Grace undivided

Isaiah 9:1-4

There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time the LORD brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they will rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Psalm 27

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I ask of the LORD; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek God in the temple. For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter, hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high upon a rock. Even now my head is lifted up above my enemies who surround me. Therefore I will offer sacrifice in the sanctuary, sacrifices of rejoicing; I will sing and make music to the LORD. Hear my voice, O LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. My heart speaks your message - “Seek my face.” Your face, O LORD, I will seek. Hide not your face from me, turn not away from your servant in anger. Cast me not away - you have been my helper; forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crisps and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Matthew 4:12-23

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles - the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

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I have long loved what Paul wrote to the Corinthians precisely for this morning’s reading from that letter: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We have many ways historically to look at the difference between perishing and being saved. Preachers and theologians have interpreted those images from many perspectives: from places of academic distance from life and death, and from the places of actually being hunted and killed, and in those in between places where it’s hard to tell which way the wind is blowing. That is the way we interpret scripture over changing times. We look for what speaks to the now, rather than expecting a story will always have the same infallible and simply black and white truth to speak for all time. But where we are in the now varies much between people, too. After something like Friday’s inauguration, Christians are reading Scripture from all sorts of different emotional places. Christians stand in all shades of the emotional spectrum in response to our new president, and the whole rest of the world, which does not claim Christianity in any form, is similarly mixed in its reactions.

But first we look to our own house. How we are divided, church. Look around at the world and it is not difficult to see the ways in which Christ’s church is publicly splintered in so many ways. Some point to the beauty of this diversity, as each denomination or smaller community can be seen to represent a part of the greater body, while some struggle mightily with the realities of ongoing persecution from branches which claim the same root to the tree. That every Christian stream has raised extremists for violence or justice, as well as scores of silently lukewarm who simply look the other way, is unsurprising. It’s historically written into the DNA of this institution. Of course, we have all the choice and power in the world to alter our history as we write it. But so often we in the middle remain where we are, carried by the prevailing winds of the system, while those who cannot escape persecution cry out to a God whose people refuse to hear.

The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. An all-powerful deity who willingly and joyfully lays down that power to suffer alongside the outcast, is absolutely ludicrous to those afraid of losing their influence and sense of control. Our fear kills us, over and over again. Our anxiety blinds us to the beautifully good and creatively powerful both within and around us. Our living is best served in the great mix of diverse ecosystems where we were planted, yet we try so hard to remain ‘pure' that we kill each other and ourselves in the process of trying to save ourselves. We are dying in so many ways that the very idea of an all-powerful love giving itself to and for us without reservation seems completely inconceivable.

Church, we have a problem. A history of problems. And we are so very divided against one another that we have not been able to come together against the very death that drives us toward more death. So we have this message of the cross to guide us. The life granted by a love strong enough to be unafraid of death, that is the salvation in which we live.

Paul reminds us of this unifying love in the letter he writes to the church in Corinth. It’s not a competition of who has the better human leader, who learned from the most prestigious school, who has which credentials backing them up to make them the ‘better’ spiritual leader. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach. Even fishermen.

In the Gospel this morning, Jesus calls fishermen to be his disciples. And in case we’ve gotten used to the idea, fishermen were not exactly high achievers in the eyes of society. Of course, in reality, we know labor-intensive work is really hard, takes a lot of stamina, and if they were running the family business it takes a certain amount of intelligence to organize and plan, to prioritize and prepare for various outcomes. But just as today, labor wasn’t socially valued on the large scale the way more intellectual or political positions were, and so the class divide between fishermen and the educated was stark. Imagine if a published expert on theology asked entry-level fast food workers to stop flipping burgers to be her upper management. I’m not saying it’s alright for us to treat fast food workers as any less than CEOs of large companies, but I know we already have these patterns of behavior, and it seems to fit the illustration.

What this points to is that our credentials aren’t our defining character traits. Our character isn’t proven by the amount of money we make in a year or which guru we attach ourselves to. It’s the way we treat one another, the way we care for each other, the way we protect the marginalized and stand up for the ones who have historically been silenced, the way we lay down our privilege and take up the strength to love. Living by the message of the cross, the power of God for those who are being saved, means we don’t rely on the ‘proof’ of labels to back up our decisions, but on the power of compassion and mercy, the freedom of a life lived without fear of death.

Simon and Andrew weren’t chosen because they had what the rest of the leaders would call the ‘right connections.’ They were, after all, fishermen, because they were deemed not smart enough to continue in their academic studies. And that means everybody who worked with them knew they weren’t smart enough, hadn’t passed the bar, didn’t have what it takes. Do you know how that feels? To be on the receiving end of that sort of assumption? We judge ourselves, and each other, all the time, but we don’t have to. Jesus didn’t tell Simon and Andrew that they needed more training to follow him, he just called them to follow, and they did. They learned as they went, and they were good enough from the start. Just as you are. 

Wherever you find yourself these days, you are part of that light in the darkness. Which means sometimes seeking out the darkness and listening to where light is needed. It means sitting with others who are in darkness to listen to where the rod of the oppressor needs still to be broken. It means we cannot be intimidated by the powers that arrested John the Baptizer, cannot be made fearful by threats of violence or injustice. Living the gospel of the cross of Christ means we already have the power to lift one another up, that we are not afraid, that we do not have to earn goodness or value, or be fearful that others might somehow prove us less good or less valuable. We are already enough. We already have enough. We don’t rely on powers and authorities to give us the rights to live in the freedom we were born to. And neither does anyone else.

God does not make distinction between who deserves grace and who does not. The grace and mercy of God are spilled out from the cross for all that lives, regardless of where we come from or what else we have earned. Wherever you stand today, know that grace and mercy are on your side, just as much as grace and mercy are on the side of those who stand opposite you. So let’s live like it, like the kingdom of God has come near.