SERMONS

This Sunday
Past Sermons

SERMON - February 5, 2012

Rev. Kevin E. Johnston

What I Came Out to Do

Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39

A reading from a prophet called Isaiah:

Have you not been paying attention? Have you not been listening? Haven't you heard these stories all your life? Don't you understand the foundation of all things?

God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants. The Eternal One stretches out the skies like a canvas— yes, like a tent canvas to live under. what all the princes say and do is ignored. The rulers of the earth count for nothing. Princes and rulers don't amount to much. Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted, they shrivel when God blows on them.  Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind.

"So—who is like me?  Who holds a candle to me?" asks The Holy. Look at the night skies: who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name —so magnificent! so powerful!— and never overlooks a single one?

Why would you ever complain, or whine, saying, "God has lost track of me, doesn't care what happens to me"? Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts, and is the Creator of all you can see or imagine. God doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch God’s breath, and knows everything, inside and out. Those who get tired are energized, and dropouts receive fresh strength.

For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles. They run and don't get tired. They walk and don't lag behind.

 

This is a story from Mark account of Jesus’ life:

After leaving the meeting place where Jesus had been teaching, he and his followers went to Simon and Andrew's house. Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed, burning up with fever. They told Jesus. He went to her, took her hand, and raised her up. No sooner had the fever left than she was up fixing dinner for them.

That evening, after the sun was down, people began bringing sick and evil-afflicted folks to him. The whole city was lined up at the door! He cured their sick bodies and tormented spirits. Because the demons knew his true identity, he didn't let them say a word.

While it was still night, way before dawn, Jesus got up and went out to a secluded spot to pray. The others went looking for him, and found him saying, "Everybody's looking for you."

Jesus said to them, "Let's go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. For this is what I came out to do."

He went to their meeting places all through Galilee, preaching and throwing out the demons.

 

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

May it be so.

 

The Message

There’s a catch phrase that’s appeared over the past many years, usually referring to a particular segment of society – “coming out”. When one “comes out”, he, or she, discloses a part of their identity as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning individual. But that is only a part of that person. Unfortunately, for many, she, or he, is viewed by society as just that.

It takes a lot of courage to be honest and live life without pretending to be someone or something that is not like most in the world. It isn’t, as a frog named Kermit sang many years ago, “easy being green”. We might call it trying to live with integrity. And we become easy prey for bullies – ones who think they have power over others and act accordingly “because they can”. Often it’s years after the individual has grappled and struggled over the reality of being different and does not “fit in” with what the world assumes the majority – if not all – its members are.

In reflecting in general, as well as on our gospel lesson this morning and what it is that we might find in that story for us, I’ve begun to wonder if “coming out” does not necessarily relate to this alone. For example – when a person discloses that he or she is living with an illness or affliction; whenever we discover, often painfully, and accept a part of our lives that’s not “the way it’s supposed to be”, and make that known to another, that’s “coming out”. Whenever we – as individuals and community “come out” – we reveal something new, a part of us that has previously been hidden, and publicly announce, or divulge that information.

And it’s not always news that others welcome the same way as when a baby is on the way. Sometimes – perhaps too-often – we meet with rejection, ridicule, persecution, denial, oppression, and even, sadly, death in many ways. Relationships are no longer are “the way they were”. Families, communities, and society-at-large result in being fractured and broken –sometimes irretrievably. It’s not always a good thing to do – at least perhaps in the big picture, it isn’t.

And yet, on the other side of the coin, “coming out” can be life giving, liberating, and freeing in ways never before imagined. Once we “get out of the box” or “come out of the closet” and allow ourselves to be open and honest and vulnerable, coming out can also be life-giving for others who may feel as if they are the only one, or ones, living with and within that reality.

According to storyteller Mark, the Jesus-figure said to his companions one day, "Let's go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. For this is what I came out to do. Then he went to their meeting places all through Galilee.”

In 2006, the United Church of Canada launched its Emerging Spirit campaign. Its aim was "to help raise awareness about the ministry of The United Church of Canada and to invite people to join with us on the journey of faith".

Emerging Spirit “also offers important opportunities for congregations to reclaim and proclaim the key elements of the gospel they are called to live out in their context, reassess how they are perceived in their local communities, and strategize about things they might do to be more welcoming to those who don't currently attend a faith community."¹

A 2008 United Church resource, The Church We Are Becoming², declares that "God is doing something new. A new reality is emerging across our church and our land…in promising new and innovative models of ministry; in a renewed interest…to encounter God; and in the recognition of many churches that change is being required of us to move more fully into a new time. Recognizing, understanding, and embracing this emerging reality is the task of the church. … Each generation has the challenge…to become the faithful church in our time. [And] since we can never fully comprehend God’s truth, we always need to grow in our understanding of God’s presence and call as people of faith” ….
Becoming means coming to be, growing to be, emerging as an entity … manifesting one’s essence or nature. Becoming involves going through changes and taking on new characteristics…[as] an active dynamic process that is still in flux. … Churches are invited to take the risk of passing from a previous state or condition to new models and new ways – ways that we have only partial vision or brief glimpses of at the moment. Of course, choosing to move in this direction can be unsettling. But it can also be exciting to choose to act in faith, trusting the Spirit of God to accompany us even when, or especially when, we are not certain how things will turn out.³

