Sharing God's Love and Grace

Meditation on John 3:14-21

Pastor Karen Crawford

March 10, 2024

   We honored the life of Lois Netter yesterday. Our sanctuary was filled with family, friends, and our church family who came to give thanks to God for the gift of her life and remember how she touched our lives with her kindness, goodness, and faith.

    During the sharing of memories, one speaker who had known Lois for more than 60 years said that Lois never had a bad word to say about anyone. In this day and age, it’s a rare thing to have someone who truly lives by the wise saying of Thumper’s mother in Walt Disney’s Bambi, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

  She never complained, though she suffered a long time. She was positive and cheerful, a gracious host, a good cook. She was an avid reader and a member of numerous book discussion groups, including ours at the church. She was a deacon and longtime knitter whose prayer shawls provided comfort, beauty, and warmth to others for decades.  She was a former ESL teacher who lived overseas with her husband, Andy, a guidance counselor, touching the lives of students in Thailand, India, Japan, Pakistan, Peru, and Poland.

    Lois didn’t have a mold that everyone needed to fit in. She was curious about you, accepted you as you are, saw the good in you, embraced you for it, and told others about it. She was a good friend, compassionate and loyal.

   I wore the purple stole of Lent yesterday at her celebration of life in this Holy Season. I read a scripture often read as we draw nearer to Easter—the story of the raising of Lazarus in John 11. We wondered why Jesus waited to heal the one he loved, after he received word from his friends, Mary and Martha, that their brother was ill. Why did he wait until Lazarus died to return to Bethany? He was met on the edge of town by Martha, who, though grieving and disappointed with Jesus, had not yet given up hope. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she says. “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

   Jesus will say something surprising. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he says. “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

   “Yes, Lord,” she says, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

    Comparing these two conversations with Jesus—Martha in chapter 11 and Nicodemus in chapter 3—we find significant differences and common themes. Both are about life and death, suffering and salvation, belief, rebirth or resurrection, and healing. But Martha, though her brother has been in the tomb for 4 days and there is the stench of death, still holds onto her faith in Christ’s power to heal and save. The whole Jewish community is gathered around the sisters and at the tomb. Everything is said and done in the open. Jesus even prays aloud so that all would hear and know that he was speaking to the Father—and that God was the source of his healing power. When he calls forth the dead man from the tomb, he invites the community’s full participation in his healing and new life when he cries out, “Unbind him and let him go!”

    Nicodemus doesn’t have faith or friendship with Jesus, unlike Martha—not yet. His conversation is in secret, maybe because he is afraid. Much is made of his coming at night. “Darkness and night symbolize the realm of evil, untruth, and ignorance,” says Raymond Brown, who was Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York. “In 23:30, Judas leaves the light to go out into the night of Satan; Nicodemus, on the other hand, comes out of the darkness into the light.” [1]

    Another reason is possible for Nicodemus coming at night. It’s also rabbinic custom to stay up at night to study the Law. And he may just want to be alone with Jesus. He has questions! He wants answers—and to know Christ more.

     Jesus connects the Old Testament wilderness stories with the promise of the New Covenant, saying,“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

   With the pandemic years still so close to us in time—when illness and death seemed to surround us daily—the image of the serpent in the wilderness is more meaningful than ever! I think I usually skip over this imagery in this passage, probably because I don’t like snakes! But with the pandemic and the words of Jesus here, meant to bring light into our darkness, I am seeing things differently. The snake is a sign of Christ’s healing for the world.

     “It is one of the most unusual Christological symbols in the New Testament: Christ the Snake,” writes Roger Gench in Presbyterian Outlook. [2] “Odd though it may be, it is well worth pondering. In both the ancient and modern world, snakes were and are symbolic of our deepest, most ominous fears, but also of life, death and rebirth — indeed of healing. Psychologists have associated snakes in dreams as harbingers of transformation and new beginnings.” [3] Gench, a theologian in residence at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, points out that the American Medical Association’s logo is “the healing snake upon a pole.” [4]

     The Israelites in Numbers 3 complain against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” The Lord responds by sending poisonous serpents. Many Israelites die! But when the people confess their sin to God, the Lord tells his servant, Moses, to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole. Then, whenever someone is bitten, that person need only look upon the serpent of bronze in faith—and live!

    Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the highest governing body of the Jewish people, composed of 70 members—priests (Sadducees), scribes (Pharisees), and lay elders of the aristocracy. [5]When he asks Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” he is talking about himself! He isn’t mocking him. He is struggling with Christ’s teaching, following the Jewish belief that it is in the struggle and wrestling with the Law, God’s Word, that truth is found, understanding dawns, and meaning is made for today.

     “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” he asks. Jesus again mentions the kingdom of God and the need to be born of water and Spirit. The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

      Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” You can almost see a smile dancing on his lips. And Jesus seems to return that smile, saying playfully, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” Of course, Jesus knows what Nicodemus knows. That’s how this passage began, with Christ knowing “what was in everyone,” meaning their hearts.

     Soon, we reach today’s passage, when Christ brings up the story of the saving of the Israelites with the bronze snake lifted on a pole as foreshadowing his own suffering and death, when he is lifted on a cross so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

     Why would God do such a thing?  John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  Listen! The word translated loved (agapasen) in John 3:16 isn’t in the past tense in Greek. It is in the aorist, which defies time and “implies a supreme act of love.” [6] It is past, present, and future. God has always and will always love the world!  1 John 4:9 interprets and personalizes John 3:16, saying, “In this way was God’s love revealed in our midst: God has sent His only Son into the world that we may have life through him.”  

      Jesus is defining this New Covenant in himself as no longer exclusive to Israel. The proof of God’s inclusive love is in 3:17, through the giving of a Savior for all people. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

    Nicodemus will appear two more times in John’s gospel. He will remind his colleagues in the Sanhedrin (John 7:50-51) that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged. And he will come to Jesus once more at night, after the crucifixion. He will help another formerly secret follower, Joseph of Arimathea, prepare Christ’s body for burial in John 19. He will provide 100 pounds of spices for embalming–a sign of a royal burial, fit for the King of kings!

