“A Great Light Shines”
“A Great Light Shines”
Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 22, 2023
Isaiah 9:1-4 Psalm 27:1, 4-9 Matthew 4:12-23
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
I heard a story once about a young boy who had an accident when playing in the garage. The car was parked in there and put up on a jack because it needed some work. The boy was crawling around under the car and somehow bumped the jack loose so the car pinned him down and he couldn’t breathe. The big garage door was open, and it seemed no one could hear his slight whimper as he tried to call for help. As he got weaker the sound of birds arrived. He saw little birds flutter in and out, they flew circles in the garage and he remembers them say, “Just wait a little longer. Don’t give up. We’re here with you.” Somehow the sound of birds chirping and creating a ruckus caught the attention of the boy’s father. He came in and restored the jack and got the now unconscious boy the medical help he needed. As the boy was coming to, he kept asking, “Where are the birds? Where are the birds? They called out to me.”
Today’s scriptures involve calling. Jesus calls disciples to follow him. But he doesn’t just show up and start calling. Many unsettling and threatening events have taken place to get Jesus to this point. They are things that he wouldn’t have wished for, and yet what comes to pass wouldn’t have happened without these challenges.
Jesus knows what turbulent times are like, times when even the fabric of nations gets stretched, even torn. Those who follow Jesus need to remember that he’s sometimes referred to as the suffering servant. The quality of our soul and the status of our life-surrender is formed through internal growing. To continually seek after Christ, to make our lives available for the larger work of God involves nothing less that heart transformation, mind renewal, spiritual conversion: and these are all inside jobs, works of the Holy Spirit. The metaphor we read today involves light shining in, especially in times when we experience cracks and realize that life as we know it is shifting, even as we try and maintain a stance of willingness, of the desire to open even more to God’s love and leading. Like the Psalmist, “‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face! Your face, Lord, do I seek.’”
Father Thomas Keating talks about this in terms of experiential faith, which is what contemplative prayer is. He says, "Contemplative prayer is a process of interior transformation … One's way of seeing reality changes in the process. A restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate and respond with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through and beyond everything that exists."
(Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, as quoted through Contemplative Outreach, Word of the Week, Sunday, January 19, 2020: After Epiphany, Meditations).
A “restructuring of consciousness…empowering one to perceive…sensitivity to the divine presence…” We don’t typically use those words to describe Christian conversion, or answering the call of Jesus, or consenting to God’s action and activity in our lives; but this is what’s needed if we wish to dive to “the deep end” of those baptismal waters as we are marked as Christ’s own, forever.
Today we install people as ruling elders and deacons, both are ordained functions of ministry in the church. They differ in their focus. Ruling elders on the Session are the governing body of the church and have authority to make decisions on behalf of the congregation. Ruling elders serve at various levels of the Church, such as Presbytery, Synod, or General Assembly. Deacons carry on a ministry of care and compassion and in many ways our Deacons serve as a local mission committee as they provide funding to various groups in the community. They also help those who are struggling or grieving, and they pray. Sometimes they host receptions following a funeral. Sometimes they send a birthday card. There are many things Deacons do to express God’s care.
What is Jesus calling you to do? How does following Christ take shape in your life? Part of it involves what you do, but closer to the reality of it, to follow Christ has much to do with who we are called to be. Like those fishermen leaving their nets. When they follow Christ, they’re all in. How that calling is expressed is secondary to the primary requisite of having an open heart and mind, of allowing God room to work even through those times of struggle and challenge.
Sometimes the call from God is an invitation to suffering, yet like Dietrich Bonhoffer who died from Hitler’s gallows at the end of WWII says, “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more of the road that is too hard for us. (http://edgeofenclosure.org/epiphany3a.html, Suzanne Guthrie, online resource).
The Isaiah passage gets echoed in Matthew’s gospel in talking of “the people who walked in darkness. [They] have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. […] for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” This is Zebulun and Naphtali, land of the Gentiles, a place that is foreign: even there God’s light shines and transforms heavy burdens into shouts of joy.
Matthew starts out saying, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” From what time? From that time that Jesus hears John the prophet, John the baptizer, John, his cousin, has been arrested. This is a very dramatic development. Jesus withdraws, the pressure’s on, the political heat dials up; Jesus withdraws. Even the comforts of home, of Nazareth turn on him. He is unsettled and has to move from the familiar into a dynamic stance of having a new home base, Capernaum, yet traveling to other towns to teach and proclaim and heal. When Jesus invites one to follow, this is into God’s action and activity, into love’s shining light.
The season of Epiphany declares “God with us.” This Presence abides and calls us to awareness. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear God’s messengers who give encouragement. May we heed the voice of our heart that seeks God face and trusts the Lord’s deliverance, even and especially when the pressure is on. This is the time, this is our calling, this is our Source. Thanks be to God for helping us love, live, and learn the joy of faith. Amen.