them by the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
In some churches, it is almost required that you know when that pivot point of Christian decision was. Nobody is going to pressure you to name when you decided to follow Jesus in this church, but we will keep reminding you that our purpose is to follow Jesus. We will keep encouraging you to make choices that reflect that decision because every day is full of decisions about following Jesus.
For instance, you made a decision this morning to follow Jesus, to drop the nets of your responsibilities at home, to sacrifice some leisure time to be an active part of the body of Christ today, to worship God, to receive the sacrament, to pray, to respond to God’s grace in the company of friends. Those friendships matter.
Your commitment to be here affects the commitment of others. Can others depend on your presence here? You see, a deeper decision to follow Jesus means each Sunday’s commitment to worship is already decided in your mind. It is not “Will I go to church today?” but “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Nothing but illness or some forced conflict of work will keep me away. Fifty years ago, the Sunday choice was easier. Go to church or stay home. There were no competing activities. But now there are multiple choices, asking us to follow them, commit to them, instead of Jesus and the family of faith that helps us know the love of Christ.
That leads me to ask the question: What was so compelling about this man Jesus that the fishermen would drop their nets immediately, and go with him? I mean they might have spent a little more time listening to him, before they walked away from the family business. Being in the real presence of Christ must be an amazing experience. We get glimpses of that real presence here in worship when we sing and pray, and especially when we hear God’s Word and come to Christ’s table, having been reminded of God’s amazing, forgiving love earlier in the service.
One person who understood the value of being part of the body of Christ in worship regularly was Gretchen Frueh, whose memorial service was yesterday. Gretchen made the effort to study the faith, to worship weekly, to grow as a Christian in caregiving, in speaking the truth in love and reaching out to others. While she was still reasonably healthy, she took advantage of the opportunity to learn and grow by participation in adult education, something I hope more of you will start doing. Gretchen grew by her service as an ordained elder, making that same prayerful commitment to serve God faithfully as a church leader, as five of you are making today when you are ordained later in this service.
Gretchen grew by significant involvement in the Stephen Ministry of caregiving, by participating in prayer groups, as well as mission activities. I have a photo of Gretchen with Tom Knierim at one of Peace’s first trips to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. But one of Gretchen’s best gifts for Peace was her ability to fish for people, so to speak. She took an active interest in welcoming every newcomer to Peace. And with all of us who got to know her, she reflected the love of Christ by her genuine interest in you and her gentle manner of inquiry, which made you feel comfortable and cared for. That takes time and energy, and the determination to get beyond self to thinking of others. We thank God for Gretchen’s determination to follow Jesus.
Back to the 1st century now. How easy it seemed for the fishermen to make that initial decision. They did it so quickly, but I wonder if they had second thoughts. Did they ever say, “Gosh, I should get back to dad and the fishing business. How am I going to pay my bills? Or following Jesus too tiring. I just need some time to relax. ” Did they ever think that following Jesus was too much of a sacrifice. The rich, young ruler did. Jesus challenged him to give up his many possessions because of the grip they had on his life, and he went away depressed because it was a big sacrifice. One time, someone wanted to delay following so he could bury his father, but Jesus was unwilling to wait. There was an urgency about the mission of Christ. He reminded his followers that those who want to save their lives will lose them, and that those who lose their life for his sake, will save them.
So let’s talk about what following Jesus means. Following Jesus means you’re watching to see where he’s going. Following Jesus means putting your Christian faith as your number one priority. It means giving up some interests that distract or pull you away from being a loyal follower. Jesus said we must deny ourselves, be willing to sacrifice, to follow him. It means listening to his voice in prayer, reading scripture, being meaningfully involved in the church. Imagine the lively learning opportunities we could have if more people stayed one extra hour on Sundays. You have sixteen waking hours every Sunday. Imagine the church building we could have to live out our mission and ministry, when we all give in a way that demonstrates our deep trust in God.
Imagine the ministry and mission we could accomplish if every single member did worship plus two. Worship plus Lively learning or a weekly prayer group plus a Ministry Team or Choir.
Following the call of Jesus does not mean that you all need to be in the professional ministry or that you are all called to be elders in the church. It means that you choose to do things that bless people, in whatever field you are called to serve. You show the love of Christ in whatever you are doing, and you do the job in such a way that people see you as both capable in your work and caring in your disposition, caring and kind beyond the ordinary.
In Asheville at a Fuddruckers, there’s a guy named Smitty. His job is to clean the tables. It is impressive to watch Smitty clean the table with such energy and enthusiasm and joy. You cannot see Smitty work, without wondering what makes him tick. You want to speak to him, you want to watch him, and you want to tip him. Smitty is following Jesus by the way he cleans tables at Fuddruckers. Now if Smitty was half-cleaning tables and mouthing off about Jesus all the time, he’d get fired, not to mention the irritation to customers. But Smitty just works so joyfully with such enthusiasm, he draws you in. He lures you. He throws a net over you and your attention is caught.
We should all being doing whatever we do with such energy, intelligence, imagination, and love, that people are curious about what inspires us. Jesus says to the fishermen, “I will make you fish for people.” Your primary vocation as a Christian is to fulfill the Great Commandment – loving God and loving people – no matter what you do. It is also to fulfill the Great Commission – fishing for people. Jesus calls us to turn our vocation into something that demonstrates the amazing grace of God. In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the difference between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Cheap grace, he said, is grace without a commitment and response from the believer. It is grace without servanthood. Costly grace, said Bonhoeffer, moves us to respond to the call of Jesus. Will YOU respond? Will you follow?