   Yesterday afternoon, when we shared memories of our friend and sister in the faith, we saw the signs of God’s love for the world in our very own community, in our very own church family.

    If we look around the room right now, we can see the signs of the love and grace of God in the Communion of the saints. The Spirit has brought you to worship today, to praise God and be strengthened for your journey. You have come to be encouraged in your walk with the Light of the World and to encourage someone else.  Like Nicodemus, you have come to know, a little bit more, the One who knows us completely.

     Like the snake-bitten Israelites who looked in faith upon the bronze serpent high on a pole—and lived, I invite you now to come in faith to Jesus, lifted high on a cross.  May you find healing for body and soul!

   If we listen for His voice, Christ will lead us to do His good works that testify to our faith.

   This is how otherswill come to know the God who so loves the world!

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your love for the world, a love that was shown when you did not withhold your Only Son. But instead, you gave him up, lifted high on a cross for our healing, like the Israelites of old who were healed by the bronze serpent on a pole. Lord, show us the signs of your present and coming Kingdom in this Holy Season of Lent, signs that are all around us, if only we have eyes to see and hearts to walk in your Light—with you—each day. Lead us to do your good works, as our dear sister Lois did, and testify to our faith. Help us as we seek to share the good news of your love with all the world. In Christ we pray. Amen.

   [1] Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XI) in the Anchor Bible series (New York: Doubleday, 1966) 130.

   [2] Roger Gench, “Fourth Sunday in Lent: March 14, 2021” in the column, “Looking into the Lectionary” in Presbyterian Outlook, March 12, 2021, at https://pres-outlook.org/2021/03/4th-sunday-in-lent-march-14-2021/

   [3] Roger Gench, March 12, 2021.

   [4] Roger Gench, March 12, 2021.

    [5] Raymond Brown, 130.

    [6] Raymond Brown, 133.

Meditation on John 11: 1-6, 17-27

In Memory of Lois Netter

Dec. 21, 1935 – March 2, 2024

Pastor Karen Crawford

I find that I am still looking for Lois in the congregation. I look for her in her pew.

I have looked for Lois every week in worship for a long time, probably since I met her at my first worship service here about two years ago.

There was a sweetness to Lois. A strength to Lois. She never dominated the conversation in the Narthex or parish hall. She was warm, but quiet. She was one of the family, the church family, but never needed to be the center of attention.

I came to know her through her serving on the Nominating Committee. She was well suited to her job with the Committee charged with prayerfully discerning and inviting others to accept leadership roles in the congregation. She was a team player, a peacemaker. She asked questions and listened carefully to the answers. She had follow-up questions. She valued inclusivity and diversity in the church, in the Body of Christ, and in the world.

 Lois didn’t have a mold that everyone needed to fit in. She was curious about you, accepted you as you are, saw the good in you, embraced you for it, and told others about it.

I came to know Lois through our book discussion group here at church. She was an active participant! I didn’t know, back then, that she was involved in numerous book discussion groups! She must have been reading non-stop!

When she wasn’t reading or attending book discussions, she might have been playing bridge. She played with a group from our church until recently. There may have been other bridge groups. And if she wasn’t reading, discussing books, or playing bridge, she might have been knitting. Lois used to knit a lot.

She and her friend, Carol Link, WERE our prayer shawl ministry. Lois used to knit a row, then pearl a row, knit a row, pearl a row; she did a basketweave stitch that looks like it is woven. She also did a Trinity stitch—knit 3 stitches, pearl 3 stitches, all the way…Lois, who had joined our church in the 1960s, had been in the prayer shawl ministry since the very beginning of the ministry, maybe 20 years.

And if she wasn’t knitting, she might have been cooking or baking, which she also loved to do, when she was feeling well. For many years, she hosted Wednesday night family dinners in her home. She shared meals with friends on other nights, going to the Thai Restaurant, or eating Chinese or Italian or getting take out and eating with friends in her home.

I came to know her better when I visited Lois at her home last year. I brought her Communion, and she served me tea and a whole plate of bakery cookies! She didn’t eat any. Her health situation had grown more serious. Her energy level was low. But she still smiled and laughed and was a gracious host.

 She didn’t complain of her illness. We talked instead about her life before she and her husband, Andy, downsized and moved to the one-story home in Kings Park, about 20 years ago.  She shared about working as a dental hygienist for the Roosevelt School District. That’s where she and Andy met. He worked as a music teacher and later became a guidance counselor. Andy went home to be with the Lord 18 years ago, March 1.

What started as a two-year sabbatical for Andy to work in Thailand in 1973-1974 was, for Lois, a great adventure. Their three children went with them. Carla went to second and third grade there; Jeff attended 8^th and 9^th; and Stephen, the middle child, 5^th and 6^th . The second year the family was in Thailand, Lois worked at the embassy. When the family returned home to Commack, she was ready for a new challenge. She went to Stony Brook University and earned a master’s degree, preparing to teach E.S.L.

The next time they would go overseas together, after Andy retired from the district, Lois taught English and Andy worked as a guidance counselor. For about 10 years, they lived and worked in New Delhi, India; Islamabad, Pakistan; in Japan, Peru, and Poland.

I left Lois’s home that day in Kings Park dreaming of faraway places. She had that effect on us. I wanted to hear more stories and know her more. I thought I had more time.

As Lois’s treatments continued, she was not able to come to worship or small groups, including our book group. We missed her. She wasn’t there for our discussion of All The Light We Cannot See, a work of historical fiction set in WWII.Her family would tell me that it was her favorite book. I loved it, too! I wonder what she would have shared? I know it would have been meaningful for the entire group. And that I would have come to know her more.

Lois and I talked by phone after my visit with Communion. I called her on her 88^th birthday on Dec. 21, and asked if we could bring a group of carolers to sing in her front yard. She said, “Thank you, but no.” She shared some about her health and her family—that they were taking good care of her. Mostly I listened and when she fell silent, I always asked if she wanted to pray.

When she made the decision to stop treatments and go on hospice, she emailed the church, and I called her that day. She did something she didn’t usually do. She shared about the pain, and she cried. What was it going to be like, on hospice? she asked.

I told her what I knew and assured her that this would be a good thing for her and her family. She would receive personalized care. All of her questions and her family’s questions would be answered. They would manage her pain and make sure that she was as comfortable and peaceful as possible.

