Category Archives: Matthew

Fishing Lures & the Great Light

Epiphany, Matthew, Sermons

Year A Epiphany 3
Isaiah 9:1-4
Matthew 4:12-23
January 22, 2017 at The Church of the Holy Cross in North Plainfield, NJ

When I was in high school, my aunt and uncle in Mississippi got a boat. In the summertime, when I was on break from college, I would go and stay with my dad, who lived nearby. On sunny Saturday mornings, when the winds were still and the water was smooth, the phone would ring and my aunt and uncle would invite us to go out on the boat and fish. We’d pack the cooler and race over and the adventure would begin. Many of my favorite memories with my family there are on that boat, even if I wasn’t much of a fisherwoman. I can’t tie a lure to save my soul, and I willingly admit that the one time I can claim “catch of the day” was dumb luck. I can hardly remember a thing about the fish themselves, but the memories of all of us out there together, catching rays and laughing and riding around – those journeys to nowhere and unknown fishing holes – those memories fill my heart to the brim. I came home often with hands empty of fish and a heart full of joy. The real beauty in those fishing trips was in the people I shared those sunny days with.

But just like Jesus and the disciples at the transfiguration, we can’t stay in those big, beautiful, mountaintop moments all the time. Life goes on. Last May, my seminary classmates and I graduated with our Master in Divinity degrees and embarked on our new journeys. We all left our homes and New York to head off to new places. Some went to cities they’d never been to before. More than once, I’ve found myself on the phone with a friend in a new city brainstorming ways for them to meet new people. Each of our ministries may be tied to beautiful and unique communities, but finding community in one’s personal life is an entirely different adventure. I guess you could say that the search for community is much like fishing for people, whether it’s an individual in a new place or a church hoping to grow! What lure will lay the groundwork for new relationship?
In today’s gospel lesson from Matthew, Jesus starts calling disciples. He tells them to drop everything and follow him, saying “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” …but how?

As we talked about a few weeks ago, in his gospel, Matthew is focusing an audience of Jews who are trying to figure out if Jesus is the Messiah. Because they are his target, he’s really focused on the point that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies that have come before – like the passage we hear today from Isaiah that is again quoted in the passage from Matthew: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” In this passage from chapter 4, we again see Matthew continuing to build that foundation which assures that Jesus’ is the fulfillment of these prophecies. It’s comforting for Matthew’s contemporaries to believe this argument. More than just affirming Jesus’ authority, seeing Jesus’ as the fulfillment of these prophecies suggests that everything that is happening – every bit of beauty and every moment of chaos – is part of a larger plan. God’s plan! Gaining a sense of comfort from order – especially the sense that we are part of a much larger sense of order – is comforting, and scripture can be a source of comfort on our craziest days. Furthermore, we need to take that comfort wherever we can get it, because for all of the times the words of the Bible can help us calm a storm, they also call us into radical new ways of ways of being – giant leaps of faith beyond the safe confines of the known world of our comfort zone. We’ve all been around the block enough times to know how this story ends: what makes Jesus Jesus is that he calls us to big, beautiful, radical love that is far more amazing and much more challenging than we could possible imagine!

One of the biggest challenges is that when we go out into these uncharted territories, the armor of light that we wear is not some heavy metal, bulletproof, impenetrable chest plate but instead this “armor” makes us more vulnerable, walking along the road even when we don’t have a map. When these uncharted territories come in the form of a great challenge or profound grief, we probably all react in similar ways. I mean, I know I seek the solace of the ones I love when I feel lost and overwhelmed and brokenhearted. I find great solace in small communities of trusted beautiful souls. Every relationship begins with a handshake, that first invisible hook, luring us outside of our comfort zone and into a new relationship… especially when those uncharted territories find us facing and new place: a new job or a new city where we haven’t formed that community yet.

“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people”

Jesus call to his disciples was also an invitation. In the charge we’re given to fish for people, we’re invited to follow Christ’s lead into big, beautiful, and vulnerable way of being that lures people together and into deeper relationship. Look around this sanctuary! See how Christ has hooked us together with ties like super-strong nautical knots!

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light”

Isaiah wrote this prophecy and Christ’s light fulfilled it.
You are the light. We are the light. We’re brighter together, helping each other see the way on the days when one of us might be struggling to shine. There is a unique and beautiful piece of Christ’s light in each of our hearts, and when we answer the call to follow Jesus and to dare to be vulnerable enough to let that light shine, the warmth of that light invites others to do the same. It lures them in. It’s the best kind of fishing for people.

