I apologize for not posting in the last few days. Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been happening, and Seattle was paralyzed by a snow and ice storm. Days at home were spent frantically preparing off-site for liturgies to happen the next day, only to have the campus closed; to top it our countywide observance in happening tonight. Exciting busy times. I hope some of you have been able to read the reflections posted on our STM Week of Prayer site: http://weekofprayer.us/ . While stuck at home I found those a wonderful way to engage in prayer with my STM community and with the world at large.
However, on Sunday, I was privileged and honored to be invited to provide the sermon at both of the Masses said at the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University. They had a baptism that morning, a little girl named Molly Lynn Shafer and I looked for a way to tie the text for the day, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Baptism all together. I preached twice, in the Morning for a congregation composed of members from the community surrounding Seattle University, and faculty,staff and students from the University, when the baptism took place and in the evening to a congregation composed mainly of Seattle University students. Some revision was needed, this text was used at the 9:00 pm Mass.
I give credit to this site: http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-22-2012-third-sunday.html for the insight that finally drew them all together. Here is the sermon:
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(sing) I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me. If you follow me, if you follow me, I will make you fishes of men, if you follow me.
Do you know that song? I heard some of you singing. Whenever I read this text, I hear that song running through my head. It had hand motions, you know. (demonstrate). I remember one time a pastor of mine came up the aisle wearing his fishing vest, his thigh-high waders, his fishing hat covered with fishing flies and carrying his fishing creel and his fishing pole. (Look at Father Ohno) that’s an image that will never leave your brain!
The passage is simple, straightforward, just a few sentences. Mark, the writer of this particular gospel doesn’t give us any extraneous details, we don’t know if there were other fishermen around, we don’t know the time of day, we only know Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. With these five short verses Mark paints a picture.
How do you imagine this? I have always pictured Simon and Andrew standing at the edge of the Sea of Galilee, which was really more a large lake, maybe like Lake Washington, minding their own business, throwing their nets out into the sea; Jesus walking by. He calls out to them, they turn their heads, and they drop their nets, leave everything and follow Jesus. The same thing for James and John, but they are sitting in their boat with their father Zebedee, and they leave their nets, their boat, their father and the people who work for them. That’s the way I have imagined this scene my entire life. What about you? It’s a great image, translates well into children’s Bible story books and paintings.
The sermons I have heard based on this text, including the one given by the pastor outfitted in his freshwater fishing gear, have spoken about the metaphor of fishing, of the gear that is needed, the necessity of being prepared, the call to evangelize as it were. Or they have focused on the disciples’ response to Jesus’ call; they dropped everything and followed Jesus, just walked away from their lives. It’s a romantic image isn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but when I really think about this, it becomes one of those “it’s sounds good, but it’s not for me” type of images. How did they do that? I couldn’t. I want to, at least I think I want to, at least I'm pretty sure that's what this stole indicates I should do, but I don’t know how I could possibly do that. Jewish society at the time of Jesus didn’t have social safety nets; these fishermen were not wealthy, not even James and John who had boats and hired men would have been considered wealthy in those days. How did they just pick up and leave everything? Why is this being held up by the writer of Mark as an example of following Jesus? If it’s just a history story, just a retelling of the what and why of Jesus’ life, then so-be-it; this is what happened, it happened two thousand years ago; it’s done.
So, why do we read it today? Why was it included in Mark’s gospel account? Why did the early church think this was important enough to include it in our Scriptures? What does it have to say to us, living in Seattle, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in 2012? I’ve already admitted that I cannot see myself doing this, I have responsibilities, I have a family, I have a job, I have ministry to do, people to see, places to go!
