Genesis 12.1-9; Mark 1.16-20
A brave man, a brave woman.
To leave behind old ideas.
Old places and solid habits.
To set the face toward other places.
‘Tis only a fool who believes that
Yesterday holds the answers.
And a greater fool who believes
That a new day is easy to achieve.
God said to Abram and Sarai:
May I have a few moments of your time?
They should have said, No!
They should have turned around.
And run away.
Like Jonah did a few years later.
But we all know how it turned out for Jonah.
Perhaps Abram and Sarai suspected the same.
Or maybe there were just too naive.
And what’s wrong with that?
Naiveté gets us into trouble, for sure.
But it also is the grease of greatness.
Too naive to see the trouble ahead.
The naive says, Let’s do it.
The heart and soul of our faith … getting up and leaving behind that which was … and striking out for that which is not yet.
Jesus called the disciples to follow him.
Never once did they settle down.
Never once did Jesus say, Here we are … no need for anything further …
But always pushing on … and even when the stone was rolled in place, it was pushed away three days later … Jesus still has places to go and people to see.
How, then, did the church ever come to be so settled, so staid, in its ways ...
All the answers laid out like neatly folded socks in drawer.
There to be worn when needed.
And washed when dirty.
And put back into the drawer, just as they were for another day.
Neat and Tidy, neat and clean.
The church of Jesus Christ … settled and staid.
What we do today, we did yesterday.
What we did yesterday, we did the day before.
And what we’ll do tomorrow, will look pretty much like what we did today.
And so it goes.
The great church of Jesus Christ.
Settled down mostly …
Answers to all the questions …
Liturgies carefully planned.
Sermons predictable and comforting.
Big box churches with their bands and videos … preachers in tailored jeans and pressed shirts, always out and never tucked in, thank you … telling endless stories about little children and old aunts and dogs and cats and sometimes even a story about Jesus.
Tall steeple churches with their robed choirs and stately processions … preachers well dressed in collar and gowns … folks sitting in the pew they’ve sat in for years, and everyone knows they’re place … the music is solemn, the building impressive, all is good and all is right.
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
It’s the way of my Father in heaven … we don’t settle down, but we keep pushing ahead … new ideas and faithful experimentation …
William Faulkner, the noted American novelist once observed: “No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vice of his ancestors.”
And sometimes the greatest vice of all is the certainty of being right … that nothing more is needed …
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
Years ago, three small churches in the resort area of the Wisconsin north woods … beautiful country and sturdy people who labored hard to make a living in a land that, despite it’s beauty, didn’t yield much to either the plow or the hand … with long-day summers and long-night winters.
One of the churches I served was the First Presbyterian Church of - Winter, Wisconsin …
One of the Elders there was a good and decent man with a curious habit of speech … every time he spoke, he said, “My Daddy used to say …”
Many a time I so wanted to say to him, “Glad to know what you Daddy used to say, but how about you? What do you say?”
I fear that he was very much stuck in the past.
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
Recently, we’ve noted the 45th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while in Memphis to help sanitation workers find a better arrangement.
Dr. King knew that his life was in danger … yet as one commentator put it:
“King went to the places of greatest pain to cry out against structures and systems that create the pain.”
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
The Christian Century Magazine, a notable publication for many years now, carried a series entitled, “How I Changed My Mind” … by great theologians and church leaders … all of them, at one time or the other, found that the old ideas, which worked at the time, could no longer offer what was needed.
It was time to change … change the mind … change the ideas that shape life and make it work for a time … but nothing works forever … neither car nor plane nor idea.
There was a time when Christians believed the sun revolved around the earth … and imprisoned Galileo and threatened him with death, for saying that the earth revolved around the sun … That’s not what the Bible says, said the Church. The Bible says the suns rises and passes over head, and then sets in the evening … no sir, Mr. Galileo, you and your science are wrong, and if you speak out any further on the matter, we will kill you in Jesus’ name.
Today, it all seems silly to us, but it wasn’t silly at the time, and the greatest tragedy of all - the church was tied to the past, and afraid of the future, because the future is all about change, and change is unnerving - shall I say? - for all of us.
But we all know that life is change … and we can’t stop it from changing … and rather than stopping it, it’s best if we can join the parade of time, and go with the flow … and like so many greater leaders and writers and artists, change our minds from time-to-time.
It’s not easy …
A new photo exhibit is opening today at the Fowler Museum at UCLA … photographer Ernest Cole documented the days of Apartheid in South Africa … with one telling photo that sticks in my mind … a white lady sitting by herself on a bus bench, stenciled with the warning: “Europeans Only.”
The tragedy of South Africa, tough enough, with pain and sorrow that remains … but for me, the greatest tragedy of all: The Church mostly supported Apartheid - thought it was a good idea to sanction the privilege of white people and declare people of color to be second-class citizens.
America had its own struggle on this one … and even fought a civil war over it … but what with Jim Crow laws and a thousand other devices, racial discrimination remains in this nation … and often supported by “good christian folks who sit in their churches nodding their heads to the gospel, and singing praise to God Almighty” and despising their neighbor …
As in a little town in Georgia when, after desegregation, stopped having a high school prom … going with private proms instead, at country clubs and other venues …
But recently, a group of four young ladies - two blacks and two whites, put their case on Facebook, and tens of thousands of people rallied to their cause, helped them raise money, for a prom, a real prom, an all-school prom, where all the students, black and white, could attend … and have a fine time … together … these girls have turned the clock ahead 50 years for their little town in Georgia.
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
For me, one of the biggest mind changes occurred in the early 70s … and you might guess what issue it is… when I was ordained in 1970, I believed the Bible had a clear and concise case against homosexuality … that’s just the way it is, I thought, and that’s how I was taught.
But I read some very fine studies by scholars of great reputation, known for their faith and their scholarship, who opened my mind to what the Bible really says … and revealed to me that not every translation of the Bible into English has been honest about what Paul the Apostle wrote, and the Greek words he used … sadly, I discovered, how politics have played a role in Bible translation … and how the things we don’t like, and the people we might hate, can shade the way we translate Paul … What did Paul mean? We might ask, and maybe we’re not sure … and, yes, we’re not always sure what Paul meant in some of the details, so we’ll just fill in some of the blanks with our stuff and have Paul say what we think Paul should have said, even if he didn’t.
Yes, that’s how some of this stuff was translated, and now we know better … thank God … now we know better.
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
It’s all about growing … to follow Jesus.
To leave things behind … good things, important things.
To find the greater light, the better day.
The land that God alone can show to Abram and Sarai.
The life that Christ alone can give to the disciples.
The hope that Christ alone can give to any of us …
If we but say to the LORD, Yes, we’re ready.
We’re not always sure, but we’re ready.
We’re ready for new ideas and new ways of doing things … we’re ready to leave in order to find a new land in which a better world can be made …
Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …
Amen and Amen!
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