"Follow Me" is Risky Business

 

Memorial to Renee Nicole Good, Minneapolis, MN.

Every day, I find myself feeling usually one of three emotions: sad, angry, or depressed. Sometimes it's all of them all at once. And I blame our current regime for my constant state of agitation over anything. They are allowing federal agents to run amok on the streets of Minneapolis, kidnapping children, tear-gassing people, chasing Uber Eats drivers into people's homes, and shooting peaceful protestors at point blank range. 

And the current regime in the White House is not only doing nothing to stop the violence; they're telling these thugs that they'll be protected from prosecution. Go do your worst, boys.

The day before I was to preach this sermon was the day agents with Customs and Border Patrol shot to death a nurse who worked at the VA, Alex Pettri. Pettri was holding his cellphone and recording their actions in the street. One of the CBP officers pushed a woman down onto the icy Minneapolis sidewalk. When Pettri attempted to help her up, the agents swarmed him, beat him, and shot him. Within minutes, those in Washington DC were telling the nation that Pettri, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, had a gun and was planning to shoot federal officers and would have killed some but for their bravery to disarm him.

That was a lie. There are multiple videos to refute that.

And so a second person has been killed for opposing these raids in Minneapolis.

My sermon's first sentence remained the same.  But I stayed up late...trying to figure out a way to tell the above story...and where I should put it in the sermon. And finally my journalist self said, "It's the lead, silly!" 

And so, I made it the first two minutes of a 15:30 minute sermon.

See what you think.

Text: Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23

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"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The philosopher George Santayana wrote those words in 1905.

It’s become an oft-repeated maxim…especially after events such as war.

It’s a phrase we should be paying attention to right now.

Because the worst parts of the world’s history are being repeated.

What happened yesterday in Minneapolis is contemptable…and sinful.

A 37 year-old man…Alex Pretti…an ICU Nurse at the VA…was shot ten times while he was on the ground after he had been pepper sprayed and beaten by six or seven federal agents.

His crime? Helping a woman up from the sidewalk who had been pushed by one of those agents.

This comes only 17 days after another federal officer shot and killed Renee Good…also 37 years old…American citizen…who was trying to back up her Honda Pilot to avoid the ICE agents when one of them shot her point blank in the face through the driver’s side window.

What’s been happening in Minnesota might feel like it’s a world away…but thanks to television and the internet…it’s closer to home.

And you can hear the terror in the interviews of the city’s residents.

They say it’s like they’re living in 1930s Germany.

They’re scared…confused…angry…and sad.

One woman remarked that she’d learned about Nazi Germany in school. But she never thought she’d live to see her own government turn on its citizens.

Now…I said last week that there’s nothing new under the sun.

And what is happening now is nothing new…even for the Scriptures.

Peter…Andrew…James and John…lived at a time and in a place that was dark…and oppressive…and felt as if nothing was going to get better.

Jesus hears that John has been arrested.

John…who had baptized him….and was practicing a ministry outside the establishment…calling on people to repent and return to God…has been arrested by the puppet King Herod of the Roman Empire and thrown into prison.

John’s arrest puts an end to his public ministry.

And like a relay team…the baton is now passed to Jesus to begin his public work.

Jesus leaves his hometown and goes to the region of Zebulan and Naphtali…a major fishing and trading route with a large Jewish population in this Gentile region.

And it’s a place that has been scarred by turmoil.

We know from Isaiah that the people here have suffered many generations of social and political upheaval with the Assyrian Empire conquering them in the eighth century B-C-E…and now the Roman Empire is occupying the territory.

This history matters to Matthew.

Because Matthew is writing in the fervent belief that Jesus represents the catalyst to break this pattern of conquest and oppression.

Isaiah talks about a people who walked in darkness now seeing a great light.

But Matthew indicates that they’ve been sitting there…as if waiting for this great light to shine.

And now that Jesus comes into the region…calling on people to “Repent…for the kingdom of heaven has come near”…Matthew wants us to hear that finally…here… centuries later and with the people still living under the thumb of another brutal regime…the light has come to the people to lead them to freedom from this rod of their oppressor.

Jesus gets to work…looking for his first disciples.

And he knows this troubled region is likely to have people ready to break free from their life of hardship and misery.

Because there was nothing romantic about being a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee during the First Century.

The fish they caught weren’t for themselves and their family.

The Roman Empire had control over their daily haul.

And the authorities would charge taxes on their catch.

Sure…they’d make some money…but most of it was going to prop up the Empire.