What’s our centre – our focus? Why are we here? Why does FAM exist? Who are we? What’s our raison d’etre, our sense of purpose? Do we perhaps need a new prescription – a new set of glasses or contact lenses? Are we all about “getting people in the door” to fill the pews as it was “when”? Is it all just about renting our space in order to make money to keep us afloat?

Are we a “busy” place – always “doing” – instead of “being still” and listening for Spirit in silence? Do we find our source of strength from within – from the Divine spark at the core of our being? Or is it found outside ourselves – from being “told” by others? Does being “busy” and “doing” deplete our energies instead of finding spiritual connection and strength in silence and meditation?

Today’s story has …
four distinct movements. The healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. The healing of many people who lived in Capernaum. A brief solitary prayer. And the transition to Jesus' public ministry in other towns of Galilee. From these four movements or life experiences, Mark is creating a story of a person - the historical Jesus - who is constantly on a journey, inviting others to reimagine the world. The journeying is important. In his article, The Son of Man, Walter Wink “names some of the issues he reckons we need to ponder as we think about the historical Jesus: before he was worshipped as God incarnate, how did Jesus struggle to incarnate God? Before he became identified as the source of all healing, how did he relate to, and how did he teach his disciples to relate to, the healing Source? Before forgiveness became a function solely of his cross, how did Jesus understand people to have been forgiven?

Wink is saying there is an important difference between the ‘historical’ Jesus and the ‘heavenly’ Jesus or Christ of faith. And if that is not important enough, this phrase: “The implications of [this thinking are] profound.  We are freed to go on the journey that Jesus chartered, rather than to worship the journey of Jesus. ...  We can take Jesus out of the ghetto of the churches and offer him to anyone looking for a guide to true humanity”.

Going on the journey rather than worshipping the journey. Journeying is important [-] for individuals, and for a congregation, in the light of what we now know about the historical Jesus and, the unexplored bits of the Jesus movement traditions. A journey which tries to make our broader community a better, more just, and compassionate ‘humane’ place in which to live. Even with our rough edges,…there is much to be thankful for….

So the challenge this morning, if we would be challenged, is to begin to wonder and think together about how we can move on from here with a spirit of focused courage, as a community - a people - of a ‘progressive’ faith.

…[We] are at an important moment of transition. From a former theology which shaped church’, to a newer way of being in community.⁴

Mark’s Jesus seems to have had a pretty clear vision of where Spirit was leading him, of what he was called and invited to live into and out of. I wonder what our – as FAM in Medicine Hat – vision might be?

… “The secular is being besieged by repressed sacred impulses, but religion as it stands cannot relate to these impulses because they speak a different language... and so has marginalized itself from society and life, a tragic situation that has prevented it from showing leadership in the rediscovery of God”

[This] understanding of spirituality is ‘either/or’ - either spirituality or religion. A religion you have when you don’t feel religious! [But maybe there’s] a more inclusive model of ‘spirituality’…. One that offers an important leadership role in religion, but “beyond the ghetto of the churches”…that encourages all of us to explore what it means to connect to the sacred within, to nature, and to neighbour. A spirituality of ‘progressive’ discernment.

[Perhaps that’s] the important journey we need to continue! And we can gain courage and strength for this journey by finding in ourselves those powers that were evident in the sage we call Jesus.

As… Wink has said in another…comment: “(Jesus) was not God in a mansuit, his every step predetermined from all eternity, but a human being seeking the will of God in the everyday decisions that shape life (and) living...”.

[Is it at all conceivable, let alone possible, that we, too,] could do no better than to share in that same journey and in that same discernment, in our own time and place.  … The challenge is to shed all the accumulated baggage, while not slipping backwards into some ho-hum, all-purpose ‘middle’, symbolized by the one eye we keep in our car’s rear-view mirror!

[I wonder….for] this journey to continue we [might also]… need a sense of expectancy, a glimpse of future possibilities, a vivid imagination – and plenty of niche courage! For Creativity God's creation in this place is not done.⁵

If we were to discern, discover, and allow ourselves to live into and out of our sense of vision and purpose, and “come out” – reveal to our community who we really are – what would would our neighbours do? Perhaps they’re wondering – searching – looking to us to let them know.

Remember the promise given to the people of Israel through the prophet?

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? … The Spirit gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Eternal shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

I wonder…what it might mean for us to discern, and then boldly proclaim to the world, “This is what I came out to do”?

And may it be so.