While studying today’s gospel it occurred to me that there are really two themes to be absorbed here; one on the location of the sermon and the healings and the other on the “blessed” and the “woe” There are some outstanding differences between Luke’ account that we heard this morning and Matthew’s account. After doing research for this sermon I am pretty sure I could offer a seminar on the different and interplays between the two but you will be happy to know that I am focusing only on Luke’s version this morning.
First, we need to consider the geography of the place where this sermon is given. Luke’s version is often referred to as the “sermon on the plain” and so it is as we heard this morning that Jesus set about teaching on a “level place”. This level place was not just on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, it was a plain on a rise above the shore. It was also below some hills behind, much like we see in our area. That is because the Sea of Galilee is actually a broadening of the river Jordan and formed to some degree like this area was formed by the Connecticut River. The topography offered an are where it is easy for the human voice to be heard over a fairly long distance. So we have a large level area with a sort of bowl shape and with great acoustics. If you are old enough think Yazger’s farm the site of Woodstock. The other thing we need to know is that Tyre and Sidon had a good many gentiles living there. The population that had access to the area was moderately large and diverse. Jesus and a large number of his followers have just been on retreat up in hills surrounding this spot and Jesus has picked out the twelve followers that make up the core of his teachers. As they all come down from the hills they are met by a very large group of people who want healing and are looking for a good show. The level area offers a situation in whic everyone is on the level. No one is higher than their neighbor. The area is large enough that those who have been pushed to the margins, like lepers and those possessed and are unclean due to all kinds of legalistic reasons, still can see and hear what is going on. Now in this environment, what is the first thing tha Jesus sets out to do? Heal. The very first thin Jesus does is heal. Not just some but “he was healing everyone.” Not only that but he was healing both the one that he could touch and those who, though they could not reach him, were healed by a power that went out from him. When I was working for a living I had to study explosions. In that pursuit I and my fellow investigators would study ultra slow videos of explosions and we could watch the pressure wave as it moved out from the center of the explosion. You might have seen this in some action movies or documentaries about nuclear explosions in the Bikini Islands. When I think of the power of healing that went out from Jesus that is the picture that forms in my mind though not a wave of destruction but a wave of healing. So now we have a very large gathering of people all on a level field and all are now whole There is n margin. There are no outcasts. I have a hard time believing that Jesus didn’t understand and plan what was happening. If the kingdom was going to start it was going to start in just such a manner. While Jesus had already done many miracles and taught many ideas I think this was the start of God’s kingdom. Having now worked his way to the bottom of the bowl as he was healing the crowd, he lifts up his eyes and begins to preach. It is dead quiet and you can hear his voice no matter where you are standing. He doesn’t need to shout but can talk smoothly and warmly. The great “blessed are” and “woe to” are not spoken until all can hear. There are a lot of ways you can hear the beatitudes both today and when they were spoken. As I was growing up they became part of the check list for the great retirement plan after death. That list was very long but it was made pretty clear when this reading of Luke was preached that these blessed ways of being and especially the woes were on the list St. Peter had in his hand at the golden gates. I recently came across a quote from Brian McLaren in a Center for Action and Contemplation, (December 29, 2024) meditation and while he follows the pattern of Matthew’s beatitudes the same can be said of Luke. He wrote; “I’ve come to understand the Beatitudes as a way of saying something very different. The Beatitudes say, We, this new movement, bless the very people who are usually excluded. Jesus says, In this movement, we bless the poor and the poor in spirit. We bless those who mourn, we bless the meek or gentle, we bless those who hunger and thirst for justice. We bless the merciful and the pure in heart. We bless the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for standing up for justice. And then Jesus continues: We see the world differently because we bles people who are usually forgotten, despised, or excluded. That different way of seeing the worl leads to a different way of being in the world. Indeed it does. I think if we look at the woes through the