Sermon preached by the Reverend John E

Part Two of the Rector’s Annual Report by the Reverend John E. Kitagawa at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, 25 January 2009 (Third Sunday after the Epiphany, and Annual Meeting Sunday), St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, Arizona

CALLED TO FISH FOR PEOPLE

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10; I Corinthians 7: 29-31; Mark 1: 14-20

Part II of our Annual Meeting takes place between the 9:00 and 11:15 am services today. The agenda includes: 1) Honoring Gail Carlsen as she retires; 2) Election of new Vestry members, and Delegates to Diocesan Convention; 3) the annual report on parish finances; 4) a report on the 2009 operating budget; 5) a report from the Preservation and Endowment Foundation; and 6) a report from the Buildings and Grounds Committee.

I suspect some of you translate items 3 – 6 into a vision of long columns of numbers and pictures of bricks and mortar; and, thus may not feel motivated to attend. That would be unfortunate because today’s reports fit hand in glove with last week’s mission and ministry reports. Mission Support is the best descriptor I can think of. Without the devotion of fellow parishioners’ time, talent and treasure, we would have no place to carry out most of our ministries and programs. The question is not only where would we worship, but how would we worship? For this space allows us to worship in the holiness of beauty. Where, for example, would we make 1,800 sandwiches and prepare soup ingredients for Casa Maria Soup Kitchen? Where would we go about passing on the faith to new generations? Where would we offer Adult Formation classes to feed the soul and sustain us for the journey? How would we gather in community to build relationships, and to celebrate? Mission Support are also appropriate words to apply to our finances. As you think about our finances, think about two things. First, a wise Treasurer[1] taught me 30 years ago that the importance of financial figures and accounts is that they are quantified expressions of our theological and spiritual values. Secondly, several years ago, our youth representative[2] to the Vestry was asked about the time and energy the vestry devotes to finances. She said that she had come to understand that finances are the grease that keeps our ministry machinery running.

On a day when we focus on Mission Support, we are fortunate to have Bible readings that remind us of God’s call to ministry. Today’s readings present basic themes of repentance and our mission to bear witness to God’s reign. Unlike the first disciples, Jonah does not readily accept God’s call. In the Chapters 1 and 2, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to condemn its evil ways (Jonah 1: 1-2). Jonah is more than reluctant. In fact, he boards a ship going in the opposite direction (Jonah 1: 3). During a storm, shipmates throw him overboard (Jonah 1: 7-16). Famously, Jonah is swallowed by a large fish (Jonah 1: 17), and comes to his senses as he prays in its belly (Jonah 2: 1-9). Finally, the fish “spews” Jonah out onto dry land (Jonah 2: 10). Today’s reading picks up here. God calls, and this time Jonah accepts, carries out his mission, only to witness God’s change of heart about punishing the city (Jonah 3: 1 – 10).

Jonah’s story has long been a personal favorite. In the beginning, he is rebellious and recalcitrant. God does not give up on him. In fact, God goes to some length to work with him. In the end, Jonah repents and bears witness to God’s word. In Chapter 4, you can see just how ticked Jonah is about God’s change of heart. But, through this story comes a powerful insight into God’s nature.

[God is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing (Jonah 4: 2).

The call of the first disciples is quite a different story. They immediately get up, forsake their families and jobs, and follow Jesus. The biblical text does not indicate these men were chosen for special talents or charismatic gifts, for their intelligence or moral standing in the community[3]. The point is when God calls, God will use whatever skills and talents we possess. The Gospel narratives indicate that over time, Jesus prepared and trained his disciples. In the process, they received new gifts of faith and empowerment for their ministries. All this remains true today. We are asked to take risks, to repent, and to follow Jesus in faith and trust. And, like the first disciples, we are called to “fish for people” (Mark 1: 17): to attract people to the household of faith, to call them to repentance, to companion them on their journeys, to offer them the riches of Christian tradition, to equip them for ministry, and to commission them to do God’s work in the world.

Let me say a word about repentance here. This is a critical concept. Repentance has gotten a bad reputation. It conjures up all sorts of negative images and thoughts. People think repentance is about acknowledging what evil and nasty people we are, and promising to do better. In popular theology, repentance seems to put the emphasis on sin—what we do that we should not do, and what we have not done that we ought to do. I do not suggest that we should scrap this perspective entirely. We all do things we ought not do, and leave undone things we ought to do; and, we should do everything we can to do better. However, at a deeper level, repentance is about turning around and re-orienting one’s life; repentance is about letting go of ways of thinking and patterns of life in order to become more faithful instruments of God’s reign.

