Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1,4-9
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING

The Jewish people are the ones who had hoped for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. 
Jewish families since the time of Abraham had passed down that hope from parent to child. 
While the exact nature of the Messiah would change a bit from time to time – some hoping for another King David; some hoping for a prophet and teacher who would enable the Jewish people to be perfect spiritually –
everyone anticipated the Messiah to lead Jews into a glorious and perfect future. 
Yes, from time to time, there would be prophecies of how the Messiah would lead the
Jews to be “a light to all nations.” 
But no one expected a Messiah who would actually go outside the Jews to find disciples.

Yet here we are, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and Matthew makes a point to remind us that Jesus
leaves his family in Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum. 
Capernaum was what we would call a blue-collar town. 
On the edge of the Sea of Galilee, this little town of about 1,000 had farmers and fishermen. 
The families who lived there were Jewish but they weren’t like the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea. 
These were Jews who had relationships with non-Jews. 
Their Galilean king, Herod Antipas was a puppet of the Romans. 
He spent much more time in Roman temples than he ever did in a synagogue. 
And because they were geographically close to Syrians and lots of other Gentiles, the people of
Capernaum lived up to the names Isaiah had spoken of when he called them “on the road by the sea,
across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.”

This is where Jesus begins his ministry. 
Right from the start, Jesus addresses the “not-so-typical” into a relationship with him.
And the first thing Jesus tells them is the same thing cousin John had proclaimed,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

That word “repent” is so filled with meaning. 
Literally, both the Greek and the Hebrew words we translate as repent means to “turn around.” 
Not to just say,“I’m sorry” but to have a conversion.

The young woman with multiple addictions, homeless, tells of how she encounters Jesus in a kindly Christian woman who gave her a second chance by taking her into her own home.  A warm home, good food and compassion pulled her out of her despair.  Now 20 years later, she runs an urban ministry, using her gifts and
experience to reach the youth of a rough neighborhood. 
Lives are still transformed.

The young man who finds himself in prison, charged with multiple felonies.  He doesn’t have much
else to do so he decides one day to open a Bible – the first time ever. 
Months later, he asks the prison chaplain to baptize him. 
And even though he will still spend many years in that prison, he has become a voice of hope for others.

These are the “conversions” we think of when we hear that word. 
But repentance, conversion, turning around is something different in today’s Gospel reading. 
These fishermen were not criminals; they had not hit “rock bottom;”
There is no evidence that they had any deep sense of guilt or shame. 
But their lives were truly changed that day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. 
From that day on, their lives changed and they had come into the Kingdom of Heaven-made-flesh.  

Peter and his brother Andrew were out in their boat casting their nets – because that’s what fishermen do. Fishermen may have been known as being a bit rough-around-the edges but their work was honest and respectable.

James and his brother John were fishermen too. 
They braved the rough waters of the Galilee so that others could eat. 
When Jesus met them on the shore, they were with their father mending their nets. 
This was a family business.

We will come to see these fishermen, along with the tax-collector Matthew and the banker Judas and all the rest
as far from sinless in future accounts from Matthew’s Gospel. 
But today we see these four men as good, hard-working, honest, family men. 
Yet Jesus asks them too to turn around; to change their lives 180 degrees. 
Leave your boat; abandon your work; say goodbye to your family, your way of life –not because any of this is bad
or sinful but because what Jesus offers them is better. 
“Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” 
Fishing for fish is good; fishing for people is even better.

Sometimes this is the message that is hardest for 21st century American Christians to hear. 
We understand repentance from sin; conversion from a bad way of life. 
We admire the stories of those who have hit rock-bottom and changed their lives in such a powerful way
that they might even make the 5:00 news. 
But what do we hear when Jesus says to us:

Turn your lives around 180 degrees.
Live in the Kingdom of Heaven now.
Follow me and become fishers of people.

And just who are these people we’re supposed to fish for? 
We can take a cue from Jesus himself.  Jesus did not remain in Nazareth close to family and boyhood friends. 
Jesus did not return to Bethlehem, Judea, or the capitol city of Jerusalem – the Jewish“center of the universe.”  Jesus went to Capernaum; to Galilee of the nations to fish for his people. 
And Jesus spent most of his ministry in Galilee before he went to Jerusalem – and there to die and rise again. 
Even after the Resurrection, Jesus sends his men-fish back to the shores of Galilee to begin their own ministries.  
 