same sort of lens we see less a condemnation of people and more a condemnation of selfish being If your focus is on being comfortable then you have comfort in your own little world instead of making your community comfortable with you. That selfishnes is its own reward. And if you focus on your own belly instead of the belly of your community, don’t be surprised that when you have needs, your community doesn’t come to your rescue. If you sit back at home enjoying what you have while others are anguishing over their troubles, don’t wonder why no one comes to help you in a time of grief or loss. And finally, if you are only looking for th adulation of those around you, abandoning the possible perception that you are a do gooder, forgetting what Jesus taught, then you will have let your community down and perpetuated the discord that exists in our society today. Jesus says over and over again that the Kingdom is here and our efforts should be here In the Sermo on the Plain, Luke shows us what Jesus saw as essential behavior to bring that Kingdom to life. He does it in the healings and he does it in the teachings. A short time back, I was talking to Larry who distributes tents and blankets and things to folks who are in need. We were talking about the greater need to find a systemic solution for homelessnes and how our meager efforts were only puttin bandaids on very large problem. I told him that at least we could put a bandaid on it and help for a short while. I have thought about that a lot since we talked and I have thought of the response we get from the people we put bandaids on. I have come to realize that it is not the bandaid that is helping, it is the fact that we are there to offer the bandaid We car enough to be out there and having something to offer The size of our offerings matters but the f that someone cares, someone is willing to put mistakes behind, someone is willing to offer a han and recognize the humanity in the suffering; that matters more. Do you hear what God is offering here Does it rin true? Do you feel it in your heart? I believe God made us for relationships. I believe Jesus taught us about relationships; that the Kingdom will blossom from relationships. Now, in this time and place, we need to see the Son of Man in everyone we meet. We need to stand on the level place and help Jesus heal everyone. The world around us is trying to pull us apart, to see everyone as other. If we can take the time and effort to practice hospitality we ca make a difference We can mend the tears in ou relationships and change the feelings of ill ease that confronts us too often these days. If more and more of us offer the bandaids that Go has asked us to offer then pretty soon we have direction and then a movement and then maybe the Kingdom. Who knows? What we do know are the lessons that Jesus has offered us, on the plain, in Jerusalem, at the shore of Galilee, every place he walked. How can we follow the teachings he spoke on the plain today and this week? Amen.  by Steve Houghton, Lay Preacher
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you our Lord and Redeemer. This morning’s gospel is hard to hear for our Capitalist Society and those of us who live in it. In fact, in a number of bible studies I have been a part of it has been described as harsh, unrealistic and even un-Christ-like because Jesus would never have spoken with such condemnation about anyone. For that reason many of us dodge this gospel as much as we can. Growing up, my family considered themselves to be middle class. My parents bought their own home, bought new cars every few years and put me and my five siblings through college or an equivalent education. In order to do this my father worked two jobs and my mother worked nights. I don’t think we were rich by any stretch of the imagination but compared to much of the rest of the world we were. In fact, compared to many in our community we were. The cost of being in the middle class was a loss of time for us to be a family. My Dad worked in middle management and also worked at the nearby race track selling bets on the horses at night and on the weekend. As a result he was tired most the time and often not available for family activities. I was sometimes upset that he didn’t take the time to play catch with me or teach me the finer points of basketball ball that he wanted me to excel at as he had in his youth. I believe he was even more upset about it than I was because he spent a good deal of his later years apologizing for what he hadn’t done when we were growing up. My Mom’s job meant that Dad was babysitting for the six of us when he could have been resting or doing something with one of us kids individually, like play catch. It also meant that Mom was feeling under pressure to keep the house orderly, clean, cook the meals and meet the mark as a fifty’s mother and housewife. So as I grew up the mark was set for what success was and what was expected of me. As a young adult graduating from high school I had a bag of expectations. Those included how I was to treat my fellow human beings, how I was