What are you listening For?
I asked Alex, my son, to clean up his bathroom last week. I thought I recalled specifically telling him, “Empty the trash….” The next day, I noticed much to my chagrin, that the bathroom had not been cleaned. So I reiterated the need to clean the bathroom. More forcefully and possibly with some angst. And I may have used a few words like, “I am SICK, SICK, SICK of this.” And suddenly, the urgency with which I spoke was understood and bathroom cleaning commenced. I heard loud singing and cleaning and then he appeared downstairs all proud and said, “It is sparking clean! It has never been ANY cleaner!” And my excitement and anticipation and expectation arose…. and then I went upstairs… and THE TRASH HAD NOT BEEN EMPTIED IN THE BATHROOM!”
Last week I spoke about how when the first two were called to follow Jesus he told them to come and see, and Jesus had asked John, “What are you looking for?” Alex explained that he “had not seen the trash”, possibly because I guess he wasn’t looking for it. It was all I could see. We were looking at different stuff in the bathroom.
So what you are looking for is important, as well as what you are listening for. Often you hear what you want to hear. Or what you are listening for.
Which is a powerful statement for us as a Christian community.
Because we often hear what we are listening for, and today is about Jesus’ calling of the first disciples.
This is the challenge before us today as the church: what are we looking for, who are we listening to, what are we valuing most in our common life together?
These are significant questions, for they compel us to consider our spiritual priorities. We must discern and decide what is important to us — what will we be looking for, what are we going to listen to, what will we value most in our common life together?
These are questions that require us to consider our past. And these are questions that lead us to a full, honest, and accurate assessment of our current situation. But mostly, these are questions that inspire us to look to our future.
In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us clear directives about our past, our present, and our future. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms what we are to look for, what we are to listen to, and what we must value above all else.
Things are shifting here. We are moving from John proclaiming, “Look, see here is the Son of God”, to John having been arrested. Things are beginning to get changed up here and turn on their head. Jesus is beginning his ministry and it is going to look different.
He begins by proclaiming repentance. He lets the world know it is time to repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Not repenting for what is to come, but for what has come and is here.
Repent — for we are all sinners, we have each one of us and all of us together failed to live up to our true calling, we have made mistakes, we have fallen down.
Jesus says, basically, “Get up and try again.” Repent. We are forgiven, loved, and free. And so repent, turn around, (pick up the trash you obviously didn’t see before!) and try again to hear God’s voice.
And this is not to say we’ve been notoriously sinful or wicked — at least not any more than anybody else. We all of us make choices, and frequently we make poor ones.
This is to say that we are human, that we want to do so much better than we so frequently are able, that we want to let go of small annoyances and petty gripes and senseless quarrels among us — and grab on to what is really important.
So, repent.
And that will bring us to the present: What is really important is that the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Jesus lived among us, not to predict some future and yet-unachieved utopia, but to proclaim that God’s mercy, justice, and love are already here — manifest, in this place, now. So close we can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear — if that is what we are listening for.
I often hear, “St. James has had so much loss this year”, “things are not the same”… and they aren’t. Nor will they be.
But, God’s mercy, justice and love are here! Manifest in this place. Through all our losses and our griefs, if you have been looking, God has been present. This parish has loved each other, stood beside each other, supported each other and the community through a lot of things. The Kingdom of God is here and is moving and living through you! Thanks be to God!
Jesus tells us to repent, and then he says to “follow”.
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” I will make you fishers of men.
Jesus didn’t “call” these fishermen, these future disciples to him to just walk around and listen to his teachings - to have coffee and to talk about what they had heard. He was calling them to something.
The Outreach committee is meeting this week and there is energy and movement behind this committee. The members are dedicated to our community and assuring that we use our money wisely as a parish to help meet the needs of the community it is part of our ministry as a church. We give this money in the name of Christ to help others and we should not lose sight of why we give. We give as part of our mission.
So as we look at our present and think about our future, how we are fishing for men; how we are ministering to others should be first and foremost on our minds. The present.
Follow me. When Jesus asks the disciples to follow him, there is an invitation into a different kind of community. They are called to leave their father Zebedee; this is counter cultural. To just get out of the boat, leave the family business and follow some man on the coast who just calls out “follow me”. This is definitely something different; we don’t know what Zebedee thought or felt about this - the boys just left. But they had obviously seen and heard and felt in their spirit that there was something different about Jesus, something worth follow and changing their lives for. Maybe Zebedee saw it too, and understood; or maybe it broke his heart. Maybe both.
To what are you now committing yourself to?
John had been arrested. Something had shifted and Jesus’ message was now “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.”
We do not deny the painful realities of our world, but we are not called to dwell on life’s problems but to look for life’s opportunities.
Look around for signs of the kingdom, here and now.
And look to the future. Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” We are called — each and every one of us, and all of us together — to bring the light of lights into the world, to proclaim to all people the Good News of salvation, to make known the glory of God’s marvelous works.
Our calling as a Christian community is not to repair the roof, or balance the books, or print up the bulletin. These things are important — essential to the building up of Christ’s body, really, but budgets and reports and building maintenance— they are not our mission, they are not what Jesus calls us to listen to, they are not what our Lord and Savior commands us to value. They are part of what we must do to exist, but when we follow, Jesus, he calls us to be fishers of men, ambassadors of Christ, evangelists.
