Fish Story

Here’s a fish story that is a real whopper,

         the story of Jesus in a borrowed boat 

         teaching the people on the shore

and afterwards he sails away with the fishermen

                  so as to make an easy exit from the crowds.

 

Then Jesus suggests that while they’re at, why not do some fishing?

Well, Peter knows a thing or two about fishing,

         and I can just imagine him thinking that 

                  this guy may preach a good sermon, 

                  may have some tremendously intriguing things to say,

         but fishing?

 

So Peter seems to humor Jesus:

         Well, WE didn’t catch anything, 

                                    we experts who have been at it all night,

         but for you we’ll give it a go.

 

And the fish make a bee line for their nets,

         they come at Jesus’ call,

         they surrender themselves into the nets,

                  more fish than the nets, or the boat,

                           or their partners’ boat, can accommodate.

 

Not just enough fish to make up for the poor showing 

that Simon and James and John had had the night before

But fish and more fish, way more than can be accommodated, 

until they were overwhelmed with fish.

Like in Fantasia with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice 

and the multiplying brooms carrying endless buckets of water. 

Now Peter begins to get a glimmer,

         this is someone who is more than 

                  a good preacher, profound teacher, prophet, even messiah.

This is an encounter with the Divine Presence.

 

Jesus isn’t who you think he is.

The Word of God through whom all things came to be 

is Life itself.

 

And Peter’s response is to contract away from that,

         to see his own sinfulness in contrast to the Divine Compassion 

                  being expressed right there, 

         seeing, knowing and understanding Peter’s poverty of spirit.

 

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,          

         “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

         like the Prophet Isaiah experiencing the Presence of God in the Temple,

         who said, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips…”

 

Peter was right about his sinfulness.

 

One way of looking at sin is to notice that it is reactivity 

         to this love and the liberation it could bring,

and reactivity to surrendering to this love.

 

The fish were surrendered to Jesus and so readily approached him.

         Peter was not.

 

Sin can be described as self-contraction, and the illusion of separation.

  Self-contraction is to pull into oneself in terms of attention and focus,

                  to see oneself as the center of attention,

                           self-absorption, the self-possessed life,

                  to thereby have a very limited field of vision

                           for anything outside of oneself,

                  and thus to act in isolation and without regard for others,

as though one could be totally independent of others, 

           that’s the illusion of separation.

 

When Peter was confronted with the way the fish swarmed to Jesus

         and the wholeness of life Jesus exhibited,

         he recognized his own lack of wholeness, his sin, his littleness,

                  and pulls back from this incredible demonstration

                           of outpouring and abundance of life.

 

And how typical it is to contract away from the very thing 

                           that will address our heart’s desire, our deepest longing.

The fear we have that in this incredible Presence of Love

                  we ourselves, all that we have known of ourselves, 

                           will likewise be pulled into a Divine Net,

         that we will utterly lose ourselves, and be absorbed into the Divine.

 

And yet that is exactly what is needed, what is to our greater good,

         what saves us and frees us and opens us to abundant life, 

                           Real Life, life on level of limitless, timeless life, Eternal Life.

 

Apparently Jesus was not going to honor Peter’s request 

                  to depart from him.

Apparently this is just what Jesus wanted to see in Peter

         so that he knew that Peter was now in the right place

                  to be initiated into a whole new life,

                  and to be called as a disciple.

 

Jesus says to Peter that he is more like the fish than he may think,

         as though to say, “You are caught in my net already, and eternally.”

 

This is the good news here in this gospel lesson,

         that as unworthy, inept, inappropriate one may think of oneself,

                  that may be just the right stuff for the Teacher to work with

                  in the spiritual process of discipleship.

 

Now, you all may think that you come to St. Andrew’s

  because you chose to associate here for any number of different reasons.

 

You may want to rethink that.

You may really be more like the fish, drawn irresistibly by Jesus into his net.

You are here because the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus 

         has been at work in you, drawing you,

         and more than that, calling you,

                  not just to be a member of a particular congregation

                  but to be in discipleship

                           to be in discipleship so that you too can help cast nets.

 

Jesus tells Simon Peter, and James and John, and you and me,

         that we are now to be fishers for our brothers and sisters.