It was an exploitative system.

So when Jesus says “Follow me…and I will make you fish for people” it wasn’t just about joining with him.

He’s disrupting the Empire…and throwing sand in the gears of the system.

Without fishermen…there is no daily catch.

No fish for Caesar.

No taxes to collect.

A blow to the economy of the Empire.

Jesus’s call to these men also turned their lives inside out.

“Follow me…and I will make you fish for people “forced them to wonder:

Do I want to keep doing this?

Is there something more than working to benefit the Empire?

Jesus’ call opened their eyes to see a life beyond their fishing boats.

His words moved them to leave behind their livelihoods…and seek a new way with absolutely no guarantees of success.

Just the promise that there was a different type of catch to be made. 

A catch of people.

A way of building community on a foundation of Love.

To drop everything and follow is a total act of faith and trust.

But something deep within them knew that this was the way out of the darkness of occupation and oppression that dominated their everyday living.

Jesus has a way of interrupting our lives in that way.

And he doesn’t do it by force or threat.

He does it by an invitation to go in a new direction.

Is it scary? Sure, it is at the beginning.

None of those fishermen knew what was coming next.

Jesus didn’t let them in on the details that they’d be on a journey to confront the Roman Empire…and shake up the status quo in Jerusalem.

And they had no idea the violent opposition their movement was going to encounter.

They hadn’t seen any miraculous healings at this point…or even witnessed the way Jesus used his skillful rhetoric to deal with his detractors.

And he hadn’t flipped over any tables or chased moneychangers with whips.

Still…

Those words Jesus spoke to them contained a vision of hope for an unseen future…one that wasn’t repeating the patterns of the past.

And a voice inside them said “Yes” to making an important change in their lives.

Amazingly…this process has been happening over and over for millennia.

Not just people who go the way of a religious life.

But people who respond to the call to turn away from their fears and things that are different…explore new paths…and take seriously the idea of loving neighbor as much as oneself.

Before this latest shooting this week in Minneapolis…clergy from Minnesota and all over the country gathered with about a hundred thousand people in the streets to denounce the actions of the federal government in its round up of men, women and children…regardless of their immigration status.

They prayed.

They sang.

They marched in subfreezing temperatures.

Businesses closed in solidarity with this action.

Despite characterizations about those who go to protests…it’s likely these demonstrators are not all of one mind ideologically on the question about how best to strengthen our laws on immigration.

But what is driving them to protest is the moral clarity that says they do not want their neighbors…people who have lived side by side with them for five…ten…twenty years… citizens,  refugees and, perhaps, undocumented individuals who helped them cut their grass and raised their families together…they do not want those neighbors pulled out of their homes and sent miles away with no recourse.

These demonstrations also have historical roots in this country.

I recently heard an interview with Jelani Cobb…the dean of the Journalism School at Columbia University…talking about the Fugitive Slave Act of the 1800s.

He said when he teaches about this law that allowed for bounty hunters…the slave patrols…to go after runaway slaves…his students assume that those in the Northern states who protected these escapees were white abolitionists.

But he says…that’s not necessarily true.

He said some were…but not all of them opposed the system of slavery.

But what united them was the basic command: love thy neighbor.

That’s what Cobb says made two thousand people in Boston Massachusetts gather around a single black man and drive away the slave patrol pursuing him.

That’s what motivates people to gather in the streets of Minneapolis in frigid temperatures to demand an end to ICE raids…even at great personal danger.

The connection to the command to love thy neighbor is what has driven people of all walks of life…ages…and ideologies willing to take these risks to protect their neighbors.

It’s what motivates some to stand for hours…singing and praying in front of courthouses and state Capitol buildings across this country.

It’s what has people calling and writing their elected officials…sharing information online with friends…asserting what they believe in…what they see as the just and right way to treat human beings.

It’s what makes ordinary people respond to that still small voice that asks them to look at their lives and make the decision to do extraordinary… even… risky things for the good.

Following Jesus is an unpredictable path.

But it is the way out of the darkness of despair and into the way of light and hope.

It is a journey that takes us beyond what we think are our limits…and may feel like a bumpy ride…but is still worth the trip.

Epiphany is not only a season where we start seeing more of who Jesus is.

It’s also a time for us to start looking at who we are as followers of Jesus…and asking ourselves how we can keep lighting the way to Love in times of trouble and uncertainty.

Listen to that call…that voice within…and trust that the God of Love is leading the way.

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.