3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who interrupts our lives. Amen This past week I had the chance to do some continuing education, I went to a series of talks by the author Mark Tranvik on Luther and Vocation. Vocation is the big church word that means a call from God to do something oriented toward God we often associate vocations with work and more specifically with careers within the church. In fact, at the time of the reformation the only people considered to have vocations were monks, nuns and priests. Tranvik’s point was that the gift of Luther’s thinking and the reformation is that because of our baptisms we all have vocations, calls from God and not just with our jobs but all areas of our lives are places and opportunities to love and serve God and neighbor, vocation in the broadest sense of the word is God’s call to us to let God’s love overflow from our lives into the lives of those around us. Now, figuring out what God wants us to do is easier said than done, it’s been many years since the skies parted and the voice of God boomed out with specific instructions. These days God speaks in very subtle ways which sometimes we only understand well after the fact. But Mark Tranvik pointed out that one place that God seems to particularly like to work in and through are the interruptions in life. In our texts for today We have stories of God calling people And there are interruptions all over the place, interruptions that lead to those who are interrupted serving God and neighbor. Simon and Andrew are fishing when Jesus comes upon them and interrupts their lives, we are told they are fishermen, so they are engaged in an activity that they have done before, that they use to support themselves and their families and which they expect that they will do the rest of their lives. But something in the invitation to follow Jesus and fish for people catches their attention they set down their nets and the trajectory of their lives changes dramatically. The same goes for James and John who are helping their father with the family business which their father anticipates that they will take over some day but when Jesus interrupts their net mending to call them to follow they leave their nets and their father in the boat along with the plan for the rest of their lives all because they paid attention to an interruption. Jonah’s life was interrupted by God, several times in fact. Jonah’s first instinct was to do the exact opposite of what God wanted. Instead of going to Nineveh like God asked Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish, a journey which God interrupted with a big storm and Jonah, gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish before getting back on track and when he goes to Nineveh like God asks he interrupts the lives of the Ninevites with the message “forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” and the people listen to this interruption! They call a fast, clean up their ways, repent before God and when God sees this, that they’ve listened to the interruption God changes plans and does not destroy their city. All of our lives have been interrupted as some point Sometimes the interruptions are as simple as meeting a new friend, often the obvious interruptions involve loss whether it’s loss of a job or a loved one or some other kind, and the resulting call may also be more subtle, a call to increased compassion for those who have experienced the same thing you have. Many times it is only well after the fact that we see where God was in the interruption and how it changed the way we love and serve our neighbors. Often when we look at the story of Jesus calling his disciples, I think we get stuck on the dramatic way in which the disciples give up everything - Jesus says ‘come fish for people’ whatever that means- and immediately they set down their nets and go with him. This seems like an impossible example to follow- we think ‘well that’s great for them but I can’t do that, I’ve got responsibilities or other reasons why dropping everything would not work, and if we think of the life of discipleship only in this one way it seems out of reach for most of us. But not everyone is called to drop everything and live an itinerant lifestyle, there are other ways to live as a disciple of Jesus, and that’s why talking about vocation is so important, because vocation- that call from God to let the love of God overflow from our lives into the lives of others- is lived out in all areas of life. Luther once said that perhaps the most spiritual thing one can do is wash out dirty diapers and hang them on the line- He caught some flack from his academic colleagues when they saw him out in the backyard helping his wife Katie with the household chores but for Luther, his sense of vocation meant that he understood that in the realm of family life the way he could be a disciple, to let the love of God flow from his life into the life of his family was to serve his wife and children by washing dirty diapers. Discipleship doesn’t have to be dramatic or complicated we are all called to be disciples, this call came to us at the biggest interruption in our lives, our baptism. The point in our life when God claimed us made sure that we knew that we are no one’s but God’s, and in the water and the word joined us to the death and resurrection of Jesus, saying ‘death no longer has any claim on this person, whatever hardships come their way the end result will be life with God.’ In our baptisms we have been set free and our lives filled to overflowing with the love of God and we are given the purpose of sharing that love with others in many and various ways, and so we do resting secure in the knowledge that whatever interruptions we encounter in life God is there with us, loving us and working for good. Amen for more on vocation and the ideas referenced in this sermon see the book: Martin Luther and the Called Life by Mark D. Tranvik
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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