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Date: Feb. 6, 2022
Scripture Lesson: Luke 5: 1-11
Sermon: Net Worth
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

In a recent archeological find, a boat was discovered on the shores of the Sea of Galilee or Gennesaret. It was dated to the first century. This gives us an idea of the size of the boats that may have been featured in the story that we heard this morning. The size of the boat was 26.5 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and 4.5 feet deep [The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, v. VIII, p. 94.]. That would pretty much fill up the chancel.

Now we want to imagine boats that big filled to swamping with fish. Overloaded with fish. On the verge of sinking because of the haul. That is a LOT of fish. It is an enormous demonstration of abundance. Like the wine referred to in the story of the wedding at Cana where the water is turned into wine, or the story of the feeding of the 5,000, this is another story with a vast manifestation of something that is needed. A demonstration of the provision of the grace of God offering more than enough. It is another story of overflowing abundance.

And this story occurs on the shore of the lake. Not in a holy shrine or at a special spiritual site where God’s power is supposed to be demonstrated. And it happens not in the presence of prestigious priests who are supposed to oversee the dispensation of the grace of God but it involves a rural rabbi and some random fisher people. And there are no extraordinary instructions given or special commands to the sea or the fish. There is no incantation or ritual. The purview of religious officials. There are simple instructions given to average people who have no special qualifications or character. In the presence of these everyday people, in this everyday setting, there is a ridiculously abundant catch of fish.

In this ordinary scene, Jesus reveals the extraordinary gospel. There is a demonstration of the abundance of life in the commonwealth of God. The gospel is a path of liberation and abundance. It offers more than enough. For everyone. It meets human needs – physical, spiritual, social, and emotional. And it is not an elitist teaching meant for some. It is available, offered, accessible to all. It is a message of liberation from all of the social, cultural, and, sadly, religious messaging that we are to try harder, that we are not enough, that we aren’t receiving because we aren’t deserving. The gospel of Jesus nixes all of that. There is no meritocracy with God. Jesus shows us more than enough. For everyone. No conditions. No requirements. No entrance exams. No qualifications. No documents. No fees. Like the super catch of fish in the lake, the gospel is readily available, accessible, waiting, to meet the needs of all people, to give people a better life.

Ah, but Jesus is well aware that there are nets that entangle us. We get caught up in the social structures around us. We get enmeshed in the racial constructs of our culture. We get pulled in by the current of consumerist capitalism. We get trapped by the alluring images of wealth and success that assault us. And while promising a beautiful life, we find that we are trapped in a system of spiritual and moral death because that supposedly beautiful life comes at a cost, a human cost and an environmental cost. There is the untold suffering that is required to keep some people in their materialist heaven. There is the degradation and subjugation that is necessary to access resources, including human labor, so that the beautiful lie of material happiness can be maintained.

Consider the contrast of the story from Luke where there is an untold abundance of fish which will feed and sustain people and the recent story of the huge kill of fish in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Bay of Biscay off of the coast of France. There was recent discovery of over 100,000 fish, blue whiting, a sub species of cod, used for fish fingers, fish oil, and fish meal, found dead, floating like a huge white carpet on the sea covering over 3000 square meters. The kill was perpetrated by the second largest fishing vessel in the world, the Lithuania-registered trawler Margiris [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/05/shock-in-france-after-giant-trawler-sheds-100000-dead-fish-off-coast] Here we see the devastation, the death, the waste, of our current system of industry and economics. It is evidence of our moral malnourishment that such a thing could happen. It is a consequence of greed.

All around us, in small and large ways, we see the depletion of life. And Jesus offers an alternative. He offers life, full and abundant for everyone. Through the gospel of love of self, neighbor, and enemy, through the teaching of generosity of material goods as well as spirit, through the demonstration of forgiveness and reconciliation, through the promotion of community and celebration and gratitude, we see the values and way of a good life. A life that is not lived at the expense of others or at the expense of the environment. A life of harmony and balance. A life grounded in the sacredness of all life and the interrelatedness of life. Each and every life beloved, holy, worthy.

The gospel is a message of liberation, especially for those who are being abused by the system. For those on the bottom. For those who are taken advantage of by the institutions and systems of society. The rural, Jewish fisherman were certainly in that camp in the first century. And millions upon millions of people are in that camp today.

But Jesus’ gospel is not just good news to the poor. It is also good news to those who are simply born into the injustices and immoralities of society. It is a message of freedom and liberation, another way, for everyone. And that is important, because as Dr. King put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” [The Radical King: Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, p. 128.]

The overwhelming obsession of our culture is on money and it is harming us all. There was a cartoon in a recent Christian Century magazine showing an older man with has arm on the shoulder of a younger man. They are looking out the window of what is clearly a corner office on an upper floor at a skyscape of office buildings. And the caption has the executive telling the underling, “I worry that we’re headed for a future where you won’t be able to earn three hundred times the salary of your lowest paid worker.” [Condron, The Christian Century, 1.12.22, p. 8.] There it is. The obsession with wealth strangles the labor force. It rapes the environment. It creates false divisions among people. And, as we have discovered in this pandemic, there are negative outcomes for everyone, not just those at the bottom.