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Meditation for Gretchen Frueh
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:2a
Memorial Service
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I stand before you as a pastor, who is still serving Peace Presbyterian, in large part because of Gretchen Frueh. I am still here because she was compassionate and caring enough to offer meaningful support to me in the crucial early years of this ministry. Secondly, I am still here, because Gretchen was warm and engaging enough to everyone who visited our new church, such that most of them stayed. Shortly after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so many people spoke to me of their sadness over her diagnosis, saying things like, “Gretchen is the person who reached out to me when I first arrived at Peace. She called me after my first visit. She made me feel welcome on Sundays. I came back the second Sunday because of Gretchen.” All of you are here because you have your own Gretchen stories – ways in which you experienced her bountiful love. Each of us, but especially her family, felt a tremendous loss when Gretchen was first diagnosed, and with each steady step toward the inevitable, we experienced a greater loss.
With her wonderful service in Hospice and her active involvement in Stephen Ministry, Gretchen knew how to walk with others through the grieving process. So when she got the news, she quickly and diligently began to prepare for her own death. But much to her surprise and often, frustration, she lived much longer than she expected. Her outer nature, her body, was very slowly wasting away, to use the language of Paul, though her inner nature, her true beauty, was being renewed day-by-day. But she grew weary with her inability to accomplish things. Because, you see, in all of her life prior to diagnosis, she had managed so many things so well. Some people are task-masters; others are caring toward people. Gretchen was both. So while Gretchen in her faith, was prepared for what our scripture calls “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” she never completely stopped caring about this temporal life. And if she could not engage in the activities of this life, she was ready to go, to be with Christ.
She was ready for the new body, promised in the resurrection.
But she never stopped being interested in the people in her life here. Even near the end, when I would visit, Gretchen wanted to hear all about the church which she helped plant. She was always eager to talk about her children and grandchildren, whom she adored. She was so proud of their gifts and accomplishments, always expressed in her own manner of humility. And her deepest concern was how John was handling his grief; she wanted him to be as prepared for this loss, as one can ever be. Part of her was ready to go as soon as she knew death was coming, but the other part of her wanted to make the next date, not to miss anything, like Sarah’s initiation into P.E.O., and her 55th anniversary which she did make with John, while still at home, before her final trip to the Hospice House. Even her death on the very last morning of the year 2011, as Carol and John were on their way to the airport to send Carol home after weeks of caregiving, had a remarkable completeness. She finished the year, completed her race, kept the faith.
What was so great about Gretchen was that she brought a graceful, dignified completeness in her death, as she did in everything she accomplished in life. She was gifted in making transitions and starting new initiatives. Moving to Germany with John in early marriage was the beginning of many transitions that she made with grace. Perhaps these family transitions enabled her to become such a vital part of new initiatives in the church, in P.E.O., in Cancer Support, and in Hospice. What a leader she was – strong, wise, kind, and diligent. She had the vision to see beyond the temporary, to the things are eternally valuable, both in her life and in her death.
This vision, rooted in deep Christian faith, helped Gretchen to prepare well for the final transition through death to life again. She showed us, and perhaps in some mystical way is showing us even now, that the temporary affliction of our dying process prepares us for “an eternal weight of glory,” as Paul puts it. Gretchen was eager to look beyond what could be seen to the things which cannot be seen. Her inner nature was being renewed day-by-day, as her outer nature was diminishing.
With weakened physical strength, Gretchen put all the energy she could muster into making it to worship at Peace and to attending P.E.O. meetings, and cancer support groups. She was committed to meaningful visits with the family and close friends, who came often, never knowing which visit would be the last. And she determined to do it well every time, to be at her very faithful best every time.
Several years ago, Gretchen shared with me a hymn that she had learned as girl, perhaps from her mother, the church musician, or her father, the minister. It is a prayer, one by which I believe Gretchen defined her Christian existence.
She asked that I use it in this service, which she so carefully planned. I invite you to pray now with me, using these words from this 16 century English poem:
God be in my head, and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes, and in my looking.
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.
God be in my heart, and in my thinking.
God be at mine end, and in my departing. (Sarum Primer)
And now before we recite together Psalm 23 from the NKJV, let me read for you a brief meditation on it, which Gretchen handed me about a year ago. At the top of the page it reads, “During a memorial service John Smith suggested that Psalm 23 could have been written by someone looking back on a long and full life.”
God has walked with me; I could ask for nothing more. God has given me green meadows to laugh in, clear streams to think beside, untrodden paths to explore.
When I thought the world rested on my shoulders, God put things into perspective. When I lashed out at an unfair world, God calmed me down. When I drifted into harmful ways, God straightened me out. God was with me all the way. I do not know what lies ahead, but I am not afraid. I know you will always be with me. Even in death, I will not despair. You will comfort and support me. Though my eye dims and my mind dulls, You will continue to care about me. Your touch will soothe the tension in my temples. My tears will fade away. I am content. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with me. All through life, I have found goodness in people. When life ends, I will be gathered into the ultimate goodness of God.
Now let us say together Psalm 23, printed in your bulletin.
(Richard – Prayer of Thanksgiving)
Commendation
You only are immortal, Creator and maker of all.
We are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth we shall return.
All of us go down to the dust;
Yet even in death we sing our song,
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”
O Christ, give rest to Gretchen with all your saints,
Where there is neither pain nor sorrow nor sighing but life everlasting.
Please stand
Into your hands, O merciful Savior,
we commend your loving, diligent, graceful servant Gretchen.
Acknowledge, we humbly pray, a sheep of your own fold,
a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.
Receive her into the arms of your mercy,
into the blessed rest of everlasting peace,
and into the glorious company of the saints in light.
