The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for January 25, 2009

Texts: Jonah 3:1-5,10/Mark 1:14-20

Title:  “Transformational Moments”

              Behind every transformative moment in history there was a vision that inspired it. In his inauguration address on Tuesday, President Obama enumerated events in our nation’s past where women and men, often at great personal cost, rose up to affirm and defend our nation’s values.

             The inauguration of our President has been widely billed as a transformative moment in American history.  Historians and other commentators who study such things have publicly stated, and the personal experience of many citizens across the land who have watched past inaugurations confirms, that never before in our lifetimes has a President of the United States entered office to such fanfare and great expectations.

              Though the enthusiasm that greeted Barak Obama’s inauguration may not have caught on among many across the land, millions of people, particularly African Americans, but also other ethnic groups, have embraced the vision candidate Obama; and have done so with a fervor no inauguration in our lifetimes has inspired. That single fact cannot be denied.

              The political agenda President Obama espouses has its detractors, and will continue to have its detractors; such are the facts of life in a democracy.  But, be we for or against the political course our President may choose to set, all of us are living at a point in history where the significance of this particular transfer of power cannot be overstated. An imperiling financial crisis, wars on two separate fronts, the global threat of terrorism, and the other challenges call for the best America, whatever our political persuasion, has to offer.

              When future historians reflect upon this period in our history they will certainly report the phenomenon that was inauguration day.  That we elected our first African American president will get priority coverage, of course, but they will fill out their reflections with analysis of the particular circumstances prevailing when he took office. Not merely his race, those who analyze this period in our history will study the message he brought and the language he chose to express it. Words like “change” and “hope” will be prominent in their commentary.

              It takes little imagination to envision how a historian treating the inauguration the context of these challenging times will treat the assignment, for journalists and other commentators have weighed in at length on the significance of this transfer of power. The imagination is given much more room to roam, however, on the yet unseen impact of the Obama presidency on our economy, the wars, global terrorism and the other issues that confront us.  The results simply aren’t in yet.

              Even our President’s most enthusiastic backers realize that campaign rhetoric and the bold declarations made in an inauguration speech will not be converted into an action plan or implemented on the cheap.  These supporters realize along with the rest of us that the historians reflecting on this period will write not merely about achievements made and hopes realized they will write about bold plans that fell short.  They will write about the dead ends confronted. They will write about people who failed and policies that failed. They will write about promises broken and promises unrealized.

              The President’s most enthusiastic backers and all the rest of us who are on this adventure with them, know that from the perspective of the historian writing about this era, the mere fact that we elected an African American to the nation’s highest office, may outweigh any specific achievements for which the President and his administration might be given credit. We will have to wait and see ho things turn out.

              History is lived forward. Inauguration and all the excitement and hoopla are behind us.  History is a much sterner judge than those who revel in possibilities and what might be. The accumulated hopes of those who dare to dream that the agenda our President articulated in his inauguration speech will be realized count for little if those words fail to inspire action.

                It matters little that our President is the first African American to occupy the White House.  It matters little how adept he is at writing and delivering a good speech.  None of that matters.  What really matters is whether or not the citizens of the land, pro-Obama or anti-Obama, are sufficiently motivated to make the vision he inspires a reality.  And those efforts involve difficult choices that may well impact a lot of us unfavorably, even those in the “pro-est” of pro-Obama ranks.

               Behind every transformative moment in history there was a vision that inspired it, but also people sufficiently motivated to convert vision to reality. There is a vision that has swept up many Americans in the wake of November’s election, a vision that saw millions travel to Washington, brave freezing weather, to be present for a history making event. That vision involves many things bearing on our lives, things like our financial solvency as individuals and families, our protection from foreign aggressors, affordable health care, well, you know the list.

              What will become of that vision in the days, months, and years ahead we do not know. We do know, however, that nothing will happen unless people like us strive to make it happen, and people like us consent to it happening. 

              Behind every transformative moment in history there was a vision that inspired it. The lesson I read a couple of minutes ago refers to one such moment, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

              While we view the beginning of Jesus’ ministry through the lens of Mark’s Gospel this morning, each of the gospels introduces Jesus’ ministry in the context of transformation---“the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”  But only in Mark’s gospel is transformation and the call to the disciples who will lead that transformation, so directly linked.

              Mark wants us to understand that Jesus didn’t wait around, but on the heels of the announcement that the kingdom of God was near he went out to find people who would help him make the nearness of the kingdom apparent to all who had eyes to see.

               Those of us who have recruited people for a task know that Jesus’ approach to recruitment would probably fail in most situations.  Just two words, “Follow me,” and the deed was done. 

Jesus’ recruiting methods and the response of those he recruited, challenges anyone who has ever read our lesson.  He said, “Follow me,” and those he addressed put down what they were doing, “immediately,” we are told, and marched off then and there. Family?  Obligations at home? These considerations apparently never arose for those Jesus recruited, at least in Mark’s rendering of the events.

                 Behind every transformative moment in history there was a vision that inspired it.  Such is the case in the circumstances we are living right now; such were the circumstances that pertained in Jesus’ day.

                 Before there was invitation to follow there was a vision.  The vision Jesus brought was shaped around the good news God appointed him to bring. What was so amazing, at least from the standpoint of our lesson, is that the men Jesus called bought into that good news so readily and so wholeheartedly. Or did they?  Or did they? As we read further into Mark’s Gospel, as well as the other three gospels, we learn that the disciples had their own notions about what Jesus was calling them to do. Jesus may have enlisted them to join him in announcing good news, but that good news on many occasions wasn’t in a form particularly recognizable to them.

