January 25, 2009

Jayne Slawson

Let us begin this time of reflection with Prayer:

Loving God, grant us the purity of heart to celebrate each person's journey. When our minds narrow, gently nudge us in the direction of peace and compassion as it is your direction. When we see others walking with us from all sides, reinforce that it is not for us to judge their route, but merely to rejoice in the blessing of our walk in oneness with you. Amen

Along your faith journey have you ever felt alone... beyond hope... maybe at times ashamed... or afraid... ever lost faith? You will be relieved to know that you are not alone. I'd like to tell you about two people who messed up portions of their lives — big time. In fact, they at times turned their backs on God completely.

The first was a man called Peter. Peter was one of the best known of Jesus' disciples. He was brash and outspoken and often served as a kind of unofficial spokesman for the group of 12. Peter was intensely loyal to Jesus, yet he let Jesus down many times. Times when Jesus needed him the most. Remember what happened when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. Peter lingers outside in the courtyard of the chief priest's house warming himself by a fire. He doesn't want to leave Jesus because he had promised never to let him down, but he doesn't want to be noticed either. A young woman spots him and accuses him of being a follower of Jesus. Peter is afraid and so he denies it. But the young woman won't back off. She accuses him a second time and again he denies any association with Jesus. Soon others pick up on his accent, the fact that he is not from around there and join the young womans accusation of Peter being a disciple of Jesus. Peter curses and swears and vehemently denies that he knew Jesus. In that hour of need Peter betrayed his good friend three times. That, as you can imagine, was a pretty grim time in Peter's life. Later when he realized what he had done, he wept bitterly. Peter must have wondered if there was any hope for him. He had betrayed a friend, someone he had sworn to love and protect. Yet after his resurrection, Jesus goes looking for Peter. He forgives and restores Peter. Not long after that Peter himself preaches about forgiveness. Out of his defeat, Peter learns something. He learns that God is the God of a second chance.

A second person who turned away from God was Jonah. Believe me, the story of Jonah isn't just a whale of a story. It, too, is about the God of a second chance. Jonah is a prophet who had been commanded by God to preach to the citizens of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Jonah was to tell the Assyrians that judgement was coming to them if they did not change their ways. The Assyrians may have mattered to God, but they certainly did not matter to Jonah. So Jonah books passage on a ship headed in the opposite direct to Ninevah towards Tarshist. During that journey, a great storm occurs and Jonah feeling that he has angered God gets himself thrown overboard and swallowed up by a whale. God allows Jonah to survive. You might have thought that God would have given up on Jonah and went on to find a more agreeable prophet to work with. But not so, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time". Deliberately, conscientiously, stubbornly, Jonah had run away from God. Yet, God came to Jonah a second time and allowed him to carry on his ministry, because you see, God is the God of the second chance.

On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. During the first half of the game a player by the name of Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California on his own 35 yard line. While trying to evade the tacklers from the other team he becomes confused and starts to run 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates outruns him and tackles him on the 1 yard line just before Riegels was about to score for the opposite team. This strange play came near the end of the first half of the game. Everyone watching was probably asking" What will coach Nibbs Price do with Roy in the second half?" The players left the field and entered the change room and awaited the coach. Roy went and sat in a corner not facing his teammates, put his face in his hands and wept. Coach Price usually had a great deal to say to his team during halftime but that afternoon he was quiet. No doubt he too was thinking what he should say to Roy. The time keeper came into the room to announce that there was 3 more minutes before play time. Coach Price looked at the team and simply said, " Men, the same team that started the first half will start the second." The players got up and started out. All but Roy. He didn't move. Coach Price looked back and called to him again. Still Roy does not move. Price walks over to Roy and says " Roy, did you not hear me? The same team that started the first half will start the second half."
Roy looks up at Price and his cheeks are wet with tears.
" Coach, " he says, " I can't go out there. I've disgraced you, my teammates, and myself. I can't face that crowd to save my life." Then coach Price put his hand on Roys shoulder and says" Roy, get up and go back out there. The game is only half over." Roy Riegels did go back, and the Teck players testified that they had seldom seen a man play as Roy did in that second half. (Story as told by Dr. Haddon Robinson)

What a coach! Many of us have had similar experiences. What a boss, what a teacher, what a parent! When we read stories about Peter and Jonah and the stories of a thousand men and women like them we say- What a God! We take the ball and we run in the wrong direct. We catch a boat and sail west rather then east.We stumble and fall. We are ashamed and we never want to try again. And God comes and in the person of Jesus puts a hand on our shoulders and says, "Get up, dust yourself off and go back out there. The game is only half over." That is the good news of the grace of God. That is the Gospel of the second... of the third... of the one hundreth chance.

As it is interesting and instructive to take a look at how the call of God comes to the people in the Hebrew and Gospel readings today, it is even more interesting to see how this call is handled. Jonah knows exactly what God wants to do through his ministry and turns way from it. The fisherman, on the other hand haven't a clue as to what their lives are about to become. Yet they are ready to follow Jesus.

