John Crow

Here lies the body of John Crow

by Thomas Paine

Here lies the body of John Crow,

Who once was high, but now is low;

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

For as you rise, so must you fall.

There was a confluence of names working on this sermon this week. John at the center of the vortex.  We have a very long scripture to talk about this week.  Almost the entire chapter 11 of John.  Twenty-one chapters in all we are at the beginning of the end.  

The only part of the chapter not in our scripture is the beginning of the conspiracy to kill Jesus.  John 11:49b“You know nothing at all! 50 Nor do you understand that it is expedient and politically advantageous for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

There is a beautifully written section at the end of the chapter.  We are shown that God is doing what God is doing regardless of what people think.

51 Now he did not say this [simply] on his own initiative; but being the high priest that year, he [was unknowingly used by God and] prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but also for the purpose of gathering together into one body the children of God who have been scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.

Why was it that day?  Well this is this long scripture we have today.  Jesus had been revealed and glorified the father in a way that could not be ignored or explained away.  54 For that reason Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but left there and went to the district that borders on the uninhabited wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and He stayed there with the disciples.  Can you feel what is coming?  We know the story.  We know the end.  But can you feel what is coming?  This is the lesson of lent.  

The other name that came to me was John Crow.  This is an alternate name for turkey vultures in parts of the world.  Specifically there is a ridge in Jamaica where this name comes.  The poem Thomas Paine wrote at eight years old was about a pet crow.  An actual crow in that case.  I find the association our buzzards and John Crow not surprising.  There is this similar intelligence.  A large group of turkey vultures is called a kettle when they are flying.  I think that is amazing.  You see them mostly alone, but they live and roost in large groups and are quite social in their kettles.

When you see a flock of vultures in flight, you're witnessing a kettle of vultures. When you see vultures at rest in a tree or on a fence post, that's a committee of vultures. And since vultures feed mainly on dead animals, when you see a group feeding, you're in the presence of a wake of vultures.

You could almost imagine them Methodist.  Nottingham does have something in common with them: as much as the neighborhood has changed over the years we still belong.  You might wonder why I am talking about turkey vultures.  I on the other hand have so many reasons.  Sure they leave every year, but they always come back.  As different as this place we call Nottingham becomes they continue to call it home.

If your in tune with the wilderness around us you might notice they are back.  Maybe the best reason to write about them: they fit so well into this world.  For the most part they do their thing.  For the most part when you see a six foot wing span in Collinwood it is them; as I saw the other day driving out of the church parking lot.  Six feet wing span and the real world so real it shocked me for that first second.  I know enough about science to doubt everything I see to some degree.  Six feet of wing swooping low to the ground is one of the things that is hard to mistake.  Clear sign.  Another reason you might think I am talking about buzzards: a sure sign of spring.

You might already know this or you might have been in my art class then you would know for sure: the buzzards always return here on the ides of march.  People have been gathering in the Metroparks in Hinkley for the last sixty plus years watching for their return.  If you ask them they say they always arrive on the fifteenth, but I can tell you they don't look before the fifteenth.  

They travel far and always in familiar places.  They are at home wherever they go.  Everyone welcomes them.  Even my first graders understand why they are welcome everywhere.  They provide a service.  We spoke last month of this mysterious connection we and Jesus had to the wilderness.  These fifty years of witness in the park at Hinkley ridge is a whisper of this connection we had.  When we knew things directly from nature.  Our buzzards are remnants of this knowledge that isn't completely lost.  As it swooped by I felt spring in the air.

John 11:1-45 I will read in parts from the Amplified Bible.  The title of the section The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus.  So this resurrection is first met with conspiracy, but first our story today:

11 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 

So we start here where I usually end.  The importance of understanding the role of women in the ministry of Jesus.  This is where Jesus finds the least amount of support even today.  So few words written about Mary in the Bible.  So many written elsewhere.  If we look at just the words we see the place they take with Jesus.  Center stage or as some say apple of the eye.  It is everywhere you just need to want to see it.  

3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, he [our brother and Your friend] whom You love is sick.”

What Jesus would do that would finally get him killed he did for women.   Like something more than center stage.  Jesus didn't bring balanced scales, he balanced them.  The active participant.  