Jesus tells them to catch people now, not fish anymore.                  

 

And there is a lovely little word in Greek in this passage - zwgrwn, 

         that means literally to catch or take alive.

We are caught in the net of our Lord into life, not death.

And when we share in the work of the Gospel, 

         we are bringing others to the place where they can become alive

                           in a whole new way.

 

We do our best to be good Christians,

         but a lot of the times I think we miss the point out of sheer familiarity with the words we hear over and over again.

 

But have an encounter with Jesus,

         and like Peter we too would be on our knees contracting in fear,

                  or finally surrendering and swimming into the net of his love.

 

Being with Jesus is not a very easy thing.

You can’t always feel comfortable around him.

 

On the one hand his voice calls to us, and we are irresistibly drawn to him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 

and I will give you rest.”

 

His words are words of life, 

that when we recognize them 

and when our inner being responds to these words 

and resonates with them, 

there is a great pulling of the heart to be near him.

 

Such as when Simon Peter in another place answered Jesus, 

“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

 

Yet at the same time, when we come close to him, when we approach him,

         what we thought we could count on as business as usual

is now taking surprising turns 

and not looking like the reality we had been used to.

This last couple of weeks has been an example of that.

         So many chaotic proclamations and sudden actions taken

                  and with such speed and so many,

                  leading to such rapid deconstruction of governmental infrastructure

                  that it all signals a real danger of collapse of our social systems.

I see so many people gasping in fear and anxiety.

This is a real crisis point for us as a nation.

 

So this makes following Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels

                  whose every words and actions echoed the Prophets of old,

the Jesus who took the Gospel message 

                           that the Kingdom of God was at hand

                                    all the way to the Cross,

it makes truly following this Jesus more important,

                                             possibly even dangerous. 

 

There is the challenge of discipleship, 

         following Jesus faithfully 

                           when things aren’t going the way we want them to go.

 

The teaching of Jesus is not so much then, can you see,

         a transfer of information,         but a shift in perception.

 

And so, when we share in casting the nets then, in sharing Gospel Good News,

         it is not about a transfer of information,

  but about knowing we are in Jesus, in the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus,

                  an experienced shift in our own perception,

                  which then can facilitate others in perceiving the Living Christ 

                           and their life in him.

 

The Gospel lesson ends with these words:

         “When they had brought their boats to shore, 

they left everything (that means even all those fish)

and followed him.”

 

We, like Paul in today’s Epistle lesson, can say,

         “by the grace of God I am what I am, 

         and God’s grace toward me has not been in vain.”

 

Like Paul and Peter our only qualification for ministry is

         Christ at work within us.  

The Sacrament of Baptism

I have preached so frequently on today’s Gospel reading,

         the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

And I’ve also been to the Jordan River several times 

         and have gotten wet each time.

I think to myself, what can I preach about this 

         that hasn’t already been said many times over

                  and in more eloquent ways than I have done.

 

And I’ve also been thinking about the fires in the Los Angeles area,

         the extent of the fires and ferocity of the winds

                  that overwhelmed the ability to contain the destruction,

and I was deeply drawn to a particular news report 

         about a group of Latino immigrants of mixed status

                  who rushed in to help put out smoldering spots 

                                                                                  after the fire teams moved on.

This group, who did not live in the areas burned,

                  knew what it is like to lose a home                  

         and they came to help because it was the right thing for them to do,

                                    they said.

Using garden hoses and buckets that they had brought with them

          in one case, they had kept a fire from spreading to a neighboring house.

One of them said, 

         "Because we immigrants who are not from this country, 

                  we often need help ourselves, 

                           and that's why we always want to help others."

 

Now hold that thought, while we go back to the focus for today.

 

It is customary for this Sunday in our liturgy 

         that we once again renew our Baptismal Covenant 

                  in place of reciting the Nicene Creed. 

We will once again respond to the five questions 

         which summarize  our side of the Covenant, our response.

We will once again pledge to love our neighbors as ourselves,

         the second commandment which comes right after 

                  loving God as the greatest commandment.

 

So now I would like to go deeper into what the Sacrament of Baptism is 

         and how we experience it.

Because unless our faith is experiential, it is just a set of beliefs.

         Is it life changing or just a mental assent to a creed?

