Of One Mind, Epiphany 3, Jan. 22, 2017

Third Sunday of Epiphany (Year A)

Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017

Theme:  Of One Mind

Reflection: “To travel with Jesus means we travel with companions of his choosing. Not our choice. We won’t always instinctively like or feel at home with every one of the people he calls. They may have as many sharp edges and irritating habits as we have; sometimes more, maybe.  In fact, there are moments when we might feel we have little in common except....? Yes, except Christ who cherishes each one of us.”

 – Bruce Prewer, Uniting Church in Australia

My journey to know and love God occasionally takes me on side trips to other spiritual practices. Instead of exposing the separateness of people’s faiths, my seeking draws me to a mystery so vast that my concept of God must keep expanding.

It took me weeks to get my mind around the idea of Namaste, coming from our Hindu brothers and sisters. Namaste is an idea too broad for an English equivalent. Reading and talking to wise friends, I boiled it down to this: “The Divine in me recognizes and honors the Divine in you. I greet that place where you and I are one. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace.”

For weeks, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. Every person in worship. Every client. Every person I meet on a walk. We are joined by that place within us which is of God. It still bubbles to the surface when I struggle to understand someone, or am frustrated by a person’s actions. Within us is a place of unity, of the Divine. Seek it out.

Then in 2008, I came across a booklet in a desk drawer on my first days in a new job. My job allowed me to meet clients throughout the upper third of Arizona. Some of them would be Navajo or Hopi or Apache or Yavapai or Hualapai or Havasupai or Mohave, the Native American tribes dotting the landscape of Northern Arizona. The booklet described Walking in Beauty, as it spoke to Native American people, especially people with disabilities.

Walking in Beauty, or The Beauty Way, is a central concept to Native American and especially Navajo/Diné spirituality. Being outside the culture, I never will completely grasp the broadness of this understanding. Walking in Beauty encompasses the sense of wholeness, balance and belonging we feel when we have been set right with the Creator and all creation. It is living in wellness, oneness, wonder and peace (See the Navajo blessing, Walking in Beauty, at the end of this reflection).

These came to mind reading today’s lessons: From Isaiah, “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest…” And in Psalm 27, “One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.…”

The light coming to break the darkness, the oppression lifting, Paul’s encouragement to the church at Corinth for unity – to be of one mind. And then Jesus saying the kingdom of heaven has come near, and he proceeds to cure all types of sicknesses. I truly believe Jesus’s healing transcended blindness, deafness, and other diseases. In God’s name he healed and keeps curing our “dis-eases,” all of the things that keep us from Walking in Beauty, from seeing the Divine in each other.

In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 18-25) I pray that we would all take time to pray for that restoration, that the divisions between Christian denominations and between all faiths would begin to heal, and we could see all people the way God sees us: beloved, holy and beautiful.

Walking in Beauty (A Blessing)

Today I will walk out, today everything unnecessary will leave me,

I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.

I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.

I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.

I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.

I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.

Through the returning seasons, may I walk.

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.

With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.

With beauty behind me may I walk.

With beauty below me may I walk.

With beauty above me may I walk.

With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

My words will be beautiful.

Faith App:  Matthew says Simon and Andrew responded immediately. Then James and John left their boats immediately. No procrastinating. What is God calling you to do in faith today?

HYMN/SONG SUGGESTIONS

You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore, ELW 817

Jesus Calls Us; O’er the Tumult, ELW 696

We All Are One in Mission, ELW 576

Will You Come and Follow Me? ELW 798

They Cast Their Nets, LBW 449

God, When Human Bonds Are Broken, ELW 603

Listen, God Is Calling, ELW 513

One Bread, One Body, ELW 496

They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love, Peter Scholtes (traditional) or more recently by For King and Country or Jarz of Clay

We Are One, The City Harmonic

Make Us One, Evan Wickham

With One Voice, Steven Curtis Chapman

Hold Us Together, Matt Maher

One, U2

LESSONS

Isaiah 9:1-4 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Psalm 27:1, 4-9 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

Matthew 4:12-23 Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Summary of the Lessons: Keep Christ and the kingdom in focus, and all those little quarrels and obstacles will fade. In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, be of the same mind and the same purpose. Let your lights shine together against the darkness.

