Light in the Shadows

Sermon                             Light in the Shadows

January 26, 2014

Texts:  1 Corinthians 1: 10-18

            Matthew 4:12-23

Dr. Jacquelyn L. Foster

Compton Heights Christian Church

(Disciples of Christ)

Herod had arrested John the Baptist because John had said that it was wrong for Herod to take his brother Philip’s wife, Herodius.    It was a dark and foreboding time; Jesus may have known in his heart that John would be beheaded. The powers were oppressive and the suffering great.   It was apparently so shaking for Jesus that Matthew tells us he withdrew to Galilee. Later use of the word “to withdraw” confirms that it carries the full weight of a tactical retreat in the face of opposition. In order to carry out his ministry, Jesus left Nazareth and returned to Galilee to make the base for his ministry in Capernaum.

Matthew speaks of the move to Galilee using Isaiah as a reference:

            Land of Zebulun!  Land of Naphtali!  Way of the sea beyond Jordan.  Galilee of the nations! The people that lived in darkness have seen a great light; on those who lived in a country of shadows dark as death a light has dawned.  (New Jerusalem Bible, Mt. 4:16)

“The move to the Sea of Galilee, places Jesus in the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, two ancient tribes of Israel.  These two sons of Jacob from different mothers were given land in the north, at the margins, and this is where Jesus begins his ministry. . . .   The people of Galilee sit in darkness.  In this reference there is a sense of despair.  They are a people who have lived under and suffered under one imperial regime another.  They live their lives feeling that there is a dark cloud over them.   Jesus settles right there to begin a ministry that shines a light in the darkness.  He comes into Galilee, preaching a message of repentance, of turning back to God, so that the light that is the Kingdom of Heaven may fill and empower their lives.   He is surely going to do something BIG – something amazing! 

The first thing he does is to take a walk along the lake shore where he asks two fishermen to follow him, and the second thing he does is to ask two more fishermen to follow him – Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John.  That doesn’t seem of particular importance until we think about the fishers.

Quoting the book Matthew and the Margins (Carter) Brian Stoffregen says

“While the fishermen have some economic resources, their social ranking is very low. In Cicero’s ranking of occupations (De Off 1.150-51), owners of cultivated land appear first and fishermen last. Athenaeus indicates that fishermen and fishmongers are on a par with money lenders and are socially despised as greedy thieves (Deipnosophistai, 6.224b-28c). (They) have a socially inferior and economically precarious existence under Roman control. It is among such vulnerable people that God’s empire is first manifested. [p. 121]

Fishing was controlled by the “powers that be” in two ways. (1) Commercial fishermen worked for the royal family or wealthy landlords who contracted with them to provide a specific amount of fish at a certain time. They were paid either with cash or with fish. (2) Fishermen leased their fishing rights from persons called “toll collectors” in the NT for a percentage of the catch. The “tax” could be as much as 40% (see Malina & Rohrbach, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, p. 44).

So, Jesus calling fishermen is more than what it might appear on the surface to us.  It involves a break from the “powers that be” – the  power of the wealthy, the power of the Roman government– and into a new power: the reign of God.   When Jesus calls these fishers, he is offering them an alternative way of life.  His very call of them to leave their fishing boats is society changing, one person at a time. 

And then Matthew tells us that Jesus went around all of Galilee teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming Good News and healing disease and illness among the people.

These fisherman who have lived under the shadows of death and oppression, are called by Jesus and what they see him doing is so basic, so simple that it might not seem like much in the face of the cloud hanging over their world.

Everyone of us has that feeling that the challenges in the world are so big, that nothing we do can really have any effect.  How can we bring peace, stop terrorism, bring a value of care?  It is hard enough to change even one small community.  In the recent St. Louis Police redistricting,  we seen the statistics related in crime in different areas of St. Louis City.  In the 7 years between 2005 and 2012, while there were 3 homicides here in the Shaw neighborhood, there were 64 in Jeff Vanderlou and 62 in Wells-Goodfellow in North St. Louis. The prospect of effecting change must feel hopeless to many who live in those communities.  It would be to live in a land of the shadows of death.

Robert Conwall, says that to take up the ministry of Jesus is to be watchful for the points of light existing in the midst of darkness, those signs of God’s presence in our midst, signs that the Kingdom of  Heaven draws near, and then point out these signs to those experiencing darkness.”   (Robert Cornwall,  Ponderings on a Faith Journey (blog). Following Jesus and fishing for people is about noticing that God is reconciling the whole world.  I’ve noticed that when I experience a little light, some improvement, I see the world in a different light; I see hope where I might not have seen hope; I see possibility where I did not before.

I heard the story of a prison here in the United States, that over the years tended to have a high percentage of prisoners from a particular community in the state.  Over time, prison officials saw that percentage decrease so dramatically that they wanted to know what had changed so dramatically in that particular timeframe in that community.  What they found surprised them.  It appeared to be a very simple tutoring and mentoring program.  Those who started the program had no idea that their program had made that kind of difference.  They only hoped that individual kids learned to read and to do their math and that they had fun with them.

Whether we are reading to children, or building relationship with someone who is struggling in with life challenges, or creating a prayer shawl for one who is grieving, or talking with someone on Happy Friday outreach, or spending time praying with and for someone who is depressed, listening to the story of one who feels alone and unheard, or worshiping with children in Children, Worship & Wonder, or  breaking bread at the Table with someone who has felt separated from God and is discovering what it is to belong to God  — we are a part of Christ’s reconciling the world to God.

The actions that transform and reconcile the world are the simple acts of God’s love embodied in our lives.