Epiphany 3 A - Jan 26, 2014

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. James Michael Dowd, OHC
Year A - Epiphany 3 - Sunday, January 26, 2014

Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

Jesus Calling Peter - Duccio di Buoninsegna, d. 1319
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The Call: Fishers of People
I'd like to begin this morning by talking about Peter and Andrew, James and John for just a little bit. We tend to divide our discussion of the apostles into a “before they went to heaven” and an “after they went to heaven” kind of dichotomy that I am increasingly uncomfortable with. I don't think it is fair to their memory or to us, who have to live with that memory.

The “after they went to heaven” approach to the apostles is that they are these glorious saints, who are the holders of the Truth of the Gospel, who each have a gate of heaven, and hold the very keys to heaven. It's a little much, really.

On the other hand, we have the “before they went to heaven” discussion of the apostles, heard in many a sermon, as complete dullards, men who didn't have a clue about their faith, were egotistical, self-centered and more interested in their own glory than in the glory of Christ.

And I think both of these extreme views of the apostles does them a disservice. For me, the reality of the apostles was that they were, quite simply, faithful human beings. People like you and me who got it right a bunch of the time and occasionally really messed up.

Now I think this because of these two verses, regarding Peter and Andrew:

“ 'Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.' Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

And these two verses: ...[Jesus] 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.”

Now I don't care how charismatic Jesus was, or how attractive his message and very being were, the very short sentence “come follow me” is really not enough to give up your whole life – to leave your family, your livelihood, your home, everything, to follow an itinerant preacher doing who knows what. No, something else is at work here and that something else is, I think, the faithfulness of Peter, Andrew, James and John.

You see, the nature of a call is not that you have heard some voice of God that gives you brand new information that you've never heard before or that you have never even thought of before. The nature of a call is that God brings to light the truth that already lives within you. That's what Matthew is trying to communicate to us when he quotes the great Prophet Isaiah “the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

The first four apostles had been sitting in the darkness for a long time. Indeed, all Israel, whom the apostles are a stand in for, had been waiting. And faithful Jews throughout the land had been waiting for the light; praying for the light; hoping, always hoping for the light for hundreds and hundreds of years. For generation after generation, the people – or at least some of them – did their best to stay awake enough to be ready for that light. And when the light dawned, the faithful were awake enough to recognize it. That's how Peter, Andrew, James and John knew to follow immediately. They were awake – perhaps just enough – to see the great light that was shining before them.

Yes, they would be temporarily blinded, now and again, in later parts of the story. And toward the end of Jesus life they would not live up to all they might have, but these men had prepared all their lives to meet the light and when Jesus walked by, they were ready. In the end, though sometimes having to be awakened as from a nap, that would be the case throughout their whole lives.

I would argue that even the feast we commemorated yesterday, the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, teaches us the same thing. Even though Paul, then known as Saul, was persecuting the Church – quite viciously actually – he had been faithful to the Law, to reading Scripture, to worship of God. The problem for him was that he was allowing his furious rage to rule his soul and interpreted these new followers of the Christ to be apostates who were actually threatening the very survival of the Jewish people.

But when the light appeared to Paul, in the form of what seemed like a blinding sun, Paul was able to dig much deeper within himself. Now, it took him three days of a simulated blindness to dig as deep as he needed and to wake up. Note, his taking to following Christ was not immediate as was the case with the first four apostles, but nonetheless, Paul, too, had lived and hoped for the coming of the light. And in those three days of no doubt great repentance for all that he had done persecuting Jesus, and what must have been very painful searching for the truth within, Paul was slowly beginning to perceive the light that Christ bore within him.

What do I mean by that? Well, these great saints, just as surely as you and I, were created in the image and likeness of God, and so, from the beginning of our lives, we already bear the light within. The likeness of God is that part of us which is the image of God, an image of a light so great that we are not only called into the mission of God, but called to become the christs – that is, the anointed ones – as we follow Jesus, the Christ.

