Epiphany 5 - B

Do it Yourself

There is something known as the “rule of end stress”. It is a general rule of life that tells us that often what is most important to pay attention to is the last thing happening. Take a joke... the most important part of the joke is the final punch line; deliver that wrong and the whole thing falls apart. Novels have a final denouement that tells us why the whole story mattered in the last few pages. Therapists will tell you that when someone comes in for counselling they often spend the whole hour talking about things until at the very last moment when they are about to leave they say the one thing that you should have been talking about all along.

There is also a rule of end stress in Bible stories. One of the quickest ways I could tell you about this is the story of Jonah. You all remember it, it is a great story. Jonah is called, Jonah rebels, Jonah escapes God in a boat, Jonah gets swallowed by a fish, Jonah gets spit up exactly where God wanted him to be, Jonah delivers a prophecy of doom, the people repent, the town is saved, Jonah gets angry... and none of that has anything to do with the point of the story.

In the end God teaches Jonah a lesson using a fig vine, that lesson is this – God is concerned with what happens to people.

A whole huge convoluted fishing story to come back to one concrete point at the end; God is concerned.

Today we have a story from the life of Jesus before us; it is a story of Jesus ministry in the towns along the shore, about healing, about preaching, about resting... and it ends with this:

“Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.”

Now; consider this. We have a story about how Jesus went into a town and completely changed the lives of the people who heard him. He healed, he taught, he preached; and it affected them so much that as soon as he went off by himself for a little while, they all went to try and find him.

And what does Jesus say in the end? “Come on, time to go.”

This might seem curious until you put it in context. And the context I want you to use is our church.

Most of the time I hear people saying things that basically sound like “if only God would...” We think that God should heal this or that person, that God should solve this or that problem, that things would be a lot better if only God would... you can fill in your own blanks here.

I am not sure what we really think faith is; perhaps many of us have come to think that faith in God means that God will make our lives easier somehow. So we think that here at church things will be better, easier, nicer... and that everything will be okay if we just sit back and wait for God to work it all out.

There are a couple of quick correctives to this from the Bible. First, almost no one has an easier time when they get into a relationship with God. Second, is the story we read this morning. Jesus came to show us what life with God would be like; and basically, he taught a bit by word and example, and then says, life with God is about working these things out on your own; and moves on to the next town.

Think about how that could change out entire understanding of church. Jesus expected the people he taught, his followers, to continue to do his work after he left them. There was just this brief moment of contact, when you became aware of what God was really like, and the rest of your lives were spent following in the footsteps of the person who showed you.

As we come to another year in the life of our congregation, as we gather together once more to have n annual meeting, set policy, look at directions, and think about what God is calling us to do... We need to hear this.

Faith was never meant to be a sit back and see what God does next type of thing. Church was never intended to be the place where we came to sit back and celebrate what god has already done. This is the front line of the disagreement between the way the world is and the way the world should be... and the outcome is up to us, not God.

Some 5000 years ago Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. Again. And the prophet Isaiah looks at the people who are sitting around, head in hands, and crying out “why did God do this? Why did God let this happen?” and he says in no uncertain terms: “Have you not heard? Have you not seen? Is God not good?”

But get up... rebuild... do the work... and God will still be with you. God never swoops down and fixes things for them; it is up to them to figure out how to make things work out as God would want them to. And Isaiah promises them that if they can just keep their minds and hearts focused on what it is that God is... it will be so much easier for them to be the ones who do God’s work.

Of course, he says it more poetically: “...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

A long time before that Moses stopped at the edge of the promised land and looked at the rag tag bunch of exiles he was leading and spoke the way God would have wanted when he said: “I put before you this day two choices, life and death, blessing and curse...choose life...”

So Jesus comes. Jesus has empowered you. But Jesus never intended to stay hand help you solve all the problems. That is not the way God works. God leaves you with a question: Are you going to follow me and change the world?

The Bible is a reference book filled with the choices that other people made. It tells us how the people who were enslaved in Egypt chose; it tells us who the people who were overrun by Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans chose; and it tells us how the followers of Jesus chose. In all of the stories we find wisdom that we can apply today – but not hard and fast rules about what it would look like for us to choose God.

This is a different world, a different time, a different context – and we have the stories that Jesus told to help us figure out what God is like... now it is up to us to apply it.

If God is love... if God looks out for the least and the last first... if God is all about relationships... then how are we going to treat those who society looks down on?

If the faithful of the past have learned that money corrupts... if they learned that things are less important than people... if they learned that following the letter of the law mostly destroys the spirit of the practice... if they learned that sin is choosing not to be in relationship... then how can we apply those rules to living in the last days of the current Western Empire?

It might be scary... but now it is our turn to live as God wants and Jesus taught. Let’s try and make all of our decisions from that knowledge. At the same time, remember, as Isaiah says in his words of comfort:

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

Let us pray.
Lord God we come here to acknowledge that we have often failed to understand your way in our lives. We do not love out your love, acceptance and compassion as well as we could; we often place too high a priority on maintaining the status quo, on protecting what we have, on making sure we are safe. Push our boundaries, send your strength, and remind us of our duty.
From this moment on we will choose to rethink your love and teachings for our day. We will become part of the work that Jesus began in reconciling everyone to each other, and to you. We will live in hope.
Amen.