Called

I want to say a word or two about the calling of the disciples.

The gospel reading is rather straight forward.

            Jesus calls.  

            The four – Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John – 

                        respond spontaneously and immediately.

And thus they set the example for everyone else who was ever called.

                        

We are all called.

You may not recognize or acknowledge it,

            but we didn’t come here on our own initiate.

Whether you heard a voice from heaven,

            felt an inner nudge,

                        were hounded by someone you know,

                                    or simply were curious

you were responding -                         responding to a call.

That’s why we talk about discipleship, why we use that term

            when we talk about spiritual formation as a Christian.

You respond,

            and you are automatically enrolled as a disciple.

Disciple – student, novice, learner, follower, disciple.

Jesus called the disciples for a purpose.

Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John were called first to discipleship,   

    to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him,                                                            

and then to go and be like Jesus for others

so that Jesus could extend his saving ministry through them 

to an even greater number of people

than would ever have been possible for him alone.

Jesus is very utilitarian.

And Jesus is still calling disciples,

            still calling disciples for a purpose,

                        the same as he called those first four.

So we are called into a process of discipleship,

            and that discipleship has a purpose.

We are not called to come here 

            and sit and be comforted and be filled with peace and joy.

That can and does happen, 

                                                and it is wonderful when it does happen.

But that is not the purpose of the Church.

One of my favorite quotations come from the Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, who said:

            “The Church is the only institution 

created for the purpose of those outside of it.”

What do you see immediately in this statement?

This is not your Church!

            It belongs to Jesus.

            We cannot claim ownership.

We, as the Church, the Faith Community, the Body of Christ, 

do not exist for ourselves

            but for those outside these doors.

The work of the Church, one might observe, 

gets done despite us on many occasions. 

Because it is the Spirit of the Resurrection Jesus who does the real work, 
and it is Jesus who has taken responsibility for the work from the beginning.

He doesn’t leave this important work just to us alone, thank God!, 
for no matter how good we think we are, 

we simply don’t live up to our real potential.

Instead, as we heard in the OT lesson from Isaiah:

            “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

            Those who lived in a land of deep darkness –                                                                         on them light has shined.”

This should be music to our ears.

And it doesn’t mean that we should just sit back 

and wait for the Spirit to do all the work.

In order to be a faithful and effective church, 
fulfilling our purpose to which Jesus called from the beginning   

each of us really needs to look at and take responsibility for our own personal spiritual growth.

This has to do with openness to the Holy Spirit working in us,                                          

so that the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming and making us holy 

will produce fruit.

Jesus called the first disciples to go fish 

            not for fish, but for other people, some of their own kind,

            not as food for themselves,

            but a type of “food” for God.

Remember Chapter 4 of John’s Gospel, the woman at the well?

            The disciples came back 

            after he and the Samaritan woman had had a long conversation.  

They had got him some lunch,

            but he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

And he is the Vine and we are the branches

            whose job is to produce fruit – but not for us to eat, 

                        but for whom?                        For all those not here.

What is the fruit Jesus is looking for?  It is characterized or described as 

love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, 

faithfulness, non-violence, and self-discipline.

That’s the list of the fruit of the Spirit as it gets expressed through us.

That describes the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit at work within us.

That is our calling,  and that is how we can fish for others.

            Let our lives and how we live them be the bait.

The actual fruit itself then is that we ourselves become a conduit                                    

            naturally and freely, a conduit for the revelation of God,

just as Jesus did and was and is the perfect and full revelation of God.

So I pray that we will continue to be a work in progress – 

            become disciples that can have some effectiveness and be useful

                        for the sake of all those outside the institution we call Church.

Invitation

Most of us know the expression, “lost in translation.”

The point is that sometimes crucial information can get left out

            in the course of translating from language to another,

                        from one culture to a different culture.

And the results can be very funny

            or puzzling and confusing 

            or sadly tragic.

I think of a colleague of mine in Minnesota

                        working among the Ojibwe People, the Annishinabe.

He was working at learning their language,

and on one occasion when he was to preach

            he wanted to use Ojibwe words to describe 

                        the Holy Spirit like a mighty wind, as on the Day of Pentecost.

Only not being entirely familiar with the vocabulary

            the word he chose for wind actually was a reference to flatulence.

                                                He never lived that down.

Now admittedly translations are difficult to make.

In every language the meaning of a single word 

            may include several quite distinct, though related meanings.

There are nuances of meaning for a specific word 

            depending on the context within which the word is used,

            and often times more than one meaning will fit and is actually intended.

Translators do their best when they choose which word to use in translation, 

            but that choice most often reflects the perspective or the point of view,                                                  as well as the understanding of the translator.

So in the Gospel for today two disciples of John the Baptist

            take his words seriously,

            that this Lamb of God is greater than and precedes their own teacher.

So they follow him, and Jesus turns and says to them,

            “What are you seeking?”

and they ask him, "Where are you staying?" 

He said to them, "Come and see." 

They came and saw where he was staying, 

            and they remained with him that day. 