And so, how do we prepare ourselves to recognize the light when it shines on us and to hear the call when it emanates from us? It doesn't matter who we are, we might be fishermen types, doing our duty, working for a living, faithful, but ordinary people. Or, we might even be notorious sinners, persecuting God's people, supporting the oppression of innocents and the use of violence against people who believe differently from ourselves. In either case, the light still longs to shine on us, and the call still resides within us and God finds different and compelling ways to help us to see that great light and to hear that call. But it does take cooperation from us. We must be willingly placing ourselves into a position of “here I am Lord”, making ourselves available to God on a regular basis. That is what prayer is.

But note well, the very minute you get a glimpse of that morning sun, even as it is just peeking over the horizon, you are called into mission. A mission to become fishers of people. You see, Christ's mission – and ours – is to ever expand the kingdom. By calling more and more people into the kingdom we become God's instruments to help each individual to recognize the light and to hear the call within themselves. For within that recognition lies great healing, great repentance, great, great love. That is what Jesus is talking about when he proclaims “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In fact, it is so near, it is within and among us, right here, in this church, this morning.

And so, my sisters and brothers, to pray is a faithful search to find the light. To find the light is a faithful way to hear the call. To hear the call is to take on the mission of the kingdom, which is, as we know, to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to welcome the stranger, to comfort the mourning, to be Christ to one another. Look around you, look within you, the kingdom of heaven has drawn hear! AMEN.

Epiphayny 2 A - Jan 19, 2014

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. James Rostron, n/OHC
Year A - Epiphany 2 - Sunday, January 19, 2014

Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

The Baptism of Jesus
"This is my Son, the Beloved"

We are lingering this week at the Jordan River. Close your eyes and imagine the scene, if

you will. You and many others have been drawn to this place from all of Judea and Jerusalem, seeking. You have left homes, jobs, and families and walked across dry, rugged desert to get to this oasis to see John the Baptist. Priests and Levites are also here, at the request of the Pharisees, to find out just what is going on. Jesus is here, although people don’t yet know who he is. There is a great sense of anticipation, I imagine, surrounding something very new, very exciting, and yet unknown. It is quite a remarkable scene. Last Sunday, the focus was on Jesus’s baptism, and this week it is on John’s witness to that event. John, the author of the gospel, uses a word related to witnessing fourteen times in today’s verses – words like “see,” “look,” “testified,” and “revealed.” Something extraordinary is happening, and John is making sure we notice.

What has drawn people to come here? What has drawn you to come here? John is
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So it seems people have a desire to change the direction, the focus, of their lives. To be cleansed of their sins. To rectify their separation from God. To find freedom from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. To experience a fresh start, a new beginning. It has been a thousand years – think of how long that is; what do you know or feel about the year 1014? – a thousand years since David was on the throne. And, in the meantime, the nation of Israel has repeatedly strayed from the path God set for them. They have endured great disappointments and suffering, years of exile and waiting, and, most recently, silence. The era of the great prophets ended 450 years ago. Where is God? they must be wondering. How are we going to find our way to a better future, a future that is right with God?

Today, John the Baptist is viewed by many as the last prophet, and the first monastic, a
bridge between the old and the new. A prophet is a person through whom God speaks. In his role as a prophet, John is telling the world about the presence of God among them in the form of Jesus Christ. William Barclay writes, “John makes clear what his only function was. It was to point others to Christ. He was nothing, and Christ was everything. He claimed no greatness and no place for himself; he was only the man who...drew back the curtain” to reveal Jesus to the world. The day after Jesus’s baptism, John declares, as Jesus was coming toward him, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John understands the magnitude of what is taking place, and he is making sure that those gathered with him at the Jordan also understand. Waters parted on the second day, at the Red Sea, and here at the Jordan. From these waters of baptism an extraordinary new life in Jesus has emerged, and John is the witness who testifies to this. It is the beginning of something totally and amazingly new.

