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| The village where Jesus met the fishermen. |
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined. (Isaiah 9.2)
Modern technology is amazing. You can receive a cell signal nearly everywhere. Some have even given up their regular wired phone lines, relying on cell phones alone. But I did say nearly. With nearly universal cell service in most American cities, my former home in Austin was inconsistent, at best.
Something about the walls in that place, or the angle of the sun, or the gravitational pull of the planet Mercury interfered with the cell signal where I spent the majority of my time. And that one location seemed to be the only place where it failed to work. This crazy phenomenon aggravated me to no end. At times, I was unable to call friends and family, lost many conversations in mid-sentence, or missed an important call completely, because the phone didn’t ring. Others, maybe even you, have experienced a similar phenomenon in a common place. I know it is an issue because, a few years ago, one of the big cellular companies began asking the question, “Can you hear me now?”
As loud as my voice is, I don’t often have to ask that question. If you are within a hundred feet, you can usually hear me. In their commercials, a spokesman, no matter where he is, calls out the question over his phone. And, we assume, the answer is always ‘yes.’ Remember how Captain Kirk and Spock used to pull out those flip open communications devices that would miraculously connect them. Within many of our lifetimes, that science fiction is outdated. As we look back on the dreams of the 1960’s, we realize that we have passed up that dream in our present reality. We aren’t traveling between solar systems in warp speed, but our ability to communicate is light years ahead of where we once were. And yes, we expect that, soon, we will never have to even ask the question, “Can you hear me now?”
And it isn’t just “phone” signals anymore. Today, we live in a technologically sophisticated world filled with gadgets that allow us to beam information all over the place. ‘Can you hear me now?’ is only the first of many questions one could ask in determining how good a system is. Can you download that now? Can you see me now? Can you text me now? Can you map my location now? Can you check me in now? There is so much evidence, in the hands of a great number of people, confirming how connected we are with the world around us. It is almost expected that everyone carries around a phone with them so that they can stay connected with offices, friends, and, most especially, family. Nearly everywhere I go (even the Holy Land), I get emails, text messages, phone calls, and the latest newspaper, all on a device that can be carried in my pocket. If we look back even ten years, we discover that our connections with the people in our lives have increased at an unbelievable rate. The advances in 50 years are beyond extraordinary. Consider that St. Patrick’s was founded 100 years ago as a mission of St. Alban’s to provide a place of worship in an area of NW Washington expecting great growth. As the crow flies, St. Patrick’s is about a mile from St. Alban’s. And a majority of our current parishioners travel further than that to worship here on Sunday. My drive to St. Patrick’s is 3.2 miles (according to Google maps), yet there are four Episcopal churches closer to my home than St. Patrick’s. As time continues to pass, we become closer and more connected.
And to be honest, I like it. I admit that I am someone who loves technology. I am always wondering what the next development will look like and how it will change the opportunities facing us in the future. I think it is fun to learn how to make new things work. I am not necessarily an early adopter, but I’m close. As I reflect on my heavy use of technology, I wonder if I could survive without it. Could I do my job without all the extra efficiencies provided by gadgets? People have been ministers for a very long time. It is not known as the oldest profession, but it followed shortly thereafter as a way to reorient the world from self-absorption to God centeredness. How did religious leaders in the past deal with the daily routine of the church? How would St. Francis send out the equivalent of the Wednesday email? How did Thomas Aquinas make appointments? What did Martin Luther use to print his 95 theses? How did Jonathan Edwards prepare a sermon without a word processor? Of course I know the answers to all of these questions. They used what was there. They relied on the scribes, not the internet. They spoke to people, rather than sending out email. People came to listen, because there was no tv, radio, or internet and in most of Christian history, not even books.
As much as we are connected and even believe that we are more in the know, the reality of our current situation is that we are separated even more from the world in which we live. We are so amazed with our technology that we forget to listen to the voices around us. And as a person expected to be connected to the Spirit, we have often lost the ability to hear God speaking to us, because we expect all of our communication to come to us in nice neat packages and, definitely, tailored to our needs and wants.
Our gospel lesson today is about Jesus post-baptism. We don’t know how long it was after his baptism. Matthew only tells us that it was after Jesus heard that John the Baptist was arrested. Jesus left his hometown of Nazareth, in the ancient region of Zebulon, and relocated to the fishing village of Capernaum, in the ancient region of Naphthali. These are the same regions Isaiah predicted would be freed by the coming of Savior. We often assume that these two small towns in Galilee were predominately Jewish, but the Jewish people were, most likely, in the minority. Jesus’ message, like his cousin John, was to, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” It was a message open to all willing to listen. One of the first things that Jesus does is to call out to two fishermen. We don’t know what they knew of Jesus or what they had heard him say. All we know is that they immediately leave their profession to follow Jesus. We learn, as the story of Jesus’ ministry unfolds in the Gospel, that people come to learn from him, to be healed, and to experience something extraordinary.
In times of darkness, Jesus was the light that shone out. That brought people a new opportunity. But it wasn’t something gained by showing up and then returning to the old ways, it was a call to drop the old life and take on something new. Both Gentiles and Jews became aware of the light of Jesus and the way it overcame the overwhelming darkness surrounding them.
Thousands of years separate our times with the time of Jesus. We have noticed great change in our own lifetimes, multiply that my 100s. We consider ourselves so much more connected, so much smarter, and more sophisticated. No matter where we are, we are tied to the world in which we live. And yet, we have lost the ability to hear. God continues to speak to us, but God is asking, “Can you hear me now?” As much as we are connected, we forget to turn off the world and open our hearts and our souls to the message of God. There are some who try to discredit the Spirit’s power with a preponderance of reason. We are suspicious and will do anything to appear in control. We can’t even fathom that a message of God might call us to drop what we hold as sacred in order to change our lives in extraordinary ways. We can’t imagine that God’s light continues to overcome the darkness that clouds our experiences from time-to-time. We want to show up on our own schedule to meet our own needs, but God calls us to be the light in every corner of our lives. That is a dangerous call, and one we want to ignore. We want to skip past it because it doesn’t allow us to the opportunity to set the agenda. It is a call that asks us to drop our busyness in order to accept something radically new into our lives. Just as Andrew and Peter and James and John dropped their nets, we are asked to let go of the routine work and reevaluate how we serve through our everyday lives.
Be aware of the joy of God. It is not a call that intersects our lives only in times of tragedy. God calls us when we are most secure and at the top, but that is when it is easiest to ignore. But these are the times when we need to get in the practice of listening. Spiritual centeredness is not something we are good at, naturally. It requires practice. We come together, in fellowship, to be aware of that call and to support each other in where it takes us. It is a worthwhile journey to struggle with the light that shines in the deepest recesses of our lives, and to use that light to discover paths to something new.
Spend time getting away from the busy, practice deepening your soul, study the scriptures, pray regularly, and define a rule of life that extends beyond Sunday morning. The community of St. Patrick’s is here to help you along the way. You need to commit yourself to this journey and God will provide you with great joy and satisfaction. As our prayer for this Sunday asked, “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call…” Amen.
Epiphany IIIA
January 23, 2011
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