Why are we Christian? Why do we come to church once a week on Sunday mornings? Do we come because we just like it? Do we come because we’ve always come? Do we come because it is a good place to socialize? Why are we here?
Following last night’s events I went back to my office and typed a lot. I didn’t know what to do with my sermon. So I would write, then cut, then paste, then erase, then write some more, then lie down on the floor, then pace, then write some more. Rarely have I felt so openly helpless, so ill-equipped in my ministry than I did as I sat staring at a computer screen last night. Where was my faith in the midst of all this?
At a time like this, the rubber meets the road. So why are we here?
In our Gospel reading for today we read a truly ridiculous story. Possibly one of the most outlandish stories in all of the bible. And it isn’t about a healing. It isn’t about someone walking on water. It isn’t about God siding with one army over another. It isn’t even about the glories of creation or re-creation. And yet it is one of the most miraculous stories I have read.
It’s about Jesus saying to a few people, “Hey, come and follow me.” And do you know what? They do. Immediately. Without thought. They drop their very livelihoods, they leave their families, their possessions, and they follow. In all honesty, there are no stories in all of scripture that I find half so terrifying as this one.
Think about it. This is scary. How many of us, myself included, would walk away from our jobs, would leave our possessions, would abandon our families if Jesus asked us to? Don’t worry, I don’t think Jesus is asking us to. But, what did these four disciples encounter? To be honest, though it scares me, I marvel at it as well. What did they experience in Christ? What was it that just made them drop everything? Immediately?
Maybe the question is not, “Why are we Christian?”, maybe the question is more basic than that entirely, “What does it mean to be Christian?” “What does it mean to cast down our nets and follow Christ?”
It is so easy to drop frivolous words around this story. Words like, “Oh they found Christ.” But what do we even mean by that? “Oh, they accepted Jesus.” Really? So what does that mean?
These days words like that imply that we have some sort of choice in the matter. Some sort of agency in accepting Christ. We have turned it into a rational head game. Do this, that, and the other thing and you will be a follower of Jesus. Believe this, that, and the other thing and you accept Christ. (Act it out)… Oh, ok. Now I guess I’m a Christian.
But look at these four disciples. They had absolutely no control over what they were doing. The bible is very clear that they immediately followed Jesus. They didn’t stop to think about whether or not they should, whether it was a good idea or a bad idea. They didn’t pause and consider the ramifications of their actions. They just went.
So what was it that swept them up? What took their control away?
My own answer is simple. They experienced God, they experienced the divine, they experienced holiness, whatever you want to call it when they met Jesus. Richard Rohr writes that “Anyone who has any authentic inner experience knows God is only beauty, mercy and total embrace.” To be wrapped up in total embrace, how could they not be swept away? Once you’ve felt that, once you’ve known that, is there any choice?
More and more I’m coming to the realization that everything about our faith comes down to grace. That’s all there is, that is all that matters. Grace! Grace! Grace! The idea that God’s love comes first. That all things are created out of love and dwell within that love. That God’s love is freely and adoringly given. That there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn that love. No hoop to jump through, no ritual to perform, no set of beliefs to have. Alternatively there is absolutely nothing we can do to lose that love, no sin so great, no belief so outlandish.
As Christians we see that Grace embodied in the self giving love of Jesus. No wonder these disciples dropped everything. They encountered and knew divine love, and it blew them away. They were absolutely taken by it! Because this is so foreign to us, we try to take control of it. We have created systems that tell us what we need to do in the world or believe about Jesus in order to receive it. But we can’t control it. God’s love comes first.
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is Paul, and I think it is the Gospel, it is Grace, in the most eloquent language I’ve ever read. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God.
I think it is important for all of us to know that.
But here’s the question, how many of us know that for ourselves? It is, in many ways, relatively easy to think it about other. But, when we’re well and truly honest with ourselves, how many of us think, “My value comes from God’s love for me. And God’s love is enough.”
That is the basis of all things. That is where the rubber meets the road. If we don’t have that, if our value comes from somewhere, something, or someone beyond ourselves, it is that somewhere, something, or someone that we will follow. If the fishermen saw their value as being the work that they did, they would have never left their boats. If the fishermen saw their value as what they possessed, they would never have dropped their nets. If the fishermen saw their own value as being their families, they would never have gone. The bible is not saying any of these are bad. The bible is simply saying, our value does not come from them.
This is the most basic element of our faith. Our value comes simply from God’s love. Our role as Christians is to long to experience that for ourselves and for the world around us. That is the basis upon which all things must grow. I wish I could say what needs to be done to experience that. But I can’t. That’s not the way it works. However, if anyone wants to know that, if anyone longs for that. Talk to me. I would love to explore with you, as I explore for myself. Because God’s love is present, it resides deep within and around us. We’re invited to know it and to share it.
This has been edited since I preached it. Some specific events and people were mentioned (with permission) that I subsequently edited out for online posting. I like this sermon. It felt good.
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