God of Grace and God of Glory
Memorial Service
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I stand before you as a pastor, who is still serving Peace Presbyterian, in large part because of Gretchen Frueh. I am still here because she was compassionate and caring enough to offer meaningful support to me in the crucial early years of this ministry. Secondly, I am still here, because Gretchen was warm and engaging enough to everyone who visited our new church, such that most of them stayed. Shortly after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so many people spoke to me of their sadness over her diagnosis, saying things like, “Gretchen is the person who reached out to me when I first arrived at Peace. She called me after my first visit. She made me feel welcome on Sundays. I came back the second Sunday because of Gretchen.” All of you are here because you have your own Gretchen stories – ways in which you experienced her bountiful love. Each of us, but especially her family, felt a tremendous loss when Gretchen was first diagnosed, and with each steady step toward the inevitable, we experienced a greater loss.
With her wonderful service in Hospice and her active involvement in Stephen Ministry, Gretchen knew how to walk with others through the grieving process. So when she got the news, she quickly and diligently began to prepare for her own death. But much to her surprise and often, frustration, she lived much longer than she expected. Her outer nature, her body, was very slowly wasting away, to use the language of Paul, though her inner nature, her true beauty, was being renewed day-by-day. But she grew weary with her inability to accomplish things. Because, you see, in all of her life prior to diagnosis, she had managed so many things so well. Some people are task-masters; others are caring toward people. Gretchen was both. So while Gretchen in her faith, was prepared for what our scripture calls “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” she never completely stopped caring about this temporal life. And if she could not engage in the activities of this life, she was ready to go, to be with Christ.
She was ready for the new body, promised in the resurrection.
But she never stopped being interested in the people in her life here. Even near the end, when I would visit, Gretchen wanted to hear all about the church which she helped plant. She was always eager to talk about her children and grandchildren, whom she adored. She was so proud of their gifts and accomplishments, always expressed in her own manner of humility. And her deepest concern was how John was handling his grief; she wanted him to be as prepared for this loss, as one can ever be. Part of her was ready to go as soon as she knew death was coming, but the other part of her wanted to make the next date, not to miss anything, like Sarah’s initiation into P.E.O., and her 55th anniversary which she did make with John, while still at home, before her final trip to the Hospice House. Even her death on the very last morning of the year 2011, as Carol and John were on their way to the airport to send Carol home after weeks of caregiving, had a remarkable completeness. She finished the year, completed her race, kept the faith.
What was so great about Gretchen was that she brought a graceful, dignified completeness in her death, as she did in everything she accomplished in life. She was gifted in making transitions and starting new initiatives. Moving to Germany with John in early marriage was the beginning of many transitions that she made with grace. Perhaps these family transitions enabled her to become such a vital part of new initiatives in the church, in P.E.O., in Cancer Support, and in Hospice. What a leader she was – strong, wise, kind, and diligent. She had the vision to see beyond the temporary, to the things are eternally valuable, both in her life and in her death.
This vision, rooted in deep Christian faith, helped Gretchen to prepare well for the final transition through death to life again. She showed us, and perhaps in some mystical way is showing us even now, that the temporary affliction of our dying process prepares us for “an eternal weight of glory,” as Paul puts it. Gretchen was eager to look beyond what could be seen to the things which cannot be seen. Her inner nature was being renewed day-by-day, as her outer nature was diminishing.
With weakened physical strength, Gretchen put all the energy she could muster into making it to worship at Peace and to attending P.E.O. meetings, and cancer support groups. She was committed to meaningful visits with the family and close friends, who came often, never knowing which visit would be the last. And she determined to do it well every time, to be at her very faithful best every time.
Several years ago, Gretchen shared with me a hymn that she had learned as girl, perhaps from her mother, the church musician, or her father, the minister. It is a prayer, one by which I believe Gretchen defined her Christian existence.
She asked that I use it in this service, which she so carefully planned. I invite you to pray now with me, using these words from this 16 century English poem:
God be in my head, and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes, and in my looking.
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.
God be in my heart, and in my thinking.
God be at mine end, and in my departing. (Sarum Primer)
And now before we recite together Psalm 23 from the NKJV, let me read for you a brief meditation on it, which Gretchen handed me about a year ago. At the top of the page it reads, “During a memorial service John Smith suggested that Psalm 23 could have been written by someone looking back on a long and full life.”
God has walked with me; I could ask for nothing more. God has given me green meadows to laugh in, clear streams to think beside, untrodden paths to explore.
When I thought the world rested on my shoulders, God put things into perspective. When I lashed out at an unfair world, God calmed me down. When I drifted into harmful ways, God straightened me out. God was with me all the way. I do not know what lies ahead, but I am not afraid. I know you will always be with me. Even in death, I will not despair. You will comfort and support me. Though my eye dims and my mind dulls, You will continue to care about me. Your touch will soothe the tension in my temples. My tears will fade away. I am content. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with me. All through life, I have found goodness in people. When life ends, I will be gathered into the ultimate goodness of God.
Now let us say together Psalm 23, printed in your bulletin.
(Richard – Prayer of Thanksgiving)
Commendation
You only are immortal, Creator and maker of all.
We are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth we shall return.
All of us go down to the dust;
Yet even in death we sing our song,
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”
O Christ, give rest to Gretchen with all your saints,
Where there is neither pain nor sorrow nor sighing but life everlasting.
Please stand
Into your hands, O merciful Savior,
we commend your loving, diligent, graceful servant Gretchen.
Acknowledge, we humbly pray, a sheep of your own fold,
a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.
