Called to bring light to the world

Isaiah 9:1-4; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

We’re finally reading Matthew, the Gospel for the year, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He has settled in Capernaum, possibly in the home of Simon Peter.

That Jesus lives in Capernaum is important. It’s not Jerusalem, the seat of Jewish power. Galilee is thought of as a backwards, rural region, full of thieves, where people speak Aramaic with an accent and know little Greek. Think: country hicks. But it has history…

After 722 BCE Assyria occupied Zebulun and Naphtali (in the region now called Galilee) and took the leadership into exile. Matthew links the Assyrian imperial aggression to the aggression of Rome in the present day. The darkness of the days of foreign control is over when God’s glory shines light into the situation. The kin-dom/reign Jesus announces is the beginning of a new time of lightness and justice.

…

 To help in his ministry, Jesus recruits people as disciples. We don’t learn about the occupations of many of the disciples, but these first four, we do get to know. They are fishermen, two sets of brothers, and they will provide the mode of transportation to get Jesus around the sea.

When Jesus recruits followers, he invites them to use their skills and gifts to help in his ministry. So, he tells fishermen they will fish for people. I imagine he tells Levi/Matthew the tax collector that he will manage the finances. If there are cooks/bakers in the group, they will take care of feeding the disciples, and cook up some recipes with new followers. Some singers and musicians will form a band, and add to the music as they can. And so forth. We’ll come back to this idea shortly.

… Paul writes the letter we know as 1 Corinthians in response to a letter or letters we don’t have. It’s clear Paul is reacting to a previous correspondence about divisions in the church. He writes in the mid-50s, so merely 25 years since the resurrection. Already, people are taking sides, bragging about their baptism pedigree as if it mattered who did the baptizing. Paul basically says, Stop this! What’s important is that you are all baptized, and called to continue Jesus’ work of sharing the good news of God’s grace and light for all people. You are supposed to be evangelists.

Most of the time, if pastors say we are supposed to be evangelists, people groan and declare in no uncertain terms that they are not going to knock on doors or stand on street corners asking if people have been saved. People think of evangelism as a program to do.

But, there’s a different way of thinking about evangelism. The Greek word is euangelion. The eu means good, and angelion is news or message. Do you see the word angel there? Angel is the word we use for God’s messengers, who appear throughout the Gospels. So, if we are good-news-spreaders, we are doing the mission and ministry of angels telling others about

God’s good news. We are called to be evangelists, Good-news-angels!

… Now, back to the idea of Jesus calling disciples to use what they know to draw people to him. Jesus called fishermen to fish for people. And I’m sure he called others with the same method. I have long imagined the core of disciples as front-men and front-women, heading into town to talk to people like themselves.

Maybe the men went to the mill or the smithy or the wine cellar, and the women went to the well or the bakery or the wool vendor. In my imagination, they split up and talked with women and men who did jobs they each were familiar with. Then they  talked about how Jesus was bringing in a new reign of God, filled with goodness and light, and invited them to come and see Jesus.

Today, we can do the same thing. We can start by talking about something familiar, or something we are curious about. Then after developing some trust and some familiarity with each other, we can introduce the topic of what Jesus means to us, how his presence brought light into our lives. We can each use our skills and gifts to be good-new-angels for people. We can all tell others about the light and grace Jesus has brought to us.

… And … let’s add a warning from Paul. He was writing to urge the folks to be united in the effort of being good-news-angels. Especially, he was writing to urge the folks to set aside their differences. For us, in this time of deep political divisions, we too are urged to set aside our differences. It doesn’t need to matter what political party we belong to, or the name of our favorite president or university or sports team. These divisions darken the light brought by Jesus, making it hard for others to see.

What matters is our calling at Gloria Dei to feed hungry people. I haven’t heard about anyone checking if the people asking for food are from one group or another; it only matters that they need food, and we are happy to give it to them, and at the same time shine a little light into their darkness.

… Today after worship, we will elect some folks to serve on the congregation council along with those whose terms continue. They all have different gifts and skills, and they will together guide the congregation into the future God is calling us into. God gave us all those gifts and skills – so we could use them for God’s purpose of shining divine light into the darkness caused by evil and division and pain.

I hope that today, this week, you will pray and consider how to use the skills and gifts God gave you to use here at Gloria Dei, as well as being good-new-angels with those you encounter who need some of the good news and light we have to share. Amen