"Made his home"-Sermon for Epiphany 3, Matthew 4:12-23
Matthew shares with us this morning the story of Jesus calling his very first disciples…four fishermen…Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Now, perhaps you know, I am an avid fisherman myself…or I should say, in particular, fly-fisherman. When I was 16, I was invited by a friend to join his family on a trip to Telluride, CO, where I fly-fished for the very first time and have been hooked, pardon the pun, ever since. Though fly-fishing is a craft that can take a life-time to truly master…if even master-able…I have learned a few things along the way, while remaining always in formation, if you will. For fish are wise creatures, and a successful day on the water requires knowing both their habits as well as knowing the particular environment in which those wiley fish are living. The season of the year; the temperature, depth and volume of the water; the species of fish you are attempting to catch; the time of day; the temperature outside the water; the bugs common to the location; and many, maybe countless other variables, lead an angler to many different decision points to achieve success. Thus, gaining a level of confidence on the water and, ultimately, accomplishing the goal of catching fish, all begins first by paying attention and really, really coming to know both the fish themselves and the waters they swim in…where they hang out, what they like to eat, where they feel safe, what frightens them, what motivates them…to borrow a prayer book line I often quote…you got to really know the places and spaces where they live, move and have their being.
Now back to Jesus calling his first four disciples. You see, the experience could have been entirely random. That is Jesus just woke up that morning and decided it was time to form his life-giving, love-spreading team of friends and followers needed to begin his ministry. And, further, just happened to sleep the night before close to the Sea of Galilee and figured that there would be some people living and working on or near the water. So, he made his way there and stopped at the first people he encountered and invited them to sign up for this new ministry he was forming. I suppose if anyone could indeed judge a book by its cover, without actually reading its content, it would be Jesus. I admit that such a seemly random scenario is entirely possible.
But…but there is another option here. And, I think Matthew even hints at it. For, before Jesus begins his seaside walk on that fateful day, Matthew tells us that Jesus was not just randomly wandering in the area…but that sometime previous to this day, he had left his hometown of Nazareth and established a home, a home in the area…specifically in the seaside village of Capernaum. And, a home…making a home…connotes some sort of permanence and familiarity. So maybe, just maybe, well before this encounter, Jesus often made walks along the sea…having long conversations with his neighbors…helping out friends with chores…getting to know the community…paying attention to how people handled their business, treated their co-workers, loved their family members, talked to those with whom they shared their lives. Thus, perhaps Jesus knew something of Peter, Andrew, James and John…perhaps he even knew them very well and they him…before the day he arrived on the shores of the sea to invite them to come and follow…to join his band of siblings…who would begin the ministry of remaking our world into the very kingdom of God. I believe this too is an entirely possible scenario.
Now, I have told this story many times…but I will not stop…for to forget it would diminish both our past and future. When we began St. Julian’s some 14 years ago, I had the intuition that if the dozen or so people, I invited to join me in this new ministry…many of whom remain with us today…that is if were to stick together…to really form a partnership to accomplish the goal of beginning this new ministry…to build a church from the ground up…in a world where people are increasingly walking away from organized faith communities…we had…we had to really know each other and over time come to really love each other. If we were really going to fish for and hook others into this God-led new thing we were doing together, we, again, really needed to know each other and over time come to really love each other. For, as Brene Brown reminds us, what people desire most…the very fuel that feeds our souls and makes life worth living is love and belonging. And, we had to first experience love and belonging with each other to ever be able to extend it to anyone else.
So, rather than beginning with what we would do together…rather than planning events and worship services and the like…we began the planting of St. Julian’s by telling our stories to each other. Sort of like I said about learning to fly-fish over these past 36 years, it all began by paying attention and really coming to know each other and the waters we each swim in…where we hang out, what we like to eat, where we feel safe, what frightens us, what motivates us…to really come to know the places and spaces where we live, move and have our being. And, I believe that intuition was God-given and a foundational experience that has led, at least in part, to all the growth and thriving that has followed in these past almost 14 years together.
And friends, I said forgetting this beginning of St. Julian’s would diminish our past and our future…for our future success in not just building a new church and moving to a new campus…but actually filling it with fully alive, love-suffuse people that have so much to share with us…which, I must note, begins now and not when we actually move in. And, such good work, the work of evangelism, begins by paying attention to each other…by coming to know our neighbors…there hopes and dreams…what feels safe and what frightens…what motivates and what inspires. A choice to be a part of this family of faith is entirely rooted in people experiencing the love and belonging that their hearts desire. And love and belonging always follows…knowing and being known. Every experience I have ever had in sharing my faith with another person in a way that was actually transformative for that person…that actually led that person into a life-giving relationship with God in Christ…began long before…began in coming to know and be known by each other…began after trust was built and love and belonging was firmly established.
I recently encountered a quote by Dori Baker that reads, “When someone trusts a small group of people enough to share a personal story, we can almost feel the presence of God entering the room, sitting with us for a spell, and wandering with our imaginations into the story.” When Jesus invited Peter, Andrew, James and John into fishing for people work, I believe it was a metaphor…but not for tricking people into taking some sort of bait…that leads to being tugged into places they don’t really want to go, ending up as dinner to feed and fuel the ambitions of someone else’s selfish agenda. Nothing like that. Instead, I think Jesus was inviting those four people…and by extension all of us who have heeded Jesus’ call to follow him into people fishing work…to enter into the life-giving, love-suffused ministry of building trusting relationships rooted in love and belonging, in knowing and being known…by paying attention to each other, listening to each other’s stories, finding ourselves in those stories, finding God’s own Spirit moving in those stories…filling our imaginations with what could be, if we choose a life together…a life walking alongside one another…with God right in the middle of us. This is what evangelism looks like…intentionally building relationships of trust, one person at a time. And, again, that good work begins now, like Jesus, with our neighbors…with those we make our homes among…friends, family, co-workers, fellow students…all those beloved ones that God has placed along our own paths. And this good work is not just for our clergy…or our Mission and Growth Committee…but for all us. The ministry of relational evangelism is a call on every baptized Christian’s life.
Way more so than the fish I have caught, what I remember and what fills my heart with awe and wonder, as I reflect on all my years of fishing, are the relationships I have made around fishing that have profoundly shaped me…the experienced anglers who sowed their time and attention into me…teaching me so very much; using that learning to teach friends and my own children how to fish….really just an excuse to be together; sharing a quiet fishing whole with my wife; sharing deep conversations with friends on the water with rod in hand…or over a cold beverage at the end of the day. It seems to me this whole fishing thing has always been about knowing and being know…about experiencing love and belonging. And, it seems the same can be said for anything or any experience we are willing to share with others…to use as a jumping off point to connect…to ask good questions and then really listen, to build trust, to enter into each other’s stories and find God sitting there in the middle of each.
I think this is how Jesus began his own ministry with those four fisher-folk on the shores of Galilee. And, further, how God began his work among us as St. Julian’s. And, I believe this is how God will lead us into our undiscovered, bright future…in a willingness to vulnerably know and be known…to enter into each other’s God shaped stories, to experience love and belonging with those among us today…and the many, many partners in ministry and St. Julian’s family members who we are yet to meet…who will be hooked into us and find and make a life-giving, love-suffused home right here at St. Julian’s…with the God of love sitting in the very middle of the epic story we are, even now, writing together. Amen.