Children's time:
I have some very bad riddles to tell the congregation, but I need your help. I'm going to give you the answers. When I read the question, please read the answer nice and loud.
What's brown and sticky? A stick.
What's freckled and skinny? Skin.
What's pink and eerie? An ear.
What's white and silly? A windowsill.
What's scuffed and slippery? A slipper.
What's red and nosy? A nose.
Aren't those silly? Those are the kind of jokes that don't translate well into other languages. Jesus made a joke in his language, Aramaic. It translated well into Greek. But it doesn't translate well into English. He called a disciple named Simon a rock—Cephas. Kind of like nicknaming him Rocky in English. Can you tell me some good things about rocks?
Peter was not strong, or hard, or steady. He made a lot of mistakes, and didn't understand what Jesus was trying to tell him. But Jesus still made him a disciple, and Peter still followed Jesus. Even though he messed up sometimes, Peter still got to be a disciple. Why do you suppose that is?
I mess up sometimes, and I still get to be a Christian. I still get to be a pastor even. Pretty amazing, isn't it? ? Let's pray.
The forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah is the second servant song. We heard the first last Sunday. In this poem, the servant moves between being a single person and a group of people. Both are Israel, who needs to be encouraged and reminded of God's ultimate power and victory. We'll be reading from my translation. You can follow along on page 679. Hebrew poetry doesn't focus on rhythm or rhyme much; instead of matching sounds, Hebrew poetry matches ideas; the ideas are parallel. Parallel ideas can translate into every language. Listen for the poetry in the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 49:1-7.
Listen to me, you who live on the coast, and pay attention, you people from far away.
Yahweh called me from the womb, from my mother's belly God caused my name to be remembered.
God made my mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of his hand he protected me
God made me like a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
And God said to me, “You are my servant Israel, In you I will be glorified .”
But I said “For nothing I have worked,
For emptiness and pointlessness
I have drained my strength.
Yet surely my case is with Yahweh,
And my reward with my God.”
And now Yahweh says he pulled me from the womb
to be his servant
to restore Jacob back to him,
but Israel will not be removed.
And I am honored in the eyes of Yahweh
and my God has become my might.
And God said, “It is too trifling a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribe of Jacob and to return deported ones of Israel so I will make you as a light to the nations and my salvation will be as far as the ends of the earth.”
This ends our reading from Isaiah.
Our psalm reading is on page 513. Psalm 40 extols God's faithfulness and the goodness of God's law. But the psalmist has an agenda: God helped him, and he did his part by telling people about getting God's help, and oh, by the way, could God do it again? Listen for the word of God as we read it together from Psalm 40:1-11.
1To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
I waited patiently for the LORD ; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD .
4 Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied , O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted .
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required .
7 Then I said, "Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD .
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11 Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
This ends our reading from the psalms.
The psalmist thanks God for delivering him from trouble. John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the one who will save the world from trouble, who takes away the sins of the world. Turn to page 92, and listen for the word of God as it is found in John 1:29-43.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared , "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel ." 32 And John testified , "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed , "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed ). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."
This ends our reading of God's word.
Anthem.
I've collected a few stories from people who spoke about their experiences of following Jesus, of being a Christian, of answering Jesus' call to “come and see.” At different places in my life I have felt what they felt, and I thought you might have also. There isn't just one way to follow Jesus.
Nancy Mairs is an author who was raised Congregationalist and became a Catholic. One day she was walking near a seminary and shocked herself by saying:
“I think that I am supposed to go to theological seminary.”