As I have been meditating on and thinking about this passage over the past few weeks, I found myself wondering if perhaps I was focusing on the wrong portion of the reading. When we focus on the disciples’ response to Jesus’ call, and wonder about how we would respond, are we losing sight of the other thing that takes place here? Is Mark’s point that the disciples left everything to follow Jesus, and that we should do the same; or is it that God, through Jesus, did amazing work here and created faith where there was none? Is this more of a "miracle story;" is it really about "the power of God - to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before?"( Barbara Taylor Brown, “Miracle on the Beach”)
As human beings, living in the 21st century, we really don’t want to hear that. To believe that would mean that we have to give up our control, that we are not in charge of our lives, that we are not responsible for our salvation. It’s more comfortable for us that way; we don’t need to depend on anyone else, we don't want to depend on anyone else.
One of the commentaries I looked at this week suggests that “what we may have lost along the way is a full sense of the power of God – to recruit people who have made terrible choices; to invade the most hapless lives and fill them with light; to sneak up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and smack them upside the head with glory." (Barbara Taylor Brown, Home by Another Way). Whether we're ready or not, God acts. Jesus doesn't ask the fishermen "to add one more task to their busy lives. He calls them into new ways of being." So he doesn't give them a new list of things to do but "a new identity….a whole new life" (Feasting on the Word).
That resonates deep within me, that rings true. If we have lost our sense of this power of God, how can we possibly expect others who are not in the Church to understand why we think it is important for us to be here week after week? If we have lost this sense of the power of God, how do we share that with others? If we have lost this sense of the power of God why woudl we want to fish for anyone? How do we explain why it is important to participate in this community of believers?
And that brings us to today, to the Chapel of St. Ignatius, to the Week of Prayer and to Molly Jean Shafer and her family. This morning we saw this story re-enacted, when we witnessed Molly’s birth into the mystical body of Christ through her baptism. What a joy it was! To watch her being baptized. She looked so beautiful, an infant, not tine, but not yet walking, wearing her family’s baptismal gown, surrounded by family and friends! It is a wonderful life passage, attested to by pictures and now a part of their family story. I wondered, as the assembly watched, if they saw it? If they felt it? The power of God at work? When Father Ohno poured that water on Molly’s head, when he anointed her head with oil, did they see it? Did they see God at work in that action?
That’s what this was all about, you know. It’s more than a photo op. God, through the actions of Father Ohno and that gathered assembly, gave Molly a new identity, she was made a part of the one body of Christ, she participated in the death of Jesus, through that water, and is now promised a life with Jesus, as part of his body. This act, this sacrament needs to be approached with fear and trembling, for Molly has been changed, as have we all. You were changed this morning, even if you were sleeping when this action took place, by virtue of being part of this one mystical body. My congregation at Green Lake was changed also.
As a Lutheran Diaconal Minister, I am honored to have been here to witness this miracle. I welcome a sister into the Body of Christ with me; and Molly has been joined with all of you also. This sacrament joins us all together. Molly wasn’t baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, but into the body of Christ. She will live out that life within the community of the Roman Catholic communion, as I have lived my baptismal vocation out within the Lutheran one. But make no mistake, we are one. This baptism joins us together with all other baptized Christians throughout the world. It says so on your baptismal font: “No Barrier can divide where life unites: one faith, one fount, one spirit, makes one people." (St. John Lateran Basilica, 5th century)
And that’s what we celebrate this week around the world when we observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This isn’t a time when we pray for God to make us one; this is a chance for us to pray that we can see that God has already made us one, and to commit again to the work of living more fully into that reality. That reality is lived out in full diversity when we are able to recognize the gifts that are present in each expression of Christianity and to bring our gifts to the conversations.
That is what we did here this morning, when you invited a Lutheran Diaconal Minister to come and participate in this liturgy. This morning the mystical Body of Christ received a new part. We don’t know how Molly will live out this miracle; we do know that God will be with her, in her family, and her congregation, and in us, to walk alongside her and to grow with her into what God has already created in her.
This is the miracle that we celebrate today and that was enacted on the shores of the Sea of Galilee over two thousand years ago. This is what we celebrate this Sunday of the Week of Prayer, “No Barrier can divide where life unites: one faith, one fount, one spirit, makes one people." Thanks be to God.
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