Rite 13 Sunday
A sermon by The Rev. Sue Singer
January 30, 2005
Amos 3: 1-8
Psalm 139: 1-11
Matthew 4: 12-23
For Taya, Jeffrey, Amy and Mahlon, and for Steven Maki
"The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?"
When I was at home in San Francisco over Christmas, one of the neighboring suburbs had an emergency with a lion. A mountain lion ... a real, honest to goodness, full-grown cougar ... came down from the nearby foothills, crossed the freeway, and camped out among a group of homes near a creek. People saw him up in trees, people found big paw prints in their flower beds, people heard him roar at night.
Now, a mountain lion's roar is not very big compared with the lions of the Holy Land, which were still numerous when Amos the prophet was writing. But when they heard it, the people in Palo Alto were very, very afraid. And as well as trying to capture the lion (which I think they finally did, and returned him to the foothills), they immediately did some things to change their lives in the meantime. Children walked to school in groups, no-one played down by the creek, small pets (a pleasant snack for a mountain lion) were kept indoors, people who had to be out at night carried flashlights and whistles.
"The lion has roared; who will not fear?" No-one in the suburb of Palo Alto, that's for sure. "The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?" And so Amos has to prophesy, talking about God using a very different image than we are used to.
Amos talks about a God who is like a lion; a fierce God, a God who might come to get you. This God has challenging things for people to listen to, this God has a voice you can't ignore. Amos' God is not gentle, not easy, not controllable, not a God you can pay attention to for just a few hours each week and then put away safely while you get on with life. The people in Palo Alto were thinking about that lion all the time it was on the loose; their lives had to be different because of it; they knew that something might happen to them. Could God be like this? Could God have this kind of effect on us?
We don't often think of God as a lion, unless maybe we've read C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe books. The great lion in those stories, Aslan, is the Christ figure, the Son of the Emperor Over the Sea, and he is a real lion for sure, with a real roar. When Mr. Beaver tells the children in the story about Aslan, they are not at all sure they want to meet him. "Is he safe?" asks one of them. "Safe?" says Mr. Beaver, "Course he's not safe. He's good. But he's not a tame lion." God is not a tame lion, God has a voice we can't ignore, God sometimes comes after us and chases us down.
The person who wrote Psalm 139 knew this God too ... a God there is no escaping from, pressing upon us, following after us, going before us, leaving us nowhere to hide. I don't often try to take the wings of the morning, or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, but I do know that God often has to follow me down to Peet's or into the library, when I try to hide out in my work, or on the internet, or by being preoccupied and distracted and grumpy.
Where are the places that you try to hide from God? What are the things you do to drown out the lion's roar?
Matthew, writing today's Gospel, knew about the God who comes after us too. His brief description of the call of the disciples is like a stripped-down movie script ... we have to imagine the details because he does not give us any. But what was it about Jesus that was so compelling that day, to Peter and Andrew, James and John? What did he do, as he walked by, pointed at them and said, "You. Follow me," that made it impossible for those four fisherman to ignore the call that would change their lives? Jesus was not tame either; good, yes, but not tame; and in Jesus the disciples knew God, the lion God who roars, the God who came seeking them out and calling them.
So the second big question for us today, when we've thought about the ways in which we might be hiding from God and drowning out God's voice, is what might God be calling us to do? How is Jesus saying to us, today, "Follow me," and what is he promising to make us into? Fishers of people? Maybe not ... but maybe so! Ministers of the Gospel, servants of the poor, advocates for justice, healers, teachers, counselors, witnesses, peacemakers -... which, of all the many ways there are to follow Jesus, is he calling you to do today?
Taya and Jeffrey, Amy and Mahlon: today you're doing your Rite 13 service, today we're saying some important things about who you are, and who you are becoming, and who Jesus is calling you to be. You're growing up. You're getting taller (I'm sure far too many people keep telling you that!), you're becoming young adults, you're in the midst of a journey to manhood and womanhood that is unstoppable.