To illustrate, I share this story, by Linda Neely.

During my first lunch at a Buddhist retreat, I looked around the hall from person to person, judging the motives of each. Across from me sat a couple of young girls, giggling quietly and wearing tight clothing. I wondered why they were here. A young man at the end of the table stared straight ahead, stone-faced. He wore the garments of someone who … already seemed to think of himself as a monk. I assumed an older gentleman sitting nearby must be experimenting with different faiths during retirement. I wondered what the woman with the perpetual grimace hoped to find.

Each day we rose to the same bell at 5 a.m., and sat in silent meditation together. We helped each other when we got lost on the grounds, couldn’t find our place in our book of verses, or weren’t sure what was in the bowl that had been passed to us. We bowed in gratitude to each other as we received a pot of soup or a napkin.

At our last meal together I looked around the hall again. The monks had told us many times to try to see the “Buddha nature” in everyone. I saw these people were all the same as me: full of love and wanting to be loved. The thoughts I’d had about them were gone. My eyes filled with tears.

On my way home, I stopped for gas. The sudden transition from retreat to noisy filling station was jarring. Yet even among the rushed, angry, tired travelers, I saw only people looking for the same thing[4].

This is a story of repentance. Neely lets go of one way of viewing people, the world and herself, in favor of a new perspective and grounding for her life. This story recalls to me our Baptismal Covenant, specifically the fundamental commitment and recommitment “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.”[5] I remind you that the Baptismal Covenant comes after renouncing the power of evil over our lives. This is letting go in order to commit to new life in Christ.

At the beginning of today’s Gospel, Jesus says:

… the kingdom of God has come near … (Mark 1: 15).

In other words, God’s reign is NOT a single future event that will arrive with some cataclysmic God event. Neither will we discover God’s reign in a yet-to-be revealed political arrangement with divine mandate. Jesus asks a lot of disciples. He asks us to believe and trust that God’s reign will be completed and fulfilled. But, as believers in the here and now, Jesus asks us to live, as best we can, according to the love, justice and mercy of God’s reign.

This story is a small example of living by the values of God’s reign in the here and now.

There was an incident on a flight from London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa. A white woman boarded the plane. She came down the aisle to the tourist section and discovered her seat assignment put her next to a black African man. She looked at her seat assignment and saw it was correct. She asked, “I’m sorry, are you in the right seat?” He smiled and nodded yes.

She turned around to see if there were any open seats. There were none. She tugged on the sleeve of a flight attendant. “Excuse me, as you can see, I’m sitting next to a person whose skin color is different from mine.” “Yes, I can see that.”

“Well,” she said, this is simply unacceptable. Is there another available seat? The flight attendant looked at her and said, “I’m sorry, it’s against our policy to move people unnecessarily.” “You don’t understand,” the woman said, “this arrangement will not do. I have funds in my purse to arrange an alternative. Go up to first class and see if there is an available seat there.”

The flight attendant shrugged her shoulders and walked up the aisle. A few minutes later she returned. She leaned over the woman, tapped the man, and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I hate to do this. I must make a seating change. If you follow me, we have a place for you in first class”[6].

There has been some interesting commentary about the significant role of the influence of the African American Church at President Obama’s inauguration. In one article, an African American preacher, Jim Forbes, a seminary professor of mine, was asked about the difference between the African American Church and white Churches. Jim’s thoughtful and careful response was this:

In predominantly white congregations people think God needs them; in predominantly black congregations, people know they need God[7].

All of us need God, as do our near neighbors and the neighbors God presents to us. The Church and its people are called to be God’s instruments to help people see and sense the reign of God is near to them—and specifically that this congregation is committed to witnessing by word and deed the Good News of God in Christ’s healing, transforming, and forgiving love. We are far from perfect in our attempts to embody and proclaim God’s reign. Yet, in good faith and with modest confidence in what we do, we must be about the business of inviting people of communities beyond our walls,

“Come and see, grow with God, go and do.”

AMEN.