 

So I will ask you a question,          and it’s a trick question:

         When did your baptism happen?

I am guessing that most of you 

                                are trying to remember the date of your baptism, 

         whether that occurred when your were an infant or older.

 

We think of baptism as a one time occurrence

         at a specific location with specific witnesses.

You may or may not have a memory of it,

                  depending on your age, 

         but it was a one time occurrence.                  Over and done.

 

But what is a Sacrament?

We have two main Sacraments – Baptism and Eucharist.

Eucharist gets repeated every time we gather as a faith community

         indicating that this is essential for the life of the community.

                           Baptism is just once per person.

                           Eucharist  -- many, many times repeated.

 

(The other five sacraments – marriage, ordination, unction for the sick, confession, confirmation – happen occasionally as needed.)

 

Has the question every come up for you 

                  about why Eucharist so many times and Baptism only once?

Back to my trick question:           When does Baptism happen?

 

Now things get mystical,

         because we are stepping out of ordinary, linear time

                  and crossing over into eternal time

where everything that ever was and everything that ever will be

                           are present here and now.

 

You maybe have heard it said that when we celebrate the Eucharist

         this is a joining in the eternal moment of the Last Supper.

There is only one Eucharist eternally remembered and recalled.

 

The Eternal Christ is here with us now 

         and the words that I will speak over the bread and wine 

                  are spoken simultaneously and in harmony with 

                           Jesus uttering these words 2000 years ago.

And not only that, the congregation has expanded greatly

         for we are joining with angels and archangels 

                  and all the choirs of heaven as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy…”

 

Now Baptism – you maybe have not heard this before,

         but Baptism has the same spiritual, mystical reality about it.

How can I say that?

         Because it is right there in the Bible all over the place:

                  “You are baptized into Christ.”

Galatians 3:27, Romans 5:18-21, Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12, Romans 8:17, Galatians 4:17, Ephesians 4:5. 1 Peter 3:21

                                             and in all four Gospels

         and especially 1 Corinthians 12:13          

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body

                  — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—

         and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

 

Hmm.  That’s an interesting thought: 

                  we are all given the one Spirit to drink.

Besides immersing in the waters of Baptism

                           or having the water poured over the head,

         we might also then drink some of that holy water

                  to point out that the Holy Spirit is also within us.

 

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body…”

 

When we are baptized our identity is that we are IN Christ,

         not separate from him.

We in Christ and Christ in us,

         the Holy Spirit, the Presence of God, in us,

                  and, my brothers and sisters, we can actually experience that.

We can become aware of this Presence, 

         we can sense this Presence, we can feel this Presence, 

                  we can know this Presence.

 

This is the way reciting a creed can make sense,

         that we first experience it.

 

When did the Sacrament of Baptism begin in us?

     When did this Baptism begin?     How about when Jesus was baptized.

 

If our minds can grasp this          -- and even if they can’t --

         the Sacrament of Baptism is like the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

It is an eternal moment occurring NOW.

 

We live in the state of Baptism.         Ongoing, ever present.

What if our awareness of this state could become continuous?

We would be in a continual process of spiritual wakefulness

     that could change us, heal us, and grow us into our full potential of being.

 

So when does baptism begin?

         at that moment when water is poured on the head or one is immersed?

Or perhaps we could say that baptism begins in our realization

         of the effectiveness of baptism at work within us.

That is, our awareness of being in baptism has a beginning point,

         but this then indicates that baptism has already been at work within us.

 

And we can take it farther back to Jesus at the Jordan River

         taking us all with him into the waters.

We have been baptized into Christ.         That is our identity.

 

Today we remind ourselves of what we are then to be about,

         individually and as a community.

And we too might just as readily as those Latino immigrants

         rush to the aid of those we don’t know but recognize as neighbor.

Their example can remind us of our own identity and calling.

 

I believe that the Church is on the verge of a new awakening,

  the Holy Spirit breathing new life especially into small faith communities

                  decentralized, the work of lay people, 

a natural progression out of what the Church used to be

     into what we are meant to be as those who are baptized into Christ. 

Origin Story and Incarnation

On this 5^th day of the 12 Days of Christmas

I will briefly tell you about the birth narrative of Jesus according to John,

         for that is what this Gospel reading is – a birth narrative.

