5 Epiphany
6 Feb 2022
You have been following this young man for a while. He seems like a rising star; certainly he is the talk of Galilee. He started as one of the followers of John, whom he had known since childhood since they were cousins. John, while personally not the most sensitive sort of man, was very righteous and concerned about teaching people how to live in right relationship to God. He denounced all sorts of evils and exhorted his followers, and there were many, and his listeners to live honest and godly lives, regardless of who they were. Jesus, however, has more recently split from his cousin. His message has changed. You are very curious; for nothing quite like this has been taught in Galilee. You wonder if folks outside this backwater area of Palestine were hearing anything about him.
How should you take someone like this? As far as you know he has not ever been out of Judea and Galilee, yet his teachings are unlike any you have heard before. First was that day at Cana. Before that day he was an unknown wandering preacher with a small band of followers; but it did not take long for the story of the wine appearing out of nowhere, from plain water, to be all over Galilee. Such abundance!!
You have heard him speak; he is a gifted speaker, but it is more the way he speaks. He tells stories, he reminds you of your history, he speaks at times in what seem like riddles. Sabbaths, in the synagogues, he is one of those able to read; you wish you could read those scrolls. Not only does he read, but he explains God’s purpose in history. However, the time he spoke in his hometown it ended badly. You had heard how he had made an astounding declaration about fulfilling scripture, about being the one to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom, but then he would not perform healings, or rather seemed unable to perform them, in his hometown. You guess the folks there, who had known him since infancy, couldn’t wrap their heads around what he was saying about himself. Having seen what he could do, you had no doubts and that is why you came to hear him every chance you could. Maybe he put more emphasis on opening up the kingdom to all, Jew and Gentile, but then God has always worked that way and who were you to say. It was sad when Jesus stated he must move on to other places, for his message needed to reach other Jews and Gentiles.
Other miracles, or healings, or whatever you chose to call them, followed. Demons cast out, people restored to health. He really made an impression on Peter and his fishing community after the healing of Peter’s mother, who was now more than ever a source of help for everyone in the community. Peter, while grateful for what had been done, did not follow Jesus around, even as he spoke well of him.
Today, however, you see Peter and his fellow fisherman (the most successful fishing business in the area) not too far away. It must have been a bad night, for no fish are in sight and they look dejected.
As you head down to the lake, you see Jesus struggling to be heard. The he approaches the boats and climbs into the one that belongs to Peter, who, with his crew, row out a ways from the shore, making it easier for people to hear Jesus. After he finishes, the people drift off, but you stay hoping perhaps to speak to Jesus; you would like to become one of his inner circle and follow him. What he does and what he says have convinced you he carries truth with him, a truth you have been yearning for so much of your life.
As you look it is clear Jesus and Peter are in conversation. Then Peter shakes his head and shrugs, and the net flies out over the side of the boat. What happens next causes your own jaw to drop!! The fishermen are tugging on the net, which is clearly not caught but is so full of fish as to be pulling the boat over. Peter’s companions in the other boat come and help and together they can barely make it to shore. It will take them a couple of days to get all those fish processed!! You run over to where they are landing to help. Such abundance!!
Then you hear the words you so wanted to hear: Jesus speaks to the fishermen, but looks at you as well, and says to come follow him, for there is much to be done, far more people to hear the message than followers to deliver it. And so you join him and become a fisher of people.
So this fictional Galilean received the call to follow Jesus. He or she, for Jesus had many women as his followers, did not know what was to come. She wasn’t convinced because Jesus had died and risen; that was in the future. So why? What did the living Jesus say that convinced so many to join his ranks?
We have heard the story so many times, but have we ever really heard it? I do not believe there is a single message with a single set of instructions for those who become followers. We hear the Gospel as we are able and, as Paul so ably exhorts us, we all have different roles to play as members of the body of Christ.
But what if for today, we role back the clock and put ourselves in the place of those who heard the living, human Jesus. He did preach that he would die and be raised, but we have yet to hear that part of the story and yet Jesus’ followers are many, and growing, and increasingly devoted.
What did they sense in that Galilean carpenter? To what is Jesus calling us? We could spend a semester trying to answer that question and, frankly, we spend our entire lives as Christians working that out.
In our everyday life we are called to be honest and just as individuals. I think it is less about fulfilling every aspect of the codes laid out in Leviticus, many of which are impossible for us, than obeying the great command to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Those pre-crucifixion followers of Jesus would certainly have understood that aspect of being a God fearer or a good Jew. The details are different in different times and places, but the great commandment remains.
Yet to follow that way of life was not new and Jesus was not needed for that. There was something more that they saw, long before Jesus had been sacrificed to Rome.
Different branches of Christianity all looked at Jesus with different eyes and the strain of Christianity to which you and I were raised does not often encourage us to seek divine union. We are not God, but just perhaps Jesus was here to show humanity how to find God, the piece of the sacred that is within all of you. It is less about personal salvation than personal relationship. And, I believe, once you find that relationship with God you will find it with all of creation. It is just, as Anne LaMott puts it, one big WOW.
God does want a personal relationship with each and everyone of you, and in finding that relationship you cannot help but to feel connected to the cosmos.
Jesus knew that if enough people joined his movement nothing could stop it. The world would be transformed.
We are still on our way.
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