Luther and Benedict - God, Conscience, and the Communion of Saints

"The Protestant Reformation has contributed notably to the constitution of Europe, and it is generally accepted that this action has entailed a surrender of what one might call the Benedictine spirit.  Let us concede as much. Nevertheless, notwithstanding harsh and draconian critiques of monasticism, the priorities established by Luther - God, conscience, and the communion of saints - were also those of Saint Benedict.  Martin Luther went to the Diet of Worms impelled by the same motive that led Benedict to Subiaco: he was bound in conscience by the Word of God.  With God's help he stood fast, for he could not do otherwise.

And the emblem of the Protestant Reformation has always remained a monk struggling in prayer, hunched over his Bible, his unconscious teeming with the images and the words of Scripture, above all those of the Psalter."

(Gordon Rupp, as quoted in "In the School of Contemplation" by Andre Louf, OCSO).

Immersed in Scripture - A Sermon on Mark 1:29-39

                        

Year B Epiphany 5 Mark 1:29-39

Today, Super Bowl Sunday, is a big day for American culture, but I want to look ahead to some upcoming dates on our calendar. We are only 10 days away from the start of Lent, with Ash Wednesday being on February 14.  Valentine’s Day.  Unlike Valentine’s Day,  Ash Wednesday isn’t exactly a big seller for Hallmark cards.  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” just doesn’t go over as well as red hearts and flowers.  

And if having Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day isn’t enough, guess what day Easter Sunday falls on this year?  April 1^st.  April Fools!  Around the world, pastors will be saying that the resurrection was no April Fools joke, then proceed to tell silly April Fools jokes anyway.  Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.  Lord have mercy.

Anyway, between Valentine’s Day and April Fools day this year is the season of Lent, a time of preparation for Holy Week, when we enter into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.  One way to observe Lent - one personal spiritual discipline you can adopt - is to go deeper into the Bible

As some of you may remember, I am an advocate for immersing ourselves into the Bible through a method of praying the Scriptures known as lectio divina – Latin for “divine reading” – where we read a short passage from the Bible several times and let those words sink into us to see how the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our life through those words.

There is another method of going deeper into the Bible that comes from the Ignatian Christian tradition, meaning from St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was the founder of the Jesuit order (the ones who founded places of higher learning like Creighton University).  

A Jesuit named Kevin O’Brien wrote about how  “Ignatius was convinced that God can speak to us as surely through our imagination as through our thoughts and memories. (That kind of contemplation of the Bible) is a very active way of praying that engages the mind and heart and stirs up thoughts and emotions.” 

“Ignatian contemplation is suited especially for the Gospels…. we accompany Jesus through his life by imagining scenes from the Gospel stories. Let the events of Jesus’ life be present to you right now. Visualize the event as if you were making a movie. Pay attention to the details: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings of the event. Lose yourself in the story…. place yourself in the scene…

Contemplating a Gospel scene is not simply remembering it or going back in time. Through the act of contemplation, the Holy Spirit (that dwells in you) makes present a mystery of Jesus’ life in a way that is meaningful for you now. Use your imagination to dig deeper into the story so that God may communicate with you in a personal.. way.”

Today’s Gospel reading is only 11 verses long, but there are a lot of people involved in this story, and so there a lot of different perspectives from which we can enter into this story.

Let’s start with Simon and his companions – his brother Andrew, plus James, and John.  Later on of course, Simon would become Peter, a leader of the disciples, and the rest would become known as one of the 12 disciples.

But for now, they were just ordinary fishermen who had just been called by Jesus to get out of the boat to follow him. (that story was only about 10 verses before the one we heard today).

Today’s Gospel began with Jesus being led to the house of Simon’s mother-in-law, who was very ill.  After Simon’s mother-in-law was healed, Jesus proceeded to heal many more throughout the night, but then he mysteriously disappeared.  Many people were apparently still looking for Jesus, trying to get Simon and the others to take them to him.  So, they hunted for him, and when they finally found him, they said “Everyone is searching for you”.  But instead of taking them back to where they had come from, Jesus led them to other towns, proclaiming the Gospel to other people.