 4 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death; but [on the contrary it is] for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 

 Women set it in motion.  You say yes, but I just say this is what I do.

5 Now Jesus loved and was concerned about Martha and her sister and Lazarus [and considered them dear friends]. 6 So [even] when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed in the same place two more days. 

There is then an interesting conversation about waking someone from sleep and waking someone from death.  Jesus is at first confounding then explicit with his disciples.  They ask if he is sleeping will he not wake.  Interesting because it tells us that for Jesus there is not much difference even as he understands that it is the biggest difference for all of us: being alive or dead.  Or so we would think.

17 So when Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away; 19 and many of the Jews had come to see Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning [the loss of] their brother. 

After the interment, mourners return home to sit Shiva for seven days. Shiva is a Hebrew word for seven. During the Shiva week, mourners are expected to remain at home. There are seven relatives for whom a Jew is required to observe Shiva: father, mother, brother or sister, son, daughter, or spouse.

Jesus arrived on the fourth day just past the halfway point.  Something like chapter eleven of twenty one.  Jesus knew they would be home.  What is more they knew he would come.  

20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give to You.” 

There is a strength of faith here that is difficult to relate to here.  Lord, if You had been here is not a luxury we have.  It was extra help for those who didn't have extra help.  Speaks of a new covenant with an old people too.  As well as they understood they would have to come to understand again.

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise [from the dead].” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise [from the dead] in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, relies on) Me [as Savior] will live even if he dies; 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me [as Savior] will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed and continue to believe that You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God, He who was [destined and promised] to come into the world [and it is for You that the world has waited].”

We cross the bridge from the old to the new covenant here with Martha.   There is no going back.  This is what gets Jesus in trouble.  This is where we stand as Jesus followers.  And our fifth I am of John. 8:12 (Light); 10:9 (Door); 10:11 (Good Shepherd); 11:25 (Resurrection); 14:6 (Way, Truth, Life); 15:5 (Vine). 

28 After she had said this, she left and called her sister Mary, privately whispering [to her], “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29 And when she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

So most of the facts about Mary where whispered by men later.  We know she was quick.

30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. 31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her, saw how quickly Mary got up and left, they followed her, assuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came [to the place] where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her sobbing, and the Jews who had come with her also sobbing, He was [f]deeply moved in spirit [to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death] and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him [as a close friend]!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have kept this man from dying?”

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” repeated again here by another Jesus loved.  The old covenant no longer worked is what they seem to be telling him.

38 So Jesus, again deeply moved within [to the point of anger], approached the tomb. 

What made Jesus Mad?  This is for you to whisper I think.  I imagine he was angry about what had come and what would come.  That he would soon comfort Mary by another boulder.  It was tiresome.

It was a cave, and a boulder was lying against it [to cover the entrance]. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days! [It is hopeless!]” 

Martha saw what she saw.

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe [in Me], you will see the glory of God [the expression of His excellence]?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes [toward heaven] and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me and listen to Me; but I have said this because of the people standing around, so that they may believe that You have sent Me [and that You have made Me Your representative].” 43 When He had said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 Out came the man who had been dead, his hands and feet tightly wrapped in burial cloths (linen strips), and with a [burial] cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and release him.”

 if you believe Martha, but I have said this because of the people standing around, here we see why we have such a long scripture.    Maybe we found our focus for next week: the people standing around.  As you count them notice that we all fit in this category.

45 So then, many of the Jews who had come to [be with] Mary and who were eyewitnesses to what Jesus had done, believed in Him.

This is the way.  Old covenants don't die they lead to knew ones.  When you know better you do better you might say for you and me.  When you know everything you do it all we might say for Jesus.  John likes to point out that Jesus is a divine messiah and that is the main point of his ministry.  I don't know that it is, but it is as important as any other aspect of the ministry of Jesus.

Where people see things broken I see different aspects.  Where religion fails is the same place banks fail: the people department.  Sometimes it really is all because of the people standing around.  Don't just stand around always be in service like Martha and our Savior.

This model we finally have, but what Martha and Mary had was something different.  What they both said is surely true.  If Jesus had been there he would have healed him.  They had seen it done before.  All they had seen.  If he was there he would not have died.  I think that is why we need the comforter.  We do always have Jesus but people sometimes die.  Martha and Mary knew something different.

