Third Sunday after the Epiphany - Year A
January 27, 2008
Matthew 4:12-23
No Two Are Alike
The story is quite casual, when it informs us of Jesus’ selection of his disciples. He is walking along the Sea of Galilee and he sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew. He says to them, “Follow me.” He goes a little further and he sees two more brothers, James and John, and he calls them also. We can’t tell, from the story, whether Jesus went out there intentionally looking for these four men or if he simply looked up, saw them, and thought, “They will do.”
None of us wants to believe that the selection of the disciples was “accidental,” or “whimsical.” We prefer to think that these men were carefully selected and evaluated. That is the way important institutions select their leaders and models, isn’t it? We have had two weeks of Katie-bar-the-door campaigning by Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates. Each one of them, and all the commentators, doing their best to frighten us into believing there is only one right person for the job. If we put this much energy and deliberation into selecting the person who will be one of many in a long line of temporary leaders of one of the world’s current organized countries – shouldn’t much greater consideration be given to the selection of the twelve individuals who, with their leader, will re-shape all of human history? You would think so.
And yet, Matthew doesn’t seem to see it that way. Jesus is walking along the beach and he sees a couple of guys and invites them to become the most well-known names in history.
And they would change history.
Peter (or Simon, or Cephas as he is referred to in the reading from I Corinthians) is the one whose personal traits are most noted in the story which follows. He is the impulsive one. He is the one eager to serve but a bit clumsy in doing so. Peter is the principal opponent, at least at first, to allowing non-Jews to become a part of this whole new way. His beliefs and thoughts and actions affect and direct the Church which would emerge from Jesus’ life and ministry. It is upon his confession that the Church is built. It is his denial of Jesus which stands as the eternal reference point of what it means to talk the talk but then fail to walk the walk.
I am not attempting to trash Peter. I am using him as an example of how drastically things can be changed depending upon who it is that steps into the role of protector and teacher of Jesus’ message.
Paul would later step into that role. He is the follower who, when given a chance to lead, leads in such a way as to make the Jesus story palatable to western thought. Paul’s style of preaching reflects western linear thought. He sets forth reasonable arguments for the things Jesus said, “Do.” His writing gives rise to the theological teachings so important to our tradition. Paul is the one who moves talk of “faith” into the place where Peter might have been more inclined to place “observance.”
Paul understands the impact of his life and the life of Peter on the young church. So much so that in that reading from I Corinthians he warns the fellowship against becoming overly committed to the subtitles of one’s teaching as opposed to the other. “You were baptized in the name of Christ,” Paul reminds the faithful.
Jesus had to have known, in selecting these particular men, that their personalities and past experiences would influence the way in which the story to follow would unfold. Whether he had given it long and careful thought, or acted on a whim, surely he understood that once the twelve got involved there would be also be twelve varieties of expression.
All of this came home for me on Friday, as I shared in leading the Ecumenical Prayer Service at the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There weren’t many of us there. Very few, in fact. Eleven, twelve if you count the guy running the sound system. Thirteen if you include the woman walking laps above us, on the exercise level of First Baptist’s Family Life Center. In that setting, it struck me how differently our particular expression of the church looks, based on the preferences and perceptions of those who are leading.
The Baptist pastor was praying from the heart; the Roman Catholic expressed faith using the eloquent words of the ancients; the UCC pastor told a story of how God comes to life in the service of others. My “Lutheran” contribution certainly had overtones of open-ended grace. It is possible to describe the theological positions taken by our various denominations as an outgrowth and expression of those who gave rise to each. You could argue that the issues which became important enough to separate us one from another were issues of paramount importance in the life of the one whose actions got the rest of us moving in a new direction.
I don’t want to say that our various theological positions are whimsical, and unimportant. But I do want us to consider how differently the Church looks, depending entirely upon the one who sets the tone. And it is inevitable that this would be true. As soon as you introduce humans into the process, there will differences as varied as the individuals who graciously accept the call to lead.
The intention behind the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is to celebrate our common calling as followers of Jesus. It is an invitation to dislodge our mistrust and our critiques of one another. The Week of Prayer is a time to come together and show the world that we are brothers and sisters. 2008 is the centennial year of the ecumenical movement. For 100 years Christians have been coming together to proclaim the Word of Christ and set aside our theological and liturgical differences. We have been trying, but sometimes the road is hard and the way is tough. We are back there in Corinth, claiming to belong to Zwingli, or Smith, or Luther. When it is in the name of Christ that we were baptized. Jesus is the one who was crucified and raised from the grave.
Between our Sunday services, I lead a Sunday School class. The text we are using is Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers. The subtitle is “Exploring Christian Faith.” The book is offered as an examination of main theological tenets. In speaking to these, the author points out what is unique or distinctive about the “Lutheran” response to the topic. I am very proud, and quite defensive, of the Lutheran voice and line of reasoning. But it is only our voice, not our being. Our being belongs to Christ. There is a quote from Martin Luther in the opening pages of the Book of Concord in which Luther reminds states clearly, “Who is Luther that you might be known by that name? There is only one name by which you should be known and that is the name of Christ.” We didn’t call ourselves “Lutherans.” It was a tag pined on us by others.
As soon as Jesus selected others to help him in his mission that mission began to take on a multiplicity of flavors. There were differences between the way Peter told the story and the way in which James lived out the faith. There is no way around it. What can be avoided allowing those differences to divide us.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity stretches from the Feast Day of the Confession of St. Peter to the Feast Day of the Conversion of St. Paul. The two persons most responsible for the form taken by the Church bracket this opportunity to see ourselves as one people, united in Christ. Each denomination has unique gifts to offer; let us offer these gifts to the whole of Christendom. May they be used as a way to strengthen the body of Christ, not used to divide it.
Amen.
