January 27, 2008 Message

“Something Different”
Matthew 4:12-23

The focus of our gospel lessons the last couple weeks and today is who is called, who we are called to, and what we are called for.

A couple weeks ago, the gospel lesson was about God’s voice being heard at Jesus’ baptism claiming him as God’s own, telling him God was pleased with him, and saying God had great plans for him. That same voice is heard at our baptism as well. God claims us. God commends us. God welcome us. And in so doing, God makes us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to the whole world. Last week the gospel lesson was how best to discover what Jesus is all about… to come and see, to be like Christ. This week the gospel lesson is about…
"Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.”

We hear that scripture read and we know what’s coming, right. How many times have you heard a message based on that reading? Quite a few, I imagine, for some of you. Jesus calling the disciples from their work as fishermen is one of those well-worn passages of the Bible. Then add to that the singing of the song “Are You Able?” or “Take Up Thy Cross” and you pretty much know what’s coming next. Everyone’s ready for a nap now. We’ve heard that sermon before. However at times such as these, it’s good to think outside the box.

An older couple goes to breakfast at a restaurant where the "seniors' special" was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $1.99.
"Sounds good," the wife said. "But I don't want the eggs."
"Then I'll have to charge you two dollars and forty-nine cents because you're ordering a la carte," the waitress warned her.
"You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?" my wife asked in amazement.
"YES!!" stated the waitress.
"I'll take the special then" the wife said.
"How do you want your eggs?" the waitress asked.
"Raw and in the shell," the wife replied.
She took the two eggs home.

Bill Cotton, former Superintendent of the old Creston and Muscatine Districts of the Iowa Conference, gives the calling of disciples a new twist though. Listen to this. He says, “I think he is calling people out of hell.” Yes, he did say hell, which he defines as something other than “red hot pokers.” He goes on to say, “I think hell is isolated humans who have chosen to go it alone. So Jesus will call this strange bunch together, fisher folks, tax collectors, zealots, timid souls and blustering loud mouths. He calls them out of their hellish condition into a new community. Jesus is all about relationships. No Lone Rangers in the new kingdom. He knows that alone is very bad company.”

Now we’ve always heard this passage preached as a call to discipleship, a call to action - to “get up off our boats” and follow Christ… that has often been translated, as “do more for the church.” But that isn’t the message I want you to hear this morning – that you need to do more for the church. I want you to hear something else - something you may not have ever heard before when this passage is preached – an invitation to do something for yourself. It’s an invitation to relationship, an invitation to be part of the group, an invitation to end your isolation from others: "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.”

I can remember growing up one of the shows we watched on WHO-TV was “Let’s Go Bowling” hosted by Jim Zabel, a popular sports broadcaster who also did all the Iowa games on radio. Bowling was a very popular sport and pastime back then. The bowling alley was generally one of the stops for those of us cruising the loop on Saturday night. Then there was only a opportunities for open bowling; most nights were league nights. Robert Putman, in a book entitled Bowling Along, the Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2000), used bowling as the metaphor to examine the absence of group life in American culture. Putman discovered that more people bowl than voted in the Presidential election. Yet, bowling alleys were going broke. The social aspect of bowling - hanging around afterward to eat and drink and socialize - had all but disappeared. There was no longer any time for that. It was easier for people just to bowl alone and get on to the next thing in their busy lives. In the eight years since, we have not seen any indication of a reversal to that trend in our society, have we? If anything, our need to “get on to the next thing” has only multiplied.

Putnam also reminds us that once there were dozens of informal groups in every community where people came together and created a social resource or investment of sorts. That mostly ended in the 1970s and we became a community of strangers. Perhaps you have seen the same thing in the organizations you belong to. Does it seem today like there are fewer people who belong and less commitment of those who do? People have become more into themselves and in doing so, have become more isolated, even though there seems to be more things going on in their lives. Jesus calls us from our isolation: “Come with me…”

More and more, society has become divided. I think most of us would agree that the red/blue division of American society is not a good thing; in fact, it is a hellish thing? And that division promises to become even more noticeable in a month or so when the party caucuses and primaries are over with and the presidential election begins. And it’s not just in our politics. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be more distinctions made between one group or another; and with it the development of an ‘us’ verses ‘them’ mentality.

And yet God is a God of us all, right. God isn’t a ‘red” or a ‘blue’ God. God has no color. God doesn’t speak this language and not that language. God makes no distinction between rich or poor. God isn’t about fences but about bridges. So, when we set ourselves apart from one another what do we do? We set ourselves apart from God; and that is a hellish place to be. That’s not good at all! Jesus calls us from our hellish places: “Come with me…”

Jesus calls us to relationship. Putnam notes that when people first came together in various groups they might not have become close friends at first, but over time, relationships formed and when the community needed to work together groups formed, unions were made and bridges were built between diverse people. That is what Jesus is doing in today’s lesson – calling a motley crew to relationship, bringing them together not only so they might get to know him, but also so they might get to know one another. And in getting to know one another they might know God - in relationship and in love.

Somehow, the Church needs to take the lead in restoring this kind of community. Jesus didn’t call Andrew and Peter, James and John, and the others to do all those things we find ourselves doing in the church; he called them to be in relationship with him and one another. Isn’t that what we should be doing first and foremost, as well? Or are we too busy for informal relationships, too busy with our own lives, too busy with what the church has become that we don’t have time for one another? Jesus calls us from our busy-ness: “Come with me…”

T.S. Eliot - poet, dramatist, literary critic, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 - once asked the question of the Church, “What life have we, if we have not life together?” Pardon the pun but Eliot knew how to raise hell!

Jesus calls us from our hellish places: “Come with me…”