Sermon for the Third Sunday After Epiphany
January 25, 2009
Jonah 3:1–5, 10
Psalm 62:5–12
1 Corinthians 7:29–31
Mark 1:14–20
Lectionary 3
Year B
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
Lord Jesus, our rock and our salvation,
you called your disciples to follow you for the sake of others.
Give us courage to use the power you bestow on us
for the good of those in need.
Amen.
-–Welcome Home: Scripture, Prayers and Blessings for the Household Year of Mark
Esther Nelson was a will of o’wisp, wavy grey hair flaring out over her wide wrinkled face, with ruddy complexion, and big blue eyes. She was already into her eighties when I met her, one of the many old Swedes that made up my little congregation in the old Marble Town of Rutland, Vermont. Even though she married Eddie Nelson, she could as well been a Peterson, a Williamson, a Gustafson, or a Johnson. Actually, her family name before marriage was Johnson.
Esther opened her former marble company house in West Rutland to Kari and me with our little kids and even let our greyhound run around in her yard. She had an old dirt cellar, from which she would always grab a jar of watermelon pickles for us to take home. Esther worried about many things. Getting along in her declining years, she wondered if this would be the year she would not decorate her home with every Christmas doo-dad that would fit in every nook and corner, which won her a photo story in the local paper on year. She worried about old Swedes even more debilitated than she, about her forgetful brother also named Eddie across the valley also alone in the company house every Johnson was born in and where she used to be sent out by her mother up the mountain to gather all sorts of berries when they were in season. Eddie used to drink too much beer, and as his pastor I would find cans hidden under the chair when we sat on his porch. Esther would call me whenever she wanted to share her worry, “Pastor,” she would say, “Ray [her cousin] fell again and I don’t think he’s sticking to his diet.” Ray was a double amputee who struggled with diabetes and got around with two prostheses and a car with hand controls.
More than anything, within, around, and behind the stories I could tell you, I think I remember Esther’s passion for the church most of all. She loved Jesus, and while her roots were deep in the memory of being a part of the “Swedish Church,” she would give her right arm as an act of love if it meant serving the Christ in others, like the flatlander Pastor from New Jersey who came for a time to join in life and love. Esther would volunteer for anything, driving her banana-colored Chrysler to bring food for a pastors’ meeting or youth supper. Then when her eyes dimmed and she couldn’t drive, if she could get a ride, she would help with the ladies making crafts for the annual bazaar, or help to fold the letters for the annual Stewardship campaign. And inevitably, she would always say “I wish I could do more.”
I call Jihan my Palestinian mother. She lives in the Jerusalem area known as Beit Safafa, across from where Kari and I studied at the Tantur Institute in 2006. Though her son Barhoum was my friend and colleague, the pastor of the Arabic-speaking Redeemer Lutheran Church in the Old City, that summer he and his family had to travel to Germany mid-way through our visit to the Holy Land. So Jihan housed our children for their last days before returning to the states, this diminutive woman with the easy smile. She is deeply rooted in her memories of struggle to stay in this home, to keep her identity as a Jerusalemite and a Palestinian, and to beam with pride when she talks about her late husband Charlie as the first deacon of that Lutheran community. Last year, when I brought a group to see the ways Christians give witness for justice and faith in Palestine, it was Jihan who insisted that the group come to her home for Sunday dinner. By that time in our tour, everyone was tired of eating chicken, the most common Arabic dinner dish we were served for almost two weeks. When we arrive at sat down at her dining table, Jihan’s feast had about eight different dishes on the table, and there was not a lick of chicken! Jihan loves Jesus, and while her roots are deep in the Palestinian Christian community, she would give her right arm as an act of love if it means serving the Christ in others, like the Pastor from New Hampshire who knows her son and came for a time to join in life and love. Jihan does not drive, but gets rides from others and taxis to join in Women’s Bible Study, prepare crafts for the annual Christmas Bazaar, or accompany her pastor son on a visit to a parishioner.
Someone at CtK comes early to pray before worship each Sunday. Another writes cards on behalf of the church to those who have been held in prayer. Another keeps asking me about how to get involved at Anne Marie House, and whether we have any other worship services so she doesn’t miss them. There are people new to the congregation who when asked what they see here that provides them with energy say they like the music, they like how we are involved with our in our community and the globe, they like how we welcome children and engaged youth. Could it be that these folks see that people here love Jesus, and that we would give our right arms if it means serving the Christ in others?
In our congregational meeting today, we will be presented with numbers, figures at first glance that point out fiscal restraint in a time of financial shortcomings. What I hope they will also say is how faithful we are being, how faithful we have been, and how we are continuing on a path of discipleship, where the invitation is extended to follow, to leave behind certain claims on our time, our energy, and our resources, and to use them instead for the good news of the kingdom of God.
When Jesus arrives on the scene in Mark, he does not merely present a program, a stimulus package, or a marketing campaign. What he does in his speaking and doing, and in his very being is to ramp up our connection to God. The good news for us is how God through Christ invites all to conversion, to turn our attention and our hearts to a way of life that leads toward the cross.
As we follow Jesus in Mark’s gospel in the next weeks, with breathless activity, Jesus will go the nooks and corners of Middle Eastern society, to blue collar fishermen, corrupt tax-collectors, outsider Gentiles, and the mentally deranged.
Today he invites four men sloughing it out in their workplace, on the Sea of Galilee to drop everything, leave their families, and join in another fishing expedition.
What is it that you need to drop to jump into life that Christ offers?
Where is it that you can see yourself face to face with Jesus, who when you are with him, when you are connected to him, heightens your sense of time, helps you know that God is near, places before you a cross that leads to new life, the kingdom, the gospel, conversion?
Where are your passions, your energies, your excitement for your walk with Jesus?
Do you see it in others?
Will you sing, will you eat and drink, will you listen, will you talk as though Christ is in you, as it most surely was in Simon, Andrew, James, John, Esther, and still is in Jihan?
Lord Jesus, our rock and our salvation,
you called your disciples to follow you for the sake of others.
Give us courage to use the power you bestow on us
for the good of those in need.
Amen.
-–Welcome Home: Scripture, Prayers and Blessings for the Household Year of Mark
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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