Where is your Galilee? 
Where is your lakeshore? 
Into whose life is Jesus calling you? 
You may not think you have any particular talent to preach or teach the Gospel.  That doesn’t matter. 
You have the life of faith you have been given. 
Jesus has touched your life through your parents; through Sunday School teachers; through pastors;
through the healing touches of friends and family. 
Chances are that you have not had those 5:00 news conversion experiences. 
You have had your lives changed because of ordinary people doing extraordinary good in your life.

And that’s what you need to be in others. 
When you speak a kind word to the child next door. 
When you offer help to the widow or widower in mourning. 
When you tell your LGBTQ neighbor that they are welcome in your church in spite of the rejection they may have felt in other churches before. 
When you smile at the testy person behind you in the grocery line. 
When you give a gift to the stranger panhandling on the street corner. 
When you offer time to your favorite charity. 
As one who has been fished by God through Jesus, offer God through Jesus to all of them.

Turn around!  
The Kingdom of Heaven is here!   
Follow Jesus who will make you fishers of every life you touch!

Readings for Baptism of Our Lord (A)

Readings for January 6 | Epiphany of Our Lord

• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
• Ephesians 3:1-12
• Matthew 2:1-12

By Another Road, Sermon by Pastor Fred
50 years ago our culture was changed by a simple announcement that went against every prevailing norm we accepted as truth.  The Surgeon General, against the immense power of the tobacco industry, and, the pleasure of every smoker in the country, came out with the study that would soon issue the first warning, printed on every pack of cigarettes sold in the nation: “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health.”  Up until then, cigarette smoking had been on the increase, ever since the dawn of advertising.  But every year since 1964, cigarette smokers have steadily declined.  The lies that cigarette company’s kept hidden – that they indeed knew that nicotine was addictive and that smoking their product caused cancer – were exposed, and their false and destructive world began to crumble. 

At the time, my brothers and sister, along with my cousins, who ranged in age from about 7-12 years old, absorbed this news – as the astute-young-true-believers that we were – and we began to, well, harp on our parents, who were all smokers, that they had to quit, immediately.  ‘How can you smoke those things?  Don’t you know what you’re doing to your body?’  And, ‘we don’t want you to die!’  When we didn’t get instant results, we took to a stealth campaign of stealing and hiding their packs of cigarettes.  That- didn’t go over so well!  But, one by one, over the next couple years, they gave up their habit.  For their kids.  What had been just a normal way of life – my dad smoking with army and work buddies, or my mom with her college friends and neighborhood moms – was let go, and never returned to.  They found another way.  They traveled “by another road.”

Ever feel your life is guided by a vision or dream, a voice or a friend, in an unlikely, or unusual, way?  Or that the one you trusted, the one recognized as the authority, the one held in high esteem, and who has everyone’s trust, is lying to you?  The new-born Jesus is surrounded by this exact kind of story, at Epiphany.  The Magi, are led by a star on their journey, and then warned in a dream, to return… by another road.  And the one in authority, the recognized King of the Jews, Herod the Great, it turns out, is a lying murderer!   How can we find our way in the world?  Who do we trust to follow, in this life?

Another 50th Anniversary, just last year, was the celebration of “The March on Washington” where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech.  I didn’t know until just a couple years ago though, that Martin had a brilliant strategist, Mayard Rustin, who was the brains behind organizing the huge turnout along the Washington Mall.  It was also Mr. Rustin that was the one who had taught Dr. King the non-violent tactics from the Gandhi movement, which he’d learned firsthand in India.  Before he met Rustin, King wasn’t convinced that non-violence was the way to go, but it was probably one of the most important, if not the most important decision, in making Dr. King’s movement a success. 

Rustin was, “A master strategist and tireless activist,” who focused on, “civil and economic rights,” and joined and started movements “for peace, human rights, and the dignity of all people,” as his partner of 10 years, Walter Naegle said, in his eulogy for Rustin in 1987.  But as an openly gay man, in very homophobic times, he had struggles others didn’t.  In his long career, “Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions” because of his sexual identity.  Even in 1983, on the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington, gay activists almost weren’t permitted to speak at the event, because, fellow March on Washington Congressman, Walter Fauntroy, wouldn’t allow it.  It took organizers like the National Women’s Organization, and the National Coalition of Black Gays, to convince Corretta Scott King, who had the final say, by using her husband’s own words, about standing against prevailing majority opinion and walking a different road, to finally break through the barrier.

