Sermon – Extremists in Love – January 15 – Rev. J.McDougle

1Sam 3:1-10; Ps 139:1-5, 12-17; 1Cor 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

There is a bumper sticker that I’m particularly fond of.  I’m sure you’ve seen it. It reads: Well-behaved women rarely make history.   And it’s so true: although the concept can be expanded to include children, men, dogs and horses.  The bottom line is that while good behavior allows at least some people to get on comfortably with their lives without interruption; good behavior demands we live our lives by other people’s rules even though they may not be the wisest, or in the best interests of the planet. 

Because our bible is full of stories about human beings muddling along, we’re always hearing about behaviors, good and bad and everything in between.   Today we hear of Eli, the elderly priest into whose care Hannah had given her young son, Samuel.  In earlier years, Eli had been a fine priest.  He now has two grown priestly sons who are greedy and corrupt, and, even worse, have been desecrating temple sacrifices.   Eli has, in recent years, been keeping his head down for the sake of a quiet life with his sinning sons, when what was needed was for him to ruffle the waters and sort his sons out.   God is not pleased, and Samuel is to be part of the solution.

It’s pretty clear that those Corinthians have also not been well-behaved.   Paul, as their loving yet long-distance spiritual guide, is remonstrating with them.  They have enthusiastically accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and have completely bought into the idea that their faith has made them free: free, clearly, to live the life of libertines!   Not quite what Paul had in mind!   As he says to them: “While all things are lawful…not all things are beneficial”.

Jesus was not well-behaved: from the perspective of the Jewish authorities; from the perspective of the Romans; or from the perspective of his long-suffering family – remember that scene when they turn up, en masse, to one of his sessions to take him home, but he refuses, publicly and quite rudely.  If Jesus had been well-behaved, we wouldn’t be sitting here together, talking about these things at all.

In today’s Gospel reading, we have Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.  He has been baptized by John the Baptist with the voice from heaven and the dove proclaiming him as the Son of God.  Simon Peter and his brother Andrew have left John the Baptist to follow Jesus instead.  And today, we have them traveling north from the river Jordan to the region of Galilee where there were a number of small villages, Bethsaida and Nazareth among them.   One can only wonder from Nathanael’s snarky comment about nothing good coming out of Nazareth whether they also had rivaling soft ball teams…   Jesus finds Philip, and his invitation is simple, “Follow me”.  And Philip does.  Philip then brings Nathanael to join the group.  It seems likely that Philip knows Nathanael.  We know who Nathanael is because he’s sitting under a fig tree and rabbis were known to sit under fig trees.    If Philip already knew him as a rabbi, perhaps as one of his early teachers, it would explain his surprisingly formal words. It also adds a scholarly dimension to those who followed Jesus.  Yes, they were fishermen and car mechanics by trade, but they were also spiritual junkies, following the latest hip teacher.

Philip’s assessment of Nathanael is that he’ll be interested in Jesus.  “Come and see,” he quite simply invites.  And without more ado, Nathanael does.

“Follow me”, “Come and see”, or maybe it’s quite simply God calling our name: “Samuel, Samuel!”; “Steve, Steve!”; “Liza, Liza!”.   And then it’s up to us, because we have choices with how we live ‘our one wild and precious life’: the wonderful line from Mary Oliver’s poem that Kitty reminded us of last week.

Martin Luther King had choices.  He could have lived a quiet, well-behaved life, but as we know, he chose not to.   I found myself rereading his powerful letter from the Birmingham Jail in 1963 this week: that apology, in the old sense, that defense of non-violent community action in the face of the criticism.  A letter to those eight white religious leaders who called his actions “unwise and untimely”, and deplored the disruption of the marches and sit-ins, that were occurring in Birmingham.   I noticed his grief in his observation of how it was actually the moderates in society who were being the most obstructive to the cause of the African-Americans: they seemed so reasonable, and yet they were causing the movement to lose momentum by their passivity.

I was particularly struck during this reading of his letter by his thoughts on extremism:  a word that has come to be associated with so much violence and fear.  Dr. King, as you remember, explores the idea of Jesus being an extremist: an “extremist in love”, with his commands to ‘”Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.”

We Episcopalians tend not to go in for much extremism. We are generally quite well-behaved.  And there are wonderful things about this.  We treasure well-ordered liturgies that nurture, heal and sustain us.   Our preference is for things to go smoothly, and we like it that way.   We are welcoming. We don’t make waves.  We might not have so much choice if we worshipped together down in the busy streets of a town. Up on our lofty hill, we can enjoy the tranquility and sanctuary of our lovely church and grounds.

Anything wrong with that?  I think there’s a very strong case for our existence and what we have and do offer to the world.  My only thought is: maybe there might be a way to not only keep offering those precious gifts of beautiful liturgy, warm companionship, and sacred sanctuary, but also offer something even more.

Each one of us has heard God calling our name.  Each one of has shown up.  Last Sunday, each one of us reaffirmed our faith in the words of the Baptismal Covenant.  And we answered those powerful five questions with the words, “I will, with God’s help”.  Those five questions that went to the heart of what following Jesus demands of us: to continue in teaching and fellowship; to persevere to resist evil; to proclaim the Good News; to seek and serve God in all persons; and to strive for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of every human being.

I don’t think those questions are naïve or anachronistic: they are inspired by the Gospel of Jesus, they are written for our age, and they invite our engagement.    As Martin Luther King reminds us, Jesus calls us to be extremists in love.  What would the issues that divide our country look like from that perspective?   Could we rise to the challenge of holding each other in love while struggling with complicated issues that cross lines of faith and party to which there are no simple answers?  Immigration and healthcare reform, marriage, abortion, global warming, guns, free trade, government regulation: the list goes on and on.

What do you think?   At the very least, it’s an idea we might talk about…

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