1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Paul, called to be
an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of
God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my
God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in
Christ Jesus,
for in every way
you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind
just as the
testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you
so that you are not
lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
He will also
strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
God is faithful; by
him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 1:29-42
The next day he (John the Baptist) saw
Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me
comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'I myself did not know him; but I
came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to
Israel."And John testified, "I saw the
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the
one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the
Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have
testified that this is the Son of God."
The next day John again was standing
with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he
exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say
this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them
following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to
him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you
staying?" He said to them, "Come and
see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him
that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).
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This week’s gospel
story is another story about Jesus and John the Baptist. John is not at work at
the moment, so it seems. He is standing around with a few of his closest
friends, and he sees Jesus walk by. So he says to his disciples, “Look! There
goes the Lamb of God!” And as soon as he says this, the two disciples turn on
their heel and go after Jesus, follow him.
It’s a strange sort
of twist on the story in Matthew’s and Mark’s gospel about how Jesus calls the
first disciples. It’s the same two people, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew.
But unlike the fishing story, where Jesus walks by them and he says, “Follow
me”, here we have Jesus walking by, and they seem to decide on their own to
follow him. I wondered when I read it, whether John had told lots of things
about Jesus to his disciples prior to this encounter. Maybe they had discussed
the meaning of what John called Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins
of the world.” Perhaps he had said, if
you get the chance, go with him, follow him.
For whatever the
reason, that is what they do. And for them, it is the beginning of a life of
following Christ, and of bringing new followers along. Their lives were changed
forever, as they answered his call, and took on the challenge Jesus gave them –
to “come and see”, which is more than just passive observing, but is an
invitation to come along, to hang out with him, to follow him along the road of
his ministry.
And they experienced
first hand that Jesus wasn’t staying anywhere, that he didn’t stay still, but
he kept on moving on the path of ministry. Jesus brought along a group of 12
disciples who were not prepared, skilled or trained for what was to come. They were fisherman, not rabbis, or Pharisees,
or lawyers (which meant those trained in the law of the Torah). But their life
work became obedience to God, using their speech and knowledge and God-given
gifts to serve the Lord by loving one another. They answered God’s call, they
dedicated their lives, to the best of their abilities.
The reading we heard
this morning from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was the introduction of a
letter that addresses the divisions among them, and redirects them to unity.
The introduction is filled with words of assurance about their ability to live
their lives in community and in response to God’s call. You have everything you
need, he tells them. You have speech and knowledge of every kind. You have
numerous personal testimonies, based on the ways you have experienced God’s
work in your life. These provide confidence to you and to those who hear you.
You are not lacking in any spiritual gift, Paul tells them.
And you have the
grace of God. You have unearned favor from God, which has nothing whatsoever to
do with who you are as a person or the sins you have done, or the sins you will
do.
We have the assurance
and the confidence that God is faithful, and so we can live in God’s love and we
can share it with others freely.
We know that the fear
we feel is not of God, and that God will walk us through that fear to a place
of hope, if we are willing to come along, to come and see.
This week we remember
Martin Luther King Jr, and what he did for our nation, the great sacrifice he
made to make us a better nation, a better people. Dr. King knew firsthand that
God was faithful, and that enabled him to step out in faith and do the work to
which he was called.
But it didn’t come
easy.
Well before the March
on Washington, or his “I have a Dream” speech, there was a defining moment for
Martin Luther King, Jr. And it came past midnight, in a kitchen, at 309 South
Jackson Street, in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. King was 27 years old, two years
into his role as pastor of nearby Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Over the prior
month, Dr. King had been called by God, through his fellow pastors, to lead the
Montgomery bus boycott. This was a decision that set off a series of death
threats delivered by mail and phone to his home — as many as 30 to 40 calls
daily, often at night. Normally, Martin could put the phone down and go back to
sleep. But one call, on the night of January 27, 1956, stood out.
As his wife, Coretta,
and 10-week-old daughter, Yolanda, slept in the master bedroom nearby, the
voice on the other end of the line started off by calling him that terrible,
offensive “N” word, and said: “We’re tired of your mess. And if you aren’t out
of this town in three days, we’re going to blow up your house and blow your
brains out.”