A few days later, I called to check on her. Her mood had lifted. Many people had sent her cards. She was being well cared for by hospice and her family, she said. She wasn’t in pain anymore! She said that whatever she could possibly need or want, she felt sure that the hospice worker would pick up the phone and make it happen that day.

As we talked, an edible bouquet was delivered, with a card that made her laugh. It said, “From your book buddy.”  Her question was, “Which one?”

At the end of our conversation, I asked, “Would you like to pray?” “Oh, yes,” she said. This time, she didn’t just listen silently. She chimed in and spoke to me and the Lord.  

When I said, “Goodbye,” I was overcome with sadness. She was ready to go. I wasn’t ready for her to go.

We always want our loved ones to be with us, forever. We never want them to suffer.

Why Jesus took so long to respond to Mary and Martha’s plea for help is a mystery. Why wouldn’t it bring glory to God if he healed a sick man, like he had done before? Why did he have to wait for Lazarus to die? And Lazarus was a close friend. As Martha writes, he was “the one whom you love.”

When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus is already in the tomb. Has been for 4 days. The community has lost hope and is deep in their grief. Martha hasn’t given up. She meets Jesus on the road, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” Martha says, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

I reach the end of the passage, beyond what we read today, when Lazarus is called forth from the tomb. I wonder, is it her faith that restores Lazarus to life? Or was it God’s plan all along to reveal Christ’s power over death this way? Or was it both?

I believe that our faith matters—it makes a difference in the way we live our lives today. It makes a difference when we live with hope. We take risks. We persevere through hard things. We never give up. We rise up from the ashes! God’s mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness!

We need this reassurance today—that Christ still has the power over death. That we have nothing in this world to fear. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in this world and in the world to come. We, too, have the promise of resurrection with him—and not only that. We have the power to live new and resurrected lives by faith right now.

I have one question. Do you believe this?

I have talked with church members about Lois all week. We are all grieving. She will be remembered for her sweetness, her smile, her knitting, her bridge playing, her faithful work caring for others as a deacon, and for her passion for Bread for the World, an organization that seeks to remove the barriers to hunger, so that all who live in food insecurity may be fed.

Lois will be remembered for being a wonderful cook and gracious hostess. Most of all, how she always listened, with love and without judgment. She was a good friend. She made everybody feel valuable—and want to know her more.

Just before my husband had surgery at the end of January, we received a prayer shawl from the church. The card on the beautiful green blanket says it was made by Lois. We will treasure it always.

I wonder how many people were blessed by Lois’s knitted shawls and blankets over the years? Her handiwork reminds us of a precious child of God whom we were blessed to know—some of us for a long, long time; some of us for only a short while, a couple of years; and all of us, not nearly long enough!

But we are not people without hope, dear friends. Like Martha, we know Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming and has come into the world, who is WITH US NOW, in Spirit. Someday, we will be reunited with our loved ones, and all the mysteries will no longer be mysterious, when we are with Christ, face to face. He will wipe every tear. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more.

I come to the end of my meditation, and all I can think of is my last phone conversation with Lois. Maybe you are remembering conversations you had with her, as well.

 “You are in our hearts and prayers,” I said, after we prayed. “I want you to know that you are loved by your Church and the Lord.” I asked, “Do you know you are loved?”

And she said, “Oh yes! Oh, yes!”

Amen.

Meditation on Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

Ash Wednesday

Feb. 14, 2024

A few nights ago, I received the shocking news of an unexpected death of a friend.

She had served as a Sunday School teacher for the youngest class at my congregation in Coshocton, Ohio, since her son, Lukas, now a young adult, was small.  Janice started work at the town’s public library in 2013 as a page shelving books and transporting materials between the main and branch libraries. The library’s Facebook page says, “Janice’s work ethic, customer service skills, and ambition led her to work her way to becoming Page Supervisor and Youth Services Coordinator.” One of the things she did was teach early literacy Lapsit classes for parents to bring their infants. “She was the face behind the children’s desk, and the staff member of many other programs. Her decorations in the children’s room often drew compliments from those visiting the space. She prepared StoryWalk books and visited preschools, daycares, and other schools throughout the county each month.” [1]  

The Coshocton County Library system was closed on Monday for the staff to process their grief and attend the funeral.

Janice and her husband, Jeff, served as videographers for our worship. She was ordained and installed as a brand new elder on the Session during my pastorate there. I remember a lunch we shared at Bob Evans and how we talked about our vision for ministry. She was all about children and youth. She served as the elder for Faith Formation, formerly Christian Education.

In her work for the church and her Lord, she led an awesome evening Summer Vacation Bible School during the pandemic. She empowered volunteers to use their gifts and talents and created an evening program on a water/beach theme. Every child brought their favorite beach towel. They ate snacks and listened to Bible stories sitting on their towels under a shade tree in the front yard of our downtown church. I read to the children, at her invitation, a picture book of Moses leading God’s people across the parted sea on dry land, with the Egyptian armies behind them, their chariot wheels getting stuck in the mud. We made crafts on tables on the church lawn and played games with balls across the street on the Courthouse lawn. A volunteer, a retired teacher who sang in the choir, taught them songs.

At the end of VBS, Janice wrote thank you notes to every volunteer and gave gift cards to a local ice cream shop. She used her own money. She made other people feel appreciated.

Yesterday, I found a video that Janice made with her husband, Jeff, and son, Lukas. It was one of the first in a series of family features that we did during the pandemic. We were trying everything to bring one another joy and the feeling of closeness and intimacy when the church was fragmented. People felt lonely, isolated, and depressed. We showed the video clips in the worship space and at my blog for others to watch at home. Here is a link to that 2020 video. (Click on Meet Our Church Family: The Sycks)

Other things that I appreciated about Janice were her intelligence and her prophetic gift. She always spoke the truth, no matter how hard it was for others to hear. She was bold. She stood up for what she believed was right, even if it meant that other people might not agree with her or be happy with her opinion. At the same time, kindness ruled with Janice. She taught her son to be kind and loving, as she herself was kind and accepting to all people. I believe that her faith shaped her into the person that she became. She was always loyal to the ones she loved, including her family, her community, her Lord, and Christ’s church.