Dr. King did not just focus on the uplifting of Black people in America. He was committed to the uplift of all people everywhere because he knew that our well- being is connected. In the last chapter of the book, Where Do We Go from Here, written in 1967, King talks about the world house and that we are all living together in what essentially amounts to a common dwelling. He tells us, “When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge
which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world.

“In a real sense all of life is interrelated. The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich; the betterment of the poor enriches the rich. We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” [The Radical King: Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, p. 87.]

In Luke, when Simon and James and John see the demonstration of the abundance and liberation of the gospel, they are awe struck. They are the ones who supposedly know how to fish and yet look what they have just seen. What Jesus offers outpaces their wildest dreams. And they are just every day working people. Not the elite. Not the power brokers. Not the structure legitimators. Just every day working people. And Jesus enacts for them this vision of what the gospel offers. The freedom. The care for all. The abundance and joy. It is so compelling, they leave everything, we are told, and follow Jesus. They leave everything. Boats. Nets. Family. Livelihood. Routine. Identity. World view. And, as the story is told, yes, they even leave the fish. The greatest catch of their lives. The greatest economic success of their careers. They. Walk. Away. And follow Jesus. For the gospel. And there’s no joining fee. They don’t have to pass an entrance exam. There is no interview process. They only provide obedience, humility, and trust. And Jesus takes care of the rest.

We, too, are surrounded by evidence of incredible abundance. Nature, human ingenuity, the incredible productivity that we are capable of. The overflowing bins of produce in our grocery stores, the shelves of foodstuffs. So many things day in and day out testify to the abundance around us. And yet our society is wracked with injustice and poverty and oppression and hypocrisy and greed. As King describes it, “We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged smallhearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity.” [The Radical King: Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, p. 91.] We don’t have to live like that. The gospel is calling to us. We are being invited to an alternative reality of goodness and compassion. We are being lured into a life lived in solidarity with others not at the expense of others. We are being called to healing and wholeness.

And especially here in America, we have the resources to live in a society in which all can live flourishing lives enriched by recreation, the arts, entertainment, and sports, as well as work. King saw the potential of America. He tells us:

“America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing to prevent us from paying adequate wages to school teachers, social workers and other servants of the public to insure that we have the best available personnel in these positions which are charged with the responsibility of guiding future generations. There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day laborer. There is nothing except short-sightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum — and livable — income for every American family. [This was an issue in the last presidential election.] There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from remolding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.” [The Radical King: Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, pp. 93-94.]

This is what the church is to be about. This revolution of values. There is nothing to prevent us from living into the Jesus reality of abundance for all. But like those fisher folk in the story from Luke, we have to leave something behind. Maybe even everything behind given the way things now stand. So, what are we being called to leave behind so that we can live into the gospel dream of abundant life? What systems perpetrating our moral, spiritual, and even physical death are holding on to us? We, too, are being called to break loose. To be liberated. To live from the abundance of the grace of God. To let Jesus catch us and give us life.

We are being called to be part of God’s dream of abundant life for all people and all creatures. May we let ourselves be caught by Jesus who frees us from being strangled, constricted, and squelched by systems of exploitation and degradation. All it takes is obedience, humility, and trust. And we all have that to offer. In abundance. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: January 10, 2021 Outdoor worship
Scripture Lesson: Mark 1:4-11
Sermon: Downside Up
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

It was a slog, but some of us even read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Or maybe it was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Or The Rise and Fall of the Ming Dynasty. We are captivated by the concept of the rise and fall of civilizations, cultures, governments, and movements as well as the rise and fall of individual leaders, entertainers, and other public figures.

This week, we have had cause to reflect on the rise and hopefully fall of the Trump era. More on that later.

But again and again in history we see the rise and fall of different phenomena.

In the scene that we were told about today from the gospel of Mark, we see a people who have fallen. They are on the down side of things. They are living under occupation. The Romans have the Jews under their thumb. They are being oppressed: their labor and their money extracted for Roman benefit. They are in the ‘fall’ position.

And we hear of this prophet, John, calling people to repent and be baptized. He is talking about preparing the way for one who will reverse their fortunes. A savior. A messiah. So the people pour from the capital, from villages and towns, out into the desert to hear John. To be part of creating the conditions for a rise in the fortunes of their people. They are turning toward God in hopes that God will bless them and improve their circumstances and rescue them from Roman oppression through the one who is to come.

And we are told that among those who head out to the Judean wilderness, to the banks of the Jordan River, is Jesus, of Galilee. And after he is baptized, a voice is heard saying, “You are my Beloved, my Own. On you my favor rests.” [Mark 1:11]

This story is written for us, for those who come after Jesus, for those who need to be told that Jesus carries the authority and approval of God.