So, one way you can enter into this story is by empathizing with Simon at the beginning of this Gospel, someone with a family member who is very ill and needs healing. Or perhaps you can see yourself in the position of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, as they were hunting for Jesus after he had healed many of the sick but then disappeared. Where are you Jesus?

Or perhaps you can put yourself in their position when they found Jesus. They thought they would be going back home, so Jesus could help the rest of the people there.  But instead, Jesus said he was going to take them on to other towns, and they did just that – traveling all around the region of Galilee, proclaiming the message in synagogues and casting out demons.  What ventures does Jesus have waiting for you that call you to go outside of your comfort zone, and move on to other things that might be exciting, but also risky.

Next, let’s think about the story from the perspective of Simon’s mother-in-law, who had a fever.  We’re taking fevers a little more seriously these days because of the flu epidemic, but most of the time, when we think of someone with a fever, we tell ourselves, its no big deal, just take some Advil or Tylenol and lie in bed for a day or two and everything will probably be fine. 

2,000 years ago, of course, nothing even close to modern medicine existed, so a fever could become deadly in a short period of time.  So, her situation as she was lying down in the house was a pretty serious one.   

Jesus took her by the hand, lifted her up, and the fever left her.  Notice that Jesus didn’t say anything to perform the healing. His touch, his presence, was enough. So one way to enter into this story through her perspective is to remember that about Jesus’ presence when you are going through a tough time, and you ask God for a sign, but you don’t seem to be getting a response.  You just can’t figure out what Jesus is trying to say to you.  But that does not mean that Jesus is not there, lifting you up in ways that you may not realize.   

After the healing, did she take it easy and rest for awhile? No. After Jesus lifted her up, she began to serve them.  Mark’s Gospel doesn’t tell us why she did that.  Was there a sense of obligation that she had to do it because of cultural norms and expectations?  There’s no doubt those kinds of roles and expectations were placed on women at that time. 

There is a word in Mark’s Gospel that gives us a clue that what she did transcended any cultural obligations imposed on her though.  I’m no Greek expert, but it is my understanding that what she did was an act of diakoneo – the Greek word used later in Mark’s Gospel to describe what the angels did to help Jesus when he was out in the desert for 40 days, and later on in the New Testament to describe what deacons do – serving God through acts of loving service to others. 

So, another way to enter into the world of this story is to remember that when you are do an act of service for another out of love, no matter how great or small, you are continuing that ministry of Jesus that goes back all the way to this woman who, although she is not named in Mark’s Gospel, gives us a powerful witness.

And finally, you can immerse yourself into this story from the perspective of Jesus. The historic belief of the Church is that Jesus was at once both fully divine (as the incarnation of the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and fully human.  Jesus of Nazareth was a real human being who experienced what we experience.  And so, while we cannot even fathom the divine perspective, we can enter into the story through his human perspective.

 In particular, we can sympathize with how even Jesus needed to have some time alone in silence.  After those healings, he slipped away under the cover of the early morning darkness to be by himself for awhile. Away from all the demands on his time and his energy in order to spend some time in prayer. Even Jesus needed time for refreshment and renewal.

If Jesus needed that, we obviously need that as well.   After work, taking care of kids or other family members, running errands, paying the bills, all the stuff that we do, spend some time alone.  In silence.  Away from the noise.  Pray.  Reflect on what has been going on in your life and how God might be speaking to you through others.

So, regardless how you enter into the story, God will come to meet you where you are - Wherever you are in your thoughts, your fears, your doubts. 

And once you’ve met Jesus in a Gospel story through your imagination, you’ll find an encounter with the Christ who is alive - who isn’t just someone who lived 2000 years ago.  You will encounter the Christ who is active working within us and around us through the Holy Spirit. And finally, you will encounter the Christ who is risen - risen from the dead to give you new life.