You are changing inside as well as outside, your interests are shifting, you're maybe beginning to get a sense of the kind of person you might become, and maybe some days you don't think you know who you are at all. Your relationships are changing, you're making new and maybe different friends, you really love your families and at the same time you're not children any more, you're working out how to be members of your families as a teenager.
And your parents are all mixed up too! They're both happy and sad, they're so proud of the way you're shaping up, they're cheering you on as you start to launch out on your own a little more, and they're sad too, I bet ... they're sad that you'll never be a little boy or girl any more. Maybe you have mixed feeling about that too, on any given day, maybe you're excited about growing up and at the same time apprehensive about all the things ahead of you.
I want to let you into a secret. All the grownups feel the same, if we are really honest about ourselves ... it's just that sometimes we are better at hiding it! When I was your age I used to think that when I was really grown up I would know who I was for sure and it wouldn't change all the time; that someone would give me the script for my life so I would know my lines. But you know, I still find myself saying, "when I grow up," and I still find myself wondering when I will have to stop making it up as I go along. The changes we see and celebrate in you today are pretty dramatic, but they remind all of us that we are all changing, all the time.
There are three things that I think are important for you to do right now, while you are in this place of rapid change. First, the lion-God is likely to begin roaring for you soon, and it's important to listen! This time of changes in your lives is a time for you to pay attention to things like desire (what do you really want?), to vocation (what might you be called to do?), to becoming (who and what might you really be?). Because God has an interest in you, God is coming after you, Jesus is walking along the shore of your life and getting ready to call to you. It's a time to listen up, and to refuse to let the noise of all the things around you drown out the roar of the lion-God, the voice of Jesus, calling you to follow.
Second, it's a time to turn around, stop trying to go somewhere else, and turn face-to-face to God. Because God really needs you, and the world really needs you. That's the reason God might be roaring and chasing and calling you. There are things for you to do to make justice and peace, there are things you can do for the well-being of all people, there are ways for you to use your gifts and talents to make things better, to work alongside God to heal the world. There are ways for you to do those things right now, as Rite 13 young adults, in your families and your schools and with your friends and team-mates and fellow members at All Saints. There are people all around who care about you, who can help you find out what you can do and how you can do it ... the church calls that process "discernment" and it's an important skill to learn, especially as your Christian faith becomes a more chosen part of who you are.
This may make you tremble, for sure, but there's actually no reason to be afraid. Because the third thing you need to do is just trust in God, in the God you have all known for so long ... God who is not tame, but who is good. The God who loves you, who knows you, who is roaring for you and coming after you and calling you because God has always known and loved you. God formed you inside and out, before you had begun to live out any of your days; God has brought you to this time; and God has a plan for you ... you just have to listen up, not run away, and be ready to follow.
All of these things are true for all of us, of course, not just for Taya and Jeffrey and Amy and Mahlon. They've been true in a really big way for one member of our congregation who is with us for the last time today, and who I will now embarrass by holding up as an example for us all.
The lion God has been roaring in Steven Maki's life for a long time. God called him to work with homeless people on the streets, and he listened and did that; God called him to go to seminary and study, and he listened and did that; God called him to think about becoming a priest ... and he listened, just like he's always listened. And then just before Christmas, suddenly and unexpectedly, he met a bishop from Canada who told him about how badly they need clergy in western Newfoundland, and before he knew it he was up there visiting, and being invited to serve one of those congregations, and this is his last Sunday at All Saints, and on Wednesday he will be ordained as a deacon!
The lion has roared in Steven's life for sure, God the lion who is good but not tame, and I know Steven has trembled, but he has not been afraid. He has listened and trusted and followed the call of God who loves us and searches us out, who knows us and has a plan for us.
Amy, Mahlon, Taya and Jeffrey, and Steven too, on this day of celebration and transition, may your ears be open and your hearts unafraid and your spirits be ready to follow when God roars. And may we all be ready to do the same.