Epiphany 3 - B

DOING IT THE HARD WAY

I imagine most of us heard President Obama’s inaugural address? A remarkable number of people did. Reports say email traffic was at an all time low while everyone watched it on line. The length of the speech was clocked at about 18 minutes. The longest inaugural address was given by President Harrison, and it took an hour and forty five minutes in a snow storm. He died of pneumonia a month later. George Washington’s address was about 135 words. It took less than two minutes to read. It took him eight days to get to New York.

It took Jonah three days to walk across the city to speak eight words.

Eight words… imagine being able to say eight “good” words and those words being powerful enough to change the way people live. He simply told the people that they were doing something wrong. His words were ridiculously effective. Of course, it’s a story about exaggerations, and really it’s not so much about the city as it is about Jonah himself. Jonah learns something about God in the process; he learns that God is all about forgiveness and love and God can change.

Have you ever tried to get anyone to change? In relationships it is impossible. What we are told is that we can only change ourselves.

When we look at the world in which we live we are faced with some pretty serious dilemmas really. Daily we must decide if we are going to follow the Way of Jesus Christ and his calling to us or are we going to follow the ways of the world.

To follow The Way of Jesus is not easy; it means going against the culture we live in.

There are many examples of ways to challenge our culture and society; the Moncton market offers products and produce locally made and grown as a way of resisting the big stores that often leave the farmer short-changed and the customer over-charged. We see things like this all the time. Lobster fisherman selling out of the backs of trucks; people selling corn and potatoes by the side of the road.

Somewhere along the way we forgot that simple acts like this is what Jesus calls us to – resisting the empire; changing the world from the ground up; substituting love for greed. The Bible, our faith, is counter-cultural.

But even while I say that I think that I should let you know that without even thinking about it, most of us already do a thing or two that resists the empire…

We shop at the market, we sort the garbage into the blue and green bags, we visit in the homes, we donate to many worthwhile organizations, we smile in the grocery store, or a hundred other worthwhile things that others would say are a waste of time.

This week there 2 such examples right here within our church. The Men’s group putting on a supper to raise money to help people who will be unable to pay their oil bills this winter. With the men we raised around 500L of oil to give to our neighbours.

Then this week, I received a call from the United Way. They asked Mountain View to join with them and ReConnect to help someone in need to a new apartment by way of a loan for a couple of weeks. The benevolent fund is low right now and so I called the UCW and without hesitation the money was on my desk with word that it was not a loan but a gift – freely given. Amazing really, here we are a church community working side by side 2 other organization is our city to help our friends and neighbours in the city.

These are examples of being counter cultural – of following the Way of Jesus as we hear read in the Gospel stories.

When Jesus spoke to people, he wanted to show them to a new way of seeing the world; the Kingdom Way, counter cultural, standing against the empire of today. Jesus was talking about God’s love being lived through how we treat each other and the strangers in our midst. To create a world that followed God’s grace and love for all creation – that that would become the norm, the dominant culture and everyone would know justice, freedom, peace, and love.

This was his hope for his followers.

In the Gospel story today, Jesus calls the disciples to join him, to leave what they have known and join him on a journey of challenging the way people lived. It would mean overturning the existing order of power and privilege. In this story – we can hear the call being extended to each of us. Jesus is inviting you and me to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege.

Are you willing to that? Am I willing to do that?

Are we willing to leave the places within ourselves that allow corruption to happen, that allow for oppression, that allow for exclusion, that allow for toleration, that allow for the quiet yet subtle work of racism, homophobia, sexism, the marginalization of the poor, the condemning of those who aren’t Christian, and more specifically are we willing to allow our faith in Jesus Christ to transform us into change agents in the places we find ourselves?

There are no miracles in today’s Gospel. No voices from heaven. No diseases cured, water turned into wine, or anything else. But something divine is happening here. Because a group of people have gathered together to resist the powers of the world and to show the people around them that there is a better way to live.

Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be about today? When I woke up this morning it was like any other day: stumble out of bed and try to help get the girls ready, rush around trying to get organized and get out of the house too late… for the most part my life has become routine.
But life is meant to be anything but routine. A life of faith – following Jesus helps us to see and live beyond the routines - it starts with the decisions we make that express our faith are against the empire.

I know a lot of you give money to this church that you could use for other things in life, a better television, a nicer car, an extra trip, a new gadget – and instead you give of your resources to help ministry happen in this place and in the world through the Mission and Service Fund. You volunteer your time here and in other places because you believe the world can be changed in small ways.

Whether or not anything in this service moves us or gives us great insight, the very nature of our gathering should be enough because we gather to resist what the rest of the world wants us to believe: that there can be no peace, that back room politics will rule the day, that you are a consumer who will be consumed, and that there is no hope.

But none of that is true. How do we know that? Because Christ walks along the shores of our lives and calls us by name to follow him because the kingdom of God is near.

In the next few weeks, we’re going to be reading about some pretty impressive miracles. I’d like you to consider that miracles are symbolic actions. Let me explain. When Martin Luther tacked his thesis upon the door of the cathedral with his criticisms of the church, this was more than a monk posting a note on a door. It was a symbolic action of resistance against what he thought was wrong. When Martin Luther King Jr. knelt and prayed in front of police dogs and water cannons, or when people sat at lunch counters or in the front of city buses, they were engaging in symbolic actions. When Jesus heals people and performs miracles, it’s not about magic, he does it to challenge the powers around him, to show what the kingdom of God looks like.

Jesus came, the Bible says; that we might have life, have courage, have faith. But living the life that God wants of us takes a lot of courage. And we are here this morning to encourage one another in the journey of life. So today I want to encourage you as you leave this place to be who you are, where you are. You are a child of God. You are part of God’s world. And together, as a church, we can make a difference to not only resist what is wrong, but to celebrate what is right.