She wrote: “…I am a Catholic, part of an institution…which has survived for centuries on the concept of religious vocation. And I can now believe that others hear and heed God's call. But to claim myself among them seems spiritually arrogant. If God wants some task carried out, she can do better than look to me. My actions are far less apt to reflect the will of God than my own willfulness. Whatever I think I'm supposed to do, I'm probably the one supposing. For the past year and more I have been swallowed up by the soul sickness known in medieval times as acedia. I can hardly work. I have published seven books in 11 years, but if I have another in me, I don't know what. I sit in front of my computer like a slug, playing solitaire or fiddling with the software or even merely staring at the screen. Over and over I chide myself for my inertia. ‘Come on, Nancy , pull out of this paralysis.' Then I have to think again, because I am in fact paralyzed, irreversibly and against my will by multiple sclerosis. Perhaps after a quarter of a century the disease has worn me past the point of productivity. Theological study may simply seem to offer the discipline I want back in my life…
The doubt and dither I've worked myself into arises from my childhood perception of God as other, who might speak to me but probably would not, and indeed never did, straining though I might to hear his voice telling me exactly what he wanted me to do, when and how often, so that I could become the good girl I was commanded to be. Such a view of the Holy as an alien being, the Big Boss, alternately instructive and punitive but always perfectionist, was part of the guilt and despair that characterized much of my life. My conversion to Catholicism, with its emphasis on incarnation, brought me a fresh perception of the good news…:that we bear God into the world, in all God's complexity, and so God is always with(in) us. When we choose an action, then, we must do so in good faith, attentive not to a set of regulations issued from on high, but to our own best inclinations, which both arise from and attest to God's presence here, now, alive in us as in all creation. …I doubt I'll be going to theological seminary, even though I'm sure a year or two there would provide me both much-needed spiritual discipline and spiritual delight. Too many factors weight against this particular impulse, God knows. She will stir others within me, I trust. As for acedia and my other spiritual ills, I'll either succumb to or surmount them. I'm sure God is calling for the latter. (1)
Kathleen Norris wrote about a December when she was on a book tour in LA, leaving the cold Minnesota weather behind. She was eager to find a Catholic or Episcopal religious community in LA so she could sing the O Antiphons, scripture verses that are chanted during evening worship in the last week of Advent. Her driver picked her up in an old Buick convertible, and the ride, the sun, and the California breeze put her in a reckless mood for a radio interview. On the air, her host asked , “Do you consider yourself a Christian?” Kathleen wrote, “I sighed and said, 'My problem with that is that so many people who publicly identify themselves as Christians are such jerks about it.' The woman laughed, as did the people in the sound booth behind her. ‘Especially now,' I continued, ‘when all that Christmas cheer is being rammed down our throats. It's enough to make a saint scream.' I said I often wondered if being a Christian was something we could, or should, claim for ourselves; that if being a Christian meant incarnating the love of Christ in my own life, that maybe it would be best to let others tell me how well, or how badly, I'm doing. I spoke briefly about what Advent meant to me and then confessed that I had schemed for months to find the O Antiphons in the city. I doubt that it was the looniest interview the woman had all day, but it had its moments.” (2)
I remember in college some students who wouldn't participate in a sociology discussion on patriarchy because they were Christians. It was as if their faith prevented them from thinking hard. As a pastor, I haven't met too many people who act like jerks when they claim to be Christian. I think people are more careful around a pastor.
Dallas Willard is a philosophy professor. He doesn't have a problem at all with answering the question “Are you a Christian?” or “Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?”
“…people who are asked whether they are apprentices of a leading politician, musician, lawyer, or screenwriter would not need to think a second to respond. Similarly for those asked if they are studying Spanish or bricklaying …. It is hardly something that would escape one's attention. The same is all the more true if asked about discipleship to Jesus.
But if asked whether they are good apprentices of whatever person or line of work is concerned, they very well might hesitate. They might say no. Or yes. Asked if they could be better students, they would probably say yes. And all of this falls squarely within the category of being a disciple or apprentice. For to be a disciple in any area or relationship is not to be perfect. One can be a very raw and incompetent beginner and still be a disciple. …
A disciple or apprentice, then, is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does….
How does this apply to discipleship to Jesus? What is it, exactly, …that the incarnate Lord, does? …he lives in the kingdom of God, and he applies that kingdom for the good of others and even makes it possible for them to enter it themselves. The deeper theological truths about his person and his work do not detract from this simple point. It is what he calls us to by saying, ‘Follow me.'” (3)
Here's an example of disciples following a leader. These are the words to a pledge form from 1963, for volunteers to sit-in demonstrations to protest segregated eating facilities in Birmingham, Alabama.
At the top of the page it says, “I hereby pledge myself – my person and my body – to the nonviolent movement. Therefore I will keep the following ten commandments:
1. Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.
2. Remember always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation – not victory.
3. Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free.
6. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
8. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue or heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.
I sign this pledge, having seriously considered what I do and with the determination and will to persevere. Name address, phone, nearest relative.
Besides demonstration, I could also help the movement by: (Circle the proper items) Run errands, drive my car, fix food for volunteers, clerical work, make phone calls, answer phones, mimeograph, type, print signs, distribute leaflets. (4)
I found that last line to be an anticlimax. It sounds so grand to “walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.” Typing seems to have little to do with love. But it has everything to do with communication, sharing power and valuing other people. These were the days of manual trypewriters—typing on one of them did take a lot of devotion.
Our faith is lived out in everyday tasks. We are called, like the first disciples, to come and see, and to follow. In following Jesus, we come to a satisfying way to live. We see the good news, and are able to become a part of it. God calls us, knowing how uneven and rocky we are, so that we might come and see for ourselves the rough places made plain. Amen.
(1) Mairs, Nancy, “Who's calling?” Christian Century, Dec. 10, 1997, p. 1167.
(2) Norris, Kathleen, The Cloister Walk, p. 73.
(3) Willard, Dallas. “How to be a disciple.” The Christian Century, April 22-29, 1998, p. 430.
(4) King, Coretta Scott, The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: New Market Press,©1983, p. 74. |
First Presbyterian Church