God is Relentless.

 

 Luke 5:1-11 is the lectionary text for Epiphany V. 

Jesus needed a platform and Simon gave it to Him.  He put out off from shore so that the crowd would not press on Him and so that He could teach them.  They had been pressing on Him because He was healing the sick, but now was the time to heal souls.  Jesus brought in the Kingdom to transform lives, which meant that their hearts and minds had to be transformed – their thinking and direction and passion would have to be transformed.

After speaking, Jesus instructed Simon to put the boat out further to catch fish.  Simon called Him “Master,” but informed this carpenter’s son that they had fished all night and caught nothing.  Yet, out of deference to this Master Teacher, he complied.  The results were astounding.  Now called Simon Peter, he fell to his knees and submitted himself to Jesus, physically and interpersonally.  He confessed his sinfulness.  As always, Peter spoke for his mates.  Jesus told him/them not to be afraid and issued them a call.  They would now be fishing for human beings.  They left everything, their livelihood, the lives they knew, their families and all to immediately follow Jesus.

It was extraordinary.  What Jesus taught, perhaps was extraordinary.  What Jesus did was extraordinary.  Jesus’ call to sinful people was and is extraordinary.  They were ordinary people, but they were called to follow an extraordinary Lord.  If the message didn’t get them, the actions born of the Kingdom would.  And it did not end there, but rather with a commitment of their lives to living within the Kingdom of God, even in this part of it, as they walked through life.

The Kingdom means life, life abundant and life forever.  It means life here and now.  It transforms lives by transforming hearts and minds, so that God’s children are led to live the Kingdom values that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in how to live in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now.  It transforms whole communities, and it can transform the world to bring life abundant, here and now.  When we live as God calls us to live, that all should have enough and that all have Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being).  When all have enough and all have Shalom, we all have Peace.  That is life abundant. 

Peter and the others had been struggling under empire for two generations.  They had seen their freedom, their power, their prosperity and their hope striped away by Rome’s iteration of empire.  They could hardly make a living and could hardly see a way forward that was hopeful for them and their families.  What Jesus taught and did among them introduced them to a different and better way for the world.  It provided them with a hope that even life under empire could not kill, because it meant transformation in spite of, in the face of and toward the elimination of empire and all for which it stood.

Jesus’ call was the call of God to walk a different way and teach that way in the world.  It was the call of God for God’s children to not participate in the values of empire (Greed, lust for power over others, desire for status above others), to resist empire’s ideologies and transform hearts and minds so that the Kingdom of God, rather than empires of evil would influence the world.  Simon Peter and the others were sinful, ordinary people who wanted to live the extraordinary liberation and abundance that life in the Kingdom alone could bring.  They followed Jesus in order to do the work of teaching and leading people in the living of Kingdom values (Agape Love and Grace) here and now.

The life forever part is a GIVEN.  It is a given by God out of Grace.  The life forever part is not the goal.  It is not based on merit and cannot be earned.  It is not about OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, but God’s.  It is extended to ordinary, sinful people.  When we skip the part of following Jesus, especially in those things that lead us to the Cross and tomb, we miss the point that our lives are about living within the Kingdom of God here and now.  We miss the point that life forever is God’s to give and not ours to achieve.  We miss the point that faithfulness to God is marked by Jesus as how we live and act on behalf of God’s children here and now, how we are transformed and how we transform the world to live the Agape Love and Grace that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us.  When we focus on following Jesus in that way, we are already within the Kingdom of God, and it transforms lives, communities and the world.  That is the work of God through us.

 God is relentless.  We have not yet learned as a world or nation or church the lessons of Jesus on how to walk faithfully to God in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now.  We have not yet worked toward a life abundant for all of God’s people, so that all may have Shalom.  We have not yet begun the real work of transforming the world through the teaching and living of Agape Love and Grace.  Oh, some folk get it.  Some see the extraordinary things that can happen when Agape Love and Grace are applied to life under, in spite of and in resistance to empire.  Some of them are Buddhists, Muslims and even Atheists.  Is it not time that the church which bears Jesus’ name leave the futile attempts to make a life under empire, and walk with Jesus in transforming lives, communities and the world?  Is it not time for us, ordinary and sinful people, to leave the ideologies of empire on the shore and follow Jesus?  If not now, when?  Empire has run roughshod over God’s children for long enough.  It is time for life in the Kingdom – a life abundant.

God the Holy Spirit is relentless.  As much as it seems that empire is relentless, with its countless reincarnations throughout the history of the world, and currently through the economics and politics of our own nation, God is more so in offering life in the Kingdom, a life abundant because it is a life of Shalom for ALL people.  God is relentless.

What are we?

Pastor Jamie