Follow and Fish

Matthew 4:12-23

Throughout Jesus’ journey in ministry the beckoning call of “follow me” happens frequently.  Today in our text the disciples are called to follow.  You would think that the disciples would have had some trepidation about following Jesus, but in this text the disciples are portrayed as willingly following Jesus.  In fact it isn’t just a willingness to follow Jesus, there is a sense of urgency to their following.  The gospel writer goes as far as using the word “immediately.”  That kind of following doesn’t allow for any sense of hesitation or doubt.

As I first read this text I couldn’t help but think of a story I read online a few years ago about Wes Michaels, a man that was killed in a tornado that struck a small Minnesota town.  He'd taken a rare day off, actually his birthday, from working at the Cenex station, which he had bought four years earlier when the tree nursery he had worked at for nearly 40 years closed.  But Michaels was not the kind of guy who liked to waste time, so he'd started to fix an old lawnmower while he kept an eye on the Weather Channel.  So when he saw on the television that tornadoes were forming in the area, Wes Michaels jumped in his pickup truck and drove down to the Cenex station to check on Heidi, his daughter, who was managing the station.  When he got there, a customer joked that he should be out having fun on his birthday.  A few minutes later, a twister took aim on the station.  Michaels ordered Heidi and customers into the cooler as it hit.  Michaels was a big man, about 6 feet tall with a broad chest, "a strong man who wasn't afraid to use his strength," according to his former boss.  Instinctively, he positioned his body above that of his daughter, and took the brunt of the force from debris as the building crumbled around them.  Heidi escaped with a few cuts and bruises, but Wes Michaels died.  Wes Michaels made one of the greatest sacrifices a father can make, when he died while saving his daughter from the tornado that demolished his gas station that day.

I can’t help but think that Wes was following God that day.  He was not looking back as he followed God to fish for people and more specifically that day to save his daughter’s life.  He was following God out of love, love for his daughter.  There were no conditions or any time for doubt, but rather a great sense of urgency for Wes.  Now, I don’t tell this story of Wes Michaels to make you feel like your way of following Jesus is insignificant.  I tell it to show to you that following Jesus happens in everyday life.

As Jesus walked on the shore that day and called out to Peter, Andrew, James and John he was calling out to ordinary people.  He was pulling these everyday fishermen from their daily lives and showing them an extraordinary calling.  He was beckoning them to their call as disciples, their call as followers of Jesus, their call to be fishers of people.

Today Jesus bids us to come and follow him, to come and fish for people.  Like Wes, as we follow Jesus this day we will be changed.  Our lives, our relationships, our priorities will be altered.  Change means losing what we had before, but in the process of changing there is a considerable amount of gain to be had.  In that process of following Jesus we can discover our call as Christians in this place. 

            And then there is a second step.  It is not just about following Jesus, it is also about fishing—fishing for people.  This task is not an easy one, but it is vital and necessary to the central message of the gospel, a message that we are called and commanded to not only to embody, but also to share with others.  Most of this call to follow and fish is relational.  It is relational because we are being called to follow Jesus, to have a relationship with Jesus.  But it is also relational in the sense that we are called to fish for others, to have a Christ-like relationship with our families, our friends, our co-workers, our classmates, our enemies, and even with the people we do not know.  How do we do that?  How exactly do we fish for people? 

To start with let’s deal with our hesitancy.  Hear me when I say that “it’s okay.”  These words “follow me” are the same words we heard as children as we played the game follow the leader.  But following Jesus isn’t as simple as playing follow the leader was when we were six.  I am not sure, at this point in my life, if some random person called out “follow me” I would be too eager to jump on the bandwagon.  Of course if Jesus’ message was (as I just read in Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book) “Follow me and all your dreams of cash and prizes will come true; follow me and you’ll have free liposuction and winning lotto tickets for life” we might be more eager to follow with no strings attached.  But, it can be easy to let doubt speak stronger than faith.  It can also be easy to want to place conditions on our following. "I will follow you, but first...."  All of that is true because we are human, hesitant humans that live in a broken world.

But here me when I say this, too, “You can do this.”  Not only can you do this, but you already are!  I would venture to say almost all of you are already following Jesus and fishing for people.  So rather than tell you what you need to do, I am going to highlight what you are already doing.  You are feeding the hungry.  You are praying for the sick.  You are making music to the Lord.  You are raising your children in faith.  You are praying before meals.  You are reading and studying Scripture.  You are attending worship.  You are being a friend and mentor to others.  You are holding the door open for a stranger.  You are saying “bless you” when someone sneezes.  You are using your gifts and resources to further the kingdom of God.  I would consider all of those things to be ways that we follow Jesus and ways that we fish for people.  This way of living, both what you do inside and outside of the church, is worthy of God’s attention and interest.  Because in all that we do and say, if it is rooted in our faith, we are doing relational work which has the possibility and potential of drawing people to Jesus. 