So, dare to follow. Dare to love. Dare to shine.

Promises on the Wings of a Dove

Baptismal Covenant, Epiphany, Matthew, Sermons

Year A: Epiphany 1
Matthew 3:13-17
at the Church of the Holy Cross, North Plainfield, NJ

“May only your word be spoken, Lord, and only your word heard.”

I pray those words every time I preach. They’re a reminder of the call I continue to choose to answer every time I step into the pulpit. In my prayer, I pause, center myself, open my heart, and invite the Holy Spirit in, that She might move through me. That every word I proclaim to you this morning may be God’s.  Along my journey towards ordination, I had several people alert me to the Grace that can happen in preaching. More than one has found that what people tell her they hear is not always the same as what she said. See this space between where I stand and where y’all are sitting? That’s more than enough for the Holy Spirit to descend like a dove and help the words you need most to reach each of you.

Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, we hear how the Spirit of God descends on Jesus in the waters of baptism. In the gospel account of the baptism we hear today from Matthew, Jesus comes to the Jordan River and insists that John baptize him.  John’s identity as the man who baptized Jesus is foundational to our understanding of who John I, but there are some differences in the way this story is told in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In Luke, the John doesn’t even really baptize; the Holy Spirit does, and in Mark, Jesus is baptized by John but there’s no conversation between them. As writers, Mark and Luke are focused on an audience of Gentiles for their respective gospel narratives as a whole, so when they tell the story of Christ’s baptism, they’re really trying to drive home the message of forgiveness that baptism offers. Since Matthew’s target audience is Jews who had come to follow Jesus and who focus on the fulfillment of God’s purpose for God’s people, Matthew includes the dialogue we hear where John names his call to baptize Jesus and Jesus consents. The gospel passage we hear today from Matthew acknowledges the authority John had while making sure the focus is on Jesus and Jesus’ power in being the fulfillment of a promise – you know, that promise of Christmas we talked about just two weeks ago? Jesus is the promise that we belong to God everyday. Christmas every day – even on this first Sunday after Epiphany.

Part of being the fulfillment of a promise includes Jesus being fulfillment of the law. The fulfillment of prophecy. The fulfillment of righteousness.

Now that’s a message that would help the Christian Jews to remember where they came from and to whom they belonged! Score one for Matthew for driving the love home with his target audience. He’s working hard in this text to build that bridge from the God of Israel to the God who has just called down from the heavens “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased!”

Here’s God telling the crowd that Jesus is the very fulfillment they’d been waiting for. It’s a beautiful message: “Remember where you come from. Now see where you are going. Follow Jesus’ lead.”

When I think about where I come from, it’s right here. It’s this place – this community. To preach on the baptism of our Lord, when I was baptized right over there – It’s quite a full circle moment. This is the community that raised me up and sent me out and welcomed me home over and over and over again. And it all started before I can even remember.

My journey – and each of our journeys – each of our going out and coming back in to this place –  is grounded in the promises that we made, or that were made for us, in our baptism (304):

The promise to continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers

The promise to resist evil and then repent whenever we screw that up

The promise to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ – and proclaim not just with the words of our mouths but with the being of our whole selves

The promise to seek and serve Christ in everybody – even when they’re not willing to seek the Christ in us

And

The promise to strive for justice and peace for all and to respect everybody

Promises, promises. Like many of you, I can’t remember when they were made on my behalf by the people I love back at that font, but I do remember all the Sunday afternoons spent trying to figure out what they meant when I was sitting in a room down that hallway, preparing to be confirmed in my faith as an adult in the Church.

The roots I have in this Church in my baptism – the roots we all have in our baptism – are also our branches carrying us forward. The way we work together to fulfill our promise to continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship and in the breaking of the bread we’re about to share – The way we work together in fulfilling that promise strengthens our shared roots in this place so that we might go out and live our Baptismal Covenant in all places and truly proclaim the Good News of God in Christ in all that we do. Proofreading

In our baptism, we “are sealed by the Holy Spirit… and marked as Christ’s own forever.” (308) We aren’t just Christ’s followers; we belong to Him. These promises of our Baptismal Covenant knit us together to celebrate our greatest joys, to care for each other in times of sorrow, and to support each other when we’ve messed up and need to repent. Wherever we go and whatever we do, we are Christ’s own forever, sealed in that sacrament, and as long as we keep our hearts open, the Holy Spirit will be there ready to descend upon us like a dove.