                    Simon Peter, Andrew and the others may have, for all appearances, left everything behind to follow Jesus, but they didn’t leave everything behind. As their weeks with Jesus extended into months, in circumstance after circumstance, they would discover how their vision of God’s kingdom, their understanding of what constituted good news, didn’t mesh with that of Jesus.

Life with Jesus proved to be a challenging apprenticeship, an apprenticeship that, if measured by lessons learned and skills acquired, profited little, at least for quite a long time. No the fruits of their apprenticeship would only be truly exhibited after their master was gone and they were on their own.

                   That we have gathered here of our own accord this morning without any hope for any tangible reward to compensate us, at least in the short run, demonstrates that we, at some level at least, embrace the vision, the good news, Jesus brought with him to earth. What we cannot assess, however, is how God’s transformative power is at work to insure, in very practical ways, that Jesus’ vision is realized.  There is no legislative achievement, no executive order, by which we might mark the progress of Jesus’ vision. 

                   We know that there is a transformative power that emanates from God’s word, and it is by that same power that ordinary time is converted to holy time as we worship, commune together and baptize in Jesus’ name.

                We know that a transformative power surrounds us, but frankly the kingdom of God seems very remote at times.  We wait and watch, impatient for God to disclose himself. As we wait we may even be asking ourselves how, or if, God might be using us to disclose himself to the world. But is that not the challenge God puts before us?  

                     On a March day in 1980, Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero, a voice for human rights in El Salvador, preached his last sermon before an assassin’s bullet killed him.  In that sermon he challenges the follower of Jesus to allow himself/herself to become an instrument of God’s grace.  He writes, “Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can do only as much as God makes us able to; we are only as intelligent as God would have us to be.”

                  Scripture does not tell us if those first disciples who dropped everything and followed Jesus ever arrived at that level of self-understanding.  But the growth of the church through the first challenging years after Jesus’ death and resurrection does show that some who counted themselves disciples of Jesus did arrive at a level of self-understanding that allowed them to see themselves as an instrument in the hands of God.  These were people who would go on to use their gifts and talents to help fulfill Jesus’ vision for the world.         

               History will ultimately reveal the character of the transformative moment in which we are living. Will the vision that inspired the moment birth wisdom, creativity, and courage sufficient to address the many challenges we face as Americans today? Or will this moment in history be deemed transformative solely on the basis of the skin color of man we elected?  The results won’t be in for quite some time.  But if our life under God has taught us anything, substantive change does not occur absent people to execute it. 

                 The call “follow me” is a mere invitation to the work; it cannot insure that the work will be done. Discipleship, but also the remaking of America represents stern tests. In matters pertaining to our nation’s well-being of the spiritual communities of which we are a part, transformation doesn’t happen to us but through us.

In nation building and kingdom building, but also the building of God’s kingdom, “Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than [instruments] in the hands of God.” AMEN. 

PRAYER

              “Follow me.”  “No, follow me.” “Don’t go there, follow me.”  We have heard the voices, O Christ, each making their claim on our attention and our time. We have heard the voices.  They reach us in the form of temptation, obligation, responsibility, and necessity.  ‘Follow me, it really doesn’t make a difference so long as no one finds out.”  “Follow me, you are needed here.”  “Follow me, that report is due tomorrow.” “Follow me, if you don’t step up, no one will.”

               O Lord, your voice is heard as one voice among many, and we often treat it as one voice among many. You invite us, “Follow me,” and we ask for an extension. “Can it wait until tomorrow?”  “Can we defer until a better time?” 

             “Follow you?”  “Of course, Lord, we will follow you.” “But when all is said and done we really don’t know what it means to follow you, do we?” In your mercy forgive us for petty deceits, and the excuses we use to justify our disobedience.  We have heard the promises of forgiveness but we can’t bring ourselves to believe, O God, that our confession of sin, even the sin we deem most condemning, can actually be forgiven. Strangers to grace, we wander, even as you call us home.  Grant us the courage to believe that we will be welcome at home, that you have prepared a room there for us.

                O God, the nation marked a grand occasion in the history of our republic. The first African American citizen was elected President. Those who for so long felt that their voices were not being heard, now revel in the historic first. May the election of Barak Obama to the presidency, O Lord, forge a new unity across races, a unity where all citizens feel respected and represented.

               We pray your blessing on our President as he is challenged for the first time by the many responsibilities that come with his office. Grant him wisdom sufficient to the challenges he will face, but also the self-confidence to move forward when blockages present themselves. May he be open, O God, to dissenting voices, and willing to reach out to those with whom he disagrees.  Pledged to be a President for all the nation’s citizens, may the pledge be matched in deed.

                Lord, even as many regard the inauguration of our new President as a watershed, a transformative moment, we know that many cannot wait for transformation to occur.  The jobless cannot wait for help to arrive as savings dwindle.  They cannot wait as house payments lapse.  They cannot wait as bill collectors threaten. Lord, sustain those whose hopes are fading, or those whose hopes have vanished.  Let them know, O God, as only you can, that they have not been forgotten, that they are children precious in your sight.

                 We pray for all those who represent our nation to the world.  We pray for our women and men serving in our nation’s armed forces. We pray for those who serve in the State Department. Lord, we pray for those who administer foreign aid and relief. We pray for those who oversee the international banking system.

                O Christ, head of the church, embolden us to speak truth to power, to continue to advocate for the least in your kingdom, to strive for justice and peace.  Appointed to bring the joy of salvation to the nations, forgive us our insularity. Prone to measure the success of our ministries by how well our personal needs are served, we often forget, O Christ, that you call of out of ourselves and into the world.

                  O Christ, head of the church, may your will guide our actions, and your Spirit fill our hearts onto the day you call us home.

                In the confidence that you are present with us to hear and respond to prayer we now lift these prayers of intercession.