Receive her into the arms of your mercy,
into the blessed rest of everlasting peace,
and into the glorious company of the saints in light.
God of Grace and God of Glory
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Called to Obey
Book of Jonah
Series on the Church as Called
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Jonah is a great narrative for our time, filled with irony and humor. It asks us to suspend our historical, critical minds. The book of Jonah begs us to hear a outrageous story and learn a lesson from it. We often are so busy asking questions of historicity and are so serious about the facts that we effectively avoid considering the questions that the scripture asks us about our character, about our obedience. Well of course, we don’t want to think about our own obedience to God.
Obedience is an unpopular word in our culture. It feels so old-fashioned to say, “We are called to obey God.” But we are. For our own good, as well as for the good of others. We are called to live lives pleasing to God, not to do what we want. Life is better when we do what God says and go where God says go. Jonah helps us to laugh at ourselves for the ridiculousness of going our own way, the other way, running away from God. Jonah is the reluctant prophet. He did not want to go to the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, to try to rescue people in a place where Israelites had been grossly mistreated. It is easy to see why he played the avoidance game with God, until God saved him with a three-day entrapment in the belly of a big fish. I don’t care whether you believe a person could live in the belly of a big fish for three days or not. What matters to me is that you care enough about the power and authority of this scripture to allow your soul to be shaped by it in Christian faith and obedience.
The lectionary (the ecumenical set of readings we follow) would have us read most of chapter 3, but I had decided early in the week that we had to read all of chapters 3 & 4. Then as we came closer to Sunday, I became convinced that we needed the whole story, the book of Jonah – which only takes about 3-4 minutes to read.
As the text is read by several voices, I invite you to reflect what God is calling Jonah to do and why he is running? Think about why Jonah gets mad when God’s desires are fulfilled. Notice how the outsiders in the story (the sailors and the Ninevites) are more faithful than the insider, Jonah.
Pay special attention to the boundless mercy of God, which begs Jonah to move beyond his prejudices, fears, and presuppositions to a more profound awareness of the power, providence, and great mercy of God. See Jonah’s struggle to obey God and consider your own struggle.
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NRS Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 The captain came and said to him, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish."
7 The sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 9 "I am a Hebrew," he replied. "I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." 10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so. 11
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Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, "Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you." 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. 17 But the LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, "I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' 5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. 7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" 10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
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3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
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5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish." 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
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4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 6 The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
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The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. (pause, then slide)
What is God calling you to do? Where is God calling you to go? To whom does God want you to reach out and speak of mercy and love you have experienced? Why do you not want to do this? I’ll give you a moment to consider...
God is calling me not to the Ninevah of my own neighborhood and city. I’m nervous to establish real relationships with the people around me. Many of them scorn people like me, ministers of the Gospel. They think I’m narrow-minded or judgmental, like all those Christians they’ve heard about. They think I’m “holier than Thou.” They think I’m boring and super-spiritual, certainly not any fun. They will not want a relationship with me. And if they do want a relationship with me, they might ask too much of me. I might not have enough time or energy for them. I probably cannot answer all their questions or solve their problems anyway. It is hard to defend one’s Christian faith, as it is a world view, a perspective on truth, a relationship, not a provable data. It is hard to share faith. It takes a long time to build the kind of friendship that allows for that kind of deep sharing.
After all, God, my main responsibility is to the relationships I have with people already in the church. Isn’t it? Besides it probably would not make much difference. Those people in my neighborhood – they’re not interested in the Gospel, in the church. To each his own. I mean who am I to tell them the best news I’ve ever heard, the news that liberates me from the values of broken, lustful, materialistic world, news that reminds me of your boundless, steadfast love, news that has given peace to generations of Christians. They wouldn’t want to hear this news, would….. they, so why should I waste my time building friendships with them? (pause)
Then again, I don’t really want to create storms in the lives of those with whom I take refuge, while I’m avoiding the people God calls me to care for. I don’t want to land in the belly of a big fish, so to speak. Maybe I should try to do what God calls me to do. Obey. Live out this love that has been given me. Share it with others. Obeying God is not easy, but storms and slimy isolation are not great alternatives.
God, why do you have to love everyone? I mean, wouldn’t it be better if you called us your favorites and we could forget about all those people who are late to the party of Your grace and love?
Okay, okay, I’ll go to Ninevah in neighborhood. I’ll get out of my little shell and share your love. Yes, I will. I will trust and obey.
Series on the Church as Called
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Jonah is a great narrative for our time, filled with irony and humor. It asks us to suspend our historical, critical minds. The book of Jonah begs us to hear a outrageous story and learn a lesson from it. We often are so busy asking questions of historicity and are so serious about the facts that we effectively avoid considering the questions that the scripture asks us about our character, about our obedience. Well of course, we don’t want to think about our own obedience to God.
Obedience is an unpopular word in our culture. It feels so old-fashioned to say, “We are called to obey God.” But we are. For our own good, as well as for the good of others. We are called to live lives pleasing to God, not to do what we want. Life is better when we do what God says and go where God says go. Jonah helps us to laugh at ourselves for the ridiculousness of going our own way, the other way, running away from God. Jonah is the reluctant prophet. He did not want to go to the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, to try to rescue people in a place where Israelites had been grossly mistreated. It is easy to see why he played the avoidance game with God, until God saved him with a three-day entrapment in the belly of a big fish. I don’t care whether you believe a person could live in the belly of a big fish for three days or not. What matters to me is that you care enough about the power and authority of this scripture to allow your soul to be shaped by it in Christian faith and obedience.