So we have our brother John Crow as another model I am reminded this week.  We will fit into this world if we are always providing a service.  Taking death and making life is a resurrection.  I keep mentioning this service in indirect ways instead of like Jesus: they clean up dead things.  Everything is happy to see them.  Things that are not going to wake up or confuse the disciples.

It is listed as a species of least concern by the  International Union for Conservation of Nature  Red List.   So the model is working.  A species of least concern unless he swoops by you an early spring day.

Ye brother Crows take warning all,  For as you rise, so must you fall.  The opening poem hints of the pride, but these are the words of an eight year old.  Children don't have agendas is my experience and what I hear is preparation for resurrection: lent.  As surely as the turkey vultures know their roosts and return each year.  Even so, as Martha and Mary said, Had he been there he would not have died.  It was special is why it endures.  

Filter out people from the message and you will find your lord blameless even as those two did not.  

Let Us Pray

Because of the people standing around

We ask your strength to be shown to them in Nottingham

Bring your messengers near 

Make them loud

Let them repeat themselves

Save us from ourselves

That we would glorify God in All we do

 You are the Light, Door, Good Shepherd);

The Resurrection, the Way, Truth, Life

Vine

Amen

Benediction

Because of the people standing around

Let the light you have received shine

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

Be of service

Nottingham UMC 3/26/2023

John Crow

Six foot signs are hard to miss

We do it all the time

Here lies the body of John Crow

by Thomas Paine

Here lies the body of John Crow,

Who once was high, but now is low;

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

For as you rise, so must you fall.

The other name that came to me was John Crow.  This is an alternate name for turkey vultures in parts of the world.  Specifically there is a ridge in Jamaica where this name comes.  The poem Thomas Paine wrote at eight years old was about a pet crow.  An actual crow in that case.  I find the association our buzzards and John Crow not surprising.  There is this similar intelligence.  A large group of turkey vultures is called a kettle when they are flying.  I think that is amazing.  You see them mostly alone, but they live and roost in large groups and are quite social in their kettles.

When you see a flock of vultures in flight, you're witnessing a kettle of vultures. When you see vultures at rest in a tree or on a fence post, that's a committee of vultures. And since vultures feed mainly on dead animals, when you see a group feeding, you're in the presence of a wake of vultures.

You could almost imagine them Methodist.  Nottingham does have something in common with them: as much as the neighborhood has changed over the years we still belong.  You might wonder why I am talking about turkey vultures.  I on the other hand have so many reasons.  Sure they leave every year, but they always come back.  As different as this place we call Nottingham becomes they continue to call it home.

If your in tune with the wilderness around us you might notice they are back.  Maybe the best reason to write about them: they fit so well into this world.  For the most part they do their thing.  For the most part when you see a six foot wing span in Collinwood it is them; as I saw the other day driving out of the church parking lot.  Six feet wing span and the real world so real it shocked me for that first second.  I know enough about science to doubt everything I see to some degree.  Six feet of wing swooping low to the ground is one of the things that is hard to mistake.  Clear sign.  Another reason you might think I am talking about buzzards: a sure sign of spring.

You night already know this or you might have been in my art class then you would know for sure: the buzzards always return here on the ides of march.  People have been gathering in the Metroparks in Hinkley for the last sixty plus years watching for their return.  If you ask them they say they always arrive on the fifteenth, but I can tell you they don't look before the fifteenth.  

They travel far and always in familiar places.  They are at home wherever they go.  Everyone welcomes them.  Even my first graders understand why they are welcome everywhere.  They provide a service.  We spoke last year of this mysterious connection we and Jesus had to the wilderness.  These fifty years of witness in the park at Hinkley ridge is a whisper of this connection we had.  When we knew things directly from nature.  Our buzzards are remnants of this knowledge that isn't completely lost.  As it swooped by I felt spring in the air.

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?

So last time I spoke here we were celebrating the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus.  A quirk or perhaps a feature of the calendar we find ourselves backing up this first week of lent.  Something the people like to describe as mercury in retro-grade.  There are so many definitions of the Lenten season all of which are pretty accurate.  One image I would like to start with is just the word lent.