With that said, I don’t want to lull all of us into a mentality of complacency.  Yes, we are following Jesus and fishing for people in a variety of ways.  However, we can be even better followers and we can do even more.  So, this week I want you to consider how you are already following Jesus and fishing for people.  Then, I want to encourage you to find one additional way to follow Jesus and fish for people.  I am not asking you to give up your job, sell your possessions, and become a street evangelist.  I am encouraging you to talk to your co-worker or classmate about your church, to offer to pray for or with your friend who is going through a joy or sorrow.  I am encouraging you to let your faith move you to action, actions that show the world what your faith means to you.  It doesn’t have to be earth shattering.  It doesn’t have to take time out of your other plans.  Incorporate your faith into your whole life.  Let your words and actions speak out of love, the love that Jesus has for us – a love that caught us in the deep blue sea with the bait of salvation.  So, followers of Jesus and fishers of people, keep following and keep fishing!  Amen.

Remember and Celebrate

Matthew 3:13-17

September 28, 1986 was a very important day in my life.  That was the day I was baptized, the day I became a child of God.  That was the day, when I was just over two months old, that the waters of grace were poured on my head.  At that age I had no idea what baptism would mean for my life or why it was even happening.  In the act of baptism I was given the gift of God’s grace and God’s unconditional love.  In baptism I was given faith!  When I decided to go to seminary I had to put the date of my baptism on all the forms I submitted.  I never quite knew what the date was, so I had to research it a bit.  After writing it on all of those forms I finally can remember the date I was baptized and I now try to take a moment or two each year on that day to remember the gift of baptism I was given by God. 

I am sure there are a few of you who can recall the date of your baptism, but I would imagine there are plenty of others that don’t have the slightest idea.  If you can’t remember that important date, I would encourage you to do a little research and see if you can find it.  Look for your baptismal certificate, talk to your relatives, or call the church you were baptized at.  Do whatever you need to do to find out the date of your baptism. 

Why? Because it really was an important day in your life.  It is a day that should be remembered and celebrated.  I know each time we do a baptism here as we light the baptismal candle we suggest to parents that they light their child’s baptismal candle each year on the date of their child’s baptism and remember this important day.  We don’t just say that…we mean it.  Baptismal anniversaries are dates worth celebrating.  If you think your life will be too crazy to remember your baptismal anniversary or the baptismal anniversary of your children or godchildren start writing in on your calendar or set a reminder on your cell phone for that day and then celebrate the day that the waters of grace were poured on your head.

You would never think of forgetting your birthday or the birthday of your child.  It was a very important day in their life, in fact it was the beginning of life.  But baptisms are also the beginning of life, the beginning of our lives as children of God.  It is an important day where God promises to make us a child of God, to wash us clean of sin, to give us the Holy Spirit, which will enable us to call upon Jesus as Lord, to make us a member of the body of Christ, the Church and to grant us eternal life.  It is also a day where parents and sponsors make promises to live with us among God's faithful people, bring us to the word of God and the holy supper, teach us the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,  place in our hands the holy scriptures, nurture us in faith and prayer so that we may learn to trust God, proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace.  This congregation also makes promises at baptisms to look upon the baptized person as an important member of our Christian community, support parents in making God’s promises known to their child, and support them in keeping the promises that they made to their child at Baptism.

The day of baptism was also important in Jesus’ life.  His baptism established God’s favor and his identity as Jesus, the son of God.  It also inaugurated his mission and ministry.  It was his commissioning, the day he was sent forth into the world.  This act of baptism emphasizes Jesus’ humanity.  Even though he was the Son of God, he too needed to be baptized.  With that in mind, that day of Jesus’ baptism is really not very much different from the day of our baptisms.  Baptism really is an event that we share with Jesus.  It is a day where God’s favor is established and we receive our identity as children of God.  It is a day that we are sent forth into the world.  It is our day of commissioning.

Sure, baptism isn’t something we talk about all the time, but it is something we often witness in worship.  In 2013 we had 32 baptisms at South Canyon.  They were all joyous occasions, whether the baptized person was happy or sad, because they marked the moment where God said to those 32 people “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  They were moments in time where 32 newly baptized people were sent forth into the world to show God’s love and grace to those around them.

