Living in Extraordinary Times

There is a saying that is attributed to the Chinese, “may you live in interesting times”, and it is not a blessing but a curse.  And we have been living in historic and interesting times.  There will be many books written on 2020, and it was certainly a relief to hear that last Wednesday’s events were undisturbed by violence.  Could we please get back to being bored and uninterested in US politics for at least 10 years?  And could we please get on to dealing with issues closer to home?

History disrupters like toxic politicians and pandemics are unpleasant to endure, but not all history disrupters are a detriment to society.  Our scripture today depicts Jesus as such a history disrupter, calling the disciples to become fishers of people rather than fishers of Lake Galilee.  Peter, James and the Zebedee brothers knew how to entangle the local fish, tilapia, which is currently my favorite to dine on.  They didn’t know much about catching people.  Yet Jesus came along, and in Mark’s version said a few words and totally disrupted their lives.  

What a disruption!  Not only did he convince them to quit their jobs, but he also convinced them to walk away from their family obligations.  He did it even though his mentor and predecessor, John the baptiser, had been arrested and was being held indefinitely without trial in Herod’s dungeon.

They followed, despite their previous loyalties, despite their secure careers and family obligations, and despite being completely untrained and unskilled in the ways of catching people.  Jesus didn’t care about that.  Jesus knew that they would be able to learn what they needed to learn.  Jesus knew that it wouldn’t be a safe occupation for them or him, but it would be a disruption of historic proportions.  Did he know that they would become so transformed by this experience that they would risk anything and go anywhere for the sake of his message?  Did he know that his teachings would be spread far beyond the shores of Galilee?  Did he know that they would end up travelling, from Israel to Rome, India, Greece, Spain and some say even to the British Isles?  His call was to ask them to commit to following him and learning how to gather people in.  All the rest was not in anyone’s intentions.

Paul’s writing is a similar call to holy disruption. To think of time not as interesting or cursed but as extraordinary, as blessed.  It echoes the idea that the kingdom of heaven is among us right now.  It shakes our understanding of time being not just the minutes, hours and days of our lives, what the ancient Greeks call Chronos, but seconds of significance.  The sense of sacred time, Kairos, is one in which we see God’s presence calling us and disrupting us away from interesting to extraordinary.  To see every moment as a sacred challenge.

How do we live into that sacred challenge?  For starters, not as celibates, despite Paul’s wording there.  Sorry Paul, I’m married and I know that it has transformed me in many God-called ways.  But seeing our marriages as sacred calls into extraordinary love, as God loved us, is one way of living into that sacred challenge.  And it’s not a call to a self-centred life either.  So many folks are tied up in despair because all they focus on is themselves.  Others see life as essentially pointless, without meaning or purpose.  Their depression and cynicism can be contagious, leading again to a focus on nothing but themselves.  Many feel angry at how powerless they are, that the world is conspiring to get them, and they must protect themselves at all costs, with Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, guns and racism.  Still others are convinced that their job is to convert other people to the truth that they alone possess, by any means possible.  

Many folks in their cynicism and despair and anger and fear do not know that they are living in extraordinary times.  All they experience day after day are interesting times.  Jesus called the fishermen in similar circumstances, and Jesus calls us today to fish for humans who are living in pain and isolation.  How do we do that?

I’m reminded of the Seventh Day Adventists who called the church the other day asking if I read the bible.  They told me that they did good works.  “Us too!” I chirped.  They helped the homeless.  “Of course”, I agreed.  They connected with shut-ins, “so do we!”  And they worshipped God together.  “Every week,” I replied.  They even dropped off books to our front door about the end times coming.  “We give away free books too, and food and even clothing.”  “Really?”  They asked.  “You are talking to a church, you know, and I am the minister here.”  Such ways leave people feeling suspicious and 

One commentator remarked that we can remember how fishermen caught that delicious tilapia in Galilee.  They didn’t use fishing rods.  They didn’t cast lines with carefully tied lures.  They didn’t attach spoons or red wigglers or feathers.  All these trick the fish into thinking they are biting on a tasty treat.  Galileans used nets, straightforward rope constructions with no pointy bits.  Nets that are obviously nets and easily seen.  Nets that can pull people from the chaos of their wild lives into new community.  Nets that disrupt mundane existance in ways that will enrich others.  Nets that pull people out of the murky, muddy depths of despair into new ways of seeing, new ways of seeking, and sometimes new ways of self-sacrificing.

We are called out of interesting times into extraordinary times.  We have been caught up by the nets of God into a new reality.  It is our calling, our opportunity, and our privilege to do the same for those that are suffering in this world.  May we hear the call and answer with fortitude, generosity, wisdom, and courage.

What Time is it?

 

This week we start on our Advent journey, looking for hope, peace, joy and love in the most challenging times I have ever known.  I was reflecting on the stories of my family’s challenging times.  My dad told us of how he got measles when he was a young boy and had to lie in bed for weeks without any light in order to protect his eyesight.  How hard it was to stay in bed and not even be allowed to read a book.  He had to rest and wait to get better.  His mom worried about him; there was no treatment except to keep the symptoms of fever down and keep feeding him as healthily as possible.  I was surprised to read that in the 1920’s before he was born, this very infectious disease had a 30% fatality rate due to complications.  Needless to say, there was no doubt in his mind that vaccinations were vital, and from 2000-2017, there’s been an 80% reduction in deaths from measles around the world.  In the 1950’s it was polio, something that my father in law, a phys ed teacher in his mid twenties, almost lost his life to.  His wife would visit him in the polio ward where he was the oldest patient, and it was a long wait before he could see his three sons again.  Again, thanks to vaccines, that is something we have not had to worry about in Canada for a long time.

Now we wait for a vaccine as well as anticipate a time when we will be able to socialize, travel, visit, hug and eat family dinners together.  But as my dad and father in law experienced, now is the time to wait.  Wait in hope not just for a vaccine but for a change in our culture; from the mindset that ‘I am immune’ or ‘I won’t get sick’ or ‘I deserve my rights’ to ‘we are in this together’.  In this time of waiting, let us be inspired by the stories of our families, but also the stories of our faith, stories of people who survive slavery, captivity, war and occupation and find courage and hope and the presence of the Holy as they waited for change to occur.  The story of a courageous young woman pregnant with a culture-changing soul who would challenge our sense of disconnection.  Who would remind us to care for our neighbors.  Who would call us to challenge our preconceptions and biases.  Who would inspire us to call out principalities and powers that take advantage of our fears to promote injustice or self-serving economic policies.  Stories of our faith that proclaim that nothing can separate us from the love of our God, who is with us in life, in death and in life beyond death.  Thanks be to God for this great mystery of our faith!