Vicar at Mount Olive

Jesus calls some of the first followers to live out of their identity as fishermen and join in God’s mission of healing. Now, God call each of us out of our beloved identities to join. It is the urgent task of our time.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year B
Text: Mark 1:14-20

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

What are we waiting for? Now is the time.

This is the urgency that Jesus uses as he comes out of the wilderness and begins his public ministry. It is the urgency present on the shores of the Sea of Galilee as as he calls some of his first followers to join in his ministry, in his mission.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’s mission begins with an epiphany. A sudden and surprising statement that calls for people to repent, meaning to turn their lives around and open their hearts, and to trust and believe in the good news. The good news that God’s reign has come near and that God is active in the world working through people and systems and creation to bring forth a new creation that demands healing, justice, and love.

This epiphany rocks the world. Shakes and quakes reverberate throughout the land all the way to the Sea of Galilee as Jesus rocks the boats of this first followers, proclaiming “follow me.”

This epiphany demands immediate action from the fishermen. People who are talented in the art of patience and waiting, feel the urgency like the pull of a big fish, and drop what they are doing to join in the mission of Jesus. I suspect their hearts were probably racing as they stepped out of their boats, a place that had become their comfort zones, to begin to learn a new way of fishing.

Jesus calls the fishermen to “fish for people” which has traditionally been used as a metaphor for evangelism and conversion. But what if the fishermen are called to fish for people because the identity of fishermen is who they are and the act of fishing is what they have prepared their whole lives for.

An immediate transformation takes place on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, but the fishermen maintain their identity. For them, and for us, following God means to fully become ourselves, to fully become who God created us to be, to fully live into our identity as beloved children of God with God’s mission set on our hearts.

The first followers demonstrate to us that faith is to have bold confidence in God’s mission, even if there is a cost, even if we have to step out of our comfort zones. Because believing in the good news that Jesus proclaims and living our lives in a way that trusts this good news, even though sometimes have doubts, continues to transform the world.

Fishing for people in Mark’s Gospel is about casting out demons, denouncing evil structures and systems, holding leaders accountable to care for all people, and healing—a whole lot of healing. As Jesus’s ministry begins, the first work of the disciples is to witness to and be a part of this ministry of healing.

Healing was the urgent task then and healing is the urgent task now.

As long as there is suffering, healing needs to happen. And as long as there is a need for healing, epiphanies, large and small, are going to rock our world and jolt us into action.

We, like the first followers of Jesus, must change our directions and transform our lives while we live into our identities of who God uniquely calls us to be. We must step out of our comfort zones and learn new ways of doing things that puts care for our neighbors who have been marginalized by systems and structures of oppression at the center of our who we are.

We as the church fully become ourselves when we become a place and a presence of healing and transformation. A community of diverse people all with unique identities and vocations working together to witness to God’s healing and aid in bringing this healing to our world.

Healing that regenerates that natural world, diminishes the power of white supremacy, mends the broken hearts of all who grieve.

Healing that restores identity to those who have been invisible in our society, repairs the harm of the failures of the Christian church, rebuilds our systems and structures, and reconciles our communities.

Healing that soothes the world by forming a balm; mixing with God’s mercy, justice, and steadfast love with our beloved identities and compassion. A healing balm for all of creation.

We join in the work of healing and know that we also need healing. Healing within our personal lives and healing in our communities. Healing through God’s forgiveness as we confess ways we have benefited from systems that oppress our neighbors. Healing as we work to love all of our neighbors, even the ones who are difficult to love.

Healing is to remember the past with our eyes focused on creating a new future, a future filled with mercy, justice, and love.

During the inauguration on Wednesday, Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet, recited her poem “The Hill We Climb.”[1] Her powerful words, a reaction to insurrection just two weeks prior, quickly became a healing balm for our nation and an epiphany that rocked our world.

I will share with you a few of her words with you now, but I encourage you to revisit all of her work.

She spoke to the world:

When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

The time is now to see the light and be the light.

