Everyone needs a little Jesus . . .

      Many of you have already read the story, but I had a fun encounter at Kroger yesterday.  Karen needed a couple things for the chili she was going to make, and we had some other needs, so the girls and I headed to the store.  By the way, for those of you still procrastinating for today, Kroger has chips on sale, buy 2 get 3 free!  You heard me right.  We couldn’t NOT get a lot of chips yesterday—that would have been wasting money!

     Anyway, once we unloaded the chips and other groceries from our buggy into the back of the Pilot, I went to return our cart.  A gentleman in the parking lot said he loved my shirt and my cross.  Those who work out at the Y’s or those who have done big unloads with me will have seen this t-shirt.  It is a black shirt and has Kneelers in yellow lettering.  I thanked him for the compliment and laughed.  I shared how my seminary flag football team was called the Kneelers.  He laughed, but asked if I was a pastor.  When I said I was, he knew why I had the cross then.  But he could not help himself.  He wanted to know more about the Kneelers, whether we had intended to look like the Steelers.  When I told him the seminary was only 12 or 13 miles from Heinz field, he got really excited.  Clearly, this man was wise in the ways of professional football.  Anyway, he then called me over and told me to stick out my hand.

     He placed a small lego-sized figure in a plastic packet in my hand and said that everyone needs a little Jesus these days.  I laughed.  Had it been lego, my kids would have been fired up.  They collect all the lego figures they can find.  Alas, this little Jesus had no lego bottoms.  He just had a little red sash across his body.  I have since learned, thanks to everyone commenting and laughing about it, that these little Jesuses can have green, yellow or purple sashes, at least.  And I learned at church this morning that some of the fancy little Jesuses have “Jesus <hearts> u” written across the sash.

     Much like y’all, everyone on social media was laughing about my gift that fit in the palm of my hand.  I chuckled a bit more ruefully, on the way home, when I realized that God was ministering to me.  I have shared with Adventers that the recent pastoral conversations with those outside the parish have been very disheartening.  I should not be, but I am disheartened by the biblical illiteracy.  I am a classicist.  I am a priest and student of God’s holy Scriptures.  I know people are people and do not pay attention to God as much as they should, but when people drop by the office to have me muzzle a bishop or affirm their understanding that empathy is a sin or that Jesus prefers America over all other people in the world, I really get mad as the conversations continue.  I mean. . . . they should be glad I do not have Holy Fire as a spell.  I would use it as much for the burn after as the initial lightning bolt.  I get where they get these . . . notions.  Either they are listening to wolves or only reading echo-chamber posts on social media.  They are certainly NOT reading their Bibles.  Now, my vocation is to make them engage with God’s written and Incarnate Word.  I understand it.  But, mercy and empathy are sins?  Please, for your “claim” of love of God, read what He has to say.  Pay attention to what Jesus says and does.  Maybe act like He is Lord of your life.  Maybe pretend that, because He was raised from the dead, His teaching and example are authoritative in your life?  Of course, y’all attend a liturgical church that follows a lectionary.  You know these things.

     But I told Bishop John on Wednesday that I am getting really tired of it.  A few other clergy acknowledged their fatigue, too.  But here in a parking lot, I had an unknown stranger reminding me that everyone needs a little Jesus and it’s my vocation to make sure they get at least a little bit.  Why bring up the story first?

     Today’s readings are all about how God works in the common and through “normal” people like ourselves.  Look at Isaiah.  What do we know about him?  Everybody uncomfortable now?  Good.  We do not know much about him at all.  Apart from the Psalter, Isaiah is the longest book in the Bible.  Isaiah is responsible for 66 chapters, but we know nothing about him, other than he was given a mystical experience of the temple and prophetic vocation that caused him to be a champion of the oppressed, a reminder of God’s judgment to the oppressors, and a reminder of all God’s promises.  Anything else we think we know about Isaiah is speculation.  Was he an aristocrat?  Was he oppressed?  What was his occupation?  Nobody knows.  But we all know God made Isaiah His prophet.

     Look at Paul in Corinthians today.  We would say that Paul comes the closest to being someone we might expect God to want to serve Him.  He was a Pharisee and zealot, a student under Gamaliel, a Benjamite, and a Roman citizen.  For all those advantages, though, Paul was THE persecutor of the Church.  He enthusiastically prosecutor those who were blaspheming God by claiming Jesus, a crucified criminal, was the Messiah!  For all his learning and passion, Paul went astray, or kicked against the goads to use Jesus’ language with Him.  Had Jesus not appeared to Paul, who knows what evil Paul might have accomplished!

     Then look at our story in Luke today.  What do Peter and James and John, the sons of Zebedee do?  That’s right, they are fishermen.  They know fishing, right?  These are professional fishermen, like the crabbers on Deadliest Catch.  They know where and when to fish.  They fished all night because that was the best time to catch whatever fish they were trying to catch.  Jesus walks up, sees Peter cleaning the nets, and asks Peter to put out into the water to get away from the press of the crowd.  From there, Jesus teaches the crowd.