In a sermon reading by Rev. John Jewels, John discusses 3 types of calls:

1) There are the calls you would rather not get or put on hold! You know those phone calls from telemarketers, calls from the person you hoped would not remember that you may have mentioned you might be able to volunteer for some project but didn't really mean it. You were just trying to make a quick get away. You screen your calls with an answering machine or caller ID or just hang up. You avoid the person, like Jonah you run away or like Peter you hope beyond hope that you will never have to actually risk you own life for another.

Micheal Learner, in his book called The Politics of Meaning, states that "often we give up on our deepest held values of compassion, caring and community because they do not seem practical in the real world. Instead, an ethos of selfishness and materialism prevails by default. These are the values that we settle for when our deepest values seem out of reach. Ironically, these attitudes end up giving us less freedom and power. They put us more out of purpose."

While Jonah's way seems easier, in the end we often find we get thrown overboard and swallowed up by a whale of our making. There we spend precious time in the belly of the whale, out of touch with our calling, our sense of meaning and purpose. I would think that people like Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandella had some Jonah-like moments when rather then risk their own lives they would rather have walked away, but God doesn't give up. He calls again and again until we are ready to listen and respond. Sometimes we may not want to hear God's call but thankfully even when we run away he finds us even in places we think are the farthest distance from God. There may be an important lesson here — When God calls, we may be wise to answer!

2) There are the calls you do want to get. Jesus starts out his ministry calling forth companions. In four short remarkable verses in Mark, fishermen leave their nets, their security and their families to follow Jesus. Mark tells nothing of their inner deliberations, whether the fishing was good or bad, if they were religious people or not, if they got along with their fathers or simply had a sense of wanderlust. Mark merely says, " And immediately, they follow him". The phrase, "and immediately", is the most common phrase in Mark's gospel, occuring 33 times in only 16 chapters —this phrase never occurs in Jonah!

Do you remember the TV show called Early Edition:

An every day guy with a good heart and modest prospects recieves the early edition of the Chicago Sun Times every morning that tells not the news of yesterday, but what is actually going to happen today, unless he does something to change the future. He then spends the day trying to avert various disasters and when he is successful, the news in the paper actually changes. In one episode he reads that an airplane will explode and kill 150 people at O'Hara Airport unless he does something to stop it. On his way to the airport he gets hung up in traffic. As he is waiting for a subway train he reads the paper further and sees a story about a six year old girl who was hit by a car. She dies because the hopital staff thought she had minor injuries and failed to examine her properly. Just then he sees the little girl going by the train on her bicycle. He has to make a split -second decision. There are 150 people about to die on an airline, but he may not get there in time, while the little girl is just down the street. He runs after the little girl and reaches her moments after she is struck by a car. He gets her quickly to a hospital and he insists they look at her carefully but he is told to wait in line and because of his persistance is even escorted out of the hospital. He finally pressures a doctor to examine her and he finds the problem and the little girls life is saved. The twist in the plot comes at the end. As this guy is resting in the waiting room the Dr. comes over to him and apologizes and admitted that he had been jaded, forgetting the human dimension of his work. The Dr tells him that he saved actually 2 lives that day, the little girls and his. Then the little girls parents come to see the girl and her father is wearing a pilot uniform. It turns out that he was the pilot of the plane that would have exploded, but was called off the runway because his daughter was struck by a car. It turned out that many more lives were saved that day. ( Story as told by Todd Weir)

The Early Edition wrestled with the delemmas of what our role is in other people's lives. How would we act differently if we knew the potential difference our lives make to others. The call from Jesus to the diciples was a simple message, "God is near, God's power is at work, hear this good news and follow me. Love your neighbor as yourself, feed the hungry, house the homeless and you have done it to me. Abide in my love and I will abide in you. You are the light of the world, so let your light shine before all that they may see the glory of God. The reign of God is among you, within you. If you have faith, the mountain shall be moved for you." How could the disciples not follow him. As Peter said, "O master, now that we have seen you, where else can we go?" How could we not also follow? It is a call we do want to answer.

3) Then there are the calls that we want to pass on. Jesus calls the disciples to join him and share the call of God with others. He does not advocate neglect of families but rather spells out what is ultimate in their lives.He summons them to a change of heart, to take a new look at their lives and put their trust in the good news. He calls them to "fish for people." The call continues even to this day. Could God have brought about the conversion of Ninevah without Jonah? Absolutely! Does God need Jonah? Absolutely! From the begining, God's devine plan has been for a partnership between Creator and we who are the creation of God. He needs all of us to be the kind of God revealed to us in scripture — a God of compassion and understanding — a God of second chances.

The readings today speak of God's claim on our lives, our responsibility to answer when God calls, and how we prepare or don't prepare ourselves to do that. They raise the question of what is the most important thing in our lives? When we have adequately reflected on and answered that question, we will have to examine just what place God's claim and call has on our lives.

The call of God comes to anyone, at any time.

Jesus went directly to the common, ordinary folk of his time. It would likely not be any different today.

The phone is ringing!...
The call is for you!...
It is God who is calling!...
This is that call that changes your life!...

What is God calling you to do? May we all continue to ponder this question in our hearts as we reflect and are stilled by God's call in our lives today and tomorrow.

Amen.