It is the past and past participle of lend.  If you know anything about the past participle this is the form typically ending in -ed.  Lent is not a typical word.  It reminds us that everything is on lend from the creator.  Our life.  Our love.  Our longings.  Our possessions.   Our possibilities.  Our next breath.  Are Lent.

On the surface we seem a helpful people.  But to a certain percentage of us we think apparent motion is relevant because we think we are in the middle.  All of the precepts of horoscopes and astrology were created in a world where the majority of people believed they were the center.  Now people almost joke about it more than anything, but mercury does not go in retro-grade.

We have a story today of wilderness and inherently wildness.  The possibilities of creation and what it could all be to be a man.  How do you test a man?  Well God had a plan for his son.  We read this story from Mathew today who was writing to new Christians who understood the Jewish context.  They all had plans for their sons as well.

It comes to me this idea that Jesus was up against impossible odds.  If he came today he might find a few people who agree with him; he found no one then.  The first sent surely did go, but they had as many questions as answers much like us.  I think of the last sent, if you will, Paul and his clear difficulty with women.

I have spoke before that he had a vison to go to Macedonia of a man who needed help and the first person he really helped when he got there was a woman.  God uses people where they are and that I will just tell you as you already know is harder to do in human form.  I think it was almost too hard for Jesus.  That is really where you want to be I think.  If you are going to score the goal you are almost offsides if you are doing it right.  Almost doesn't go is some sort of sweet spot with people.

Here we are in quite a different church then I grew up in, looking through some meeting notes from the early eighties I read the fear in them.  What I saw was a list of some of the most important people in the history of Nottingham.  This was 40 years ago.  It was almost too hard for them.  I saw some notes from the first meeting we had to pay hospitalization for the pastor.  It was $275 for the year.  They duly recorded the conference had always done this but would no longer be able.

Lot of ups and downs.  Too many people gone and dreaming of Nottingham.  That first $275 more than anything else responsible for where we are now.  Do we recover?  Are we in retrograde?

Well I wasn't quite done with our friend Paul and the difficulties of Jesus.

In Genesis 3:6 from the Amplified Bible we read:

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then Paul writes in Roman 5:12

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned.

You might say I am picking on Paul, but that is not my intent.  I often get accused of living in the past, but it is where my faith comes from.  What I am trying to show is how hard it was gonna be for Jesus.  No one was gonna really get him and he knew this before he started.  Think of that.  If no one was gonna get him during his earthly life that was just what he was gonna be: the great example.  So that eventually some people would understand the bounty of creation.

He was dealing with people who just threw away the value of women.  This is why we call Joseph his father also because he was the man.  And perhaps the only one who would have supported Mary.  He was a in small minority for the next two millennia.  Actions are in the end what matter,  

So we are between here.  Between the begging of the public ministry of Jesus and after his baptism.  It was gonna be so hard he did something impossible first.  We call it the temptation of Christ but it really is a miracle.  Even today people try and repeat this feat.  There was someone in the news this year who had died trying to fast for 40 days like Jesus did.  I don't see anything really of an invitation here.  I see a girding of loins.  I see doing something impossible to get ready to do something impossible.

We read Matthew 4:1-11 from the amplified bible.

4 Then Jesus was led by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Because we are in Mathew this makes me think of Job and the interplay in that book.  This opportunity in the end was also lent to this devil.  We know who holds tomorrow also holds today, but Jesus seems to need this after his baptism.  Before he does anything else.  We often speak of the relationship between Jesus and God because God more or less uses words.  Here Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit who is not big on details.  So I ask this spirit and the word that come to me is: preparation.

 2 After He had gone without food for forty days and forty nights, He became hungry. 

So the devil it seems waited till our savior was hungry.  Could he not tempt Jesus before?  Would he not temp Jesus before?  It was only a human weakness that the devil thought he might exploit.  God had not been wrong so far.  But there really hadn't been a test.  Perhaps it had been too easy.  Radical empathy is also lent from our creator.  How would you be a God?

3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”

Stones to bread before a feast.  The devil and the astrologer miss the bounty.

