Believing in the Impossible - 1.26.20

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee

Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee

(Mk 1:14–15; Lk 4:14–15)

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people who sat in darkness

have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death

light has dawned.”

17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

(Mk 1:16–20; Lk 5:1–11)

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus Ministers to Crowds of People

(Mk 1:35–39; Lk 4:44; 6:17–19)

23 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

Fulfilling the prophet’s words

Repent - for the kingdom has come near

Follow me, and I will make you fish for people

Preaching good news, curing diseases

Imagine this — you’re at your job or your favorite place you spend your time volunteering. You’re doing the thing you’re good at and that brings you some purpose in life.

Then all of a sudden, this strange person comes up to you and wants to tell you about a whole new thing they’re doing and ask you to come along and join them in it. To leave what you’re doing behind, to let go of your way of life and source of income. To step out on a new journey.

Imagine also that this guy has a look in his eyes of great conviction. The kind of look that when you see it, it makes you uncomfortable because of how confident it is. Maybe he’s a little wacky. Maybe he’s on something. Or maybe he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

You’d be skeptical, right? You’d want to know more. You’d want the five point plan, the 1, 5, 10 and 20 year goals outlined for you. You’d want to see his proposed Return on Investment. Because if you’re going to leave what you are doing behind, you’re going to need a pretty compelling vision for what’s next, right?

Isn’t this what we’re being asked of when we set out to follow Jesus?

Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee and starts calling these fishermen to follow him, to leave it behind. To drop their nets and start catching people instead. This sounds crazy, right?

But he’s compelling, obviously. In the first, he’s believable as he quotes the Prophet Isaiah’s words — Isaiah is the prophet of such hope for Israel and this passage Jesus proclaims is one that so many folks would long to hear and see realized — walking in darkness and light is dawning! Yes! Please, because don’t we feel like we’re walking in darkness? Isn’t this day-to-day of catching fish and living under Roman occupation, doesn’t it feel like darkness and death?

To hear that the light is dawning — that hope has come — this is news worth listening to, and so the hearers do the impossible thing and follow Jesus.

They believe, not because everything is fixed in an instant, but because there is something calling them, the Spirit of God initiating an action in them that leads them out into the territory of faith in the impossible becoming possible.

The second piece which is compelling is what happens after they get up and leave their nets. We hear that Jesus then goes through Galilee, teaching and proclaiming the good news to more people and…curing diseases and sicknesses among the people.

Believing before seeing…this is faith. But faith is made sight when we put our faith in Jesus.

And so it is with the disciples — faith is made sight in these healings. People who are living in darkness and death receive the liberation of healing! Praise God!

Because wouldn’t the fear of oppression and the unknown of what happens next be like death? Wouldn’t living with an incurable disease be like walking in darkness, leading you to the grave?

Again, we find Jesus initiating something impossible in the lives of the people who hear him. He makes the impossible possible, the unbelievable believable.

This is the God we follow. The one in whom we believe that the impossible is possible.

Let’s bring this passage of following after the Lord of the Impossible to our context. I want to talk about what things might seem like impossible dreams, and also what I see God doing in our community that is compelling and beautiful and healing and possible all the same.

I want to talk about what is, and I want to talk about what is becoming. I want to share some dreams, some reasons why I’m compelled to follow Jesus here at St. James Presbyterian Church and some things that I hope you will find compelling too.

Because isn’t that truly what we want? Let’s be honest, we are skeptical too. At least, I know I am. I need a compelling vision for what God is up to, I need hope, I need a sense for where we might be going, unto what end we are journeying.

In seminary, we talked a lot about the telos of God’s kingdom — a word that means pointing to the ultimate end, the point of arrival or coming to fruition — we anticipate the coming of God’s reign, already among us now and yet still coming into being.

So with this hunger for something believable, some bit of hope. I want to turn to what I see and dream for our church. My sense of the telos for us.

I’m going to use three categories, things that we are already doing, to help frame this: Loving Welcome, Joyful Practice, and Compassionate Service.

Loving Welcome

First, we are a people of Loving Welcome here. I hope you feel that when you walk in the doors. So many of the folks who have visited our congregation that I’ve had a chance to talk with say how warm and welcomed they have felt when they’ve walked in our doors.

So where is this leading us? Well, let’s get started: It is leading us to continually find ways to make our church more accessible and welcoming to our community.

It looks like us making it a notable focus of our ministry to welcome traditionally marginalized groups. I know for a fact that many of you who visit and have found a home here are here, in at least part, because we are a welcoming place for our LGBTQ+ family, friends, and neighbors. I know others of you who are passionate about the rights and treatment of immigrants to our area.

And where might this be leading us? I have dreams that we will become a hub and haven for our community, a place where people feel they can find sanctuary and safety. One of the great struggles the church will continue to face as we look ahead is how we can be a place where anyone, anyone, can come and find refuge. We live in a world where there are a lot of places that say “no, you’re not welcome.” And the church musn’t ever be one of those. And I hold deep hope that we will continue to double-down on our promise to be a place of Loving Welcome.

