first you lose trust

then you get worried





Let me start by making a confession: I hate meetings. I think it runs in the family…

In fact, at the conference I was at last week, I was talking to a pastor who was bemoaning the fact that some committee he formed was causing trouble. Hearing that I couldn’t help but blurt out, “wait a minute! you
started a committee? What’s the matter with you, are you some kind of sicko?!?!”
Such is my view of committee meetings.

Despite my disdain, though, the constitutions says we have to have them, and today is no exception. Today is the date we set for our Annual Meeting…

While the devil may be in the details; after looking at the Annual Report you’ve got to admit ‘God is in the numbers.’ These numbers, at least…
Reading the reports our committee chairs submitted, is truly a humbling thing to do. All of us here are blessed by their faithfulness. 

This group of folks, chosen from amongst us, just as busy and human as the rest of us, have taken on the task of being the point person for one area or another of Trinity’s ministry. 
It’s a daring thing to do. 

Our ordinary, busy and fallible sisters and brothers have organized an audit, ran a program distributing affordable food and dignity, worked with Toys for Joy to ensure area families had a Merry Christmas, bugged contractors to get the best bid for a section of Trinity’s roof repaired, planned a month for us to dwell upon our faithful response to God’s goodness, lead our choir, and on and on; all in the name of Jesus Christ

You know, sometimes when I talk to these folks and hear about everything  else they have going on, all they wrestle with; I can’t help but wonder why.

In fact, truth be told, I bet some of those folks who submitted their reports found themselves asking “why” a time or two; like after a meeting of carefully choosing hymns only to be thanked with a complaint that the hymn was too new, too long or too short, or when as you drove to the church for another round of interviews, and so on; there’s plenty to make us doubt our decision to join some committee or another…

No, it hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve given our best, and when we’ve failed  -because we have- we looked to the savior who promises us to rescue us from these vessels of death…

Given all that, the challenge of it and our own fallibility, it seems like something of a cruel joke to read about these first four disciple’s remarkable and faithful response to Jesus’ call on a day like this. Today, as we take a look at 2014 in review, our successes and failures, the Gospel tells us how Peter-Simon and Andrew, James and John, dropped their nets on the spot, left their boats and their families all to follow this Jesus.
How are we ever going live up to that kind of example? Why the best we can do is hold our Annual Meeting without too much acrimony!

…Such is the state of our self-obsession.
Here’s the thing, we’re not the point of today’s Gospel! The Gospel isn’t about us, the ways we follow, or more than likely fail to follow. No, the Gospel is about God

Honestly, the last thing Mark has in mind, when he tells us about the call of those four, is to get us to finally pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get our lives in order once and for all. Mark isn’t fooling himself, he isn’t going to waste his breath trying to get folks like me or you to become courageous disciples, to emulate these exemplars in the faith. 

No, Mark is all too familiar with human nature. 
After all, in only a few chapters Mark will go on to tell us of the petty squabbles of these four, their betrayals, their failure to follow when it mattered most, the way how, when the chips were down, they forgot about that day they dropped everything to follow Jesus, and instead fled away from him to try and save their own lives…

No, Mark is up to something else altogether…
Mark retells the call-story of these four to proclaim the power of Jesus call; a call that changes everything, a call that makes God’s Kingdom come, come here and now, the call of Jesus that answers our prayers, the call of Jesus that makes us into disciples.

In today’s Gospel we hear about John’s arrest. Apparently that did it for Jesus, it was the last straw. “Times up,” Jesus declared. “Times up, God’s kingdom won’t wait a second more, here it comes. Turn and believe this good news! God’s kingdom is at hand”
Then, Jesus does something we don’t expect. Jesus doesn’t make God’s kingdom to come by running for Caesar, or even make a run at Caesar. 
No, instead Jesus makes God’s kingdom come, by going out to some nowheresville, and calling four regular-joes, as they were going about their regular business; casting and mending their nets — for they were fishermen…

Then, something else unexpected happens; these four actually dropped their nets and started their breathless following after Jesus…

Here’s the thing, though, Mark isn’t trying to tell us that these four are exceptional -in fact, they’re all too unexceptional. No, the point is, simply, to tell us about the power of Jesus’ call, Jesus’ call that compels us to follow! ‘Alleluia Lord, to whom else can we go, you have the words of eternal life.’

If you want to know how God’s kingdom comes, just watch this one who shows up proclaiming the kingdom! He does it, not with power or might, but by calling ordinary folks, in the middle of their ordinary lives; by calling these four, yes; but also by calling you and me. 

What makes disciples, isn’t some extraordinary characteristic, it’s God - nothing else.
That’s the point of today’s Gospel; it’s edge, it’s promise! 
Today’s Gospel isn’t some example to emulate, it’s a promise that God’s call can save us, can get us into the kingdom.
This book we come to week after week, isn’t some self-help program: 12-steps to get your life in order and slim your thighs, too!
No, this book is the very revelation of God, the Good News that makes saints out of sinners like us.

Today’s Gospel is the promise that when God shows up, and God will, that God won’t come with wrath, but with the Word of pure promise.

Today’s Gospel is promise, promise that God’s call is enough. That’s hard to believe, I know it; but that promise is the only thing that can get us past our perennial “whys,” to the “because that sustains us day-in and day-out.

Today we have our Annual Meeting.
And I know things haven’t always been easy; believe me I know. 
What today’s Gospel promises us, though, is that Jesus call is enough. Jesus’ call sustains us, leads us into an uncertain future. Jesus’ call is all we need, what we have to share.

And you know, looking at the report, I’ve got to say, Jesus’ call has been enough.
When you look at a ledger sheet, it wouldn't seem that we have enough. This Call hasn’t failed us yet, though, has it? No, it hasn’t, and it won’t.

In fact, this Call is busy right now. As we gather around the Word, Jesus Call goes out again, and does what it always does: gets God’s will done, done on earth as well as in heaven. And this all God’s will is, to get us into the kingdom, here and now.

The time is up sisters and brothers, God’s kingdom isn’t going to wait a second longer, God won’t sit back and wait for you to find your way in to the kingdom. No, God is busy bringing it, right here, right now.

That’s why we’re having our Annual Meeting today, because that promise has sustained us for 130 years; and I it will sustain us for another. 
I guess I should shut up, and stop trying to stall our Annual Meeting, huh? 

Amen?

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