On this day, when we read, once again, about Jesus holding up an example of bad behaviors by certain people–telling a crowd of would-be disciples how NOT to be, I am offering to you, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, a contemporary model of faithfulness. Janice would be embarrassed if she heard me hold her up as a model! She was one of the most unassuming but, at the same time, expressive and sensitive people I have ever met. She was a what-you-see-is-what-you-get person—no pretenses. She had no need to be the center of attention. She was down to earth, pretty, vivacious, creative, and feminine. She was human in every way. She had a quirky sense of humor. I suspect that that her sense of humor and the love of family and friends gave her strength to persevere through the hard times that she experienced.

Janice wasn’t at all like the Pharisees, who seemed to have impure motives for their religiosity and did many attention-seeking things to impress people of their holiness and perhaps superiority.

The one thing that has always troubled me about this passage in Matthew is how we interpret it to be angry at or mock a group of people whom Jesus asks us NOT to be like. We put our focus in the wrong place—on this group rather than on ourselves and doing the good things that Jesus urges us to do. Jesus never tells his disciples to dislike the Pharisees or to be unkind. He crossed many societal boundaries to reach out to people, often those who were marginalized and despised. He sought to heal and encourage them in their faith. The motive of our Savior, for all his teachings, all his acts of sacrifice and self-giving, was always to convey God’s love for the whole world. Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48, in the passage immediately preceding today’s reading,

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

One word in this passage that has caused confusion is the word we translate “hypocrites.” It doesn’t mean in English exactly what the more ambiguous Greek word, hypokrites meant. In English, it “generally refers to people who say one thing but do another, whether the inconsistency is conscious or unconscious.” [2]   “In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, it means a godless or wicked person,” says Lawrence Wills, a professor of biblical studies at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. “But in the larger Greek world it meant the actor in a play, and therefore the sense of pretense or acting and the two-part personality of an actor who plays a part come to the fore.” [3] Therefore, Matthew could have meant, with his use of this word, “one who is godless and wicked,” one who “pretends to be one thing but consciously acts contrary to that,” or one “who pretends to be one thing but unconsciously acts contrary to that.” [4] Wills challenges us to look inside ourselves with his question, “Does the sin of hypocrisy in Matthew consist in consciously deceiving others or in being in denial about one’s own sin?”

The news of Janice’s death came late at night, from a friend traveling in Thailand. After hearing the news, I was up for hours with my memories and my grief. I can still hear her voice and her sweet laugh! What makes me so sad now is imagining the grief of her family—her husband, Jeff, and son, Lukas—and all her good friends in Coshocton, including her church family. One of her closest friends, Judy Addy, had been planning to take Janice out and celebrate her birthday with her on the very night that Janice suddenly went home to be with her Lord. She was just 42.

My grief for losing a friend and sister in the Lord and knowing the grief of her family, church family, and friends, leads me to be bold, like Janice, and encourage us to see the Ash Wednesday message in a positive light. Don’t waste a single day in regret. God loves you with an unconditional love! Today! You are FORGIVEN, in Jesus Christ.

So what will you do now, in this Holy Season of Lent, to live into your forgiven self? I pray that you will be generous in this season of prayer, giving, and forgiving! This is a time to be reconciled with your neighbor and to seek to heal brokenness in your relationships. Where will you get your strength and wisdom? Go into that inner room—all by yourself—and don’t be afraid to be completely yourself and let the Spirit do its work.

We may have started out as dust but look what God can do with dust! Look what God can do with human beings who humbly turn away from their fallings and failings and see only the perfect, sinless life of God’s Son, Jesus Christ! He is our highest model! Look at what God’s unconditional love and forgiveness has done for all of us! I close my message for Ash Wednesday with the words of Jan Richardson in her poem, “Blessing the Dust”: [5]

All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—

did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff

of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

Amen!

     [1] Coshocton County Library Facebook site. Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024 at https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Ffbid%3D799178308906410%26set%3Da.455660839924827%26type%3D3&show_text=true&width=500

     [2]Lawrence M. Wills, “Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites! In the Gospel of Matthew” in Not God’s People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World (NY: Roman and Littlefield, 2008) 115.

    [3] Lawrence Wills, 115

    [4] Lawrence Wills, 115.

     [5] Jan Richardson, “Blessing the Dust, for Ash Wednesday” in Circle of Grace (Orlando, FL: Wanton Gospeller Press, 2015) 89.

Meditation on Mark 1:29–39

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

Feb. 4, 2024

Everything is going well with Jim’s healing journey. Thank you for your prayers, cards, and words of encouragement.

People have given me good advice about “caring for the caregiver.”

The reality is that it just isn’t possible for every caregiver to get the rest and relief they need, especially if there is no other close family member to help them. I see this often in my ministry. My heart goes out to the spouses and adult children caring for loved ones, not just recovering from surgery for a month or two, as is my case, but loved ones struggling with ongoing, progressive, life-altering illness and disease.

The one thing that has kept my spirits up and has had a healing power on me was, the last few days, being able to take time for some quiet walks of 20 or 30 minutes in my neighborhood. Sometimes I bring my toy poodle, bundled in her winter jacket! Sometimes, I go by myself. I go during the day or in the evening, after the supper is put away and the dishes are done.  I carry a lantern flashlight. I love looking up at the trees in the dark shadows and orange glow of the lights at night. You can see all the twists and turns of their bare branches. They look like hands, with fingers reaching out to one another and up to God the Creator above.

Outside, in this urban area, when I am alone walking, despite the noise of neighbors and trains and traffic rushing by, I sense God’s loving presence. I know that I am not alone. The Lord God still has a hand in all the tiny and not so tiny details of my life. I believe in the One God, as Ephesians 4:6 assures us, who is “Father of us all…above all.. through all, and in all.”

The healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is one of my favorite healing stories. This same story appears in three gospels, with slightly different details. Often, those whom Jesus heals are strangers in a public place, encountered along his journeys. Not so, here. This healing takes place in the privacy of home and family. This is a person intimately known to the one whom Jesus will give his special nickname, Peter or “Petros,” Greek for “Rock.” He will make this promise in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter (Petros) and on this “rock” I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

So many details are worth noting. This is the first healing story involving a woman in Matthew and Mark. Jesus, a man, crosses many borders to heal this woman, most likely a widow. She is “other” to Jesus, marginalized because of her gender and because she is older, past childbearing age. [1] In her culture, women find their identity and purpose in their roles of wife and mother. Why the gospel writer doesn’t offer her name—just her relationship to Simon Peter—is a mystery to me. The editors of my NRSV Bible fail to mention her in the heading above this passage, though her healing is the most important thing of this passage. Check your Bibles when you go home. Mine says, “Jesus heals many at Simon’s home.” At least Simon was mentioned!

A word about their home. It isn’t like ours! “It was (probably) the sort of courtyard house that was typical of urban areas in Syro-Palestine at the time.”  [2] So, Jesus didn’t just walk through the front door and see Simon’s mother-in-law lying in a bed. He enters the home and THEN Simon and Andrew tell Jesus about her “at once” or “immediately” as this Greek word, “euythus,” is translated. (Mark, who isn’t known as a great writer, is fond of “euythus,” using it 41 times!)  

Jesus goes to her and heals with a touch of his hand—another border crossing for a religious man in his culture. He “lifts her up.” This fever is more serious without the medical advances of today. This verb, “egeiro,” is also translated “to rise up” and is the same word Jesus uses when he predicts his own raising from the dead. The same “power by which God will raise Jesus from the dead is…at work in this woman’s healed body … Healing, then.. brings new life and anticipates the new life in Christ that transcends death.” [3]

More evidence of this woman’s “otherness” to Jesus and those sharing and hearing this account is that no dialogue is recorded. Did he really say nothing to her? Did she really say nothing to him?

Jesus will continue to cross societal borders to minister to other women and girls. The women won’t always be silent, like Simon’s mother-in-law, and they won’t always be Jewish. A Syrophoenician woman will follow Jesus into a house that he thinks is deserted. He is reluctant to help her, but she begs him to cast the unclean spirit out of her daughter. He doesn’t go to her home or touch her or the child. But when she returns home, she finds the child lying on the bed and the demon gone.

The detail that stands out in this passage and stirs much conversation is what happens after Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever leaves her. She begins to serve them! One feminist writer says, “Many women snort under their breath at the detail in Mark 1:31 about her ‘serving them.’ (Jesus has healed her) “just in time for supper.” [4]

Others point out that “a first century matriarch would have been ashamed not to be in charge when guests came to her home.” [5] My personal experience with women who are sick, struggling with mobility, or recovering from surgery is that they long to be able to do the ordinary domestic tasks that they did for themselves and their families before they were sick. They look around and see the cleaning that is needed. They want to be able to drive their cars, go shopping and go to church, and cook their own meals. We all want to be useful and to serve the Lord with our gifts and talents.

 The important thing in this action of service is the word translated “serve”— “diakonei.” This where our word “deacon” comes from. Raise your hand if you have been ordained a deacon. Thank you for your service! This is a church office created in Acts to “supervise the distribution of food among Christians, though most English translations render it ‘deacon’ when applied to men and ‘servant’ when applied to women.’ ” [6] Is this more evidence of the continued “otherness” of women, whose gifts for ministry are not always recognized or appreciated as actual “ministry” for the Lord and His Church?

Friends, this isn’t just a healing story. This has all the elements of a call story, much like the call of Simon, her son-in-law, the fisherman. Her form of service as a deacon is “appropriate to one who follows the Lord.” [7] We will discover, as we continue to take a close look at some healing stories of Jesus that sometimes a healing and the call to discipleship go hand in hand. Is this part of your testimony? Did your gratitude for the Lord’s healing lead you to say YES to following and serving the Lord and God’s people?

Whew! What a long day it’s been for Jesus and his disciples, beginning with the exorcism at the synagogue. It isn’t over, yet. As the sun goes down, the whole city of Capernaum, a village of about 1,500 people,[8] bring “all who were sick and possessed by demons.” Jesus cures many of the sick and casts out demons, who are not permitted to speak—not like the one in the synagogue earlier that day—because they know him. From the first verse of Mark, “there is not a reader unaware of the identity of Jesus. …Only the demons name Jesus for who he is, but no one in the story seems to hear them or pay them any attention.” [9]

 The part of this passage that speaks to me in my situation today comes at the end, when Jesus rises while it is still dark and goes to a deserted place to pray. Simon and his companions come looking for him. They scold him, “Everyone is searching for you.”

Jesus doesn’t apologize for these moments or hours when he is off by himself. He tells them what’s next for his ministry, after having spent time alone, listening for God’s voice. “Let us go to the neighboring towns,” he tells them, “so that I may proclaim the message there, also; for this is what I came out to do.”

This will be a regular practice for Jesus throughout his ministry on earth, to go off by himself to the wilderness or a mountain. His disciples will continue to wonder where he is and what he’s doing while he is gone.

Dear friends, our Lord was fully human—and a caregiver, as are many of us, in seasons of our lives. Walking and praying alone, in the outdoors, brought him clarity of purpose; he was refreshed and renewed!

This is my prayer for you who serve the Lord as healers and caregivers, for days, weeks, months or years. May you be blessed in your ministry with joy, peace, hope, and strength. May you find the miracle of time to walk and breathe in the outdoors and sense God’s loving presence with you. May you know for certain that you are not alone. May the Lord provide others to help you and protect YOU from harm. May you who are weary and worried find peace and rest for your body, mind, and soul. May you grow in your trust in the God who has a hand in all the tiny and not so tiny details of our lives, the Lord whose love for you and your loved one will never end. The God who is Father of us all. Above all, through all, and in all.

Let us pray.

Divine Healer and Caregiver, thank you for your Son who showed compassion and didn’t hesitate to cross societal boundaries to bring healing to those in need. Thank you for his example of taking time to be alone with you in your beautiful Creation, to walk and pray and enjoy being in your presence. Bless our caregivers, dear Lord, those who heal as a calling in the medical profession and those who heal as a calling more privately, caring for their families. Give them strength and peace to carry on. Grant them hope in your good future and your hand in the tiny and not so tiny details of our lives. Thank you for your love for us, dear God and Father of us all, who is above all, though all, and in all. Amen.