OPENING LITANY based on Psalm 27:1, 4-9

L:  The Lord is my journey’s guiding star,

C:  Righting my steps when I go astray,

L:  Safe hands in which I can put my trust –

C:  God is greater than all that I fear.

L:  I’m focused on the kingdom first,

C:  To dwell with the Lord all of my life,

L:  Present and grateful from dawn to dusk,

C:  Always seeking answers to God mysteries.

L:  With God I find peace, even in chaos,

C:  I’m lifted high above the storms and strife,

L:  Where once I was crushed by despair and defeat,

C:  Your joy springs forth in music and laughter.

L:  Hear me, Lord, when I cry out to you –

C:  Help me, Lord, to seek you in my pain.

L:  Don’t turn from me now, when I need you.

C:  Don’t push me aside – come and rescue me.

CONFESSION

L:  Today’s lessons picture God’s people on the move,

C:  Joining together in this glorious journey of faith,

L:  Seeking to discover how to live as faithful disciples,

C:  Beholding the beauty of the Lord and all creation.

L:  Lord, we confess that too often, we walk alone,

C:  Endlessly dividing your people into us and them,

L:  Seeing differences rather than common bonds,

C:  Refusing to share your light and hope with all.

L:  We confess how we transmit our brokenness,

C:  Launching our load of contempt and condemnation,

L:  Denying each other your compassion and grace,

C:  Holding onto hurts, and refusing to let you heal us.

(Silent reflection)

L:  In our confession, we pray together,

C:  Most Merciful God … we are good at division, keeping people, communities and this world so fractured, so fearful, so far from what you intended for all people. Forgive us, we pray, and keep challenging us to set aside our quarrels and selfish motives, and work for unity, justice and peace among all people.

Hear this Good News:  Our Lord, rich in mercy, does not turn from us, but keeps drawing near, asking us to be one with God and each other. You have been forgiven, set free from your burdens, and released from all that oppresses you.

In the name of…

Amen.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

L:  We pray together, 

C:  Inviting and Uniting God … we pray that you would transform us during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Help us to be of the same mind and the same purpose – coming together in the name of Christ, to act in love. Help us to set aside denominations and differences, and proclaim the Gospel through our common passion for justice and mercy. Amen.

COMMUNION BLESSING

L:  We pray together,

C:  We give thanks, most gracious God, for the unity in this bread, the healing in this cup.  Send us of one mind and one purpose, to share this message of your limitless love that is foolishness to those who don’t accept it, but is the power of God to those in Christ. Amen. 

SENDING

L:  Follow me, Jesus called by the sea,

C:  And these disciples left their boats.

L:  Follow me, Jesus calls to you and me.

C:  And we join him as disciples today.

L:  Go now, united in one purpose, to love and to serve the Lord.

C:  Thanks be to God!

First Reading Isaiah 9:1-4 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: The territories of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were the first to be overrun by Assyria in the eighth century B.C. It was a time of deep darkness, as the Israelites’ land, possessions and even children were subject to their captors’ wishes.

But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness

    have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

    on them light has shined.

You have multiplied the nation,

    you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

    as with joy at the harvest,

    as people exult when dividing plunder.

For the yoke of their burden,

    and the bar across their shoulders,

    the rod of their oppressor,

    you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: Every blended family has issues, and this church in Corinth consisting of former Jews and Greeks was no exception. If Paul had been speaking to this church today, he may have said, “Remember who you are, and more importantly, WHOSE you are.”

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Gospel Matthew 4:12-23 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy with another move – this time to Capernaum, a tiny fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Here he could start teaching and healing far from the powers-that-be in Jerusalem.

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

the people who sat in darkness

    have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death

    light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.