A Well-Lighted Pathway

A Well-Lighted Pathway
Jonah 1-5, 10 Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Alan Claassen January 25th, 2009

I have a confession to make.
I have preacher envy.
I want to be Rev. Lowery,
the minister who gave the benediction at President Obama's Inauguration.

It was a serious moment. It was a reflective moment.

He began his benediction by quoting from that great African-American national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” invoking the memory of the civil rights struggle. And then the tone shifted, though the message didn’t. It was the core message of the entire inauguration, namely that every one is welcome at this table; red, brown, yellow, black or white, we are all precious in God’s sight. And in that change of tone he moved President Obama, he moved him from all the appropriate solemnity of the moment, from carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He moved President Obama from eyes closed in prayer, to eyes open, and smiling and looking at 2 million people smiling at him.

All of sudden something had changed and people were smiling, knowing that the task at hand is daunting, but somehow believing we are going to make it together.

I want to be Rev. Lowery.
And I realize that the only way I could ever hope to come close to the blessed wisdom of that preacher is through prayer.

Let us pray;

From the cowardice the does not face the truth
From the laziness that accepts half truths
From the arrogance that thinks it knows the whole truth.
Lord, deliver me


On this Sunday, when our Congregational Meeting follows worship, when we will approve our budget for this year, it is good to remember Ron Buford. Ron Buford was our guest preacher, our Consecrating Steward on the day when we offered our pledges of time, talent, and treasure for the continued ministries of this church. On that day when we offered our commitments for the future, which became a significant benchmark for what the Budget Committee could imagine for the year ahead, Ron called upon us to claim and proclaim what is unique in the history of this congregation and the United Church of Christ. He challenged us to be ready for success, because he believes that there are people looking for we have to offer: a way of being Christian that welcomes us whoever and wherever we are on life’s journey.

This past week Ron Buford wrote one of the daily devotionals that is a ministry of the national level of the United Church of Christ. This on-line/e-mail devotional is an excellent way to add a prayer to your daily spiritual practice as well as connecting with United Church of Christ ministers from around the country. If you would like to know more about this and you have an e-mail address let me know. Or go to ucc.org

Ron chose to write a devotion based upon a passage from the Bible, from the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter 20, verse 9

“then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
Here is Ron’s reflection on that passage:
“On a beautiful Kaua'i beach, en-tranced by ocean and sunset with five male friends and almost no one else around, a beautiful young woman runs to us, screaming. Internally flipping into rescue mode, I think something must be wrong. But this young woman's crisis is a happy one. "I just got engaged!" she exclaims, having run from a lone man 350 feet away, now looking in our direction and somewhat perplexed.

Her buoyant overflow of love and joy still rescues me. As long as I live, I will never forget the reflection of fire and joy in her eyes, as if from fire shut up in her bones. Nor will I forget the look of pride from her fiancé. Her joy, his pride, and our need to experience it--all connected by one authentically unrestrained, generous, and joy-filled act.

Sometimes love can also be that way when you can think you are done with it. But it comes again, like fire. "I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." When I feel that way, I think of the look in her eyes.

As great as it can be to be in love, our love of God has the power to be so much greater as we pursue it with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. It can sometimes feel consuming.

It can sweep us off our feet. It can change our world overnight.”


As great as it can be to be in love, our love of God has the power to be so much greater…

It can change our world overnight.

We find in the Gospel of Mark the same kind of enthusiasm. If you were to read it at one sitting you would notice that the word most often used is the word, “and.” Mark is telling the story of Jesus with the same enthusiasm and sense of urgency as that newly engaged young woman on the beach in Kauai.

First this happened, and then this, and then that, and then he said this, and then he did that, and then….
In the first chapter of Mark, "Jesus sweeps through Galilee and takes it by storm….the underlying sense is that God is on the march in the ministry of Jesus".

Which brings us to this morning’s passage from the Gospel of Mark.
Reading from The Message, Eugene Petersen’s translation of the Bible.

Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.
I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.

A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made them the same offer.
Immediately, they left their father Zebedee, the boat, and the fired hands, and followed.

This just does not make sense. Where is the flow chart on this project?

Mark doesn’t give us any explanation. Any background. Any motivation. He just gives us, God, and a man, Jesus, who surrendered himself and was baptized in the Jordan River and received the God’s spirit, looking like a dove, and hearing a voice saying, You are my beloved.

This same Spirit pushed Jesus into the wilderness where he was tested and cared for.
And walking along the shoreline of Lake Galilee he called out, the Spirit called out four men, and they surrendered all that they had, their livelihood, their family, their home and they followed Jesus.

This doesn’t make sense. This is Spirit made. What made the disciples follow Jesus? More importantly, what calls us to follow? And what must we surrender?

Every first Wednesday of the month about 30 people gather here in this Sanctuary for a time of prayer, a time of chanting, a time for silence. This form of music and prayer comes to us from a spiritual community founded in Taize, France by a Catholic priest named, Brother Roger. Listen to what Brother Roger wrote about this moment that the fishermen experienced when Jesus called them to leave their nets and boats.

“Without looking back, you want to follow Christ:
remember that you cannot walk in Christ’s footsteps and at the same time follow yourself. Christ is the way leading you irresistibly to a life of sharing.
The Gospel calls you to leave all things behind.
But leaving yourself behind is not a matter of self-destruction;
it means choosing God as your first love.”

This is exactly what I discovered for myself this past week as I continued to try to understand what it means to surrender my way to God’s way.
I was thinking that Jesus did not surrender himself into nothing.
He surrendered himself to John the Baptist’s strong arms as he was lowered into the Jordan. He surrendered himself to the water, which when we relax, when we trust, will hold us up. He surrendered himself to God.

Surrendering to God is choosing God as our first love. When we begin our day, continue our day, end our day, surrendering to God’s love, God fills us up with energy, strength, a hope that overflows to others. Even fishermen.

It is not a matter of how great or wise we are. Especially in comparison to others, Like Rev. Lowery. The call is to live the little bit of the Gospel that we have grasped. Proclaim it! Trust it. Light fire on earth like a young woman running down the beach shouting, “I’m engaged!”

Get engaged with Christ! Follow the teachings. Say your prayers. Love your neighbors. Love your enemies, nothing upsets them more. The pathway is clear. Take it.

I was thinking about closing with a verse from Lift Every Voice and Sing, but that would just be copying Rev. Lowery. One of the things I have to let go of is envy.
If you would like to read the words it is on page 593 in our hymnals.
Instead I would like to close with this poem, called “Sometimes” by Sheenah Pugh. It speaks to this Spirit-made moment where God seems to be rushing through the countryside, stirring things up, beginning a new thing, creating a new world, calling us to give ourselves to love.

Sometimes
Sheenah Pugh

“Sometimes things don’t go, after all from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost, green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometime will step back from war, elect an honest man;
decide they care enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow that seemed hard frozen;
may it happen for you.”

May it happen for you. May it happen for our nation, all nations, all peoples, all creation.
Let all who do justice and love mercy say Amen!