There are other times during our life together as a congregation where baptism plays a role, too.  Confession and forgiveness is a reminder of the ultimate forgiveness of sins we were given in baptism.  Communion is an extension of the baptismal promise and a promise of God’s love and care.  The dismissal is a time of commissioning, when we are sent forth to live out our baptism through various vocations in daily life.  In the rite of confirmation our students affirm the promises that were made at their baptisms.  When people are near death I often will make the sign of the cross on their forehead reminding them of the promise God made to them in baptism.  Then in funerals we cover the casket with a white pall, which is a reminder of the baptismal garment. 

In all of those moments, and as we worship together today we recall our own baptisms.  Today I have filled the font and placed it up front with the hope that you will dip your hand in it and make the sign of the cross on your forehead as a reminder of your baptism.  In doing so, we remember that God has made it clear that we are accepted just as we are.  We remember that God loves us.  We remember that God has plans to do many wonderful things through us.  We remember that we are God’s children, deserving of love and respect, and God will use us to change the world.  Yes, you are God’ child, deserving of love and respect, and God will use you to change the world.  Amen.

How Do We Get To Bethlehem?

Luke 2:1-20

            If you want to think in Sesame Street terms I guess you could say that our sermon for tonight is brought to us by the letter B.  B for baby.  B for boy.  B for birth.  B for Bethlehem.  The theme song could even be rewritten: “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Bethlehem?”  It is the birth of a very special baby boy that brings us to Bethlehem tonight.  How we get to Bethlehem is more of a personal story though.

            In our gospel text we hear how Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem.  They are just going about daily life.  They received a decree that the world should be registered, so Joseph went home to Bethlehem.  He went there because he was a descendent of the house and family of David.  He took Mary, his soon-to-be-bride with him to be registered. 

            We also hear how the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem.  They were nearby that night doing their typical shepherd duties, keeping watch over their flocks.  And then an angel appeared.  Of course they were initially afraid of said angel, but then the angel shared with them the good news of the birth of this baby boy named Jesus.  When the angel and the whole host of angels disappeared the shepherds left for Bethlehem. 

            Not in our gospel text for tonight, but a part of the Christmas story that you likely know as well, is the arrival of the wise men.  In Matthew 2 we hear that they saw a star at its rising and followed it to the place in Bethlehem where the baby Jesus was born.

            All of these roads led to Bethlehem.  Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men all arrived in the same place.  They all arrived in the stable in Bethlehem.  They all arrived to greet this new baby boy, the savior of the nations.

            This story is not just one of ancient times that we reread each year at the appropriate time.  This is not a stagnant story of yesteryear.  This story continues.  It continues because of its importance in our lives.  It continues because we are a part of the story.  This child was not just born for the community living over 2,000 years ago.  This child was born for us, too.  Before we were ever thought of and long before our own birth, this baby boy was born in Bethlehem for us.

            So, how is it that you arrived in Bethlehem? Why have you come to hear the story of a babe born in Bethlehem?  Maybe you have heard this story since your own birth, a story passed down throughout the generations.  Maybe this story has been part of daily life for you.  Maybe this story is new to you.  Maybe you have come tonight because of a dramatic revelation, a sign from the heavens.  Maybe some personal angels or the sighting of a star has led you here.  Whatever the source or reasoning for your arrival is, you are here.  Welcome to Bethlehem!  You are here to worship the newborn King.

            This is a king who is the bringer of peace.  He brought peace to a place that was lacking peace under the reign of Caesar Augustus.  He was born into Roman oppression and he became someone who raised up the oppressed and overthrew the powerful.  He came into the world as a helpless baby, just like each of us.  His life, which started in a feeding trough and ended on a wooden cross allowed him to identify with the powerless, the poor, and the homeless.  Unlike us, Jesus is a different type of baby, though.  He is a baby that is both fully human and fully divine.

             Jesus, fully human, ultimately knows what the human experience is like.  He knows the feelings we have, because he has had them.  He knows that being in relationship with other people is difficult.  He knows sadness and happiness.  He knows despair and joy.  He celebrated and he cried.  Jesus knows us.  He knows what it is like to be human.

            But, Jesus wasn’t just a human.  Jesus is also divine.  It is because of his divinity that he can love us regardless of our own mistakes.  It is his divinity that brings peace.  It is his divinity that offers forgiveness, wiping the slate clean over and over again.  It is his divinity that gives us salvation and life everlasting. 

            It is the combining of his humanity and his divinity that makes him Jesus, the holy child of Bethlehem.  And that is what makes this story so profound.  It is the word made flesh that came to dwell among us that brings us here tonight.  It is the birth of a baby boy that brings us to Bethlehem.  And not just the birth of any baby boy, but the birth of Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Messiah, God made flesh, Emmanuel.  That is what brings us to Bethlehem this year.