5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city [Jerusalem] and placed Him on the pinnacle (highest point) of the temple. 6 And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’;

and

‘They will lift you up on their hands,

So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”

Well there is an invitation, but not to the temptation.  That is what I meant.  There is no invitation to not eat or drink for forty days.  God helps those who help themselves maybe, well not in so many words: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’  -  why?  I think it is the bounty.  If your asking for something and your not getting it, maybe it is because you are missing the bounty God already gave you.

Some people say pray and pray and pray and you will get.  I say pray and pray and pray and you have.  Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz is a song, not a prayer.  You need to dig into what you have.  What do you suppose Jesus did for forty days before he got hungry?

8 Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil left Him; and angels came and ministered to Him [bringing Him food and serving Him].

…showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; a moment of bounty is only possible in context.  Jesus was that context.  The devil was out of his league.  It would almost be too hard.  But it would take a savior.  And it would take some angels on stand by with food in the grand scheme of things.  ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’

I have wrestled this week with these forty days in the wilderness.  John had been in the wilderness.  Jesus was going to come into the city to proclaim his public ministry.  Did he leave something there in the wilderness or gain something?  We have entered the section of the sermon for speculation.

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?  I wonder if we are really the top species.  I would argue that the wilderness is even more remote to us than those people Jesus first worked to save.  There was something there in the wilderness essential to Jesus.  Can it be any less essential to us.

I think of these wolves and imagine they represent this wilderness that we are now stranger to.  They had these dogs that had no business in the wilderness and they left them with us to care.  They took better care of their marginalized than we have in the final equations of life.  We care for them still.  You might not agree, but I have come to see dogs as special needs wolves.  It is us that allow the wolves to be in balance in their environment perhaps we have some positive impact on the environment.  Well our pollution has created the most beautiful sunsets. 

We like the dogs separated from the wilderness are also special needs at this point.  We are not going to make our own way.  We don't have the discipline.  We don't even have the desire of a dog to please.  That in the end is mostly what they are.  One gene re-coded and they care if we are happy.  At times more than we are able,  

But we come again to this bounty and this savior that is pass key to all realms.  The wilderness.  The wildness.  The retrograde idea that it was one person responsible for the fall.   

So in an end we look where we often do: Isaiah 65:24-25  again from the Amplified Bible

24 “It shall also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox [there will no longer be predator and prey]; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain (Zion),” says the Lord.

Let Us Pray

Creator of All

Help us to see the bounty

Help us to now join your public ministry

Help us to Zion

Thank you for everything we are lent

As we remember everything you did and will do

Thank you for letting us know your love

Thank you for some clues to your suffering

Make us worthy of suffering in your name

Make us worthy of the bounty your family brought us

Amen

Benediction

Walk out into the wonder

Head for Zion

See the bounty you are

See the bounty we have

Share the bounty of our lord.

Nottingham UMC 2/26/2023

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?

As a species we like to think of ourselves
Above separate

I wonder if we are really the top species.

I think of these wolves and imagine they represent this wilderness that we are now stranger to.  They had these dogs that had no business in the wilderness and they left them with us to care.  They took better care of their marginalized than we have in the final equations of life.  We care for them still.  You might not agree, but I have come to see dogs as special needs wolves.  It is us that allow the wolves to be in balance in their environment perhaps we have some positive impact on the environment.  Well our pollution has created the most beautiful sunsets. 

We like the dogs separated from the wilderness are also special needs at this point.  We are not going to make our own way.  We don't have the discipline.  We don't even have the desire of a dog to please.  That in the end is mostly what they are.  One gene re-coded and they care if we are happy.  At times more than we are able

Race

Find myself no longer in a hurry

I'll be honest with you this new thing now tired

Of concern

I don't sit in the back very often

We drank coffee from ten to four

Often just to start the day

I think they tell you to run

They were told to run

Would they believe me no

This is about two things

Neither one I can tell you

Poetry the quantum entanglement of language

The first business of the day was then to get something to eat

When you work all the hours no one counts

Maybe three things then and counting

Collage

A combination or collection of various things.  We build onto a backing. Peter build the church on the rock of salvation.  It took a savior to fill the church.  Today we celebrate. remember the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in our scripture.  