         

Yes, we have the origin story as related in 

                  Luke’s Gospel and Matthew’s Gospel, none in Mark’s Gospel,

         but here in John the origin story goes cosmic.

The effect/the impact it has on me is to drive me to step back from 

                  the shepherds and angels, and stable,

         and consider the bigger picture in time and space 

                  within which this Incarnation took place.

 

In the First Century of the Common Era, 

         the geopolitical reality of the Roman Empire is that it had taken over 

                  the earlier expansive conquest of Alexander “the Great.”

The Roman Empire had imposed the “Pax Romana” 

         over the entire Mediterranean region and beyond

                  from Britain and Gaul in the North to Egypt in the South 

         and eastward swallowing up all of what was known as Asia Minor.

Pax Romana “peace” provided stability for this vast region

         but what sort of stability?

 It was a military presence to suppress any attempts 

         to break free and be independent 

         and escape the costs of this Peace that Rome was imposing

         to create an economic Peace – 

so that goods and resources could be extracted with impunity

                  throughout the Empire 

         doing this through an extensive imbedded tax system

impoverishing the peoples upon whom the taxes were imposed.

 

And God wants to incarnate specifically into human existence 

         in the midst of this abomination of creation?

Of course.                  That’s exactly what God would do:

         choose the worst possible set of circumstances and show up there.

 

Think of it this way:  everything/the whole universe in a sense 

         is incarnation – God with us.

Creation is the first Gospel – the origin story to top all origin stories.

But this is a specific Incarnation for a very specific purpose –

         to show us all for all time just how much God is with us, 

                  that it is God in us, or more accurately we are IN God.

  “in whom we live and move and have our being.” 

                                                               as it says in Acts 17:28.

 

So this specific, highly concentrated Incarnation event

         happens in a crude shelter in a small town of a small country 

         engulfed in a much larger and more powerful 

                                             military and economically exploitative power, 

where locally the Roman vassal Herod has his own pitiful reign of terror                            that includes mass murder of children.

 

As I said,

    under the worst possible conditions God incarnates as a helpless infant.

 

A helpless infant who provides the way for hope for the world,

         for every hopeless situation that ever was or ever will be.

Hope – Light – revealing, as incarnations do, the Love of the Creator

         that washes the blindness of our hearts out of us

         that liberates us from our desperately narrow self-interest,

         that expands our vision, 

         that saves us from ourselves.

 

Christmas, the way we might observe it,

   provides us the opportunity for experiencing what we call the Incarnation.

Another name for Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us.

But let’s take it a step further – God IN us.

         Or flip that – Us in God.

How many of you are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia

         that favorite series of children’s books by C. S. Lewis?

         and the scene from book 6, The Magician’s Nephew,

                           which is the origin story for the whole series.

 

Aslan, the Lion, the Christ figure, 

         does not just speaks the words of creation, like in Genesis 1.

He sings them.

And everything comes into being in response to 

         tempo, key signatures, 

         and the dynamics of the melodies, themes and variations.

The energetics of sound, like primal light, produce the glory of creation.

Everything that exists flowed out of the mind, 

         out of the imagination of the Maker 

                  and bears the DNA of the Creator.  God in us and we in God.

 

Now, here’s the thing:

         Creation was not a one off event.

No deist theology of a cosmic clock maker 

         who puts all the stars and galaxies and plants together, 

         wound them up to run on their own 

                           and then retired for a Sabbath rest.

No, creation is a continuing process of coming into being,

         living, dying, decomposing, recombining and evolving life –

                           a continuous creative process.

And we all are elemental in this process.

We all exist within the infinite space of divine creativity, 

         and we are invited to join in the song of creation.

This is the glory – the wonder, the splendor – of it all.

This all is Incarnation.

 

Think of it this way.

         All that is coming into being is through the Incarnate Word.

A continuing process of birth, but with an astounding fact – 

         that this process of being born is not time sensitive, 

                  not limited by linear time,

                  but is infinitely / always happening.

All that is occurs within the womb of the Creator,

         and, if that is so, 

                  then this implies that the umbilical cord has yet to be cut.

         We are still being born.

         We are partaking in the Incarnation, even in this very moment.

 

And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us

and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of God.