to treat women, what role my religion played in my actions in the world, how and when I was representing my family in my actions. There was a lot of stuff my parents gave me to help me become a respectable member of society so I picked up that bag and moved forward. (pick up bag) I went to college and got a whole new set of expectations and obligations to shoulder. Things like thinking for yourself and doing the research in order to make the right decisions. Things like being eligible for military duty when an unpopular and possibly unjust war was going on and should I serve or should I find a way out. (Pick up backpack) I met Charlie and found a new set of expectations and obligations as a husband and partner. What did I need to do to put a roof over our heads and keep us fed while we both went to school. (Pick up backpack) Then our first child arrived and new expectations and obligation came with being a father and guide. Since unemployment was high the best option at the time was to join the military and with that came the obligations of being a noncommissioned officer and leading men in successfully completing our mission. (Pickup bag) When we left the military I needed to find a job that would allow us to have the things my parents had attained so I found a good job and began to build a new division in that job. As you would expect, that included a whole new set of expectations and obligations. (Pick up backpack) So right now I don’t think I can get through the door never mind the eye of a needle and there were and are a lot more bags that I picked up getting to where I am right now. And what does all of this have to do with the rich young man? This story or a variation of it appear in all three of the synoptic gospels. This morning’s reading is from Mark. Mathew has the story at chapter 19(:16-26). Luke (18: 18-29) has the story with a young ruler who has great wealth. Also notice this is not a parable, it is an encounter with a person who has met with Jesus as Jesus is teaching. There is not a lot to analyze or figure out, the facts are pretty clear. In the beginning Jesus asks why the young man called him “good” when only God is good. I had always found that part of the story confusing but as I was focusing on this to prepare for this sermon I realized Jesus was telling the young man that Jesus could not cause a change of heart, only God can do that. And after all Jesus was going to call the young man to make a change of heart. And something that slipped by me in the past was the phrase “Jesus loved him”. If you think about that a minute it tempers the harshness of the comment about how hard it is for a rich man to get into the Kingdom. So now let me start to put all these seeming disassociated things together and explain my thoughts on camels, eyes, and getting into the kingdom of God. The rich young man was a good man and was living up to the expectations of the Jewish faith as he knew it. He was doing it all the right way. He sensed, probably from Jesus’ teaching, that there was something more, another step he had to take to truly be a follower of Jesus. He asks Jesus that very question and Jesus tries to let him off the hook by asking what his faith asks him to do, which I think Jesus already knew he was doing. The rich young man was determined to meet the mark for what Jesus was asking of his followers and so he pressed on and because of that Jesus saw his determination and “loved” him. In that love Jesus was not going to let him off the hook but rather to give him the direction that the young man sought. Jesus said sell all that you have and give the proceeds to the poor and the rich young man went away sad because he had many possessions. Note that we don’t know what happened to the rich young man. Maybe he did sell all his possessions. Maybe he didn’t. Jesus’ focus shifts to address all those who have many possessions and makes a broad observation that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why would you think it would be so difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom? One reason might be that there is no time to work on entering the kingdom when you are striving to earn or maintain riches. Believe it or not even rich people have to work really hard to hold onto their wealth. It takes hours of work, late meetings, cross country trips and time away from home and family in order to hold your own in our Capitalist Society. Once you attain some of the riches you sought you find a new dilemma in trying to hold on to it. There are the physical dangers of theft, loss caused by nature, market crashes and other monetary disasters. All of these threaten wealth and possessions. There are the social dangers of going to the wrong clubs or attending the wrong churches or supporting the wrong causes or voting for the wrong party. All of these threaten your ability to continue to make more money or cause you to lose it to someone better aligned with perceived right thought. One of the greatest lessons our neighbors in need has taught me is that there is great freedom in not possessing anything. There is