This is after the arrest of John the Baptist and when Jesus first begins to gather followers.  For me this was always the most exciting and interesting part of the story.  As a child there were not many parts of the bible I wanted to play.  A Shepard in the holiday play was no problem, but most of the roles in the bible were not something to envy in my mind.  The woman at the well attracted me, but I didn't want to be an outsider.  To be last and paid the same maybe, but the sick, the dirty and the desperate where common roles played in the stories of the bible.  People made choices that I could not understand as a child.  But those who met Jesus and left everything behind this was something I could comprehend.  This was something I was envious.  The world was a confusing place as a child, but that was what made me feel this way.

As a child I certainly did not know what was going on, but I knew that not everything could make sense.  There were too many things.  The number my parents could explain were limited.  Sure they showed me the end of the road.  I had this specific question: where did the road end.  To me this seemed like something that should be answerable.  People built the road it must be going somewhere.

I don't remember any of their answers that I dismissed, but there were many.  Finally they gave me a post card of a tunnel in Washington DC.  They said it was the end of the road.  It was something that I had never seen.  I could see the road going inside and it was the capitol city.  I was content with this answer about fifteen years.  Later I would come to understand the road never ends we do; really just mattered where we got to.  Was there a destination.

Everyone seemed to be going in a different direction to me as a kid.  I watched as they went out different doors.  Then this story how the savior came by some people and said follow me and they dropped everything and followed him.  I didn't think how could they do that.  I didn't understand how they could do what they were doing they seemed to be going to their own destination.  To their own end.

Maybe this is the reason I do not feel comfortable leading.  In my professional life I have always been a follower.  My standards can be very tough being a follower of Jesus it is hard to find a good leader.  Like many things you know it when you see it, but words fail to describe it.  I've learned to give people a break, but I have never learned to follow a bad leader.

The idea that a perfect person would come by and ask me to leave everything behind and follow has always been attractive to me.  Not that I don't want to figure out life on my own, but that life can not be figured out.  That the road does not end, but we do.  We find destination.  I idolized sports figures at the time.  That was a life I could understand.  Playing a child's game for a living.  They spoke of a me generation and that greed was good when I was a kid.  There was mostly nonsense.

Even in the seventies people could see the road ahead.  Carbon Dioxide was rising in the atmosphere and everybody acted as if it was not or that it wouldn't matter.  This was something to be left behind.  All we needed was a savior to come along and call us.  As a child I wondered why there were only twelve.  When Jesus calls us all we still look to the twelve.

Our apostles, literally translated the sent.  The first disciples of Jesus.  Well here we are trying to be the last.  Someone said to me not to long ago that we are the last here, maybe but something Albert Einstein said comes to me:

 "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."

Those labor created blessings and curses.  There were head winds for our savior as we see in Matthew 13:55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son?  Early when Jesus preaches in his hometown we are told he didn't do many miracles because of their disbelief.  The miracles were being done for the believers not to make believers.  There is something of another sermon there but let's look at our scripture from Mathew.

Matthew 4:12-23 from the Amplified Bible I read:

12 Now when Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested and put in prison, He left for Galilee.

This is the first trumpet blast of the ministry of the word made flesh.  This was the starting line as it was the destination of the flesh of John.  We first learn from Jesus that endings can really be beginnings.  Also that God can put us on messy roads or even our head on a platter in the case of John.

 13 And leaving Nazareth, He went and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

    15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee [in the district] of the Gentiles—

    16 “The people who were sitting (living) in [spiritual] darkness have seen a great Light, And for those who were sitting (living) in the land and shadow of [spiritual and moral] death, upon them a Light has dawned.”

To me as a child Christianity seemed to be a religion of sign posts.  The prophets spoke and worlds moved to make it happen.  Or the prophets saw what was happening the more adult idea forms in me now.  We are given a check list for our savior.  Jesus checks all the boxes.

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins, live your life in a way that proves repentance; seek God’s purpose for your life], for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This was an urgent message.  And yes it still is an urgent message.  This was the paradox I saw as a child.  But it had to start.  And there had to be these twelve first.  To do what they did to those people then and to us people now.  We have the luxury to see them as the people they are and to know we don't have to figure everything out,  They sure didn't.

