Matthew 4:12-23

Epiphany 3 - Year A

 


Great affirmations are tested by great antitheses.

“The Lord is my light” ... “seek his face/light”. Our old dualisms need a model more like A Once and Future King rather than a splitting of having and seeking.

“Go into all the world, baptizing” ... “Christ did not send me to baptize”. Here a distance between community and individual sets up a needed recognition of multiple expressions of evangelism.

“Light has dawned ... repent.” “Repent ... good news.” Given time and space and matter and energy it seems we cannot escape these outcomes that circle through our lives. A dawning light reveals a present darkness and recognizing the possibility of changing direction brings comfort enough to test our current orientation.

An Epiphany star reminds us of the found and lost and found again process of growing spirits to find a next immanence or incarnation of G*D illumined by the ordinary. Stars of any sort in our lives are a joy to behold and a source of yearning when lost in storm clouds.

Where are you, your friends/family, spiritual fellowship with a star this day?

          __ It is in sight.
          __ It has recently dimmed.
          __ It peeks and hides.
          __ It has been a long time gone.
          __ It is a non-issue.

- - - - - - -

a great light shines
great enough for us to rejoice for a moment
blinding us to flickery light twinks so small
they can be discarded with nary a squint

upper lights glare until
lower lights are lost
so enamored of mercy received
we lose track of mercy extended

it seems the brighter the beam the deeper the sin seen
pray also for a faint gleam that does not scare us
with such darkness as would swallow us whole
rejoice forever in a nearing humble light

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 


 

After last week's passage from John we now hear something completely different about the addition of disciples. In John it was John B.'s testimony that brought Andrew and Simon Peter to Jesus. In Matthew it is Jesus catching them catching fish and challenging them to catch people.

There is confusion here, but the kind of confusion that opens discipleship up to you and to me and to all. How you arrive will look differently to different folks. There is no one story to tell of how we arrive at our specific ministries.

It is this very openness to be "called" that is fitting on a day that remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. He had a dream that folks would be judged by their character, by their fruits, by their discipleship, not on the basis of their skin color, sexual orientation or any particular form of call to a ministry.

May we be open and help the church be open to all who are called without putting additional controls on. There is room for discernment by the community regarding one's call, but not discrimination. Sometimes we get confused about these and call our discriminations discernment. To honor both the heritage of discipleship and Martin let us remember the word "open."

This morning's New York Times editorial by Bob Herbert concludes with these words that could lead us to pray that the openness of discipleship might be filled — perhaps even by you.

     "From my perspective, this is a dark moment in American history. The Treasury has been raided and the loot is being turned over by the trainload to those who are already the richest citizens in the land. We've launched a hideous war for no good reason in Iraq. And we're about to elevate to the highest law enforcement position in the land a man who helped choreograph the American effort to evade the international prohibitions against torture.

     "Never since his assassination in 1968 have I felt the absence of Martin Luther King more acutely. Where are today's voices of moral outrage? Where is the leadership willing to stand up and say: Enough! We've sullied ourselves enough.

     "I'm convinced, without being able to prove it, that those voices will emerge. There was a time when no one had heard of Dr. King. Or Oscar Arias Sanchez. Or Martin O'Brien, who founded the foremost human rights organization in Northern Ireland, and who tells us: 'The worst thing is apathy - to sit idly by in the face of injustice and to do nothing about it.'"

To be called is antidote and antipathy to apathy. Claim your call.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html


Galilee — a land God gave to the Israelites is now under the control of Rome. It is a land marked by darkness and death, taxes and control of occupation and poverty. Isaiah experienced Galilee occupied by Assyria; Jesus experienced it occupied by Rome.

The people who sat in darkness, who lived invisible and poor, have seen a great light dawn. Will that light grow or flicker?

America can hardly be called a poor nation, but it is ruled in such a way that the poor are becoming more invisible, more responsible for their plight.

A call went forth for disciples of Jesus to follow the hope of Isaiah. That call is continuing to go forth today. If you would like to hear one of those calls, follow this link to hear Jim Wallis on Fresh Air.

Will we follow this call to fulfill Isaiah in our time? in our place? in the places our place influences?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html


Great affirmations are tested by great questions.

The Lord is my light . . . seek his face/light. What is this distance between having and seeking that finds us living most of our lives between?

Go into all the world, baptizing . . . Christ did not send me to baptize. Here a distance between community and individual sets up another omnipresent environment where we adapt and are evolved.