[1] Lawrence M. Wills, Not God’s People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World (NY:Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) 40. Wills writes, “We have so far considered the construction of the foreign nations as Other in the biblical tradition, but in every culture there are also, from the point of view of the dominant group, internal Others, such as Other races or classes, Other genders, Other sexual orientations, Other level of ability…In the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament, public discourse was almost always from the point of view of the free, propertied, male head of household with a particular kinship lineage; this is generally the voice that speaks in the text, and is almost always the audience who is directly addressed. Thus projecting the woman or slave as Other presumes this arrangement. If there are any exceptions in the Bible, they are rare.”

 [2] Walter T. Wilson, Healing in the Gospel of Matthew: Reflections on Method and Ministry (MN:Fortress Press, 2014) 70. Wilson was quoting Elaine Wainwright in Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderization of Healing in Early Christianity (London: Equinox, 2006), 106.

 [3]  Walter Wilson, 69.

 [4]  Deborah Krause, “Simon Peter’s Mother-in-Law,” in a Feminist Companion to Mark, ed. Amy-Jill Levine (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2001), 39.

[5]  William C. Placher, Mark (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 39.

[6] William Placher, 39.

[7] Walter Wilson, 77.

[8]https://www.touristisrael.com/capernaum/7636/#:~:text=History%20of%20Capernaum&text=It%20was%20a%20vibrant%20and,Capernaum%20on%20the%20Via%20Maris.

[9] Gary W. Charles, Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 1, ed. By David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor,( Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 335

Meditation on Mark 1:21–28

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Pastor Karen Crawford

January 28, 2024

It was pouring rain, dark, and foggy when we drove to South Shore University Hospital in Bayshore on Thursday morning. We left the house at 5:36 a.m.  It had been for me a night of mostly staring into the darkness, wondering what the next 48 hours would bring. Jim’s bag was packed with a change of clothes and two books for an overnight stay. My briefcase was filled with books, files, and my computer.

 I knew that I was going to have a long day of waiting at the hospital.

Jim rolled into the O.R. around 8 a.m., after a quick prayer. The surgeon called around 10:30 a.m. to tell me everything went smoothly. I was able to see Jim in recovery by around 1 o’clock and in his hospital room sometime after 2.

It felt good to stand and stretch and walk the long way to his room from the place where I had been waiting. He was looking at a menu and considering possibilities for dinner when I arrived. I suggested lemon sorbet and rice pudding.

 “Maybe, since you are a big man,” I said, “they will let you eat two desserts.” It felt good to laugh.

I have vivid memories of his first knee replacement in Ohio a few years ago. And I will be honest, those memories haunted me when we were preparing for this surgery. Still, we went into this with hope, knowing we are older and wiser; this was a different surgeon, different hospital, different protocol, and yes, simply a new day.

In order to heal in the present, we have to leave the past in the past, Amen?

Learning from our struggle after Jim’s surgery in Ohio, we reached out to our son, Danny, this time, and asked for help.

We all like to be independent. But the work of healing is done through community. It isn’t just one healer these days, and an instantaneous cure, but a team of medical professionals, in a variety of settings.  The Lord uses many people –some of them strangers, some of them family and friends, to care for us when we are in need of healing.

The story of the man with the unclean spirit in the first chapter of Mark today is the first of a number of healing stories that I will be sharing from now throughout Lent. This is part of my work for the Doctor of Ministry program, and it’s also a passion of mine—the whole question of healing for those who are sick in body, mind, or soul.

My main concern is the question of how separation affects those who are sick or struggling with mobility—how they may feel as if they are on the margins or on the outside. You can have this strange, almost out of body experience when suddenly you are in the hospital, rehab, or in a nursing home. You may feel isolated, lonely, and homesick.

When Jesus heals in the New Testament—it isn’t just a physical cure, but it often has social implications, such as a restoration of the person to their family and faith community. But not always….

Today, we know so little about the man with the unclean spirit. We don’t know his name—as is sometimes the case when Jesus heals. He heals named friends and unnamed family members of friends. He heals the rich and poor. He usually heals members of his own faith, but not exclusively. He heals strangers with names and strangers unnamed. The man with the “unclean spirit” is a person unknown to the biblical writer, possibly unknown to Jesus and the disciples, whom he has just called and they dropped their nets to follow him in the preceding passage.

They have gone to Capernaum, an ancient city on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is the setting for numerous miracles of healing in the New Testament. In Matthew, Jesus makes his home there right after his temptation in the wilderness. He will preach there regularly in the synagogue; he will give his sermon on the Bread of Life in John. This is where he cures the Roman officer’s servant of palsy and raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead.

Sometimes, the faith of the person interceding on the behalf of the afflicted is named and praised by Jesus. Sometimes, the faith of the person being healed is named and praised.

Sometimes, faith has little or nothing to do with the healing.

In the healing of the man with the unclean spirit in today’s passage, there’s no one interceding on his behalf. No family or friends that we know of. And the man himself never speaks. The demon living inside him does all the talking, much to the surprise of probably everyone there!

Theologian William Placher says, “A man with an unclean spirit did not belong in a synagogue. He was ritually unclean, and this was sacred space. …He promptly disrupts things by yelling his head off….Evil spirits never have any problem knowing who Jesus is.” [1]

James 2:19 says, “the demons believe and shudder.”

This is a passage where the English translation fails to adequately convey the original Greek meaning. Our Bibles in the pews—the NRSV—say that Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” What he says may be closer to “Shut up!” “Muzzle it!” and “Get out!” [2]

The unclean spirit convulses the man, crying out with a loud voice, before it comes out of him. All of this takes place within a worship service; there are many witnesses who actually stay and watch the whole thing, without running away. Mark says the people are “amazed.” In our English translations, they say, “A new teaching—with authority!” Well, some of us are wondering what the “new teaching” is. Who knows what the subject of Jesus’ teaching was that day? All anyone remembers is the casting out of the demon. I am pretty sure we would remember that, too, if that happened here.