nothing to lose. You can take any position you want and no one can or will threaten you. Someone may think to take a swing at you but chances are they could get hurt as well and if you have nothing what does it matter what you say or what cause you support or who you cheer on. Of course that all assumes no one will listen to you. The greatest freedom is time, time to spend however you decide is right. These days very small voices are moving huge issues forward in the areas of equity, justice and fairness. We have evidence of this in our own congregation. The Kingdom of God was and is not a place somewhere out there or in another dimension as far as I know. It is right here, right now. Jesus many times over, said the Kingdom is here. How present it is depends on how much effort we put in to make it present. If we are caught up in chasing or maintaining wealth we won’t have time to try to make it present. So it is really difficult to impossible for a rich man to help illuminate or develop or spread the Kingdom. Also Jesus asks us to feed the hungry, dress the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the injured; all of which requires financial means. It is caring about and for the woman or man who is on welfare and doesn’t appear to do anything at all to help themselves. It means taking the time to put ourselves in the shoes of those we sometimes see as other and realizing the hurdles they have before them. Jesus is not saying that rich people are bad or that they are lost forever. He is saying that many of them may have to experience a change of heart in order to follow his lead. And he is saying that a change of heart is not easy and it is best done with God’s help. I like to think that the rich young man went home and after a lot of prayer began to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked because of Jesus’ teaching and while he may have not sold all his possessions he became a benefactor to those in his community. And maybe that too is why Jesus loved him. How are you and I going to respond to Jesus call and admonition? Like the rich young man I think we should give it some thought. Amen  In the name of God our father, Jesus our brother and the Holy Spirit our guide and companion. “Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere ‘monotheists.’ We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.” So wrote Karl Rahner, German Jesuit and major influence of the Roman Catholic Second Vatican Council, in his 1999 classic study The Trinity. This is still true twenty plus years later. My friend, Julie, after reading in the parish newsletter of my preaching today, was moved to say that it was good that I was going to clear up the three persons in one God. I must sadly disappoint her and possibly some of you. The mystery of three persons in one God is exactly that, a mystery. That does not mean that there is nothing to be learned from that mystery, however. Five or six years ago I set out on a mission to understand the Trinity. As I stand before you I am a little more enlightened but far from understanding all that is the Trinity. I have learned a number of things that I think are helpful in living peacefully in the crazy times we are experiencing. I hope to impart some of the that discovery with you. Let me set out by saying that my best guides through my investigation were Fr. Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell and Cynthia Bourgeault. Rohr and Morrell are infinity more understandable than Bourgeault but she is way out front in the complexities of the Trinity. I first heard Fr. Rohr and Rev. Bourgeault speak about the Trinity in a taped seminar they presented in New Mexico. My spiritual director at the time loaned me the tapes to listen to on vacation. Those tapes are out of print but I highly recommend the books written by Rohr with Morrell and by Bourgeault on the Trinity. The Trinity is well founded in scripture. Abraham and Sarah are visited by God in the personages of three angels. Jesus makes reference to his Father in heaven and that he is the Human One, the Son of God. Jesus also makes many references to the Holy Spirit who will be with us to the end of the world. Paul in his letter to the Romans that we heard read this morning makes reference to Father, Abba, and Spirit in describing the Son’s Jesus’, lessons to those who would follow him. Let me read to you that same passage from Common English Bible: “So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it isn’t an obligation to ourselves to live our lives on the basis of selfishness. If you live on the basis of selfishness you are going to die. But if you put to death the actions of the body with the Spirit, you will live. All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters. You didn’t receive a spirt of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry ‘Abba, Father.’ The same Spirit agrees with our spirit that we are God’s children. But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him” Sounds a lot different without all that fleshy business doesn’t it? “Obligation to ourselves” and “selfishness” strike home a lot harder than “debtors to the flesh”. And note that the Spirit leads us to cry Abba to the Father and we become joint heirs with Christ. I think Paul and Jesus clearly expect us to understand that there are three persons in God. Now how that works is not within the skills of this simple Christian standing before you. That it works is something I would like to address. We say authoritatively that God is love. Think about that for a second. Love is a relationship word. Heather and Molly in their last couple of sermons have talked about the relational directives Jesus imparted to his followers in John’s Gospel regarding his final instruction to them. Even if I say I love my pet rock which does not appear to be able to love me back, I need the two of us, me and my pet rock, to have a love relationship. So if God is one person, how can God be Love? God, as love, should be two persons and if two why not three. Russian monk and Iconographer Andrei Rublev created an icon of the Trinity in the fifteenth century. This is that icon. The original is still on display in the Tretyalov gallery in Moscow. In the icon you see three people sitting at a rectangular table. The faces appear to be essentially the same and they all face generally toward the center of the table and each other. Each has a different color robe or sash. The figure on the left with the gold sash is said to be the Father. Rohr and Morrell explain that gold is the color of “perfection, fullness, wholeness, and the ultimate Source.” The figure in the center with the blue sash is said to be the Son. Rohr and Morrell say that Rublev used blue as “both sea and sky mirroring one another — and therefore God in Christ taking on the world, taking on humanity.” The figure to 4 the right with the green sash is said to be the Spirit. Rublev, as cited by Rohr and Morrell, used green for the Spirit because it has “a quality of divine aliveness that makes everything blossom and bloom in endless shades of green.” The fourth side of the table is vacant and is closest to the viewer. The wine goblet that appears the figure representing the Son is blessing, is closest to the empty side of the table. The right hand of the figure representing the Spirit appears to be pointing to the vacant side of the table. There is a rectangle in the vacant seat at the table. Let’s depart from Rublev for a second. Kenosis is a Greek word that is interpreted as self-emptying. We find this word in Paul’s letter to the Philippians Chapter 2 verses 5-11 where Paul says that Christ in the form of God emptied himself to become human. Fr. Rohr carries this idea further in one of his daily reflection. “Kenosis, or self-emptying, is revealed in the Trinity. The Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century saw that God the Father, who is Love, completely empties God’s self into the Son; the Son empties into the Spirit; and the Spirit empties into the Father. Incarnation flows from this kenosis that is inherent to God’s nature.” Self-emptying is a tough word for those of us who live in the twenty first century. We are our own independent person. We don’t empty to anyone. But I think we do. I do in my relationship with my wife Charlie. I let her know all that is in me. My hopes, my fears, my sadness, my triumphs, my defeats . . . all that I am I give to her. I do the same to lesser degree to my closest and dearest friends. So while we may not empty ourselves to many we do understand the concept. With that in mind, consider Fr. Rohr’s words and Rublev’s image. God called Father empties his love into Jesus the son who empties his love into the Spirit who empties all that love into the Father. And on it goes. God, who is love, pours out love into a flow that circles all three persons of the Trinity. That is the picture I hope you see and hear in Rublev’s icon and this little fountain I have here with me. One vessel empties into the next and all three are full and flowing. Now comes the cool part of the Rublev icon. Do you see this little box? For those of you who cannot see it there is a little rectangle here in the front of the icon where a fourth seat might be. Art Historians have identified what they think is glue in that rectangle. They believe that a mirror was attached to that rectangle so that when a person viewed the icon they would be there at the table with the Trinity and I would suggest in the flow of that love I was just describing to you. And you know what? That spot was not reserved for any one person. It is there for all of us. It does not matter what color your skin is. It does not matter what religion you are. It does not matter how much money you make or where you live. There is a place at the table for you. And if you can see that all of creation has a place at that table, in that flow of love, you can figure out that all of us, even me and my pet rock are brothers and sisters in the sight of the Trinity. The Trinity wants to dine with us. They invite us to join in the flow of God’s love at their table. As you will hear again later in this service, all are invited, no