The lectionary (the ecumenical set of readings we follow) would have us read most of chapter 3, but I had decided early in the week that we had to read all of chapters 3 & 4. Then as we came closer to Sunday, I became convinced that we needed the whole story, the book of Jonah – which only takes about 3-4 minutes to read.
As the text is read by several voices, I invite you to reflect what God is calling Jonah to do and why he is running? Think about why Jonah gets mad when God’s desires are fulfilled. Notice how the outsiders in the story (the sailors and the Ninevites) are more faithful than the insider, Jonah.
Pay special attention to the boundless mercy of God, which begs Jonah to move beyond his prejudices, fears, and presuppositions to a more profound awareness of the power, providence, and great mercy of God. See Jonah’s struggle to obey God and consider your own struggle.
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NRS Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 The captain came and said to him, "What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish."
7 The sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 9 "I am a Hebrew," he replied. "I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." 10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so. 11
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Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, "Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you." 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. 17 But the LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, "I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' 5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. 7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" 10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
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3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
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5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish." 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
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4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 6 The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
(slide)
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. (pause, then slide)
What is God calling you to do? Where is God calling you to go? To whom does God want you to reach out and speak of mercy and love you have experienced? Why do you not want to do this? I’ll give you a moment to consider...
God is calling me not to the Ninevah of my own neighborhood and city. I’m nervous to establish real relationships with the people around me. Many of them scorn people like me, ministers of the Gospel. They think I’m narrow-minded or judgmental, like all those Christians they’ve heard about. They think I’m “holier than Thou.” They think I’m boring and super-spiritual, certainly not any fun. They will not want a relationship with me. And if they do want a relationship with me, they might ask too much of me. I might not have enough time or energy for them. I probably cannot answer all their questions or solve their problems anyway. It is hard to defend one’s Christian faith, as it is a world view, a perspective on truth, a relationship, not a provable data. It is hard to share faith. It takes a long time to build the kind of friendship that allows for that kind of deep sharing.
After all, God, my main responsibility is to the relationships I have with people already in the church. Isn’t it? Besides it probably would not make much difference. Those people in my neighborhood – they’re not interested in the Gospel, in the church. To each his own. I mean who am I to tell them the best news I’ve ever heard, the news that liberates me from the values of broken, lustful, materialistic world, news that reminds me of your boundless, steadfast love, news that has given peace to generations of Christians. They wouldn’t want to hear this news, would….. they, so why should I waste my time building friendships with them? (pause)
Then again, I don’t really want to create storms in the lives of those with whom I take refuge, while I’m avoiding the people God calls me to care for. I don’t want to land in the belly of a big fish, so to speak. Maybe I should try to do what God calls me to do. Obey. Live out this love that has been given me. Share it with others. Obeying God is not easy, but storms and slimy isolation are not great alternatives.
God, why do you have to love everyone? I mean, wouldn’t it be better if you called us your favorites and we could forget about all those people who are late to the party of Your grace and love?
Okay, okay, I’ll go to Ninevah in neighborhood. I’ll get out of my little shell and share your love. Yes, I will. I will trust and obey.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Called to Listen
1 Samuel 3:1-20
After Epiphany: The Church is Called
Elizabeth M. Deibert
My dad’s birthday was three days ago. He would have been eighty-nine this year. My dad had plenty of faults, like all of us, but what people really appreciated about him was his ability to listen well to others. Listening is an under-appreciated, under-practiced skill. I believe the church is called to listen well –to listen to God and to one another with careful attention. This is a crucial factor in being faithful.
The Stephen Ministers in training are learning the value of listening to people in need, not trying to fix them or correct them, but hearing their stories in order to better care for their needs.
The Book Discussion Group on Thursday night practiced the art of listening to voices beyond the Christian faith with the goal of finding some common ground and learning helpful information about how a listening mind perceives of God.
The Movie Group watched The Help which was the story of a group of black women, maids from Jackson, MS, who had been long-silenced by their place in society. When a young white woman began to listen to their perspective, it was the impetus for major change in her, in them, and in their community.
Each of you spent time 70-80 percent of your waking time in some form of communication, writing, speaking, reading, or listening. Much of what we communicated is through body language. But of all the time we spend in communication, over half of it was spent listening, and usually doing a poor job ot it. We are at best distracted listeners. We occupy our minds with what we intend to say next while the other person is talking. We multi-task, such that the person who’s talking does not receive our full attention. Isn’t interesting that God has given us the ability, the freedom to do many things at once, such that we have to discipline our minds to focus well on the task of listening?
And it’s even worse, if we talk about listening to God? How many things run through your mind when you are praying? How many of us took time this week to really listen to God? Or did we just forge ahead assuming we knew everything we need to know to be faithful?
What does it mean to listen to God? Is it in silent prayer alone that we hear God speaking? Or some combination of silence with other acts worship – singing, scripture reading, sacraments, giving, sharing peace, acts of service, listening to others?
At the beginning of our service today, you sang, “Lord, speak to me, that I may speak in living echoes of Thy tone.” Are you really asking God to speak to you and do you really want to share with others what God is saying to you?
We are reading an amazing narrative about God’s choice of a young boy to deliver an important message. Scripture teaches that God often chooses those whom we least expect to send messages we might not so be eager to hear.
The Story of Samuel, the boy who could hear God’s voice at a young age.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
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. 2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3 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. 4 Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5 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.
6 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." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
8 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. 9 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. 10 Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."
15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am." 17 Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you." 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."
19 As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. (NRSV)
Imagine being a boy working for an older priest in the temple. Being scared to tell him the message you had heard in the night. Eli pressed him, “What did God say to you? Don’t hide anything from me, boy, or God will do something bad to you.” That’s a pretty scary place for Samuel. He’s thinking, “Let’s see – do I want Eli mad at me or God mad at me?”