This word translated “authority” is exousia! It is often “applied to kings and was especially associated with what God would have when his reign came.” [3] Exousia meant divine power, in contrast to the classically trained teachers and leaders of the faith, who were Jesus’ teachers when he was a young boy, full of questions. That word—exousia—appears twice in this passage—near the beginning in verse 22, ^“ They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority—exousia, divine power—and not as the scribes.” And verse 27, ^“They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! (exousia, divine power). He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

What happens to the man after he is cleansed of the unclean spirit? We don’t know. Is he restored to his community, his home and family? We don’t know. Maybe. The entire focus of this healing story is not on the man needing spiritual cleansing, but on the revelation of the exousia, the divine power, that possesses Jesus. After this, Jesus becomes famous throughout the surrounding region. Soon, he can’t go anywhere without folks bringing those who are sick or possessed by demons to be healed.

He cures many, but not all. The work of healing the world isn’t over, yet. That’s where WE come in.

Today, we will ordain and/or install our elders and deacons. We will pray for God’s exousia to fill, guide, and protect them as they seek to serve our congregation with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. But let us remember that the ministry of healing belongs to the entire community. It’s not just the job of elders and deacons. We all have the authority to heal! Christ’s power, exousia, by faith!

N.T. Wright explains, “On the cross, (Jesus) completed the healing work he began that day in the synagogue. When the church learns again how to speak and act with the same authority (exousia), we will find both the saving power of God unleashed once more and a similar heightened opposition from the forces of darkness….They can still shriek, but since Calvary, they no longer have authority. To believe this is the key to Christian testimony and saving action in the world that, despite its frequent panic and despair, has already been claimed by the loving authority of God in Christ.” [4]

After worship today, I will be hurrying home to say goodbye to our son, Danny. He will be on the road to Cambridge, MA, this afternoon. A wintry mix of precipitation is expected.

I am glad we asked him to come. He was a BIG help! And it was so nice to see him. I know he lifted our spirits. I was surprised to hear him say that it was a nice “break” to come and see us. He could sleep in without being awakened by his young daughters jumping on him and his routine of caring for them. He had a little time to read and do some work on his computer. He had a nice walk by himself on Friday and a bike ride yesterday, while Jim slept and I prepared for worship.

You see, those who help are blessed as they serve others, just as those who need the help are blessed when others serve them! Remember that, dear friends, when you hesitate to ask for help, for fear you may be a burden.

One thing I learned from this experience is that in order to heal in the present, we have to leave the past in the past, Amen?  And that the work of healing is done through the community, through the gifts of all the members of the Body of Christ. Through YOUR gifts!

The Lord uses many people –some of them strangers, some of them family and friends, to care for us when we are in need.

Let us pray.

Holy One, Gracious and Loving Healer, thank you for the way you care for us in community—through medical professionals, through strangers, family, and friends. We lift up those in need of your healing right now, those who are recovering from surgery, those who are sick with viruses or bacteria infections, those who are battling cancer and other diseases. We lift up those grieving the loss of loved ones and those who are lonely and feel far away from their home, family, and church family. Send your exousia, dear Lord, so that we may bring comfort, wholeness, and healing to your church and the world you so love. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.

     [1] William Placher, Mark (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) 37-38.

     [2] Placher, 38.

     [3] Placher, 37.

         [4] N.T. Wright, Mark for Everyone (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) 11.

Meditation on Mark 1:14–20

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Pastor Karen Crawford

Jan. 21, 2024

I’m back! It’s good to be home with my flock. How have you been?  Traveling to Austin was, once again, an adventure. It was sleeting on the morning I left from MacArthur Airport. I couldn’t see out my window on the plane, at first. We de-iced, took off, landed at BWI.

I changed planes, but they were running behind schedule because of weather. When I landed at the Austin airport, and took an Uber to the seminary, I arrived about an hour later than I expected. It was night, and I was worried that I would be stumbling around a deserted campus, fumbling for the security codes for the doors, and struggling with my suitcase up and down dark stairwells. I had reached out to a classmate from Canada who arrived the day before. She said she would meet me. But she wasn’t there where we agreed to meet because I was so late. She had gone back to her room.  When I stepped out of the Uber, a man in the shadows asked, “Can I help?”

I said yes, without thinking, without knowing who he was. I was just so grateful! He came closer and I introduced myself as a Doctor of Ministry student looking for my housing. We stepped into a lighted doorway, and I realized he was the president of the seminary! He was one of the angels watching out for me last week!

He unlocked the doors and led me to where I needed to be—and there, at the table with our nametags and directions, was a fellow student whom I knew from Minnesota, with my friend from Canada, waiting for me. More angels would help me on that night—and on other occasions that week, when I felt a little lost.

They escorted me to my housing—one took charge of my rolly bag down a steep flight of stairs. My room was a converted garage that was nice, except for the large cockroach that visited me in the bathroom. But it made for a great story, shared with my classmates, one of whom had stayed in the same converted garage last year—and was also visited by a large cockroach!

I enjoyed my teacher, Dr. Jeong, a New Testament scholar. He is from Korea. He shared a story about his two young children—one born in Korea and the other in New Haven, CT, when he was a grad student at Yale. His daughter was jealous of the son born in this country because he was an American citizen. When Dr. Jeong and his wife questioned her more about her desire to be “American,” they discovered that what she really wanted was to be like the other girls in her class; she wanted to be “white.” My teacher said that before he came to the United States to study, earn his Ph.D., and teach, he had never been considered a “person of color.” He didn’t think of himself that way. “In Korea,” he said, “Everyone looked like me! We were all the same!”

This is how our class, “Wonder and Relationships: Living with Others,” began. This was one of the best classes I have had in the program! I was challenged with our Bible study and exposure to the most recent scholarship on biblical interpretation. And I learned a few more things about myself. I realized that my confidence and passion come from my faith and my call—that’s good, right? But that I am not always aware of the gifts God has given me. I am able to see and appreciate God’s gifts in other people, but I don’t always notice them in me.

At an evening reception for teachers, staff, and doctoral students that week, one of my favorite professors talked with me for a long time and asked why I was so “self-diminishing”? I told him that I am always afraid I am not going to be able to do the work. In the end, it always works out; I do well. “You can write,” he said and laughed heartily, as he often does. “I don’t know what you are worried about.”