Our attitudes change, our perceptions, our choices. What are we looking for? What are we listening to? What are we hearing?
The call is to follow Christ. Let your light so shine before men that people will be drawn to it.
Amen.
Last week I spoke about how when the first two were called to follow Jesus he told them to come and see, and Jesus had asked John, “What are you looking for?” Alex explained that he “had not seen the trash”, possibly because I guess he wasn’t looking for it. It was all I could see. We were looking at different stuff in the bathroom.
So what you are looking for is important, as well as what you are listening for. Often you hear what you want to hear. Or what you are listening for.
Which is a powerful statement for us as a Christian community.
Because we often hear what we are listening for, and today is about Jesus’ calling of the first disciples.
This is the challenge before us today as the church: what are we looking for, who are we listening to, what are we valuing most in our common life together?
These are significant questions, for they compel us to consider our spiritual priorities. We must discern and decide what is important to us — what will we be looking for, what are we going to listen to, what will we value most in our common life together?
These are questions that require us to consider our past. And these are questions that lead us to a full, honest, and accurate assessment of our current situation. But mostly, these are questions that inspire us to look to our future.
In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us clear directives about our past, our present, and our future. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms what we are to look for, what we are to listen to, and what we must value above all else.
Things are shifting here. We are moving from John proclaiming, “Look, see here is the Son of God”, to John having been arrested. Things are beginning to get changed up here and turn on their head. Jesus is beginning his ministry and it is going to look different.
He begins by proclaiming repentance. He lets the world know it is time to repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Not repenting for what is to come, but for what has come and is here.
Repent — for we are all sinners, we have each one of us and all of us together failed to live up to our true calling, we have made mistakes, we have fallen down.
Jesus says, basically, “Get up and try again.” Repent. We are forgiven, loved, and free. And so repent, turn around, (pick up the trash you obviously didn’t see before!) and try again to hear God’s voice.
And this is not to say we’ve been notoriously sinful or wicked — at least not any more than anybody else. We all of us make choices, and frequently we make poor ones.
This is to say that we are human, that we want to do so much better than we so frequently are able, that we want to let go of small annoyances and petty gripes and senseless quarrels among us — and grab on to what is really important.
So, repent.
And that will bring us to the present: What is really important is that the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Jesus lived among us, not to predict some future and yet-unachieved utopia, but to proclaim that God’s mercy, justice, and love are already here — manifest, in this place, now. So close we can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear — if that is what we are listening for.
I often hear, “St. James has had so much loss this year”, “things are not the same”… and they aren’t. Nor will they be.
But, God’s mercy, justice and love are here! Manifest in this place. Through all our losses and our griefs, if you have been looking, God has been present. This parish has loved each other, stood beside each other, supported each other and the community through a lot of things. The Kingdom of God is here and is moving and living through you! Thanks be to God!
Jesus tells us to repent, and then he says to “follow”.
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” I will make you fishers of men.
Jesus didn’t “call” these fishermen, these future disciples to him to just walk around and listen to his teachings - to have coffee and to talk about what they had heard. He was calling them to something.
The Outreach committee is meeting this week and there is energy and movement behind this committee. The members are dedicated to our community and assuring that we use our money wisely as a parish to help meet the needs of the community it is part of our ministry as a church. We give this money in the name of Christ to help others and we should not lose sight of why we give. We give as part of our mission.
So as we look at our present and think about our future, how we are fishing for men; how we are ministering to others should be first and foremost on our minds. The present.
Follow me. When Jesus asks the disciples to follow him, there is an invitation into a different kind of community. They are called to leave their father Zebedee; this is counter cultural. To just get out of the boat, leave the family business and follow some man on the coast who just calls out “follow me”. This is definitely something different; we don’t know what Zebedee thought or felt about this - the boys just left. But they had obviously seen and heard and felt in their spirit that there was something different about Jesus, something worth follow and changing their lives for. Maybe Zebedee saw it too, and understood; or maybe it broke his heart. Maybe both.
To what are you now committing yourself to?
John had been arrested. Something had shifted and Jesus’ message was now “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.”
We do not deny the painful realities of our world, but we are not called to dwell on life’s problems but to look for life’s opportunities.
Look around for signs of the kingdom, here and now.
And look to the future. Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” We are called — each and every one of us, and all of us together — to bring the light of lights into the world, to proclaim to all people the Good News of salvation, to make known the glory of God’s marvelous works.
Our calling as a Christian community is not to repair the roof, or balance the books, or print up the bulletin. These things are important — essential to the building up of Christ’s body, really, but budgets and reports and building maintenance— they are not our mission, they are not what Jesus calls us to listen to, they are not what our Lord and Savior commands us to value. They are part of what we must do to exist, but when we follow, Jesus, he calls us to be fishers of men, ambassadors of Christ, evangelists.
Our attitudes change, our perceptions, our choices. What are we looking for? What are we listening to? What are we hearing?
The call is to follow Christ. Let your light so shine before men that people will be drawn to it.
Amen.