exceptions. Now just in case you think this is a sermon only for Trinity Sunday morning, in our church, right now let me tell you a story. Dennis, Charlie and I have a friend on the streets of Greenfield who I will call Country for this tale. Country has been in the woods in a tent for the nine years I have known him and a whole bunch more. Like decades more. Country likes to drink a lot. He cares about folks who find themselves in the same position he is in so he takes them in for as long as they both can stand it and then they part company always to be friends of some sort. We care about Country and sometimes get him gloves or a jacket in the winter and socks all year round. The thing he values most is our acceptance of who he is no matter how he is. He knows how the rest of the world sees him and he is incredibly grateful for the openness with which we greet and accept him. It is that flow from the circle over here that heads out into the world through Dennis, Charlie and I. A couple of months ago, out of the blue, Country stared over at us at Second Helpings and hollered out “I love you guys. You are like saints to us.” That stopped me dead. In all the years that I have known Country he has alway shown respect but never any show of relationship. That, my friends and fellow believers, is the flow of the Trinity coming back to the table. As you head through your week give some thought to how you can channel the flow of the Trinity into our crazy mixed up world and I pray that you get to see it come rushing back to the circle. Amen  By Steve Houghton
Purpose: Reflect on how God gives extraordinary purpose to ordinary people. In the name of the One God, who is Lover, Beloved, and Love Overflowing. Amen (Br. Aiden Owen, OHC) Good Morning! When I was much younger I was in awe of, some might say venerated, the saints. That was likely because I attended parochial school and it was expected of me. As I have become older I am bold enough, some would say brash enough, to consider the human side of the saints and wonder what the heck was God doing with that gal or guy. That wonder is particularly keen concerning St. James the Greater. Our James was the Greater, in all probability, because he was taller than James the Lesser. We can consider some other possibilities as we go along. For the moment I think it should be enough to know that many historians consider James’ height as the reason for his title of Greater. We are blessed with quite a number of passages in scripture that reference James and some of his actions. This morning we heard two of them. In the Gospel we hear of his mother trying to get him honor at Jesus side. The second one was in the Epistle and records the very end of his ministry. You might recall that In the Synoptic Gospels, James and his brother John were the third and fourth apostles to join Jesus as he taught along the Sea of Galilee. All four were fishermen. It might be helpful to know a little about fishing in the area of the Sea Galilee at the time of Jesus and his apostles. Fishing was and is hard work. The actual fishing took place at night when the fish wouldn’t see the nets and swim away to avoid them. The boats were about 23 feet long and seven feet wide, capable of carrying around a thousand pounds of fish or 11 to 13 people. It held a crew of five, four to row the boat and throw the nets and one to steer, watch for storms and supervise the casting and retrieval of the nets. By the way, the fact that they sailed at night and had to have someone on the lookout for storms might add a little flavor to some of the other bible stories with which we are familiar. Back to the topic. The throwing of the nets and hauling back the catch to the boat and then lifting it into the boat was really only a part of the job. Most of the day for the fishermen was spent mending the flax or linen nets; drilling holes in stones and attaching them to the nets as weights; drying the nets; and storing them for the next night’s sail. There doesn’t seem to have been a lot of down time. (1) The most successful fishing ventures were undertaken by families that had good strong sons. The more family members in the crew the less money had to be paid out to day laborers to serve as rowers and net tenders. There were also licenses to be paid for, tolls to be paid and the ever present taxes. So you can see that Zebedee, James and John’s father, had three fifths of the crew as part of his family; a definite financial advantage. There was also a partnership with Simon (Peter) and Andrew and their boat, as referenced in Luke (5:10). It is likely that they had a rather profitable venture going in their joint fishing partnership. (2) So at first glance, reading only Mathew (4: 18-22) and Mark (1: 16-20), you might scratch your head a bit when you read that Jesus just came strolling along the shore, saw the four fishermen, and said they should drop their nets and follow him . . . and they did. In the Gospel of John (1: 35-40), he states that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and heard John the Baptist say