     When He finishes, Jesus tells Peter to put down his net in the deep water.  Peter knows Jesus knows about God.  He has just listened to Jesus teach everyone in the crowd about God for some length of time.  He calls Jesus a title that means Teacher in Greek.  Peter does not call Jesus, Fisherman, though.  Again, you are laughing, but Peter does not.  He even answers Jesus a bit sarcastically or passive-aggressively.  We have fished here all night and caught nothing, Teacher, but if you say so . . . He clearly hopes Jesus will not make him put down his nets.  Jesus does, though.  And look what happens!

     Peter catches so many fish, in the daylight and in the deep water, that his nets are about to break.  He catches so many fish that it nearly sinks his and James’ and John’s boat.  In the midst of that haul, Peter realizes that Jesus does not just know about God.  God works through Jesus in amazing ways.  Peter tells Jesus to leave, because he knows he is a sinner.  Jesus tells Peter that from now on, he will catch.  We add “the people” to the catch because of Matthew’s and Mark’s telling of this story, but we miss the humor.  Peter is being offered the opportunity to catch for God instead of fishing, which means failing often, for himself.  Think of it like a Chuck Norris killing versus hunting joke, just 2000 years earlier!  It’s ok if you did not get that one, ask those laughing or the youngsters among us.

     One of the themes running through these readings and my illustration from yesterday is that God works through ordinary people in ordinary ways to accomplish the extraordinary.  Peter, James, and John learn who Jesus is through fishing.  Paul learns who Jesus is through a mystical experience, not completely unlike Isaiah’s mystical temple experience, but that experience is in light of Paul’s passion for and knowledge of the torah and Isaiah’s understanding of Temple worship!  Part of what makes Paul the perfect tool for God is Paul’s incredible understanding of the torah.  Yes, Paul has to meet the Resurrected Jesus to understand, but he does!  From that point on, Paul’s zealousness for the Lord rightfully shifts from the torah to the Incarnation, Jesus, the One to Whom Moses pointed!  Isaiah presumably needed to see God in the Temple in heaven to understand God’s love of the oppressed, but he does.  My friend in the parking lot of Kroger spent a bit of money for a tiny Jesus, but he was inclined to offer me a bit of encouragement about my vocation, having zero knowledge of the conversations I have had with people outside our parish, let alone the bishop and other clergy.

     I suspect God got your attention, I suspect God demonstrated His love and care for you in similarly ordinary ways, even as He called you to witness to Him.  In the last couple of weeks, conversations have shifted.  Adventers are wondering what can they do to remind people that mercy and empathy are not sins, that they are the motivating reason for Jesus’ pattern of holy living among us, with those around them.  People are asking how we will get food to those who are too terrified to let their kids go to school, let alone venture out for work and food, even as other “Christians” cheer that behavior on, forgetting that we are told by God that we are wandering Arameans in this life.  Adventers are asking all kinds of questions of how to speak against, witness against, whatever against evil being proposed as good.  God’s answer has always been simple.  All He asks of us is obedience.  If God is giving us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to fight against the suffering of this world, to use Isaiah’s words, we are the ones through whom He is choosing to act. 

     He does not require we pass a test or we have a certain certification.  He does not expect us to be any more than He created us to be.  But because He has chosen us, we know that His purposes cannot be thwarted.  Even if we have fought against His call on our lives for years, all He asks this day is that we repent and do the work He has given us to do, and He will take care of the rest.  In the end, He promises that He will be glorified, that all the world will acknowledge His authority and power.  But more amazingly, He promises that we will share in that glory on that Day, even if it seems like for a time we were fools or spitting into the wind, or even separated from Him by our deaths.  In the end, it is His will that we become extraordinary in the eyes of those who witness our faithful obedience.

     I do not have a lot of certainty about the time between now and that Day.  Y’all know that I do not waste a lot of time dwelling on how I hope that Day, and the life after, works.  He does so much more than I can ask or imagine, I think it a waste of my time and my energy.  My encounter with the guy in parking lot reminds me of that truth.  But of this I am absolutely certain: those in the world around us struggle for relevance and fame and power and wealth.  Those in the world around us backstab and scandalize to increase their importance.  But you and I know the true path to honor and glory and, as the Collect reminds us this day, to abundant life!  That path is cross-bearing.  That path requires faith in the One who went ahead.  By that walking of that ordinary path in our ordinary bodies, we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, through our faith in His Son, to catch for God.  Each of us has the opportunity to catch others for Him and to be elevated in their eyes, even as we wait for His return and the ultimate fulfilment of His promises to all who proclaim Him Lord.  Do what He calls you to do.  Be that son or daughter adopted through Christ.  And expect the extraordinary in the ordinary!  Expect that He will bless you for trusting Him and obeying Him, just as He has done for countless others who came before us and helped us to meet Him in the everyday of our lives.

 

In His Peace,

Brian+