And that new beginning is still happening. As I sat before the manger here during
Christmastide and looked at the baby Jesus, I thought about Jesus being born in Bethlehem two thousand long years ago and how he continues to be born. Not just once a year, symbolically, in December, but every time a baby is born. One of my favorite authors, John Philip Newell, who writes and speaks about the implications of Celtic spirituality for our time, has written that the birth of the universe, the so-called Big Bang, is not just something that happened billions of years ago. It is still happening. He highlights the teachings of the ninth-century Celtic philosopher, Eriugena, who said that all things were made “together and at once” and remain hidden until the time of their manifestation. In God’s time, which is infinitely greater than ours, God’s wonderful creation continues to be revealed. Newell says that the world today is experiencing the birth pangs of this ongoing creation. And I see this creation as happening on many scales: throughout the universe, across this planet, and deep within each of us. All the time. 
We just need to pay attention.

It is at his baptism, I think, that Jesus finally knows who he really is. God tells him, “you
are my beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Just as John the Baptist wants to be sure we know this, so does John the Evangelist. A prominent theme in his gospel is that Jesus and God and you and I are one. So, God is also saying to you and to me, “you are my beloved; with you I am well pleased.” When Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan he at once became fully aware of his divinity and also of his humanity. He shared in a ritual act that he didn’t need but that those gathered with him desperately needed, and he received the Holy Spirit from God, the same Spirit that rests on us as well. We are human, and we are also divine. Jesus is continually being reborn, he lives within each of us, and his and our baptism is ongoing throughout our lifetimes. We continue to be cleansed in the waters of God, here on this water planet, not just metaphorically but also in the rain, in the mist, in a river or ocean, or in the sprinkle from an aspergellum at Compline. We are in every moment in the midst of dying and being born anew in Christ. Rebirth and new creation are happening continuously, in God’s time. Pay attention!

Two of John the Baptist’s disciples were paying attention when, on the third day, he, for
the third time, exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” And they responded by following Jesus, who turned to them and asked, “What are you looking for?” They in turn asked, “Where are you staying?” To which Jesus replied, “Come and see.” This is an extremely powerful and moving interaction, rich with meaning. But I want to focus on the statement, “Come and see.”
Come – get up, change direction, move toward a new place; and see – open yourself to receive what the Holy Spirit wishes to give you. John said to all those present at the Jordan River, come and see this man Jesus, newly anointed by God. Jesus invited Andrew and his companion to come and see where he is staying. Andrew told his brother Simon to come and see. And Philip will soon tell Nathanael to come and see the Messiah who has just been revealed.

It is a cascade of invitations to witness God’s grace and glory made incarnate. I view it as
something like a nuclear reaction: awesome, powerful, growing exponentially. Like the light and energy of the Big Bang expanding and spreading endlessly throughout the universe. Like the cells of an embryo mitotically splitting and splitting and splitting again. Like the love that God wants us to carry and share from one person to another to another to another. We are the builders of God’s Kingdom in whom Jesus so passionately wants to live in the world. The word “religion” is derived from the Latin word religare, which means “to bind back together.” Living out our Christian faith means binding back together – giving meaning and purpose to – the primal energy that is the light and the life and the Word that was in the beginning.

So, we have a task set before us here in the twenty-first century. Come and see. Go and
look. Seek and find ways to spread God’s love in the world. Listen to John the Baptist speaking to us, in God’s time just yesterday. Be a witness to God’s love. Be prophetic, allow God to speak truth through you. Invite others to join you. I love to quote a Quaker saying every chance I get: “Speak to that of God in everyone.” It can be in small ways, like offering a smile or a kindness to a stranger. It can be in medium-sized ways, like trying to understand and respond lovingly to someone with whom you are in disagreement. And it can be in larger ways, like devoting yourself to a cause, such as writing letters or attending demonstrations or joining groups in opposition to capital punishment or to the use of drones. Or volunteering to help feed the hungry or providing shelter for the homeless. Or being a faithful participant in the outreach of your church. There are plenty of opportunities out there for you to share in John’s witness to the baptism of Jesus and its ongoing reverberation throughout the world. And, there are plenty of opportunities for you to say to others, “Come and see.”