of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God”. We might be able to guess from this that Peter, James and John were familiar with John the Baptist’s message through Andrew. In fact we read in John that Andrew carried that message to Peter. And if you read Luke’s account (5: 1-11) you realize that Jesus has just performed the miracle of telling Peter to cast his nets, in the daytime, after a nighttime of catching nothing and retrieving so many fish they almost sink the two boats and split the net, it begins to make a little more sense. My guess is that Zebedee was too stunned at the catch to protest losing near his entire livelihood to this itinerant preacher. I wonder what his reaction was the next day. For that matter, I wonder what James was thinking when he woke up the next morning traipsing after this miracle worker. I am left wondering what sort of men these four fishermen and James in particular, were and why Jesus invited them to follow him. To be honest, if I were trying to get a movement going and needed people to help build and grow that movement, I would be a bit concerned about relying on someone who would abandon his work so easily and abandon his father who needed his help to succeed. Of course if I were looking for people who could work tirelessly for long hours and in the face of a disappointing night on the water, someone who would keep going when all seemed lost, these might be the very people Jesus was looking for. Whatever the reason he was invited along, James found himself in the inner circle of the twelve closest to Jesus. Along with Peter and John, James was invited in to the healing of Jairus’s daughter. Again along with Peter and John, he was present at the Transfiguration. Then in the Garden at Gethsemane, Peter James and John were with Jesus as he prayed before being arrested. Both Mark (10: 35-40) and Matthew (20: 20-23) recount a story where James and John ask to sit beside Jesus when he comes to power. Pretty bold! Even if they were in the inner circle of the inner circle, you have to think well of yourself to make that kind of request. Do you think you could ever make that request? Just to top that request we have James and John, in the Gospel of Luke (9: 51-56), asking Jesus if he wants them “to command fire to come down from heaven and consume” a village of Samaritans because “they did not receive Him, because his face was set on Jerusalem.” Of course the lesson in this section of scripture is about the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans and about Jesus’ concern for loving all and having malice against none. This does, however, give us insight into the character of James and John. They are not timid about their support of Jesus and his teachings. They are, perhaps, a little over zealous given the fact that they want to bring down fire from heaven on villagers who don’t want to listen to their cultural enemies. And Jesus corrects them on that point. I have to wonder, though, if Jesus didn’t smile a little to himself witnessing how headstrong these two were about his mission. I believe we all have met people in our lives who act like James did. They passionately believe in their cause and they will not be swayed. When I was protesting the war in Vietnam and protesting for Civil Rights in the late 60’s and early 70’s I knew a number of people like James. I found myself caught between wishing they would tone it down and wishing I had the courage to speak as boldly as they did. Can you picture a person in your life who stands out like that? Might it even be you? When I finally got my voice in the protest movement it certainly was me. I remember standing in the middle of the gymnasium at North Adams State College at the beginning of the Student Strike and throwing my books down and declaring I would not pick them up until we were out of Vietnam. You see God never has had anyone but us to carry his message to the world. When Jesus walked in Israel he used fishermen and tax collectors and rebels and all sorts of humans. That was one of the things that the Sisters of St. Joseph in my high school taught me about saints that has stuck with me as a truth. We all have the potential to do God’s work. Heck we have a hymn to that effect here in the Episcopal Church. We often give it lip service. We don’t always believe it. If the church continues or fails; if Jesus’ teachings continue or fail; that is on us. We adopt saints names for our churches to remind us of that fact. Those saints serve as a reminder that we are capable of doing God’s work and with his grace we will do it. In the end, James was beheaded in 44 CE by Herod Agrippa because he would not stop declaring Jesus’ life changing message at the top of his lungs. I do believe that St. James, that brash young fisherman speaks to a strength of voice from which we can gain inspiration. When you hear his name spoken in reference to this church or in any conversation, ask yourself, what has God planned for my talents today? Amen 1 James Campbell, D Min “Biblical Fishing101 Reeling in the First Fishers of Faith” Loyolapress.com 2 Ibid James Campbell |