Bayard Rustin followed a star, and a light, that most others could not see, helping to lead Dr. King, and this country, into a more just, and loving, and hopeful age, even in the face of authorities that stood against civil and gay rights.  He took a different way, and changed our society and culture.

The Magi who followed the star at its rising, looking for a new-born king, took off toward the west loaded with gifts in their camel-caravan.  When they got close, they may have assumed the bright lights of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was where they would find the king.  But, there the light dimmed, and they were almost deceived.  Herod, who had conquered Israel some 30 years earlier with the help of Mark Antony, officially received the title, “King of the Jews.”  But the road to Jerusalem, and Herod, was a wrong turn. 

And so, the disconnect in the story, is that the true king, is a baby, born in a manger.  The child is not far away, in neighboring Bethlehem, a sleepy little shepherd’s community, down a less-traveled-by road about 6 miles away.  As St. Ambrose once said, “The star is seen by the magi; where Herod is, it is not seen; it is seen again where Christ is, and it shows the magi the way.”

‘Where Herod is, the star is not seen.’  And where Herod, the false king is, death is a constant threat.  Herod gave great gifts, like rebuilding the Temple.  Herod also terrorized the people, as he did in ordering all the children in Bethlehem, up to age 2 to be killed, in a horrific attempt to strike down Jesus, his royal competition, when he realized the Magi, “warned in a dream not to return to Herod, left for their own country by another road.”  

Herod, was what many, once assumed, a divine king and god was, someone who has the power “to give, and to take away.”  But the new-born king, Jesus, the anointed one of God, our God, revealed a new way on Epiphany, a new understanding of who God is.  God is a giver of life, and forgiver of sins.  God brings salvation to all.  Even to Magi and Shepherds, and Gentiles.  And in God’s son, there is no death at all.  He is the light, no darkness can overcome.  Lying and murdering, on the other hand, are all on us.

So when the Magi set out again from Jerusalem, “there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.”  The star was not where Herod was, but shone over Bethlehem where Jesus was. 

On this day, the Epiphany of Our Lord, that we’re celebrating today, churches in the east, as well as many places in Latin America, also know it as Christmas.   Here in Chicago, in Pilsen, many children receive gifts from Los Tres Reyes Magos, and in Humboldt Park there is always a Three Kings Parade down Division Street.  On this day we call Epiphany, the  Magi brought gifts to baby Jesus, of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Gold for kings; frankincense for divinity; and myrrh for burial.  All appropriate for Jesus, our king; our anointed Messiah; and our crucified and risen Lord.  Celebrating Christmas on January 6th, or 12th, is a counter-cultural festival, a road less traveled, a different way to go, but a most faithful following of the Light, Jesus, our star.

Jesus himself, would only wear royal garb when soldiers mocked him on the cross.  He was a king from a little known town of Bethlehem, hidden in the shadows of the spectacular Temple in Jerusalem, Herod rebuilt.  But, despite being treated as impostor, arrested, and imprisoned, he changed our culture and our world.  He was, and is, the true king.  Those earliest of followers of Jesus, before they were ever named Christians, referred to themselves as, followers of The Way.  John’s gospel called him, “the way and the truth and the life.” 

Despite the lies, and death, that kings, and people in power perpetrate, despite the glitter that comes from stars that crowd magazine covers, despite the soothing voices of media, complicit in the false culture all around us, we follow a different way.  We listen to the dreams God gives us, and take the other road – the way leading to Jesus, the creator of a culture of joy, and justice, and amazing grace.  

“In the beginning was the Word,” John’s gospel starts off.  John creates a new copy of Genesis, a new start to the scriptures, now that Jesus has come.  Jesus is the Word, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  The creation theme continues then, noting how nothing came into being at creation, without the Word.  And “what has come into being in [the Word] was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  And so, what’s the result of this new creation for us because of Jesus’ incarnation in the world?  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” 

Light and dark are integral to both the Genesis and John’s creation story.  I find that most everyone knows the first verse of the bible by heart: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’” even if they don’t know the next line. “… and God separated the light from the darkness…”  But this major act of the first day of creation, ‘let there be light,’ rolls off our tongues, and is upper most on our minds.  What could we do if we didn’t have light, after all?  The agents of Light, sun and moon, are actually not created until the 4th day.  So, it’s as if God jumps the gun, because God needs, a reading light, or an oil lamp, to get through the work of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!

