Epiphany III

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Barb Putnam, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Here Comes the Sun” (Harrison)

OPENING PRAYER:

You search for us, God,
by the seashore, in the temple,
in the marketplace, in the crowd,
and when we’re alone.

You search for us, God,
and invite us to worship,
to see your glory reflected
in the world you made and everyone we meet.

You search for us, God,
in seasons of joy and seasons of sorrow,
to remind us that you are every present,
and ever near.

You search for us, God,
as we search for others,
companions to walk with,
as we heed your call. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Jesus call us; o’er the tumult”

Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult
of our life’s wild restless sea,
day by day his clear voice sounding,
saying, ‘Christian, follow me.’

Long ago apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for Jesus’ sake.

Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world’s golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, ‘Christian, love me more.’

In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
‘Christian, love me more than these.’

Jesus calls us: by your mercies,
Saviour, may we hear your call,
give our hearts to your obedience,
serve and love you best of all.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

You call us, Lord, and we seek to follow.
You call our names, and we learn that the call is personal.
You urge us forward, and invite us to follow—
to set aside everything that is holding us in place.
In your mercy, you invite us to live beyond ourselves,
and walk with love and grace,
to accept that implied in the call is forgiveness,
and the new life that follows when we follow you.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “Will You Come and Follow Me” (Traditional Scottish melody)

FIRST READING: Psalm 62

How long will all of you set upon me and batter me,
as though I were a tottering wall or a leaning fence?
Their purpose is to thrust me down
from my eminence;
they delight in lies;
they bless with their lips
but curse me in their hearts.
Yet be still, my soul, and wait for God,
from whom comes my hope of deliverance.

In God is my deliverance and my honour,
the rock of my strength and my place of refuge.
Put your trust in God always, you people;
pour out your hearts before the One who is
our refuge.

For we mortals are only a puff of wind;
the great among us are but illusion;
placed in the balance,
we weigh less than a breath.
Put no trust in extortion, set no vain hopes on plunder;
if riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
Once God has spoken, and twice have I heard it said:
‘Power belongs to you, O God. Steadfast love is yours.’
You reward us all according to our deeds.

SECOND READING: Mark 1.14-20

14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

HYMN: “Dear God, who loves all humankind”

Dear God, who loves all humankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind;
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word
rise up, and follow thee.

O sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to share with thee
the silence of eternity,
interpreted by love!

Drop thy still dews of quietness
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire:
speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,
O still small voice of calm!

REFLECTION

It would seem that sparse words summon the poets.

But before we meet the poets, we need to consider the sparse words. Mark, never one to gild the lily, describes the call of the disciples in as few words as possible. In fact, we witness “the call” with as few disciples as possible—five, by my count. By the third chapter there will be a general inauguration of the twelve, but we only learn how a handful come to follow Jesus.

On this day, it’s Simon and Andrew, then James and John, the sons of Zebedee. For the first two, we get a transcript of the encounter, but by the next two we get more summary, and we have to assume the invitation was the same. Mark is leaving more than a little room for the imagination when he records these words:

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

As we ponder these words, I can confess a certain weakness for obscure French philosophers, namely Paul Ricoeur. Ricoeur would say that while trying to understand Jesus’ words we are “standing before the text,” meaning we can see the outline of what Jesus means, but the exact meaning (behind the text) is unknown to us. So we use our imagination. We interpret, we speculate, and we play with these words to find meaning. And some, they write poetry:

Jesus, you have come to the lakeshore
looking neither for wealthy nor wise ones;
you only asked me to follow humbly.

For the Spanish poet, Cesáreo Gabaráin, the emphasis is on humility, both the humility of setting aside whatever work they were engaged in, and the humility of these people themselves. They were not selected for wealth or wisdom, just a willingness to follow. That’s one poet’s take, now another:

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word
rise up, and follow thee.

Our second poet, with the rather poetic name John Greenleaf Whittier, the emphasis is on trust, and the willingness of the reader (singer) to engage the same simple trust. Without a word they rise from their places and follow: no questions, no conditions, just trust. It takes a skilled poet to challenge the audience without seeming overbearing or judgemental, and Whittier does it. And one more example:

Long ago apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for Jesus’ sake.

This time it’s Cecil Frances Alexander, the best known of the poets mentioned so far. She wrote hundreds of hymns, including All Things Bright and Beautiful, Once in Royal David’s City, There is a Green Hill Far Away, and I Bind Myself to God Today. The last one is a rewritten version of a poem by St. Patrick—fitting since she was married to the head of the Anglican Church in Ireland.

