Sermon: Throwing a Net of Resiliency
Text: Matthew 4:12-23
In today’s reading, Jesus calls Simon, thereafter known as Peter, Andrew, James and John, as they were casting and mending their nets on the boats. The storyteller is clear that when Jesus called them, they “Immediately” left their boats and nets and their families and followed him. This is a story of calling.
As I prepared this message, I saw an article from the January 23rd Macleans magazine (https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/greta-thunberg-steps-on-a-lot-of-well-shod-toes/). (Caption: Thunberg, accompanied by Indigenous activist Autumn Peltier, takes the stage at the World Economic Forum (Frabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images). Let me read this short article to you before we continue our reflection.
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| Thunberg, accompanied by Indigenous activist Autumn Peltier, takes the stage at the World Economic Forum (Frabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) |
“This week, one year after her first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, teenage climate firebrand Greta Thunberg took the stage once again. “I’ve been warned that telling people to panic about the climate crisis is a very dangerous thing to do,” she said, staring down at her audience. “But don’t worry. It’s fine. Trust me. I’ve done this before, and I can assure you, it doesn’t lead to anything.” The barbed joke earned too few tentative laughs, but set the tone for the rest of her speech, which exuded exasperation and disappointment instead of the anger and frustration that marked her instantly famous speech at the United Nations last September. This time, Thunberg was joined by Autumn Peltier, the 15-year-old clean-water activist from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in northern Ontario. Peltier, who at age 13 scolded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to his face, is a good partner for Thunberg: neither teen seems intimidated by the dismissive pragmatism of older men who run the world. Nor should they be.”
I am sharing this article with you because its last two sentences are very relevant to today’s Gospel story of calling. “Neither teen seems intimidated by the dismissive pragmatism of older men who run the world. Nor should they be.”
I would like to say two things here:
First, whether it’s presented as overt criticism or dismissiveness, that ‘older men’s pragmatism’ is oppression. That face of power is cold and deceitful, and it seems that those who hold world power in all aspects have clearly and successfully given the message to teens that those “who are running the world” would never willingly take off the mask, give up their weapons, sit down and listen and change.
Second, in the face of this very obvious juxtaposition - the teens’ protest versus the world’s economic apex predators’ power and prestige - , Autumn Peltier and Greta Thunberg, and many more young activists leading the grassroots movement, are not “intimidated” by the ruthless oligarchy which pretends to accommodate these young voices in their forum, but make no promises for real change. And ‘real’ should mean the reversal and correction of the whole value system to be land-based, earth-honouring, relationship-centered, moving away from the extraction and exploitation of human and natural resources to produce economic wealth that stays concentrated in the hands of a few people.
As someone who can be intimidated by many things, I took time this week to reflect on where the unintimidated mind posture of courage and activism could come from. I recall a time when my family lived on the UBC campus. In those first years of living in Canada, I often walked down to the beach alone or with my 3-year-old son in the stroller. There is a residential area downhill from the main campus and just before the beaches. I remember seeing a neighbourhood of very modern, big and fancy houses with one or two garages which were themselves as big as a house. I was intimidated and filled with admiration at the same time, wondering, “Would I ever be able to live in this kind of house, even after many years in Canada?”
I continue to reflect on the unintimidated courage and activism of declaring the interdependence of people and the land especially in a time of renewing treaties and a witnessing of an environmental crisis and demanding ecological justice. I reflect especially on the strong Indigenous voices in Canada, and conclude that Thunberg’s and Peltier’s straightforward courage is due to the fact that they do not buy into the prevailing worldview and values. They possess a clear understanding: the systems of this world do not serve the well-being, health and fulfillment of themselves and the people and generations they represent. Their unintimidated hope, their song, is close to what we, United Church people, sing too, in More Voices: “We Cannot Own the Sun-lit Sky.” Let’s sing two verses together:
We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky
Words: Ruth Duck
We cannot own the sunlit sky,
the moon, the wild flowers growing,
For we are part of all that is within life’s river flowing.
With open hands receive and share
the gifts of God’s creation,
That all may have abundant life in every earthly nation.
God calls humanity to join as partners in creating
A future free from want or fear, life’s goodness celebrating,
That new world beckons from afar,
invites our shared endeavor,
That all may have abundant life and peace endure forever.
I see a parallel between the sense of a calling and an unintimidated courage. In today’s reading, Simon (later Peter), Andrew, James and John, and many more in the following days, are called, at the sea of Galilee, inside the mountainous region in Northern Israel, the place where Palestinian Jews continued their day-to-day living by fishing and by other means, while the world around them became more impacted by the Roman occupation and King Herod’s desire for unquestioned power. When Jesus called them, they “immediately” left their boats and nets and their families to follow the new paradigm of hope they found in Jesus’s calling. And they were able to do that, because they didn’t buy into the empire’s rule, religious tribalism, the political and economic corruption that insists the last must always be last, the least must suffer the most. The emerging disciples were not intimidated by the abuse of power they saw all around them, but let themselves be inclined to follow a new/ancient worldview based on covenant (of justice and relationship). They adopted a paradigm wherein God will not transform the world without us, and we cannot transform the world without God. The Disciples enlisted in the program of God’s transformation, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God.
It’s interesting to note that today’s calling story happens after the storyteller Matthew, with startling suddenness, announced John the Baptist’s arrest. Predictably, his arrest would lead to his death, any time soon, in the context of today’s reading. John preceded Christ in calling people to repent, to turn around and to change their lives, cleanse their hearts to receive the impending Kingdom of God. He claimed that everything would change, once and for all, with the arrival of a new Kingdom when everyone’s heart is washed clean from the sin of the world with baptism. Jesus and the disciples saw, with great sadness, that the initial movement John the Baptist led seemed to be quelled by his arrest. And yet, at this very moment the news was spreading out to all Judea and Galilee that Jesus, after his baptism from John, had started his ministry, calling twelve and more people in the city where people’s hearts were in turmoil, to throw the net of resiliency.
Start again. If starting anything God commands in Jerusalem is dangerous, find the place of your own withdrawal, like Galilee, in order to find your own self first, retreating to listen and respond to God’s call, and find your fellow travellers, pilgrims, and disciples, and throw the net of resiliency. Not just for living day-to-day, but for the future path, for transformation of all lives, the life of the least, the life of the last. We are called, called and ordained to dream with resilience. In the oddest time and in the unlikeliest places, we are called to dream the impossible, because no one, no matter the extent of their power, can entirely own the sunlit sky.