Here in the city, it seems we are never without light, and so we hardly have a chance to know true darkness.  Street lights, which come on automatically at dark, keep us safer, but we give up the contrast Genesis takes for granted, “the darkness and the light.”  And, here in the city, every night when I turn out the lights before going to bed, there shines in my window a light from my neighbor’s living room just a few feet away in the next building, who always seems to stay up later than we do! 

As post-moderns, we can’t live in today’s world without knowing one of the greatest discoveries of our time, Black Holes.  I am not a Star Trek or science-fiction buff, but if there is anything that is the opposite of light in our space-age world, it is black holes! 

NASA provides this description on its website: “Most black holes form from the remnants of a large star that dies in a supernova explosion. If the total mass of the star is large enough (about three times the mass of the Sun), it can be proven theoretically that no force [in the universe] can keep the star from collapsing under the influence of gravity.”

“Black holes are among the most mysterious objects in the universe, making them the subject of much research, discussion and science fiction.  …Recent theories have posited that every black hole contains a universe — and that we're inside a black hole right now — and that the universe itself started when a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole.

Notice the words “mysterious,” and “theoretical” here.  There is quite a bit of conjecture and controversy over Black Holes.  But one thing for sure, they are the opposite, the inverse, of our brightly burning Suns, or Stars.  They are darkness, with their own physiology and nature, and are a bigger part of our universe than first imagined – “standard equipment,” as Hubble scientist Douglas Richstone says.  (http://www.weather.com/news/science/nine-mind-bending-facts-about-black-holes-20131014)

Some of us Christians are fooled by this contrast between light and dark, thinking, if Light is good, therefore dark must be bad.  And so we conclude, erroneously, and to our own detriment, that God creates only the light things, and dark things in our world have to be evil.  This dualistic doctrine has always been condemned as false, though it continues to be a tempting one to believe – usually because it helps us defend our own self-centered position. 

In the book of Exodus (ch. 20), after Moses came down the mountain with the 10 Commandments, verse 21 says, “Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.”  Moses is not afraid of the God who makes darkness, and neither is the Prophet Isaiah, who declared on God’s behalf, “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness,” (Isa. 45:6–7). 

In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, “Here is a helpful reminder to all who fear the dark. Darkness does not come from a different place than light; it is not presided over by a different God. The long nights [at this time of year…] point us toward the God for whom darkness and light are alike, [as the Psalmist says (139)].  The God who creates darkness also creates fertile seasons for those who walk by faith and not by sight. Even in the dark, the seed sprouts and grows—we know not how—while God goes on giving birth to the truly human in Christ and in us.”

When I visited Pam and Julian’s new-born son, Michael Julian last Sunday, born the day after Christmas, we marveled at how perfect he was, in all his tiny new-born-ness.  Perfect, all except for his missing eyelashes, I guess!  Michael was born two weeks early, though Pam hastened to add, he is considered full term!  His eyelashes were the only thing missing, the only thing God didn’t quite have time to grow in the womb, we decided.  

Michael kept his eyes closed the whole time I was there, like he was still dreaming of that perfect inner dark world, not yet ready to face the true light that flooded this new reality. 

As we grow and take shape in our mother’s bellies, we are missing one thing, the light of day.  But, not the light of Christ – the Word that is the life and light of all people.  For even the light, shines in the darkness, and God watches over us in the dark of the womb, and all our dark times, until that moment when we are ready to become flesh in this world, and grow and receive “grace upon grace.” 

The new-born Jesus, born to Mary, and the Word made flesh, enters this world in the dark of night, just as the new life begun in Jesus’ resurrection, germinates out of the darkness of the night.  Coming to full term on the third day, Jesus rose out of the darkened tomb before sunrise, before “the women went to the tomb very early on the first day of the week while it was still dark.”  

The darkness often causes us to fear.  And it is not uncommon to have dark days that we can’t conquer alone.  But darkness itself is not our enemy.  Darkness is God’s creation too.  We cannot know the light without the darkness, just as you cannot paint a picture of the sun or the stars without a dark background.  Here in this world we seek the true light because we know the darkness, a lack of illumination, is real too.   

The true light cannot be overcome by the darkness, as Jesus said.  In that simple and powerful credo, we place our hope.  No matter how dark our days, we know God is with us – because, we know the Son, the Word made flesh.  And in this light and life of Christ, we bathe ourselves, knowing we are born of that spirit too, full of grace and truth.