I have hope that this will expand beyond the simple welcome on Sundays. I hope that we can continue to grow the offerings in our church for community groups to use our space and utilize this building as a place of refuge. This is compelling — that the church would welcome in our neighbors not in expectation of Sunday attendance, but because this is the house of God where our neighbors, regardless of their affiliation, find haven, find rest, and find the Presence of the Loving God who welcomes them in.

This sounds like soft stuff, right, love and welcome. But is it not some of the most radical work in our world today? And yet God has called us to this. To be a community of Loving Welcome.

Joyful Practice

The second area that I see us being called to and dream that we can continue to grow in is our Joyful Practice. At the heart of why we gather, the very core of our purpose, the reason we exist, is to worship God and give glory to God with, in and through our lives.

How beautiful it is when God’s people gather together in worship!? And let’s get it clear: not always polished, shiny, glamorous or even perfect worship. Messy, human, hopeful, flesh and blood worship that is practiced week in and week out — that’s what I’m talking about. The kind of practices like Communion, not done with a sense of perfection, but communion when you accidently drop your bread into the cup and have to take another and you smile at the person who is serving you, who’s in on it; a practice with joy and grace in greeting each other in the peace of Christ. The practice of exuberance that welcomes children to be formed in their faith in community with octogenarians — not because we can get our kids to be quiet and behave like we do, but because we are people of lifelong faith who want to pass it on, who want to see the next generations rise up and love Christ as we have.

This is Joyful Practice. I see it as our choir grows, the joy on their faces as a song is sung with gusto and passion. I can see this expanding, as we find more ways to bring the great musicians of our community into this space to share their gifts — the concerts, the recitals, this beautiful sanctuary being used as a place for people to gather and make a joyful noise, not just on Sundays, but in the evenings with community choirs and ukuleles, performance artists and speakers — that our worship expands to encompass so much of the pursuit of God as it is so beautifully displayed in God’s diverse creation.

I get excited, compelled, about the future of this congregation, because we have an opportunity to move past the squabbles of worship style to engage the gifts we already have here — great musicianship, creative writers, enthusiastic participants.

And the Joyful Practice extends beyond music — I see us continuing to grow as a community that takes very seriously the worship that is given to God through the life of the intellect and the pursuits of the mind. A community that will continue to use its brain when it walks into church — a community of critical thinkers, linking all that we know from our studies in the world with the truths we find of God (which of course, map so well upon all science, art, and technology, history, literature, and more…these disciplines are imbued with the goodness of God’s created world and so of course, with a critical mind and heart, we see God in them!)

We can be a place where it is safe to ask questions, to challenge the status quo, to believe God is big enough to handle our doubt. This is something worth fighting for — this is not always a characteristic that the church clings to with joy. And yet, we find ourselves invited to practice our faith in this joyful way together, here.

Compassionate Service

Lastly, I am compelled by what I see here as the heart for Compassionate Service. Just being welcoming, just being joyful and vibrant in our faith formation — that is not enough. And we must continue to expand our work in compassionate care for our neighbors and the most vulnerable in our world.

We’re already doing this — partnering with ministries that support the unhoused, that advocate for Creation Care and climate justice, that look out for the under-represented, being a voice for the voiceless.

I think we can do more of this. I think we can find ways to get involved in our city as faith advocates for issues of justice. We can swell up our energy and not only recycle and ride our bikes, but we can become a leader among churches as a congregation that takes climate justice seriously and will lead others by how we operate in our life together, be it by reducing our carbon footprint, installing solar panels, carpooling, or advocacy. We can get out of these doors and every day serve the folks we meet — seeing Jesus in them, loving Jesus in them, serving Jesus in them.

There is a lot to fear, a lot of walking in darkness. The church in our world struggles to know how to witness to Jesus today. And yet, I see it here and I see the possibility of it here. I see God using us to mark out a different path and take it together.

The work is not easy. We are human and therefore we sin and we get in each others’ way and mess things up sometimes. But this is the calling that is worth following. This is the stuff that is worth dropping our nets for.

And its happening. And it can continue to happen. We are stepping forward together, abiding in it together. You’ll read about what has been happening in our congregation in the Annual Report today…and what I want to say is that this is only the beginning, I hope. God is moving among us here, and it is so good to journey together.

Later in Jesus’ ministry, after the healings had been going on, after the news had been preached repeatedly, Jesus pulled his disciples aside and told them this: you will do greater things in my name. The work is far from over and far from fully realized.

And we hear that today — greater things are ahead of us. We are compelled by this vision, that God is out ahead, preparing for us the great work for our church. The impossible things, that we doubted could ever happen, in Christ…become possible.

Praise God for this. And we follow Jesus towards it, no turning back.

Let’s pray and then sing together.