Light has dawned . . . repent. Repent . . . good news. Given time and space and matter and energy it seems we cannot escape these outcomes that circle through our lives. A dawning light reveals a present darkness and recognizing the possibility of changing direction brings comfort enough to test our current orientation.

An Epiphany star reminds us of the found and lost and found again process of growing spirits to find a next immanence or incarnation of G*D illumined by the ordinary. Stars of any sort in our lives are a joy to behold and a source of yearning when lost in storm clouds.

Where are you, your friends/family, spiritual fellowship with a star this day?
__ It is in sight.
__ It has recently dimmed.
__ It peeks and hides.
__ It has been a long time gone.
__ It is a non-issue

= = = = = = =

a great light shines
great enough for us to rejoice for a moment
blinding us to flickery light twinks so small
they can be discarded with nary a squint

upper lights glare until
lower lights are lost
so enamored of mercy received
we lose track of mercy extended

it seems the brighter the beam the deeper the sin seen
pray also for a faint of gleam that does not scare us
with such darkness as would swallow us whole
rejoice forever in a nearing humble light

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html


Jesus changes homes in response to John the Baptizer's arrest. In Capernaum, Jesus finds a location for the beginning of enlightenment. In a rising light, a call for repentance is proclaimed.

From this "other" place, Jesus goes about Galilee teaching, proclaiming (repentance as the good news?), and curing.

In between the journey from Nazareth to Capernaum and engaging his ministry there he picks up some folks who needed a great light in their lives – Peter and Andrew, James and John.

Some questions: How bad does it have to get before you will change homes, change your life? How bad does it have to get before "repentance" becomes a necessary, energizing, and redemptive message? How bad does it have to get before you find your voice? How bad does it have to get before investing in an intentional community to transform itself, the locale in which it finds itself, and the whole of creation?

These negative sounding questions reflect the state of our current world. What has kept us from making significant changes? Is it something that needs to get worse before repentance becomes an option? (A question for another comment - Is it something that needs to get clearer/better, a call?) For now, what needs to go further awry before we will change our lens, our home, our viewpoint?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

 


 

Stories of call can be seen through a number of different lenses. This week we hear about Jesus being proactive in recruiting followers. Last week it was Baptizer John who was instrumental in connecting followers with Jesus.

In both cases there is Good Action behind the calls. John has Jesus say "Stay with me" which means, stand with me, see what grounds me. Matthew notes the grounding is good news about our living and loving together - healing of the public - and healing of individuals.

This Good Action is still available for us to participate in and reveal to others. Whether you then name Jesus or not, Good Living will continue to draw people toward G*D and one Neighbor after another.

Likewise, "fishing for people" is not about forming exclusive clubs. To fish well is to identify and use every available Good Action (our lure, our net), public and private. Blessings upon your being alluring.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/01/matthew-412-23.html

 


 

job creation

repent
the end is near
by end I mean
a preferred future
is arriving

follow me
new relationships are near
by new relationships I mean
perfection turns out
to be wholeness

together
a push from the past
a pull from the future
redeems arrests
with new vocations

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/01/job-creation.html

 


 

Compare and contrast these two verses:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near! (v. 17)

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. (v. 23)

- - -

Much has been made of two kingdoms that have no overlap, no available Venn Diagram. One “kingdom” has to be chosen against in order to choose the other. There is often a stark divide seen between the two. Or, a vast chasm with only a Jesus connection to get you from one to the other. This connection is often seen as a one-way bridge—from an earthly hell to a heavenly paradise.

Note here not the excitement of vocational change and an “immediate” leaving of fishing for fish to a fishing for people, but a giving rather than a taking.

Fishing for people has too often meant hooking or netting them and dragging them from the water to be devoured, to be canon-fodder for a religious cult/institution.

Here, whatever is known as repentance, is connected with teaching (learning) that what we had been told was hell, is, rather, a locus of paradise. Thus it is appropriate to cure the warring sickness among the people by redeeming plowshares from swords. Yes, the cures mentioned could be seen as individuals receiving a healing, but note well that an individual cure that does not also add to the health of the whole body is not a long-term healing.

This widening of repentance is a vocational challenge well-worth the investment of a life—yours and mine. What are you teaching these days that is different than the old dualistic heaven and hell? Can we repent of that too-easy division and return to a paradise grounded on the ground-of-being, fertile soil (humus)?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/01/matthew-412-23.html