And maybe part of why we need to be reminded of this is because Jesus doesn’t follow the usual human pattern of rise and fall. He doesn’t overthrow the Romans. He doesn’t become a civic ruler or military leader. He doesn’t follow the usual trajectory of rise to power, fortune and fame. In fact, Jesus inverts that pattern. He turns it upside down; his life ending in a humiliating public death on a cross.

James Howell of Duke Divinity School points this out when he writes, “In the world, it’s rise and fall. The rise and fall of the Third Reich, the rise and fall of the business tycoon, the rise and fall of a movie star. But with Jesus it’s fall and rise…We fall, and from that lowest point, we rise.”

We see this in the story of Jesus’ baptism. Jesus goes out to the wilderness to be baptized. The leaders in the capital, Jerusalem, the Temple authorities, they do not go out to the Jordan to be part of what John is doing. But Jesus goes among the common people. He goes low. He goes down into the water. The symbolism is of dying and rising to new life. Baptism is about the emergence of a new creation. Jesus invites people to be part of a new creation; a reality that is not based on the assumed pattern of rise and fall. The wielding of status, success, prominence, and power.

Jesus addresses himself to fall and rise not rise and fall. Again and again in his ministry we are told of his encounters with the lowly. He seeks out those who are lost and forgotten. Those who are suffering and marginalized. Those who are considered ‘less than.’ Jesus looks for those who have fallen, or been pushed down. So that he can lift them up. With Jesus it is about helping lift up those who are down. And he gets down to do it.

And what he teaches us is that our highest good is found in lifting others up. In helping the fallen to rise. That is how we rise. That is how we become a new creation.

The conventional pattern of rising involves amassing wealth, or status, or power, or influence. And this is often done on the backs of others. Empires are built on the shoulders of smaller countries and their wealth and labor. The Roman Empire. The British Empire. And, yes, the American Empire, came to what is seen as greatness on the backs of slaves from Africa, labor from Asia and Mexico, and natural resources extracted form other lands. And the wealth of the few continues to be built on the backs of the many who are denied health care, pensions, vacation time, affordable housing, good schools, clean air and water, etc. It is built on the backs of people who work long hours in unsafe conditions here and abroad. The rise is achieved on the fall of others as it was in Jesus’ day. But what Jesus shows us is what it means to rise by lifting others and standing beside them not by standing on their backs. He shows us that we rise by going down, looking down, reaching down, and serving others. We elevate our humanity by honoring the humanity of others, especially those who are hurting and struggling and bereft. And what Jesus shows us is that we are to lift each other, one on one, and as a community, a society. The people who went to John the Baptizer were looking to lift their people, their society, in the face of the oppression of the Roman Empire. It was about lifting the community as a whole. They were seeking a better future for their country.

We are called to lift one another one by one, yes, but also to lift one another by creating institutions and organizations and power arrangements and economic systems that lift everyone. We are called to pursue justice for society as a whole. We are called to lift each other through societal arrangements that provide for everyone, not arrangements that provide for some at the expense of others.

The way of Jesus undermines the whole notion of hierarchy and rise and fall. Maybe that is why we need to hear again that what Jesus is showing us is the way of God. The way of Divine Love. That Jesus is beloved, favored by God. Because we are always in danger of doubting, of being drawn into the power arrangements that lead to the traditional model of rise and fall.

Rise and fall. We saw the manifestation of that phenomenon this week. A president who built his rise on the backs of people who perceive themselves as being left behind, ignored, forgotten, cut out, and cut down. Using them for his gain. And once it became clear that his cause was lost, he had no more need of them. It was never about them and their needs. It was always about him and his needs and what they would do for him. And now they can do nothing for him so he has abandoned them. That is rise and fall.

But we, as followers of Jesus, are to be about fall and rise. And a great challenge for us as Christians and for our society is how we are going to reach out to those who have been betrayed by the president. They are still our neighbors and coworkers. Still our family members and fellow citizens. So, how are we going to reach out, reach down, and help to lift up those who are angry and hurt and embittered? What about their pain? They, too, need lifting up. What word of hope and uplift and redemption do we have? How can we talk about a rise for all who have been battered? I don’t know exactly, but I know that we must take this seriously.

The story of the baptism of Jesus does not just tell us who Jesus is, it tells us who we are. We are the ones lifted by the love of Jesus. No matter how low we may be. No matter how deep we are mired. Jesus goes low. Reaches down. And lifts us up. And he calls us to extend our hand. And take hold of another.

As followers of Jesus, we are to concern ourselves not with the rise and fall, but with the fall and rise. Our fall under the water of baptism, our death to the ways of the worldly power, and our rise to the way of Jesus, lifting each other in love. Let us remember the call of God in our lives empowering us. Brennan Manning, who wrote The Ragamuffin Gospel, puts it this way:

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” [Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging, 20th century]

Hear that again: “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

May we part of the fall and rise that define the commonwealth of God. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.