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 

Yeah?

Well, this is not just an innocuous detail inconsequential amid the rest 

            of what is recorded in the first chapter of the John’s Gospel.

"Where are you staying?" 

The original Greek can also be translated like this:

Where do you live?  Where are you at?  

            - and with the connotation - Where are you coming from?

Meaning what is the source of your authority for ministry, 

            what is your spiritual source for being a rabbi?

                        What rabbinical school did you attend?

            What is the basis for a claim for authenticity about what you are doing?

This goes along with everything else in this first chapter of John:

            who is Jesus?

Everybody is trying to put a label on Jesus, to pin down his identity.

The priests and Levites and the Pharisees were asking John the Baptist;

            John called him the sacrificial Lamb of God.

His two disciples who went after Jesus, one of whom, Andrew, 

            describes Jesus to his brother Simon as the Messiah.

And Jesus refers to himself as simply Son of Man, son of humanity,

            a servant to all human beings.

They [the two disciples of John the Baptist] said to him,

            “Where do you live? Where are you coming from?”

And Jesus said to them,

            “Come and you will see.”

This invitation in the first chapter of John’s gospel

            is a key invitation, an entry point into the entire gospel,

            an invitation into discovery of who Jesus is,

                        which is subsequently an invitation into relationship with him

                        and an invitation into seeing and knowing in a whole new way.

We are invited into a way of seeing 

            that becomes a shift in perspective 

                        which will lead to some major changes 

            in how we then perceive ourselves,

            and subsequently how we live our lives.

It is an invitation into a life-long spiritual adventure of great consequence.

It is an invitation of love, flowing out of the love of God 

            expressed through Jesus,

            an invitation that was so intriguing and often confounding,

            that it left people astonished, as the gospel passages so often record,

an invitation that couldn’t help but create a response 

            of one kind or another from all who encountered this person, Jesus.

For some it was a reactivity of resistance, 

            as though this invitation of great love were a threat.

Well, great love can be a threat,

            where the intimacy, the intimate knowing that comes with love,

                        reaches into the dark recesses of the heart,

            where that love begins to swallow up, eclipse both lover and beloved

                        and one’s separate self is seen to disappear into 

                                    the huge presence of this love.

To encounter God and God’s love is like meeting God face to face,

            and, as they say, no one can meet God face to face, and survive.

I can give you an example of this from meditation practice.

I have seen this happen with many people

            and I myself have experienced this.

In meditation there can be an expansion of awareness

            that becomes vast beyond comprehension,

and in that vastness one loses a sense of being a distinct self,

and as loving as that hugeness may be,

            the fear of the loss of the self that I identify with

                                                causes a sudden contraction, a pulling away,

                        in a frantic effort to reconsolidate the old familiar known self.

So in meditation we sit and sit until love overcomes fear.

The invitation given in the Gospel reading 

            is to come and remain, abide, stay with Jesus.

The two disciples went with him, and they saw and they stayed with him,

            and the word in Greek for seeing in this text 

                        is not just the word used for normal sight, 

            but the word that means to see with deep understanding,

                        to get it!  to have the light bulb come on.

                        to have a breakthrough in realization – to have an Epiphany!

So we have a picture from the Gospel reading 

            of a spiritual process of invitation and discovery

                        of finding God and finding ourselves in Jesus.

That process requires of us for our part

            responding to the invitation,

            moving from where we are now to a new spot

            where we can then see in perhaps a way we have never seen before.

And when that happens, then things change in our lives,

            there is healing, or there is reconciliation,

            there may be an experience of liberation, new freedom,

            and transformation that we know is a gift given us.

This is a way to describe the process of faith at work within us.

Now, besides the obvious implications of this Gospel for us personally today,

            how does this passage speak to us at Nativity today?

Well, some of us have been engaged in small groups 

            reading Rowan Williams’ book, Being Christian.

This is one way to come and see where Jesus is staying, what he’s up to.

We have this team of people, the Baptized for Life team, here in the congregation 

            who are ministering to us 

                                    by taking leadership in providing opportunities 

            to do what this congregation has said you would like to have – 

                        small groups where you can share with each other 

                                                personally and safely 

            as you figure out together how to follow Jesus more faithfully, 

                        how to come into deeper relationship with Jesus 

                        and into deeper relationship with each other, 

because you KNOW that this is a way of loving God and loving neighbor 

            and, indeed, being able to love yourself as God loves you.

I will let them say more about all this to you at the announcement time

            about what we have in the works for this year,

                        starting with Lent.

So what I am saying here today, folks, that I would like you to take home with you,

            is to come and see where Jesus is staying and what he is up to

                        right where you live here and now.

And the two disciples “came and saw where he was at,”

            it was revealed to them, they saw, they perceived it, they got it,

            and they remained with him… 

[because] it was 4:00 in the afternoon, 

            it was the 10^th hour, the hour of prayer, 

                        the time for the deep intimate communion 

                                    of being mindfully in the Presence of God.