But Eli did not get mad. He trusted God’s word coming from Samuel. He had perceived the authenticity of the voice in the night. He knew he himself was not calling Samuel’s name. He had not heard anything in the night. He was getting old. Hard to see. Hard to hear. Must have been a message from God to the boy. That’s why he told him to respond to God, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
The message was not a huge surprise to Eli. He knew his sons were a huge disappointment. He knew in his heart of hearts he should have restrained them, but the message that this mess known as his family was not to be repaired was disappointing. There was no sacrifice he could make to recover the damage his sons had done. In one sense, Eli already understood Samuel to be the replacement son, in spiritual sense. Samuel had a servant’s heart, an obedient and willing spirit. Samuel had the sensitivity to hear God’s voice.
What about us? Are we listening for the voice of God like Samuel? Can we hear God’s voice and have the courage to share what we’ve heard, even if it is a message that makes others uncomfortable?
Can we hear God’s message, even if we, like Eli, are not the primary receiver of the word of truth? Can we hear God’s message even if it is the difficult news of God’s disappointment with us or those whom we call family or affiliates? Can we hear God’s truth from someone who has less experience, less maturity, less power than we have?
Eli empowered Samuel by acknowledging that God might be speaking to him, by encouraging him to listen, and by asking for and accepting his message from God with humble trust.
We should all be Elis in the church, nurturing the young ones in the faith, encouraging them to listen for the voice of God and then respecting them enough to listen to what they have heard from God, instead of thinking we know it all because we are older and wiser.
We should all be Samuels, listening carefully enough that we cultivate both the ability to hear God speaking, and the courage to speak the truth we have heard in love. I wonder what might happen tomorrow, if you went through your day, saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” If you read scripture and prayed and meditated, and said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” If you listened to others, saying to God, “Help me to hear your voice, Lord, speaking to me, as I try to carefully listen to this person.”
What made Martin Luther King, Jr. such a powerful figure was his ability to hear messages from God, as a young man, and to communicate difficult messages with courage and love. This ability was cultivated by his roots in the church, where he heard the message of Christ who proclaimed good news to the poor and release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.
MLK’s ability to hear and speak the truth was cultivated by hearing stories of faithful young prophetic voices like Samuel’s. Hearing God’s voice was critical for the prophetic witness of Dr. King. In January 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott, he received a threatening phone call late at night. He couldn’t sleep. He went to his kitchen and took his “problem to God.” He was at a breaking point of exhaustion and about to give up. He spoke to God and says that in that moment he experienced the presence of the Divine and “could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice, saying, ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.’” His fears and his uncertainty ceased then and there because God spoke and gave him “inner calm.” God provided the interior resources for him to do the work God had called him to do – challenging work of righting wrongs. He needed God to speak first. Then King could act. He listened prayerfully then proclaimed prophetically. Prayer was crucial in propelling the Civil Rights Movement. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (Luke Powery, sermon)
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is chocked full of messages from scripture, because this servant of God was listening to God, not just talking to the people. King said, “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children.”
“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
This “I Have a Dream” speech is said by some, including our own Professor of Rhetoric, David Thomas, to be one of the best speeches ever written. I encourage you to listen to it or read it in its entirety today or tomorrow. Listen especially for the Christian moorings of his speech.
The civil disobedience and prophetic proclamation of Martin Luther King, Jr, whose real birthday is today, the 15th, is rooted in theological obedience, in prayerful listening to the call of a God of justice who says “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”(Amos 5:24 NRSV)
God speaks. We serve. But the first task of any follower of God is to listen. Will you turn off all the noise in your house and in your mind and stop all the busyness of your life long enough to listen to God? Will you stop talking and invite God to speak? And when God does, will you have the courage to share what you perceive to be God’s message? And lastly, will you listen humbly and with genuine interest to the messages God has given to others?
Church, we are called to be excellent listeners. Work on it
After Epiphany: The Church is Called
Elizabeth M. Deibert
My dad’s birthday was three days ago. He would have been eighty-nine this year. My dad had plenty of faults, like all of us, but what people really appreciated about him was his ability to listen well to others. Listening is an under-appreciated, under-practiced skill. I believe the church is called to listen well –to listen to God and to one another with careful attention. This is a crucial factor in being faithful.
The Stephen Ministers in training are learning the value of listening to people in need, not trying to fix them or correct them, but hearing their stories in order to better care for their needs.
The Book Discussion Group on Thursday night practiced the art of listening to voices beyond the Christian faith with the goal of finding some common ground and learning helpful information about how a listening mind perceives of God.
The Movie Group watched The Help which was the story of a group of black women, maids from Jackson, MS, who had been long-silenced by their place in society. When a young white woman began to listen to their perspective, it was the impetus for major change in her, in them, and in their community.
Each of you spent time 70-80 percent of your waking time in some form of communication, writing, speaking, reading, or listening. Much of what we communicated is through body language. But of all the time we spend in communication, over half of it was spent listening, and usually doing a poor job ot it. We are at best distracted listeners. We occupy our minds with what we intend to say next while the other person is talking. We multi-task, such that the person who’s talking does not receive our full attention. Isn’t interesting that God has given us the ability, the freedom to do many things at once, such that we have to discipline our minds to focus well on the task of listening?
And it’s even worse, if we talk about listening to God? How many things run through your mind when you are praying? How many of us took time this week to really listen to God? Or did we just forge ahead assuming we knew everything we need to know to be faithful?
