The
season of Epiphany has followed the wise men as they foolishly searched
for a star, a star that would lead them to a new king, a new God. We have
watched as the magi returned a different route having been warned in a
dream to beware of Herod. And in fulfillment of that warning, Herod in
rage and motivated by jealousy, killed all the children under two years
old in that region. So Mary and Joseph like many since became refugees and
fled to Egypt, returning when the political situation had subsided to live in
Nazareth where Mary originally came from. Lots of new beginnings.
The
scene jumps some years and we encounter Jesus now at the age of about thirty on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee. As the scene opens Jesus is as it were idly
walking along the lake. He must have known the disciples, Philip, Andrew,
Peter, and Nathaniel before this encounter as they were local and Jesus knows Nathaniel.
These
men were working class fishermen, not scholars, not teachers but burly,
smelly fishermen and they would not have been religious people. But in fact we
find that almost exclusively it was to these people that Jesus ministered,
the hamarez, the people of the earth, and it was from such people that he chose his
disciples. And they are already captivated by him. What a contrast he was to the other
rabbis!
When
Jesus called the fishermen he made no conditions, just come he said and they
came as they were. Similarly Jesus asks us to come as we are, and he will
use us as we are, which is why even Ronnie Biggs had a Christian funeral. We are all the same. There are no conditions to being a Christian except
to want to follow Christ. You may have committed great sins you may
subsequently mess your live up but Jesus says just come. Come, follow me, warts
and all.
It
was an act which changed the course of human history but it began with a
simple act of complete faith. Jesus calls us to leave behind our old lives and
just come.
The
church in the West has a similar journey to make. It has lived with ways of
being and structures that served it well in a previous age, but not in this. In
an age of the spiritual the church is surprisingly unpopular. It too has to let
go of the past and embrace a new future, one perhaps less tidy. It has to trust
God and just come. Warts and all.
This
coming year make resolutions that will make a difference, with a divine
spark,
listen to your dreams and follow your hunches, foolishly following the God of
Truth and Wisdom. It may involve upheaval, upset as people around you don’t
want things to change. it may involve a change of attitudes, it may involve
traveling and the giving of what is costly. But of such stuff are dreams made
of and of such stuff is the journey as Christians we embark on when we decide
to truly follow the unusually bright star in a dark sky.
