Star-Followers, Jesus Followers, Good News
Sharers,
As we take a deep breath for a couple of weeks
in February—free of the Christmas exuberance and yet unfettered by the Lenten
disciplines that arrive mid-month—Jesus is being revealed for us in several lectionary
stories from the beginning of his ministry.
“Epiphany” is more familiar as a date on the calendar when we remember
the visit of the Magi as told in Matthew’s Gospel; but what is pivotal in
Matthew’s story is that the Epiphany is the first story in a series of stories
that reveal Jesus to be …in the world. Not
just as a baby!
Going a bit further in the gospel narratives, we
see Jesus revealed as a healer, as Jesus casts out unclean spirits and with authority
over demons, when Jesus touches the untouchable, feeds the hungry, restores the
broken, repairs the brokenhearted. Jesus
is in OUR WORLD, restoring human wholeness and righteousness. We witness Jesus became the living reality of
what the prophet Jonah testifies about God …that God:
“[is] a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.”
Jesus is the living manifestation of God. We see this in how he treats his followers,
how he speaks to crowds of people, how he reacts in the presence of those who
are broken, how he treats Pharisees and scribes even. Who he eats with. If he’s willing to touch someone. How Jesus responds to needs as they arise …in
a synagogue, on a mountaintop, along the roadside.
And yes, while we follow the Epiphany star,
while we confess Jesus as Lord and pledge to “follow him,” even when he says we
will “fish for people,” even when we may not fully understand, we are
graciously and generously being armed with powerful bits of “good news”:
God doesn’t leave us; God is with us. God doesn’t lose focus; God claims us.
God reveals to us the one who is anointed to share
good news with the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the oppressed and release to the captive, to proclaim the year of God’s
favor—so that we might also bear witness and share this good news! …We’re called to be followers—yes! But aren’t we also called to be sharers?
I don’t know about you, but I think the world
could use a bit more of grace, mercy, and steadfast love, so that it
contributes to less punishment and less anger.
Not that bad actors get a free pass, but that we help build the world’s
capacity toward resilience. Life is
already hard enough, without us trying to heap on more problems—like trying not
get angry by getting even.
As we encounter gospel stories where Jesus
begins to move about the Galilean landscape, as he walks and talks with
disciples and strangers, as he demonstrates his authority to change lives and
restore the life God intended for human beings—where are the moments in our own
lives, where we do the same? Where we “share”
by reenacting the moments where Jesus is Jesus?
In other words, a step beyond “What would Jesus
do?”—to get to, “this is what I saw Jesus do, so this is what I’m going to do.”
Remember.
We come on Sunday, bringing the world around us to God. And we leave worship to take God with us back
into the world.
It is my privilege to remind you that Jesus
loves you. So do I. God wants the best
for us and is inviting us to fulfill our calling. Jesus is born, he has been revealed in the
world, so that now he can also be revealed through what we do.