What does it mean to listen to God? Is it in silent prayer alone that we hear God speaking? Or some combination of silence with other acts worship – singing, scripture reading, sacraments, giving, sharing peace, acts of service, listening to others?
At the beginning of our service today, you sang, “Lord, speak to me, that I may speak in living echoes of Thy tone.” Are you really asking God to speak to you and do you really want to share with others what God is saying to you?
We are reading an amazing narrative about God’s choice of a young boy to deliver an important message. Scripture teaches that God often chooses those whom we least expect to send messages we might not so be eager to hear.
The Story of Samuel, the boy who could hear God’s voice at a young age.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
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. 2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3 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. 4 Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5 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.
6 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." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
8 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. 9 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. 10 Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."
15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am." 17 Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you." 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."
19 As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. (NRSV)
Imagine being a boy working for an older priest in the temple. Being scared to tell him the message you had heard in the night. Eli pressed him, “What did God say to you? Don’t hide anything from me, boy, or God will do something bad to you.” That’s a pretty scary place for Samuel. He’s thinking, “Let’s see – do I want Eli mad at me or God mad at me?”
But Eli did not get mad. He trusted God’s word coming from Samuel. He had perceived the authenticity of the voice in the night. He knew he himself was not calling Samuel’s name. He had not heard anything in the night. He was getting old. Hard to see. Hard to hear. Must have been a message from God to the boy. That’s why he told him to respond to God, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
The message was not a huge surprise to Eli. He knew his sons were a huge disappointment. He knew in his heart of hearts he should have restrained them, but the message that this mess known as his family was not to be repaired was disappointing. There was no sacrifice he could make to recover the damage his sons had done. In one sense, Eli already understood Samuel to be the replacement son, in spiritual sense. Samuel had a servant’s heart, an obedient and willing spirit. Samuel had the sensitivity to hear God’s voice.
What about us? Are we listening for the voice of God like Samuel? Can we hear God’s voice and have the courage to share what we’ve heard, even if it is a message that makes others uncomfortable?
Can we hear God’s message, even if we, like Eli, are not the primary receiver of the word of truth? Can we hear God’s message even if it is the difficult news of God’s disappointment with us or those whom we call family or affiliates? Can we hear God’s truth from someone who has less experience, less maturity, less power than we have?
Eli empowered Samuel by acknowledging that God might be speaking to him, by encouraging him to listen, and by asking for and accepting his message from God with humble trust.
We should all be Elis in the church, nurturing the young ones in the faith, encouraging them to listen for the voice of God and then respecting them enough to listen to what they have heard from God, instead of thinking we know it all because we are older and wiser.
We should all be Samuels, listening carefully enough that we cultivate both the ability to hear God speaking, and the courage to speak the truth we have heard in love. I wonder what might happen tomorrow, if you went through your day, saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” If you read scripture and prayed and meditated, and said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” If you listened to others, saying to God, “Help me to hear your voice, Lord, speaking to me, as I try to carefully listen to this person.”
What made Martin Luther King, Jr. such a powerful figure was his ability to hear messages from God, as a young man, and to communicate difficult messages with courage and love. This ability was cultivated by his roots in the church, where he heard the message of Christ who proclaimed good news to the poor and release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.
MLK’s ability to hear and speak the truth was cultivated by hearing stories of faithful young prophetic voices like Samuel’s. Hearing God’s voice was critical for the prophetic witness of Dr. King. In January 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott, he received a threatening phone call late at night. He couldn’t sleep. He went to his kitchen and took his “problem to God.” He was at a breaking point of exhaustion and about to give up. He spoke to God and says that in that moment he experienced the presence of the Divine and “could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice, saying, ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.’” His fears and his uncertainty ceased then and there because God spoke and gave him “inner calm.” God provided the interior resources for him to do the work God had called him to do – challenging work of righting wrongs. He needed God to speak first. Then King could act. He listened prayerfully then proclaimed prophetically. Prayer was crucial in propelling the Civil Rights Movement. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (Luke Powery, sermon)
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is chocked full of messages from scripture, because this servant of God was listening to God, not just talking to the people. King said, “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children.”
“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
This “I Have a Dream” speech is said by some, including our own Professor of Rhetoric, David Thomas, to be one of the best speeches ever written. I encourage you to listen to it or read it in its entirety today or tomorrow. Listen especially for the Christian moorings of his speech.
The civil disobedience and prophetic proclamation of Martin Luther King, Jr, whose real birthday is today, the 15th, is rooted in theological obedience, in prayerful listening to the call of a God of justice who says “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”(Amos 5:24 NRSV)
God speaks. We serve. But the first task of any follower of God is to listen. Will you turn off all the noise in your house and in your mind and stop all the busyness of your life long enough to listen to God? Will you stop talking and invite God to speak? And when God does, will you have the courage to share what you perceive to be God’s message? And lastly, will you listen humbly and with genuine interest to the messages God has given to others?
Church, we are called to be excellent listeners. Work on it
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Defining Moments
Luke 2:25-33, 41-52, Mark 1:4-11
Epiphany & Baptism Sundays
Elizabeth M. Deibert
The new year is a time of reflection, though some of us are so busy in the holidays we rush into the new year, with our tongues hanging out. But this is a good time to renew your sacred covenant with God as you did last week in worship with Pastor Tricia, and it is a good time to consider the sacred journey of your own life. Yes, each of has a holy history, which shapes us. What has God done in your life? in your birth and early development, your youthful questioning and your mature believing? How has your baptism, your nurture, and your call to Christ’s service impacted you? What are the defining moments of your existence?