18 As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He noticed two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example]. 21 And going on [further] from there He noticed two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, in the boat with their father [c]Zebedee, mending their nets; and He called them [to follow Him as His disciples]. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].

Immediately they left their nets.  This I was envious of as a child.  As an adult I see that it is a call upon my life as well.  Immediately I need to leave my nets I know, I am not sure what that means.  

23 And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news (gospel) of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people [demonstrating and revealing that He was indeed the promised Messiah].

The concept of “follow” can represent three separate possibilities: in the early stages of His ministry, walking with Him physically, that is, first merely being in His presence regardless of personal belief or commitment, second accepting and identifying with the salvation He offered; and third being identified with Him by being subject to the scorn and rejection of unbelievers because of personal belief and commitment to Him. 

The first one is what I was envious.  As an adult I have learned a truism:  People always have the same number of problems.  It is the problems that change not the number.  Immediately they left their nets.  We say oh well they were simple it was easy for them.  I would just say we are simple and it is easy for us.

There are a few other stories of the first disciples and we find one in  John 1,43 that helps illustrate this remarkable time of the gathering of the twelve.  The first sent:

The next day Jesus decided to go into Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me [as My disciple, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher, and walking the same path of life that I walk].” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote about—Jesus from Nazareth, the son of Joseph [according to public record].” 46 Nathanael answered him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see."

This story demonstrates that they were on the look out for what their ancestors had promised.  They looked for signs and were ready for something new even if they did not know what that new would be. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see. "  Here at the very beginning we have this new type of meritocracy.  If you would come you would be shown.  No longer a talk of what was to come.  We are finally going home and we still are.  

Now it is a long way cause their are so many to gather,  Twelve at a time on our way to twelve billion.  Make you almost wonder love like the road never ends.  Doesn't really matter where we arrive it is our destination.  The call upon your life is there I promise you if you will only listen. 

In 1 Corinthians 1:10 again from the Amplified Bible we find our destination: 

10 But I urge you, believers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in full agreement in what you say, and that there be no divisions or factions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your way of thinking and in your judgment [about matters of the faith].

So we got some work to do thanks be to Jesus.  As I have noted before endless work is a reward.

In Isaiah 9:1-4 from the Amplified bible again, this referenced in our scripture we read:

9 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

2 

The people who walk in [spiritual] darkness

Will see a great Light;

Those who live in the dark land,

The Light will shine on them.

3 

You [O God] will increase the nation,

You will multiply their joy;

They will rejoice before You

Like the joy and jubilation of the harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil [of victory].

4 

For You will break the yoke of Israel’s burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.

You might remember the story from Judges 6-7; an exasperated Gideon asks,

“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

So many stories, interstates, highways, byways, side streets.  We go back around the sun retelling the stories of beginning and end.  With no end.  

Let Us Pray

Ephesians 1:15-23

Amplified Bible

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers; 17 [I always pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation [that gives you a deep and personal and intimate insight] into the true knowledge of Him [for we know the Father through the Son]. 18 And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints (God’s people), 19 and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength 20 which He produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion [whether angelic or human], and [far above] every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and world but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things [in every realm] in subjection under Christ’s feet, and appointed Him as [supreme and authoritative] head over all things in the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills and completes all things in all [believers].

Amen

Benediction

Immediately leave your nets

Be fishers of men and women

There will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish

Light has dawned

Go for you are sent

Nottingham UMC 1/22/2023

Collage Artist

I was teaching the other day
There is only one agenda

So I just told them I know this collage artist

She always has this box with her

Gathers things of her daily life

Every six months or so she empties the box

She cut up and put things together her

For money she does other thing

Her art 

I knew this collage artist

Left far behind I may not have understood one thing

I did not expect her there

I was teaching the other day

There is only one agenda

I am the gate keeper alone who knows the whole story

She put me in her box

I was a thing of her daily life

She cut me up and put me apart

I talk now and no one was distressed

It is fun to tell the fun parts of our stories

Things I long had no use

For them to put it together or not

We would try again

Others rotate to me and the stories improve

It was a first time I called her this way

This collage artist I know

Like meeting a new person in a student's eye