As I prepared this message for today, I was thinking about what he said—and how my faith story is probably closer to Jonah’s—at least the beginning part when he runs the opposite way—than to the fishermen in the gospel of Mark. I probably wouldn’t have abruptly left my job and family, no matter how compelling and charismatic our Savior could be. Would you?

Jesus had come to Galilee after John the Baptist, his relative, was arrested—and he wasn’t proclaiming a message of revenge for the injustice that was happening. Scripture says he was “proclaiming the good news of God,” calling people to repent and believe! He was totally focused on the purpose for which the Lord had sent him—calling people to turn away from “prior trusts and loyalties,” return to their faith and their God, “for the kingdom is at hand.” (Rev. Dr. Lee Barrett, Feasting on the Word, 286.)

The four fishermen drop their nets, immediately, to follow him; James and John, sons of Zebedee, leave their father and family business without so much as a “Goodbye, Dad.” It’s a sacrifice not just for the disciples who leave, but the families left behind.

It’s remarkable that the disciples don’t say anything in this passage. Simon will be talking more later, so much so that we might wish, at times, that he would stop talking. But here, he and the others are silent, showing, perhaps, that the important thing is what they do and not what they say. Only the words of Jesus are recorded. Lee Barrett, a theology professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary and a friend, says, “Drawn by his summons, they follow Jesus BEFORE he has performed any spectacular miracles that could serve as validating credentials.” (Feasting on the Word, 286). As Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote, they are “elected to discipleship simply through the fact that Jesus claims them.” They aren’t anything special! Not really. They don’t have any education, training, or experience to be Christ’s followers, to join him in his ministry. They know how to fish, that’s all! And there were many fishermen like them living on the Sea of Galilee.

Professor Barrett says, “When Jesus declares that now they shall be fishers of people, their new status is anchored in the fact that Jesus has fished for them; Jesus is the ultimate fisher, and they are the netted fish. In the obedient responses of the two sets of brothers the reign of God is actualized in the present.” (286)

God’s Kingdom is breaking in—when ordinary folk answer the call to discipleship. French theologian John Calvin said these guys were, “rough mechanics.”  God called “rough mechanics like Simon, Andrew, James, and John in order to show that none of them are called by virtue of his or her own talents or excellences.” (288)

Friends, “Jesus met the disciples right where they were every day, out by the sea, doing their jobs.” Sometimes we think we have to listen for God’s call “only in special places. We think we will meet God only at a special retreat …or on the top of a picturesque mountain. We … don’t think to listen for God in the ordinary moments of everyday life. This passage reminds us that God is calling to us right here and right now. God shows up in the work we do every day. Jesus even uses familiar language when he calls the first disciples. He doesn’t strip them of their entire identity as fishermen. Jesus uses what they already know and understand and shows them that they can use those skills to bring a new kind of life into the world.” (Daily Disciplines, Jan. 20, 2024.)

Away in Austin, I had time to consider my call and my strengths and weaknesses at night in the converted garage with the occasional cockroach visitor. I have thought about what my professor said since then, about my self-diminishment in the classroom. And I have decided that it has been useful for me in ministry. Seeing others as more important than I makes me a better pastor, a more caring and compassionate person. Doesn’t Christ call us to deny ourselves? If we become puffed up, arrogant, and proud, then our ministry is about US and is no longer ministry.

Today, after worship, we will have the honor of voting for those whom the Nominating Committee has prayerfully chosen and invited to serve our congregation as servant leaders. Our elders, deacons, and trustees have answered the call to follow Jesus by serving our congregation. This is my message for you—our elders, deacons, and trustees.  You are not alone in your service. There are angels who will help you in the darkness all along the way, especially when you are frightened, insecure, or generally out of your comfort zone. It’ll happen! But God will provide for you. You will be able to do what the Lord has called you to!

And if you become discouraged or frustrated, ask for help. Tell someone you trust how you feel, then let them help you. Remember the fishermen whom Jesus selected to be his disciples. Jesus didn’t just call one fisherman. He called 4.  With the calling of the first 12 disciples, the first Christian community was formed. In the gospels, Jesus never sent out any of his disciples to minister alone!

Although I chose “Fishers of People” for the title of this message several weeks ago, I now prefer the image of discipleship as net mending, not fishing for people. When Jesus called the first disciples, two of the brothers were mending nets on the shore. We aren’t trying to bait and hook or toss a net to capture souls. We are seeking to repair what is broken with relationships in the world, beginning with ourselves, our families, our church family, our communities.

Net menders are peacemakers in a world that so often desires to categorize and label, create divisions and factions, and stir hatred, animosity, and prejudice. We don’t want to be like THOSE people, we say. But we are called to find our identity and unity in Christ alone, not by comparing ourselves to other people, but seeking to be like Him. Christ prayed that his disciples would be one and urged them to love.

My friend, Lee Barrett, offers this as we seek to be faithful in today’s world:

 “Like the (first disciples), we are called not to the enjoyment of a private salvation but to a public vocation…Like them, we can find our inadequate attempts at ministry transformed by grace…Just as it did for the disciples, the command, ‘Follow me’ points to the way of the cross for us. Just as it did for the disciples, the ominous reference to the arrest of John the Baptist warns that we, too, are called to a life of risk, insecurity,” and self-denial. (288)

Christ invites us to join with the earliest disciples—four who fished on the Sea of Galilee—as menders of nets, healers of brokenness, shiners of Christ’s light, and laborers for peace, justice, and reconciliation. You and I: we are netted fish! Christ, the ultimate fisher, has claimed us as His own!

Let us pray.

Thank you, dear Lord, for claiming us! The work isn’t always easy; yes, sometimes it’s scary and uncomfortable. We are grateful that we have your everlasting presence, and we have each other; we are never alone in this calling. We pray for those who haven’t yet felt you claim them, haven’t yet experienced your peace or that sense of belonging to a church family. Give us opportunities to minister to them. Help us, Lord, to shine your Light and be our best selves, reaching out to neighbors with kindness. Make us to be menders of nets, laboring for the healing of the world. Amen.