Dr. King hung up
without comment, as had become his custom.
Threatening phone
calls had become a daily routine in the weeks of the protests, and Martin had
tried to brush them off at first. In recent days, however, the threatening
phone calls had started to take a toll, increasing in number to thirty or forty
a day and growing in their menacing intent.
Unwelcome thoughts
prey on the mind in the late hours, and Martin found himself overcome with
fear. When he spoke about it later, he said, "I got out of bed and began
to walk the floor. I had heard these things before, but for some reason that
night it got to me.
Stirred into
wakefulness, Dr. King made a pot of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. "I
felt myself faltering," he said. It was as though the violent
undercurrents of the protest rushed in upon him with heightened force, and he
surveyed the turbulent waters for a way of escape, searching for an exit point between
courage and convenience – "a way to move out of the picture without
appearing a coward" – and he found none. "I was ready to give
up," he said.
Dr. King thought of
his baby daughter sleeping in her crib, of her "little gentle smile,"
and of Coretta, who had sacrificed her music career, according to the expectation
of the Baptist pastor's wife, to follow her husband south. For the first time,
he grasped the seriousness of his situation, the inescapable fact that his
family could be taken away from him any minute, or more likely he from them. He
felt himself reeling within, as the Psalmist had said, his soul "melted
because of trouble, at wit's end." "I felt myself . . . growing in
fear," said Dr. King.
Sitting at his
kitchen table sipping the coffee, Martin’s thoughts were interrupted by a
sudden notion that at once intensified his desperation and clarified his
options. "Something said to me, 'You can't call on Daddy now, you can't
call on Mama. You've got to call on that something in that person that your
daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no
way.'" With his head now buried in his hands, Dr. King bowed over the
kitchen table, over the coffee cup, and prayed aloud. He said:
Lord, I'm down here
trying to do what's right. I still think I'm right. I am here taking a stand
for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now, I'm
faltering. I'm losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. And I can't let the people
see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will
begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand
before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end
of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it
alone.
As he prayed alone in
the silent kitchen, Martin heard a voice saying, "Martin Luther, stand up
for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be
with you. Even until the end of the world." Then Martin heard the voice of
Jesus. "I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised
never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave
me alone."
And as the voice
washed over the stains of the wretched caller, Dr. King reached a spiritual
shore beyond fear and apprehension. "I experienced the presence of the
Divine as I had never experienced Him before," he said. "Almost at
once my fears began to go," Dr. King said of the midnight flash of
illumination and resolve. "My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face
anything."
As he prayed, and
placed his fear into God’s hands, Dr. King realized that God is faithful, regardless
of the nature of the call, of the risk involved. He did not believe the risk
was any less. As he said, he was ready to face anything. Like the disciples
were. Like Christ was, for us and for
our salvation.
God is faithful.
Answering the call of
God, dedicating your life to it, this is significant. Leading people to see God
more clearly, love God more dearly, follow God more nearly, this is a life
changing call.
We are ordaining and
installing ruling elders and deacons today, leaders in governance, care and
compassion for the congregation of New Life Presbyterian Church. Some are
entering into roles they have not held before. Others are coming back to
continue serving God by helping lead the congregation. All are answering a
call, an invitation from Christ to “come and see”, to come along, to explore,
to discover, to be transformed.
It’s a challenging
call. They are signing on to help us become a new community, one that moves
past the differences we feel as east and west – and into New Life. It is
daunting sometimes.
We dwell in fear and
uncertainty here sometimes.
We create fear and
uncertainty for one another here sometimes.
We still sin, we are all
still broken people.
But they know, as we
know, that God is faithful. And God is merciful – so thanks be to God, we don’t
get what we deserve, in response to our sin. And God is gracious – so we get
far more than we ever deserve in love and care, in compassion and hope. In New
Life.
So as we ordain and
install and commit ourselves to supporting and working with these humble
servants today, let us do so in the certain knowledge that God has plans for
NLPC, plans yet to be revealed, and God is faithful.
Thanks to Charles Marsh / beliefnet.org for MLK Jr story.
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