Mending Nets and Getting Out of Boats

Year B Epiphany 3 Mark 1:14-20 (Sermon during the Holy Eucharist celebrated prior to the Annual Meeting at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Sioux City, Iowa)

Today following the service, as you know, is our annual meeting, when we will think about, talk about, and pray about what God is doing here at St. Thomas, and how we are called to respond to what God is doing.

To put our discernment in terms of today’s Gospel, we can think about it this way.  Are we mending the nets? Or are we getting out of the boat? 

James and John were mending the nets with their father Zebedee.  But then Jesus came by, and it was time to get out of the boat.

What does it mean to get out of the boat?  To stop mending the nets and follow Jesus?  

Like a lot of other people these days, I probably spend too much time on social media – meaning Facebook, Twitter, and the like. But once in awhile, God seems to break through all of the noise on social media and hit me on the side of the head, and I was reminded of what following Jesus really means.

On Friday, I got a notice from Twitter that it was my 6 year anniversary of joining that social media site. I started with a personal account,  @RevJayDenne, where I make random observations, usually on spiritual or church matters, and @Virtual_Abbey, which was an already existing account I took over a few years later where I tweet prayers.      

You might have heard of Twitter but don’t know how it works - it is a social networking site kind of like Facebook, except you are much more limited with what you can say - you can only post short messages for others to see, and those short messages are called tweets.  

When you’re on twitter, you have to be brief.  Up until a few months ago, each tweet can be no longer than 140 characters – not words, mind you, but characters, meaning letters, spaces, or symbols.  That limit was recently increased to 280 characters, which still isn’t a whole lot.

So I’m always on the lookout for short, pithy sayings or prayers which can effectively be said in a tweet or two.  That notification of my 6 year anniversary on Twitter led me to look back to my very first tweets were back then, and I found one that I think is a pretty good summary of what it means to stop mending the nets and get out of the boat to follow Jesus.

It was quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor and theologian from Germany I’ve talked about before, who was executed at the end of World War 2 because of his resistance to the Nazis. The quote goes like this:  “When Christ calls us to come and follow, he bids us to come and die.” 

Those words became true for him in a literal sense, but when he wrote those words in his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, he was speaking about our baptismal calling to pick up our cross, and follow Christ.  Our old life dies, metaphorically speaking, and in its place, there is new life with Christ.

The events of today’s Gospel lesson occurred about 1,900 years before the time of Bonhoeffer, and just as he was a Christian during a dark time in Germany, it was a dark time for the people of Israel due to oppression from the Roman Empire and its local puppet regime – the regime of King Herod.  

The Jesus movement, to use the phrase from our Presiding Bishop, was just starting. John the Baptist had just been thrown into prison by King Herod.   

Did that oppression cause Jesus to keep quiet?  No.  Today’s Gospel lets us know that he went around region of Galilee with a message that could be summed up in a single tweet: “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.” 

In typically brief, Twitter-like fashion, Mark’s Gospel tells us how Jesus called Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, as well as James and his brother John.  Jesus’ call to both sets of brothers was the same- they were fishermen who were casting a net into the sea.  Along came Jesus, who said “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 

 And does the Gospel of Mark tell us that they took awhile to think about this invitation from Jesus, talk it over with their friends and family, and then pack up their belongings? 

No.  Mark uses the same word twice to describe how they reacted – they reacted immediately.  Simon and Andrew had cast their nets but they immediately dropped them.  James and John were mending the nets, but they immediately dropped them.  

The Bible doesn’t tell us what ultimately happened to these for fishermen who became disciples - Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John.  But the tradition of the Church tells us that three of the four of them paid the same price that Bonhoeffer did 1,900 years later. 

Simon Peter was executed in Rome during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Nero about 30 years after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  He was crucified upside down because he did not think he was worthy to be executed in the exact same way as Jesus.

