Now is the Time for Choosing

Epiphany 3A-26
Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

‘When Jesus heard that John had been arrested… he began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:12 & 17). I have written eight sermons on this gospel in the past 30 years about Jesus’ iconic call to discipleship to four fishermen beside the sea of Galilee. Not once have I ever paid attention to that first line. Jesus began his ministry after John was arrested. Must the good news of God’s love always encounter state sponsored violent opposition?

Yesterday morning, on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital. Apparently, Alex was killed for caring. He tried to help a woman up on her feet after federal agents had shoved her to the ground. That’s when he was pepper sprayed, tackled, and shot. He had a permit to carry a gun that he never attempted to use. Agents had removed that gun before they shot him.

Let me just stop right here to tell you my opinion which, I believe, is well supported by the facts. You have a right to own a weapon, but if you do your risk of being injured or killed by a gun are substantially higher. Research consistently indicates that owning a gun makes you and everyone else in your home less safe due to an increased risk of suicide, homicide, and unintentional shootings.

Alex had a gun. He was an American citizen practicing his first and second amendment rights. He was taking video. He was directing traffic. He was trying to help a neighbor. Some of the most powerful people in our government immediately labeled him a domestic terrorist. They want to blame the victim by calling him a terrorist just like they called Rene Good a terrorist who was murdered two weeks ago in the streets of Minneapolis by a federal agent. Because of all the videos, we know they’re lying. They know we know they’re lying, but instead of acknowledging the truth, they’re doubling down. This goes beyond authoritarianism to totalitarianism. The attempt to control what we think and say and do even if it contradicts the obvious, plain facts.

There is something about the darkness that is ominous and scary, especially when the powers and principalities gather around and intimidate us. Or sometimes, when threats we cannot see haunt us. Today’s readings invite us to look the darkness of oppression and abandonment in the face, receive the light, and become fearless. Once again here comes Jesus, as he did all those centuries ago from beside the Sea of Galilee, saying, now is the time for choosing.

Simon and Andrew, then James and John, heard and followed Jesus. Perhaps they meant to follow only for a moment, or just to satisfy their curiosity. Yet moments became hours, then days, a week, a season, and finally, a way of life. The disciples followed him and kept following him. They were hooked. They left their nets, their boats, family members, and everything they knew to follow Jesus and never look back.

What was so enticing and persuasive it had power to transform the lives of the disciples so completely? What was the bait? Jesus had only one thing in his tackle box, the Divine Lure, the law of love, the euangelion—the good news—the gospel. Jesus cast the good news into the turbulent waters of the world to pull people out the pain and suffering caused by hate, fear, hopelessness, poverty, and any other thing that degrades and dehumanizes us. Jesus invites us to do the same. Now is the time for choosing. Jesus cast out the Good News of grace and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.
Jesus rejected the comforts of nearby cities like Tiberius and Sepphoris, places you might expect a talented young Rabbi to go. Instead, he went searching in the fertile fishing grounds among those in need. Capernaum was in back-water country. Zebulun and Naphtali were the “wild west,” a rough, unruly place frequented by bandits and revolutionaries derided by religious authorities in Jerusalem as uncivilized, semi-literate, and infected by paganism. It was a land familiar with brutality, poverty, and hunger. It was a land unaccustomed to hope.

Imagine a place where security and safety are stripped away. Every asset may be claimed by conquerors of the moment. Every child born can be taken by the powerful into slavery. Every harvest, every catch of fish, can be seized by the mighty. Every hope for the future could be stolen by masters who have the final say. “This is ‘the land of deep darkness’ into which Jesus journeyed. (Amy Oden, Dean and Professor of History of Christianity, Wesley Theological Seminary)

That’s the place Jesus went in search of disciples. It was a fertile place to fish for human hearts and minds hungry for hope. Simon and Andrew, James and John responded to the good news, hooked by the divine lure, the fabulous, preposterous message Jesus declared: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Now is the time for choosing.

“Jesus inaugurated a new age, heralded a new order, and called the people to conversion. “Repent!” he said. Why? Because the new order of the kingdom is breaking in upon you and, if you want to be a part of it, you will need to undergo a fundamental transformation…No aspect of human existence is safe from this sweeping change–neither the personal, nor the spiritual, social, economic, and political. The kingdom of God has come to change the world and us with it.” The first followers were called the ‘people of the Way.’ “Christians at the beginning were associated with a particular pattern of life…The early Christians were known for the way they lived, not only for what they believed…The earliest title given to them reflected the importance of their kingdom lifestyle. They were not called the people of “the experience” or the people of “right doctrine” or even the people of “the church.” Rather, they were the people of ‘the Way.’” (Jim Wallis, President and founder of Sojourners magazine, excerpted from his book, The Call to Conversion.)

The bait Jesus used was his very own life. With this hook Jesus showed them how to live. Look, we are being drawn out of isolation into communion. Hooked, pulled, fighting, resisting we become like fish out of water, thrown into a life we could not imagine. The kingdom of God in which we now find ourselves is not a place, or a destination, but a way of life. Now we finally understand we belong to each other and to all people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, whom God created, named, and loves. Now, as the body of Christ, we become bait for people like us who are lost and hurting. Now is the time for choosing!