God calls poets and fishermen; teachers and engineers; nurses and accountants; parents and grandparents; children and students; musicians and politicians; factory workers and grocery cashiers […] beloved children of God like each and every one of us to step into the light, to step out of our comfort zones, for an urgent task is at hand: to bring healing to our world.

What are we waiting for? Now is the time.

Amen

[1] Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”, Recited at Presidential Inauguration, Washington D.C., January 20, 2021 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem-the-hill-we-climb-full-text.html

God dwells in the world! We carry this Christmas proclamation with us each day in work, life, struggle, and joy.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Second Sunday of Christmas, Year B
Text: John 1:(1-9), 10-18

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

God dwells in the world.

This is our five-word prologue for the new year. It is the wisdom and insight that has been born into our world.

The prologue message that God dwells in the world is what we will need to orient us and ground us, to give us the perspective we need and a direction for where we are going.

The purpose of the prologue is to prepare us for what we are about to encounter. In our reading for today from John’s Gospel, we hear a section of John’s prologue as John is providing us with what we need to know as we begin to encounter God.

John’s prologue reveals that God’s Word is in the world and that God’s Word took on human form as Jesus and lived-in human flesh in order to redeem what God loves, showing us that God’s glory is filled with grace and truth.

John’s prologue also points to the beginning, when God’s Word created the world and all of its inhabitants and called it good. We are told human beings are created in the image of God and God calls us to be co-creators in caring for all of God’s creation.

But anyone who has read today’s headlines sees that humans have a hard time caring for creation and caring for each other. Injustice and oppression always have a place in the daily news.

And again, our community is in the headlines as another brother was killed by police in our neighborhood. We shake with fear and anger, cry at the sight of injustice and cry out against injustice.

Grieving for another beloved life has been taken from this world and asking what this means for our community in the days to come.

We proclaim all people are created in the image of God, that every body reflects the radiance of God, and that God dwells in humanity yet systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, among other structures of oppression create biases and cloud our vision, preventing us from seeing God’s presence in humanity.

The pain in our lives and in our community can become so consuming that we don’t know where to turn. When we get to this point, we must cling tightly to the promise that God is active in our world and knows firsthand all the troubles we face.

We are comforted knowing Jesus experienced the fullness of human emotions and felt the aches and pains of our bodies. Jesus lived in the world filled with injustice and showed us a different way of living that puts caring for our siblings in Christ with dignity and love at the center of our purpose.

Jesus came into being to show us the truth and grace of God’s heart so that our lives can take form and become examples of God’s truth and grace. Because once we have experienced the fullness of God’s truth and grace in our lives, we can’t help but to proclaim this truth and grace in the world to bring healing justice and peace.

But even these encounters may spin a web of grief and frustration so thick; we may have a hard time seeing how God is present in the world. It might be difficult find hope and grounding as we share God’s grace and truth and seek God’s presence.

Experiencing the fullness and mystery of God’s dwelling in this world was more reachable when we worshipped together in physical community. Our liturgy activates all of our senses as we touch, smell, hear, taste, and see God’s presence in our community.

Our encounters are simply different for now as we have had to open ourselves and stretch ourselves to experience God. We’ve been practicing bringing our liturgy into our daily lives, keeping our eyes open and our hearts hoping to experience God dwelling in our world in unexpected and ordinary places.

In unexpected ways God’s Word, the same word that spoke creation into being, enlightens and enlivens us today. God’s Word animates the world, transforming ordinary things in our daily lives, like homemade cookies, bird feeders, walks in the neighborhood, and a note from a friend into places that reveal to us that God is present in real and tangible ways.

Our lives are imperfect and ordinary places that become divine and shine with God’s own radiance in the world. As God is made known to the world through our compassion and care, our seeking for justice, and our hope for the well-being of all of God’s creation.

We hold fast to God who dwells in the world and within us for good and cling to the certainty that we as ordinary flesh made divine, co-create this world each day through our work, life, struggle, and joy.

Therefore, when we lose our grounding and are unsure where to turn, we turn to the beginning, to the prologue message that God dwells in the World. This wisdom and insight are almost all we need to begin each new day.

Amen

Now is the Time

A Prologue