We will read today the defining moments of Jesus’ early life, beginning with his parents’ act of faith on his behalf, followed by his self-defining moment of separation from his parents, and finally, his decisive moment of beginning ministry.
First, we look at his presentation in the temple. This is the story of Jesus’ parents coming to the temple to do what was expected of faithful Jews 40 days after the birth of a baby. They bring an offering and the mother’s purification is declared. We often bring babies for baptism, and Christians from some traditions have baby dedications. Nearly all people, whether actively pursuing faith or not, recognize in the birth or adoption of a baby, that something sacred has happened. This sacred moment needs a marking, a celebration of the goodness and love of God.
And in the case of Jesus, when he was brought to the temple, two faithful people there, Simeon and Anna, immediately recognized that Jesus was no ordinary child. Simeon’s song inspired Joseph and Mary, as you might expect. Simeon confirmed what they had heard now many times – that the child they were raising had a special calling. And because of Jesus’ perfect fulfillment of his calling, every human being born thereafter has a special calling, given by God. What Simeon saw was God’s salvation, coming in the person of Jesus Christ, God-with-us, who unites us all to God, as he is the light of revelation to all people.
We can close our eyes to this revelation, but oh, how much better it is when we open our eyes and see how blessed we are, as children of the living of God.
Luke 2:25-33
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, 29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." 33 And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.
Having read that defining moment of Jesus’ dedication and Simeon’s declaration in the temple, we now turn to the next story the Gospels give us about Jesus, now an adolescent, and acting like one. Jesus is with his parents and then he disappears. Every parent has had a missing adolescent at some point or another. Imagine the concern of a missing kid for three days. Imagine the frustration of the parents upon finding him to hear, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I would be in my Father’s house?” Huge defining/separating moment. I belong to my Father in heaven more than I belong to you.
Every kid after Jesus needs to make that claim, and we give them opportunity in adolescence, to be confirmed – to make that separation. I am my own person and I belong to God, more than to my parents. We hope that every teen at Peace will make this step – will ask questions, as Jesus did, and will grow in wisdom, and in favor with God and with humanity.
This is a major step, and whether you were officially confirmed or whether you had some other form of identity resolution, separating yourself from your parents’ identity, it is crucial to realize at some point in life that you belong to God, and as grateful or ungrateful as you might feel toward your parents and their influence, you must take responsibility for yourself and your own faithfulness. Hear the moment when Jesus stepped out from under his parents’ wings and declared himself a resident in God’s house.
Luke 2:41-52
41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." 49 He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. (NRSV)
While there must have been many meaningful events in Jesus’ boyhood and early adulthood, we do not know what they were. We just know that he increased in wisdom and in stature or years, and that he became more and more appreciated by God and by humanity.
That’s our aim as followers of Christ – to grow in wisdom, to become more pleasing to God and to all the people around us. And how wonderful if it can be said of us, when we are gone, that we grew in wisdom, that our lives were pleasing to God and a blessing to others. To please God and be a blessing to others, we must work toward greater faithfulness, knowing that we cannot earn God’s grace and love. We have already been declared, as Jesus was, “God’s beloved children.” So as children of God, heirs of Christ, we try to live into our name, our calling, our truest identity.
Hear the moment of Jesus’ baptism when the Holy Spirit descended on him like dove and a voice came from heaven, announcing his unique status and favor as God’s Son. This is the favor and the identity that is imparted to us, through his union with God and with us.
Mark 1:4-11
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." (NRSV)
Those who develop the healthiest sense of personal identity are those who understand their continuity with family and group of origin, who appreciate their own uniqueness as a person, and who maintain a healthy affiliation with the people of their past, present, and future.
We have seen how Jesus’ birth, dedication, temple time of questioning, while separated from his parents, and his culminating blessing and call to ministry in his baptism shaped his self-understanding and direction.
I am wondering how you would write the sacred history of your life…..Think about it. For me, it was an infant baptism, followed by a strong nurturing family and church family in a small town Presbyterian Church. My self-defining/separating moment came in the mid-eighties when I felt called and pursued ordained ministry, despite some of my family’s members questioning whether women had a place as pastors of churches. There has been no one moment when the heavens opened up for me, or the voice of God spoke audibly, or the light of Christ was shining in a presence that I could call visible, but I have known Christ to be near, in difficult and in joyful times in my life. One of those difficult times for me was a season in which I was not serving in a professional ministry role, and felt a sense of loss.
I have deep and clear sense that this particular ministry is my calling, and that in particular, I am called to lead you into your own sense of ministry, to fulfill God’s calling to you, to be in ministry. Every one of us belongs to God. Every one of us is called by God to some form of ministry in serving Christ.
Every one of us has different shaping events. My mother’s faith was profoundly shaped by the loss of her own father at fifteen. My father’s faith was shaped by his year-long experience in a TB hospital in his mid-thirties.
Ponder for a moment what have been your defining moments in the faith – your baptism, your confirmation, your ordination to ministry as pastor or elder, your first decision to return to church as an adult, your decision to give your gift of music for the glory of God, your initial willingness to serve on a ministry team with others, your experience at church camp or conference when you knew you wanted to be a disciple of Christ?
Consider whether people could say of you that you grew in wisdom and in favor with God and humankind. After your death, will people be interested in your defining moments because your life by the power of the Spirit was a blessing to others. We have a sacred history of our own, a history in which we must find continuity with our past, a sense of unique purpose in our own identity and calling in the present, and a meaningful affiliation with the people around us to carry us from present into the future. One day when we are no longer able to do, but only be with God, we will hear God’s message: “You are my beloved.” May we be faithful, such that God can also say, “With you I am well pleased.”
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