Jesus didn’t come into the world just for Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men.  He was ordinary and he came for the ordinary, not only the ordinary people that came to his stable that night.  He also came for us in our ordinary state.  He came for you and me.  The angel made that very personal announcement to the shepherds.  The angel very clearly said, “To YOU is born this day.”  The angel didn’t say “to them” or “to those people over there” or “to the rich people” or “to the important people.”  The angel told the shepherds that Christ had been born for them.  I imagine they were a bit stunned to have been visited by an angel, but then the angel’s message was so profound.  A savior had been born for them, for lowly shepherds. 

So we gather here in our own little Bethlehem tonight to hear the story from Scripture once again, to sing the well-known carols, to pray for others and ourselves, to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, the body and blood of our Lord, and to light a candle.  We don’t just gather out of ritual or tradition.  We gather to remember how God entered into history through a tiny little baby, born to unwed parents, that was placed in a feeding trough.  And because we believe in that miracle, we also gather to recognize that the same God, who is, who was, and who is to come, is entering into our lives, breaking into our world, and bringing us once again to Bethlehem.  We gather because of the angel’s message, that indeed a savior has been born for us, for each and every one of us.

This Christmas may you know the promise that Jesus, fully human and fully divine, was born for YOU.  May you be surrounded by the hope that the birth of this baby boy brings.  And may you never, never forget how to get to Bethlehem.  Amen.

Parachute Packers

Matthew 3:1-12 

Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam.  After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.  Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.  He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison.  He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb!  You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.  You were shot down!"  "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.  "I packed your parachute," the man replied.  Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.  The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"  Plumb assured him, "It sure did.  If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man.  Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform:  a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers.  I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning,' 'how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."  Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"  Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day.  Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute.  He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

There are people in our world, past and present that are parachute packers.  They make the way for others.  They provide what others need to make it through the day.  They ensure that today is a better day than yesterday and that tomorrow will be even better.  The role that these people play is very important, but sometimes can be overlooked.

Some of you may have heard of the story of Charles Plumb, but you probably hadn’t heard about his parachute packer.  Many of you can think of additional parachute packers from our world.  With the death of Nelson Mandela this week, I cannot think of a better person to give the title of parachute packer.  Mandela faced much adversity throughout his life as he worked to end apartheid in South Africa, including spending 27 years in prison.  He eventually became South Africa’s first democratically elected president.  Mandela prepared the way for all of South Africa.  He ensured that tomorrow would be brighter than yesterday for a whole nation.

If we go back to our text from Matthew, I would consider John the Baptist to be a parachute packer.  Sure he may have looked a little funny in his clothing of camel’s hair and those who dined with him might have been perplexed by his diet of locust and honey.  But John the Baptist was a parachute packer.  He prepared the way for Jesus.  He proclaimed the coming kingdom and encouraged repentance.  John the Baptist made the paths straight.  He made it known that someone more powerful was coming.  That person was so important that John was not even worthy to carry his sandals.  That person would baptize with the Holy Spirit. 

If you know the musical Godspell, then you know the tune that John the Baptist sang.  It is the ultimate theme song of the parachute packer, of someone who does preparation for others.  He sang, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.  Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”  John the Baptist, in all of his preparations, packed a pretty good parachute for Jesus.  His works were a prelude to the coming of Jesus and they ensured a safe landing for the King of Kings. 

During this season of Advent we prepare for the coming of the Christ-child, a babe born in Bethlehem.  We make our hearts and our minds ready to welcome this newborn child who has changed the world.  He is the one who has packed our parachute for life.  He has promised that we will have what we need to make it through the day.  He has protected us over enemy territory.  Jesus has ensured that we will ultimately reach safety.  Jesus, the one who is, who was, and who will come again, is the ultimate parachute packer of our lives.

Mandela, John the Baptist, and Jesus are well-known parachute packers, but there are other parachute packers that are not as well-known.  In daily life it is easy to miss what is most important.  We ignore those around us, failing to say hello, please, or thank you.  We minimize occasions that deserve congratulations, compliments, and recognition.  We get to busy to do small random acts of kindness.  Those parachute packers around us deserve to be treated as humans.  They deserve to feel important. 

As you go through this week, this month, this season of Advent, this coming year, I would invite you to consider and recognize who has packed your parachute.  Also, in this season of giving, reflect on whose parachutes you have helped to pack.  How can we help prepare the way for our friends, our family, and those whom we do not even know?  How can we help to prepare the way for them to know our Savior, Emmanuel?  May you be parachute packers for those you love.  May you be preparers of the way for the coming kingdom, the kingdom of God here on earth.  And may you always recognize those around you who help to pack your parachute.  Amen.