Andrew and James met a similar fate.  Andrew was executed in Greece.  James was beheaded during a later persecution by King Herod.  All of the rest of the disciples were also killed for their faith, except the final one were heard about today – John survived the persecutions, although the traditional belief is that he was banished to the remote island of Patmos.

Our circumstances are vastly different than those of Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  For one, although in some parts of the world, people are martyred for their faith – think about those Coptic Christians from Egypt on Palm Sunday last year when their church was bombed – we didn’t face any imminent danger just for coming to church this morning.

And, as I alluded to at the beginning of this sermon when I talked about Twitter, the way of proclaiming the good news, and the way of living out our faith, is much, much different these days.  When Jesus said “follow me, and I will make you fish for people” there was no way to spread the Gospel except through word of mouth, or sending letters as Paul did a few years later.  Now, I can hit “enter” on a prayer Tweet, and it can be read instantaneously around the globe, which actually is confusing for some folks when I tweet Morning Prayer, and it is 2 o’clock in the afternoon where they live.

 But the call to us from Jesus is the same.  Follow me.  And, the task given to us by Jesus is the same.  I will make you fish for people.

 To do that, mending the nets won’t do.  We have to get out of the boat.  Come and die with me, Jesus says.  Die to that part of your selves which fights against Christ – that gives in to the motivations of the world around us that promote arrogance, greed, and self-interest. 

We have been given new lives in Christ – lives that are marked by humility and not arrogance; charity instead of greed, and service to others instead of self-interest.  We won’t be perfect, of course.  But as we heard from Psalm 62, God’s love is steadfast.  God alone is our rock, our fortress, our refuge, our salvation.  Our daily deliverance when we fall back into arrogance, greed, and self-interest comes from God – the God who our souls wait for in silence.  In hope.   

Toward the end of my report which you’ll find in your annual meeting packet, you’ll find a list of questions that I wrote for us to think about and pray about.  When you ask those questions in the context of today’s Gospel, that might sound like this:

-         How is God calling us to stop mending our nets and get out the boat so we can build upon our relationship with the other congregations of the Episcopal Presence of Siouxland?
-         How is God leading us to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat with regard to our relationship with other Christians – not just the ELCA, but all other Christians?
-         How is God urging us to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat so we develop deeper relationships with our brothers and sisters of other faiths?   
-         How is God nudging us to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat so we can feed the spiritual hunger of people who are not connected with a faith tradition at this time?
-         How is God asking us to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat so we can we be good stewards of our gifts from God in order to love and serve our neighbors?
-         How is God imploring us to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat so we can we be witnesses to God’s love in this world which seems to be so full of division, hate, and prejudice?

Fortunately for us, its not up to us to come up with the inner strength and fortitude to stop mending our nets and get out of the boat. Christ has already called us out of the boat and God has already made a covenant with you to help you live that new life in Christ - the covenant made at your baptism. The covenant where we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection – we die, as Bonhoeffer said, but we also live.  And that covenant life in our Prayer Book at page 304, so let’s pray the baptismal covenant together:    

Celebrant	Do you believe in God the Father?
People	I believe in God, the Father almighty,     creator of heaven and earth.
Celebrant	Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People	I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,     He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit         and born of the Virgin Mary.     He suffered under Pontius Pilate,         was crucified, died, and was buried.     He descended to the dead.     On the third day he rose again.     He ascended into heaven,         and is seated at the right hand of the Father.     He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Celebrant	Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People	I believe in the Holy Spirit,     the holy catholic Church,     the communion of saints,     the forgiveness of sins,     the resurrection of the body,     and the life everlasting.
Celebrant	Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
People	I will, with God's help.
Celebrant	Will you persevere in resisting evil, and , whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People	I will, with God's help.

Celebrant	Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People	I will, with God's help.
Celebrant	Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People	I will, with God's help.
Celebrant	Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People	I will, with God's help.

Thanks be to God – Amen.