The hymn I quoted, Jesus Calls Us, O’er the Tumult begins with what seems a reference to Jesus stilling the storm, but returns to the call of the disciples. “Turned from home and toil and kindred/leaving all for Jesus’ sake” is a remarkable line, injecting the tension implied in the scene: yes, they were leaving home and kindred, but they were also leaving behind a life of toil. They would, of course, pick up another sort of toil—perhaps emotional and spiritual—but there may have been some relief leaving the back-breaking life of a labourer.

Again, the task of the poet is to take the shell of a story, or a few vague words, and turn them into something meaningful. The twelve will need humility, simple trust, and a keen sense of what they are leaving behind in order to follow. Likewise, when we take up the invitation to follow Jesus, we also need humility, simple trust, and a keen sense of what we are leaving behind in order to follow. Followers of Jesus swap toil for toil, the hardship of meaninglessness for the hardship of service. The hardship of despair for the need to care for the despairing. Graceless living for costly grace. I could go on.

Instead, I want to highlight another poet, this time Amanda Gorman, 22-year-old youth poet laureate of our neighbours to the south. In an instant she became the most famous poet in the land, by doing very much the same work that our other poets did. You see, the Oath of Office taken at the inauguration is the same 35-word statement recited since this experiment in self-government began. So what do you say in response? The job of the poet is to “stand before the text” and find meaning in the moment, or meaning for our time. So I’ll share a sample:

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice

Her brilliance is in naming the trouble in our times without being specific. She doesn’t tell us what trouble she feels we should list as the trouble that truly matters, she simply points to trouble. And in troubled times, this can only help us attach our worries and our hurt to her words and see where she will take us next. She begins with the dawn:

And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished

It’s a longer poem and I encourage you to read it, but for today we are left with open-ended hope: not the answer, not any kind of solution, just the recognition that their nation isn’t broken—as many would claim—but simply unfinished. Taken another way, it’s not a call to fix things, but to begin to finish what was already started—and get back on the best path.

Jesus called the twelve without a detailed program, without benchmarks, or a measure of performance. Jesus simply said “there is unfinished work to do, the Kingdom of God has come near” and then “come, follow me.” He gave them open-ended hope that the Kingdom would come, and that together they could be part of something larger than themselves.

All they need to do, all that we need to do, is follow. To follow and turn the outline of our lives into poetry, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Glory to you, Almighty God.
You spoke, and light came out of darkness,
order rose from confusion.
Glory to you, Jesus Christ!
You meet us in every age,
the Word made flesh, born for us.
Glory to you, Holy Spirit!
You brooded over chaos,
mothering and shaping God’s new creation.
Glory to you, God, Three-in-One!
You are surrounded by the song of the saints in heaven
and you are present with us now.

Glory to you, Almighty God.
You create and recreate,
a never ending cycle of grace and renewal.
Glory to you, Jesus Christ!
You show us with most vulnerable,
and name them our sisters and brothers.
Glory to you, Holy Spirit!
You speak to us in very moment,
and invite us to listen.
Glory to you, God, Three-in-One!
You make us, redeem us,
and blow through us still.

Glory to you, Almighty God.
You surround us with the glory that is yours alone,
and compel us to reflect it too.
Glory to you, Jesus Christ!
You heal the sick, tend the lonely,
and comfort those who mourn.
Glory to you, Holy Spirit!
You give us words to speak, to challenge injustice,
and speak your truth in love.
Glory to you, God, Three-in-One!
In every form, and in every age,
we worship you. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “Jesus, you have come to the lakeshore”

Jesus, you have come to the lakeshore
looking neither for wealthy nor wise ones;
you only asked me to follow humbly.
O Jesus, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling, have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me;
by your side I will seek other seas.

You know so well my possessions;
my boat carries no gold and no weapons;
you will find there my nets and labour.
O Jesus, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling, have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me;
by your side I will seek other seas.

You need my hands, full of caring
through my labours to give others rest,
and constant love that keeps on loving.
O Jesus, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling, have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me;
by your side I will seek other seas.

You, who have fished other oceans,
ever longed for by souls who are waiting,
my loving friend, as thus you call me.
O Jesus, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling, have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me;
by your side I will seek other seas.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.