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Weekly
news from Lancaster Congregational United Church of Christ
January
29 to February 4, 2012
The
important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so, do that which
best stirs you to love.
Saint
Teresa of Avila
When
a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than
the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.
Boris
Parternak
People
say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that
we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.
Dorothy
Day
Lectionary
Readings for
January 29, 2012
Deuteronomy
18:15-20
Psalm
111
1
Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
From
Sharon’s sermon, January 22, Leave Your Boats: Suzanne
Guthrie on edgeofenclosure.org wrote, “The
stark immediacy of Mark's account of the call of two sets of brothers reverberates
with silence and lack of detail. Within that resonant silence, however,
lies everything that will happen to them, and every Christian's response
to their own calls and subsequent stories.”
I
like “reverberates with silence” and “resonant silence.” It
is as if the moment—the silence—just before Jesus speaks is
filled with all the glory and all the love of God, a love so strong that
in just a look Simon and Peter and James and John—and we—are
drawn into that divine love and our lives are forever changed! It
is Love at first sight, a love so charged that life will never again be
the same….
Okay,
so God loves us, we love God—or someday will. But what’s all
this about immediately leaving our boats and following as Simon and Andrew
did? Even if Jesus immediately turned to us, as he did to James and John,
it’s breath-taking to have him speak to us. So we stammer and stumble
over our words and want to say, “But, but, but, but, I have to”—fill
in the blank….
We
have four guys—Simon, Andrew, James, John. They left their fishnets.
They left their families. They left their whole identity to follow someone
they had just met. They took an unknown road with him. Remember, this is
the same Jesus who later said to would-be disciples: “Foxes have
holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay his head.” This is the same road that led to the cross.
Jesus
came proclaiming the good news that God is at hand. Jesus came asking us
to turn our lives around. Jesus came calling us to follow. Jesus came to
transform our lives. Jesus came to invite our souls to a higher awareness.
How will we respond?
Let’s
look at Jonah, another fish story. [Read the book of Jonah—it’s
towards the end of the Old Testament] I like that last line—“and
also many animals”. God cared for people and animals. But Jonah did
not like his enemies or their animals being saved. Jonah, unlike Simon,
Andrew, James, and John, immediately ran away when God called. He didn’t
like what God wanted him to do. Or maybe he was simply afraid to go to
that violent city. Whatever the reason, he ran away. But God kept calling,
doing wilder and crazier things to get his attention—a storm, a big
fish, a bush. I suspect we’re all more like Jonah than we are like
Simon and Andrew, James and John. We want to run away. We want to pretend
we don’t hear. We don’t like the assignment. We’re afraid.
Jesus
road, after all, was hard, harder even than being swallowed by a big fish. Jesus
calls us to do the impossible: love ourselves as God loves us; love one
another; love the lost and the least; love our enemies; love our friends,
family, and neighbors. Jesus keeps calling, no matter what excuse we give.
Jesus looks into our eyes and into our hearts. Jesus loves us, heals us,
helps us turn to God, and sends us out to tell and live the good news.
Thanks be to God!
A Prayer for the New
Year
Excerpt from Mark
1:14-20
"And immediately they left their nets and followed him."
Reflection by Felix Carrion
The author of the Gospel of Mark is fond of using the word "immediately" to
describe a response that follows from a call or invitation. He attaches this
word to the response of Simon, Andrew, James, and John to Jesus' invitation
to come follow him. However, what appears to be a casual encounter in the moment
actually reveals much more that is at work.
Something breaks through in the life of these four individuals and they can
longer remain attached to a life that does not capture the fullness of who
they are and what they are here to accomplish. Jesus invites them to separate
themselves from the world they know and to find new direction. They experience
a breakthrough, an epiphany of sorts, and find the strength to finally follow
a new path, long buried by the sleep of delay, procrastination, or neglect.
In his poem, "The Strength of Fields," James L. Dickey cries out, "Lord,
let me shake with purpose."
Sometimes a prayer like this is needed to wake us from our slumber, to shake
us loose from our fears, and to set us on our way of "immediacy" toward
long-forgotten hopes and longings and dreams. I think this is a prayer for
the New Year.
Jump now. Leap now. Follow now. Hurry now. Go now.
Prayer
Lord, let me shake with purpose. Amen.
A Silly Question?
Excerpt from Luke
18:35-43
"Jesus stood still and ordered the [blind] man to be brought to him; and
when he came near, he asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?'"
Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver
Jesus asks so many questions in the four gospels—307 different questions,
to be exact. Some of his questions are profound, while others are probing. And
then there are the silly questions. For instance, when Peter tries walking
on water and eventually begins to sink, Jesus asks, "O you of little faith,
why did you doubt?"
That sounds like a silly question to me. Why did Peter doubt? Because
he was trying to walk on water, that's why.
When a blind man cries out to Jesus as he passes by on the road to Jericho,
Jesus responds by asking him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Is that just another silly question? I mean, if you are blind, of course
what you want most of all is to have your sight restored. Does Jesus
have to ask?
But we have to be careful here. Most of us have a tendency to assume
that we know what another person needs or wants, particularly if that person
is dealing with some kind of challenge or disability. Perhaps what the
blind man wants, more than anything else in the world, is something other than
the restoration of his sight. He might respond to Jesus' question by
saying, "I most want to be reconciled with my father," or, "I
want to share a life with someone." One of those, or something else
entirely, might be his deepest yearning. You will only know if you ask.
So when Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?' he is showing
respect for the man. He is not presuming to know what he wants. He
is asking. And he is listening.
Prayer
O God, help me to respond to the needs of people without presuming to know
what those needs are. Give me the wisdom to ask and to listen. Amen.
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