Preached at Grace Lutheran, York and Canadochly Lutheran on January 22, 2017
Scripture text: Matthew 4:12-23
“Nothing happens by accident.” “There’s no such thing as coincidence.” People with a strong faith in fate and destiny will often say such things, believing that everything that happens does so for a particular reason. We Christians have plenty of reason to go along with them.
Now I’m not one to say that God causes everything to happen. I certainly don’t believe that God wishes calamity upon us. But I do think it is clear that God spends an inordinate amount of time on each one of us, molding and crafting us through the circumstances of our lives into the people he wishes us to be. In many ways, we’ve seen proof of that in these last two Gospel lessons, last Sunday’s and now today’s.
As I said in last Sunday’s sermon, it is clear that the synoptic Gospels leave out a lot of details. They want to get to the “meat” of the Jesus story, which is his work, miracles, and message, and are not as keen on spending time outlining the relationship building that Jesus does with his disciples. John, on the other hand, as we saw last week, does take that time, pointing out that Jesus’ first meeting with the fisherman did not happen at the seashore, but much earlier when John the Baptist arranged an introduction between them. What follows that introduction is the time these men take to build their relationship and friendship with one another.
Jesus takes the time; he takes the effort. And what was true then with those four fishermen is true now with each of us.
We are Chosen. That’s such a loaded word in the Scriptures. The Israelites, the ancient Hebrews, are the “Chosen People.” The Twelve Disciples are Jesus’ “Chosen” followers. And we as the Church of this generation are the “Chosen” ones today.
It goes beyond even that. God chooses Bethlehem to be the birthplace of his son as OT prophecy points out. And he chooses Galilee to be the geographic centerpiece of his ministry as our First Lesson today highlights. Why all these choices? What’s God really up to here?
Well, as I said a few moments ago, “nothing happens by accident.” God has a clear plan for the world, a plan he began with Eden, carried forward to Abraham and the Old Covenant, that moved forward into the Kingdom of Israel and its prophets, that moved forward again with Jesus and the disciples, that is now in the hands of the Church and the synagogue, and one day will finally culminate with the salvation of the world at the end of days.
You and I are a part of this grand plan. We are chosen and have our parts to play. Just as all those other people and places had their parts to play in their times.
So what is your part? What is mine? Mine is somewhat obvious, since I stand before you in this pulpit as an ordained pastor of the Church. As to yours, I cannot speak specifics because our purpose is unique to each one of us. But there are certain things in common for all of us.
Why are we chosen? To what end? To what purpose? To the answer those questions, look to the story of your own life. You will find many clues there. And we tease out those clues by looking again at the question I asked last week about why each of us are here on Sunday morning.
You choose to be here. Why? Because someone introduced you to Jesus. Someone guided you in the faith. Perhaps many someones. Perhaps they were a friend, a parent, a teacher, or even a stranger. But they caught you, just as a fisherman catches a fish. They hooked you and you have stayed here since.
You were baptized. You have been steeped in the word. You have eaten at Christ’s table in the sacrament. All these things have nurtured you. Jesus has been using these things to grow you into the person he intends you to be. To what end? So that you can go forth and hook others. “Follow you and you will catch people.” Jesus tells the men in the boat. He’s saying that to you and to me as well.
That’s why we were chosen. To catch people and tell them the good news of what God has done for them.
As I pointed out last week, evangelism takes time. If you’ve ever gone fishing, you know that it is a rare thing to land a fish on your first cast. Same thing with people. Some people will slip the hook. Others will jump out of the boat. But we’re to keep trying. Nothing happens by accident, but also nothing happens instantaneously either. Those mentors of our past did not wave a magic wand and turn us instantly into the mature believers that we are now. It took time.
We’ve heard the phrase “baby Christian” a lot recently, particularly in reference to our new President. Truth is we all started that way. We didn’t stay that way, but we became more through the patient nurturing of others. Now the shoe’s on the other foot and we are the mentors and the evangelists. This is why we were chosen. This is what we are meant to be.
Because Jesus came, as I’ve said numerous times, to save the world. The whole world. He died and rose again for all. And he wants people to know that, to believe it. To trust in it. As I somewhat jokingly have said, the Gospel can be summed up as God saying to the world “Chill. I got this.” That message isn’t going to get out unless we tell it. That message isn’t going to sink in unless we nurture and model it to others with patience and tenacity. That’s why we’re here. That’s who we’ve been called to be. It’s what it means to be Chosen.
It was true for the Hebrews and is still true for the Jews. It was true for the first disciples and all the other saints of generations past. And it is true for you and me. Go! Go and tell. Go and catch people. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment