The Very Rev. William Thomas Deneke, rector> Scripture for the day
Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you have not seen. (Jeremiah 33:3)
If you watch the Holy Trinity video on the parish web site, you will hear sung this remarkable scripture from the prophet Jeremiah. I want to use Jeremiah’s words to direct our thoughts to the gospel for today and to the ministry of Holy Trinity. Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you have not seen.
What an invitation! One way to approach this invitation is through the eyes of stewardship. When we call to God, we are opening ourselves to a wider reality than just ourselves. We are coming out of the womb of self-service into the realm of God. It is in that larger reality that we are shown great and mighty things. It is here that we are enabled to see a larger vision than could ever be seen in the smaller world of self-service. The irony of the invitation is that as we move from self-focused stewardship to the values of God’s realm, we find our lives enriched. In the words of Jeremiah, we are shown great and mighty things we have not seen.
Great and mighty things in God’s realm are not always the things commonly counted as spectacular. Yesterday, I heard an interesting story on National Public Radio. A rabbi was being interviewed about how extravagant many bar and ba mitzvah celebrations had become over recent years. He described one bar mitzvah that was especially over the top. At an appointed time in the celebration the young man who was celebrating his bar mitzvah came out standing astride a replica of the Titantic with his arms outstretched like Leonardo de Caprio, saying something like, "I'm the king of the world". A replica of a killer whale also appeared to be jumping through a Star of David.
Especially interesting was the rabbi's take on this. He said that our present economic downturn could be an important time in our spiritual growth. Times like these force us to look at what is truly essential in life -- our stock portfolio or our soul. What is great and mighty in the eyes of God may have a better chance of being revealed when we are less distracted by the glitter of more worldly pursuits.
We also need to be careful that in seeking the promise of great and mighty things that we do not leave God behind in our exuberance. The pursuit of great and mighty things of God requires humility. At times the church has hitched its wagon to models of greatness that resembled more the values of the corporate world than that of servant-leadership. However attractive it may seem, we cannot depend upon success to be our savior. Our hope is in one who revealed that great and mighty things may be found where we do not expect to see them.
I was reminded of that at two recent funerals. Jimmie Ward and Josephine Ward, both deaf, died within a short time of one another. They had come to Holy Trinity with their daughter Conne because we made available an interpreter for principal services of worship. This ministry enriched their last years. Perhaps we would not have considered it a great and mighty thing, but for these two people cut off from the world of sound, it was a gift of grace from God’s realm.
In today’s gospel, Jesus invites Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow him into a holy realm where they will become fishers of people. Unfortunately, the NRSV rendering, I will make you fish for people, is a poor translation of the Greek text. Jesus is not simply giving them an additional job, but is transforming how they approach life. In the realm to which he is inviting them, their priorities will change. No longer will they be focused on maintaining themselves or even their families. They will still have basic human needs, but their energy will be mostly directed toward serving the realm of God. Life will be seen differently. Jesus makes it clear that they will be focused on enabling people to see God’s great and mighty things.
Jesus’ invitation captures the fishermen’s imaginations, and they follow him into the process of being born anew. We might say they were drawn into the possibility of becoming stewards of the realm of God. The disciples would come to see that the invitation to follow Christ would have to be visited over and over again. They would always be discovering what it meant to be stewards of God’s realm. They would come to see more and more that to follow Christ meant learning to trust the Spirit, to be open to reform, and to be adaptable. Their accomplishments would be measured more by faithfulness than success.
On this day of our Annual Parish Meeting, we might ponder these things. Are we faithfully calling to God? What are the great and mighty things God is showing us? Are we being faithful stewards of what God is enabling us to see? And what great and mighty things are we revealing to others about God’s realm?
As we read the annual reports of our various parish ministries (either on line or in printed booklets), we may be surprised by what we see. Hidden in words and statistics are stories of holy encounters. Behind ministries and programs are times of prayer and discernment. The reports present a portrait of a parish that is seeking to be faithful to its mission in Christ. Sometimes more faithfulness is needed. Sometimes great and mighty things emerge. The reports reveal something of the life and faith of this community as we continue to learn what it means to follow Christ.
The call to follow Christ is always at work in the world. It is an invitation to a journey of faith, a pilgrimage of discovery, a walk in hope. We are never too old or too young, too bad or too good to see great and mighty things of God. We are never too holy or too unholy to grow as stewards of God’s realm. We can make a difference for others and ourselves by calling to God, by following Christ, and by being transformed into fishers of people.
This morning please join with me in giving thanks to God for the journey of faith to which God calls Holy Trinity. Please join me in praying that we will call to God in hope, and that we will have the wisdom, courage, and strength of character to follow the wondrous path revealed in Jesus, affirmed by Peter, Andrew, James and John, and heralded by the prophet Jeremiah when he said of God, Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you have not seen.
Let us pray.
Lord of grace and hope, Spirit of peace and encouragement, our life is a great and mighty thing. Even more glorious are your love for people and your caring for this planet. In this community of faith, you have revealed great and mighty things. You have called us to your mission of redemption and equipped us to be servant leaders. You have led us to feed the hungry through DEAM, give water to the thirsty through Food for the Poor, partner with poor villages in Honduras, work for human relief and development with our sister Episcopal churches. You bring us into communion with friends and strangers and invite us to your table. You send us into the world with a song in our heart and a story on our lips. We are more grateful than words can express.
Lead us, O Holy One, into the future. Open our eyes to your great and mighty things. Give us a vision of community and ministry that will deliver us from self-service and draw us more and more into your realm.
We pray in the name of Jesus who said long ago to four fishermen and continues to say to us, Follow me. Amen.
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